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Iran Detains 10 US Navy Sailors
Riverine Command Boat (RCB) 802, assigned to Combined Task Group (CTG) 56.7, conducts patrol operations in the Arabian Gulf in Oct. 2015. Two small riverine vessels of this type were detained on Iran’s Farsi Island. MC2 Torrey W. Lee / U.S. Navy
Just in time for Obama’s final State of the Union:
Published in Foreign Policy, MilitaryIranian military forces seized two U.S. Navy boats Tuesday and are detaining them on Iran’s Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.
The 10 American sailors were on a training mission around noon ET when one of the boats may have experienced mechanical failure and drifted into Iranian-claimed waters, officials said. Iran’s coast guard took them into custody.
The officials said it’s unclear whether the sailors — nine men and one woman — aboard the two small riverine vessels had strayed into Iranian territorial waters before they were captured.
“At this point, we’re still monitoring the situation and it’s not entirely clear what happened,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on MSNBC, adding that Iranian authorities confirmed that the sailors are safe.
Earnest said there remained no exact time frame for when the sailors would be let go, but didn’t expect a long delay.
Following reports of the incident, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Iranian officials in Tehran by phone, attempting to secure the sailors’ release.
Yeah, that about sums up the State of the Union…
Were they deserters? If they were, Obama will make their return a priority.
How long did he give Iran to return our sailors before we come in and take them by overwhelming force?
Hey, Iran has hostages? Again? Well, well, well…
All that is old is new again. Of course unlike Carter I’m sure Obama will crawl on his belly to his new friends and implore them not to let the Republicans have their way, by putting a damper on our new found relationship with Iran.
Cause as we know making a big deal of these things just strengthens hardliners in both our nations.
One more year of this left. How much humiliation do you think Obama can bring on our heads? How much more can he retreat? Maybe it’s time we gave back Alaska to the Russians…I would not be surprised.
They’re doomed.
Well I’m sure Kerry told them where the Red Line is. See, (pointing way off in the distance) it’s alllllll the way past the horizon just East of Nowhere and South of Whatdifferencedoesitmake.
What they ought to do is announce that the Iranians have just purchased two U.S. Navy boats.
The boats are priced at $75 billion dollars each.
Oh, and if the sailors aren’t out by tomorrow noon … well, they will be or something unpleasant may result.
Have the snapback sanctions snapped back yet?
Fortunately our elite State Department personnel are right on it.
Ricochetti, please:
My son-in-law just got off the plane from Afghanistan three days ago. Those ten sailors have parents, too–parents who are sick with worry and anxiety.
Yes, Obama is a feckless weasel, who has single-handedly resurrected Jimmy Carter’s geopolitical mojo. Yes, John Kerry is the very epitome of a pompous ass.
But please: no comments, however much in jest, about the risks, fate, or likelihood of being “doomed” for those sailors. It is not a fit subject for jesting–it is an obscene subject if you do not mean it in jest.
Regarding Roberto’s video: why do I always think I’m watching an SNL skit?
Holy Geebus, first the twin bimbo tag-team of Psaki&Harf and now John Kirby: it’s like they’re running nonstop vaudeville auditions at foggy bottom.
From that video, it seems Marie Harf is not aging well.
Since most of Congress will be assembled anyway for the SOTU, can they just save us all some time and draw up Articles of Impeachment?
(Hey, I can dream.)
These guys have great timing and are good chain pullers. They continue to show who is in charge and never miss an opportunity to try and shame a man that can’t be shamed.
That is rich.
And all of a sudden, the President’s plan to close Gitmo comes into view.
This situation makes me crazy-angry.
I have some questions:
Why were Iranians allowed on U.S. vessels?
What are the “rules of engagement?”
Did the vessels have any armament? Ammunition?
Funny (in a sick sort of way) – I’m reading a book on the history of the Barbary pirates. This sounds exactly like their SOP for seizing the European and American shipping in the “old days.” Or the current Somalian pirates. Pretty much the same thing.
Makes me cry, and I have no doubt the Iranians will keep them until we get a president with some gonads. Wonder if the potus has peed his pants yet.
It would be hilarious if it weren’t both so sad and so scary at the same time.
Probably, but you wouldn’t believe the creases in those pants…so Presidential.
Something similar happened to British sailors in 2007 when their ship drifted into Iranian waters, but it took them two weeks to get home – so if this couple of days thing works, that’s pretty good. (How soon would the US release the crew of an Iranian ship that claimed to have drifted into its territorial waters, after all?)
The politics of it:
This is an act of war.
I had forgotten about that island-I couldn’t think of anything Iranian between Kuwait and Bahrain that wasn’t pretty far to the east.
Chart here http://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=62032 Farsi I is about 28-00N 50-10E
If only one boat had mechanical problems, how did the other boat get captured?
Going to the aid of the boat that had mechanical problems?
@Dan Hanson- Maybe
Then-Admiral Kirby as a Pentagon spokesman scolded the Chinese for their “unprofessional” conduct in bouncing our propeller-powered maritime patrol aircraft with fighter jets. It was nearly a repeat of the P-3 sort of fiasco where they forced down one of our planes (get me started on that pilot) and reaped an intel coup back-engineering some pretty special stuff. The Chinese returned most of the plane in boxes after they took it apart and went through it.
IMHO, that pilot should have gone with the escort to their base and then gone full throttle into the biggest fuel tank he could find. Well, I’m babbling.
“Unprofessional”. Ptui. I was not at all surprised when he hung up his stars and went to State instead of the Pentagon.
This sort of stuff is not all that unusual. The damage here is probably that the boats gear will be compromised, not that the guys will be harmed. As Zafar points out, territory violations are frequently dealt with in a manner that makes “accidental” incursions as unprofitable as possible. It’s not abuse or provocative per se, provided that the incursion actually occurred.
However, I am confident that our guys were nowhere near wherever the Iranians say they were. That’s my policy.
—
The ideal course for the Russian shootdown of the Turkish plane would have been for the pilots to be detained, not shot by savages on the way down.
Our guys will be fine, but Iran should still reap a sorry reward. After all — they were nowhere near the place.
They have been released.