I really cannot begin to fathom how stupid you would have to be to believe that Iran would attack a Japanese oil tanker at the very moment that the Japanese Prime Minister was sitting down to friendly, US-disapproved talks in Tehran on economic cooperation that can help Iran survive the effects of US economic sanctions.
The Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous was holed above the water line. That rules out a torpedo attack, which is the explanation being touted by the neo-cons.
The second vessel, the Front Altair, is Norwegian owned and 50% Russian crewed (the others being Filipinos). It is owned by Frontline, a massive tanker leasing company that also has a specific record of being helpful to Iran in continuing to ship oil despite sanctions.
It was Iran that rescued the crews and helped bring the damaged vessels under control.
That Iran would target a Japanese ship and a friendly Russian crewed ship is a ludicrous allegation. They are however very much the targets that the USA allies in the region – the Saudis, their Gulf Cooperation Council colleagues, and Israel – would target for a false flag. It is worth noting that John Bolton was meeting with United Arab Emirates ministers two weeks ago – both ships had just left the UAE.
The USA and their UK stooges have both immediately leapt in to blame Iran. The media is amplifying this with almost none of the scepticism which is required. I cannot think of a single reason why anybody would believe this particular false flag. It is notable that neither Norway nor Japan has joined in with this ridiculous assertion.
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Oil has been dropping in price for more than a year.
At a certain point Fracked Oil and Methane will become uneconomic to produce, which would lead to mass lay-offs in the U.S.A.
Problem being an finite supply?
https://www.indexmundi.com/energy/?product=oil&graph=production
Moderators, it is an illustration of how truth comes out, with a supposition that truth on Iranian attack of oil tankers would be disclosed in similar circumstances. It is on topic.
Oil prices have slipped back due to low demand as economies falter, especially China’s, due to US sanctions. India is imposing tariff rises on the US. Trump has interfered too much.
Oil prices slip as economic worries outweigh tanker tensions
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/oil-market-middle-east-tanker-attacks-us-iran-tensions-in-focus.html
His Twitter content is a strange miscellany.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1140302570394738688
Not a good development, Iran acting desperate now,
‘Countdown has begun’: Iran to exceed uranium stockpile limit set by nuclear deal in 10 days
https://www.rt.com/news/462039-iran-to-surpass-uranium-stockpile/
They are walking into the trap Trump/Bolton put up.
Desperate and walking into a trap? I don’t Do you seriously think any of the victims had a choice?
remember kronstadt
Yes when you are desperate you dont really think ahead and now Iran in my opinion have walked into that trap because this will be framed as something bad/negative and that west needs to act on Iran. Especially since this move of enriching a bigger stockpile have no logic whatsoever right now. It comes after this tanker incidents.
Iran has every right to do what it wants with uranium and that includes the right to produce nuclear weapons. More than one agreement has been violated. The cornerstone of everything when it comes to this is the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) which calls for cooperation and support for countries like Iran who wish to peacefully develop nuclear power stations. The NPT has been trashed over decades in respect of Korea, Israel, Pakistan, Iran, and others, and without that agreement anyone can do anything they want with nuclear technology, including weapons development.
You can’t pin all of this on Trump but when he pulled out of the JCPOA (Iran Nuclear Deal) he left the Iranians with the freedom to do what they want on nuclear weapons and energy. The EU has behaved in a cowardly fashion again but it’s this sort of stupidity on the part of the Americans that will lead to Europe forming its own military and abandoning NATO.
I fully agree with you Hatuey,
NPT is done, while at the same time western states demand that their enemies needs to follow it!
And yeah EU have no say, they are considered a pathetic bunch in Teheran.
Trump is a blip in the process. Once the Dems or a mainstream Republican are back in power, the EU will be back on board. We’re talking about a globalist agenda here, that Trump has spannered temporarily.
Abe had also just informed his US partners that he could confirm that Iran has no nuclear weapons. The deal brokered by Russia between Iran and Israel allows the proxy war in Syria, where Iran was invited by Syria to help get rid of Daesh, but is contingent on neither Iran nor Israel encroaching on each other’s borders.
“The NPT has been trashed over decades in respect of Korea, Israel, Pakistan, Iran, and others, and without that agreement anyone can do anything they want with nuclear technology, including weapons development”.
SIPRI: ISRAEL HAS CLOSE TO 100 NUCLEAR WARHEADS
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/SIPRI-Israel-has-close-to-100-nuclear-warheads-592702
If SIPRI knows that, do you imagine the US government – which spends $85 billion a year on its intelligence agencies – might know too? (Especially since it probably gave Israel the technology).
I was intrigued to read that Israel has missiles that can be armed with thermonuclear warheads, and that some of those missiles have a maximum range of 5,500 km. Just for laughs I checked, and guess what? Tel-Aviv is about 3,500 km from London. So not only the UK and France, but Germany and even Sweden are within range of Israel’s thermonuclear arsenal. Not a bad way to initiate the “Samson option” if they are ever moved to do so, eh?
It’s ironic that Tony Blair and Shrub prated incessantly about Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” although they knew very well he had none. (Otherwise they wouldn’t have dared attack Iraq).
Remember the hysterical headlines about mushroom clouds over US cities – and how Saddam could strike the UK with WMD “within 45 minutes”?
Well, he couldn’t – but now we know that all along Israel could.
@ Tom Welsh June 19, 2019 at 08:50
Their reach is much greater than that, since Germany provided them with 5 or 6 Dolphin Class subs capable of launching nuclear cruise missiles. I read somewhere that they regularly dock at Diego Garcia.
Iran has every right yes, but the Ayatollah regime? They are quite different.
ayatollah regime is the regime that Iranian people wants. AND Iran is a sovereign country which has NOT waged war to anyone from centuries. All the nations that threat Iran has no credibility, no scruples nor wants peace and prosperity (also for their fellow citizens),
IRAN people are by far better than western “democracies” which aging as fascist regimes, ALL of western demofascist regimes must stay at home and stop to threat other countries only to colonize them and exploit their resources. And, if to stop them is necessary another war, this is a right war to combat. For iranians, Syrians, Lybians, Serbians, Afghans, NORTHKOREANS which deserves to be in peace and to not be threatened as happening from 1950’s. History, also false history tell us that Korea’s war was right for North and very wrong for South and their rogue evil backers
Given the fact Iran made their intention to do this known some time ago, it makes the tanker attack look even mores suspicious, in that context. Creating public support for military action requires a series of events that make it look like the aggressor US + others reluctantly had ‘no choice’ but to act to curb the belligerence. Look at the Syrian playbook, how a ‘don’t do X’ statement is issued then lo and behold ‘X’ occurs.
Desperate are you for real why should Iran honour the agreement, when the orange blimp has tore it up grow up!
I’m sorry for the off-topic, but I just started a special off-topic. Welcome everyone.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/off-topic-june-17-2019/
I invite @Paul Barbara and @J Galt to resume the discussion there, I’ve copied your posts.
Whether it’s true or not, this article from April seems to have predicted events quite well so far. Incidentally, the man made who made the initial report, David E Golberg (not the alleged White House source) claimed he feared for his life as recently as two weeks ago and was found dead in his apartment last week.
https://israeltodaynews.blogspot.com/2019/04/iran-war-planned-by-trump-2019.html
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
President Donald Trump and his inner circle are planning an extensive invasion of Iran, according to a source working in the White House.
The plan involves a ground invasion and the use of tactical nuclear weapons, in a campaign planned for the Fall of 2019. Iran will be “wiped off the map” according to the source, and the war effort is expected to cost “two and half times the Iraq War.”
The war will be promoted by the news media and Trump will go right along with it, after an “expected False Flag pinned on Iran, probably something involving the boats in the Strait of Hormuz.” The False Flag is an “integral part of the plan” as Iran has reportedly no desire or intent to start a war, according to the whistle-blower.
Literally anyone could have stated something like that…As for the use of tactical nuclear weapons:
“There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences.”
Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality… and fall.
I should have stated they were quotes from Frank Herbert’s excellent novels. Another:
‘Governments can be useful to the governed only so long as inherent tendencies toward tyranny are restrained.’
Seem rather prophetic given the current state of things.
Apparently from a White House source, rather than the shade of Frank Herbert. Dynamite if true.
Trump would almost certainly be impeached. It isn’t the 1930s , Iran isn’t Japan and use of nuclear weapons is completely unacceptable against a non-nuclear armed foe.
There could finally be trials for war crimes were anything so sinister as the scenario outlined above to play out. Ditto here in the UK if our politicians or officials played any part.
What I don’t get, is why the EU doesn’t collectively say this has to stop?
“Iran isn’t Japan and use of nuclear weapons is completely unacceptable against a non-nuclear armed foe.”
True, but that rests on us being told about their use in the first place. I read an interesting article a while ago (I forget where but could probably dredge it up if necessary) discussing how a useful feature of invading Iraq and Afghanistan was the US military acquiring dominion over an area to live test new weaponry more indiscriminately than they could at home. The article alleged that small payload ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons had been used several times in recent years in the middle east, including the ‘Mother Of All Bombs’ or MOAB that was dropped on Syria in retaliation for the staged chemical weapons attack of a couple of years ago.
All this being said, I hope even with tactical nukes the psychopaths in charge couldn’t spin the amount of time, money and death necessary to take Iran. Depends who’s opinion you ask whether Iraq and Afghanistan were successful or unmitigated disasters though…
I’ve just seen some of the latest polls coming out of the US on Twitter and Sanders and Warren are heading the pack, furthermore, in match-ups both beat Trump by a considerable margin (+12pts in front in one for Sanders), they are both ahead of Biden, which will please many who want genuine change.
Here in the UK, it’s very likely the next election results in either Corbyn(Lab) alone or Corbyn + SNP and/or possibly including the Lib Dems(if they’re sensible about providing C&S). My point being, the current hawks can’t rely on those who come next protecting them from prosecution for war crimes. This ought to weigh heavy.
And from Reuters: the EU can’t just make it stop. Just like Iraq and Libya before them, Iran has agreed to sell its oil in exchange for Euros, instead of via the dollar….
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-currency-euro-idUSKBN1HP25W?fbclid=IwAR398fYKcc_4txrMh-qZYG95f3foNdd1EGBvlY5MXDMWOlZXFF1-rH6m-M0
The EU is scared. Their representative even lied through her teeth about Venezuela, and refused to receive representations from people on the ground because the the EU didn’t want to go off- message with the USA.
Northern
The US didn’t drop the MOAB on Syria, they dropped it in Afghanistan, in Nangarhar, in 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Nangarhar_airstrike
J
It could be that they intend to use such weapons to destroy production facilities like the Arak heavy water nuclear reactor, south-west of Tehran shown here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/iran-it-will-break-uranium-stockpile-limit-set-nuclear-deal#img-1
This would however be totally ludicrous and t why the guardian is giving its readers the wrong impression :
Iran has removed the core of its Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor and filled it with cement. The fate of the reactor was one of the toughest sticking points in the long nuclear negotiations. Under the terms of the deal, Iran agreed the heavy-water reactor would be reconfigured so it was not capable of yielding material for a nuclear weapon. The removal of the core was one of the final steps required by the deal.
Bombing Arak is a criminally bad idea , think of the damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. It will represent not just a human tragedy but an environmental disaster.
Just seen an Iranian reactor in a report on Sky news, didn’t catch if it was Arak?
Looks like they didn’t fill it with cement as they were required to…
My theory on last weeks fireworks.
‘The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), or Shanghai Pact,[1] is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan’
From Wikipedia.
‘The SCO is widely regarded as the “alliance of the East”, due to its growing centrality in Asia-Pacific, and has been the primary security pillar of the region.[5][6] It is the largest regional organisation in the world in terms of geographical coverage and population, covering three-fifths of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the human population.‘
And what happened last week?
Russia took over the presidency and Putin hit the ground running!
From the horses mouth – in very clear english, so that the world can access it, as the MSM doesn’t.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/60750
“We see a promising potential in integrating the Eurasian Economic Union with China’s Belt and Road project with a future aim of building a larger Eurasian partnership and an open and equal constructive cooperation space based on the principles and norms of international law without any political or economic bias, but with consideration of each other’s legitimate interests.”
June 14 2019
Oh and the firework display?
June 13 2019.
That speech (I recommend reading it in full, a few times) is as clear a declaration of intent and road map to the end of hundreds of years of Anglo Imperialism. Trump is in charge of safely surrendering. That means the sabre rattling, is just that as they withdraw and take their tanks off the SCO ever expanding lawn.
Oh no! Anticipating fireworks and the end of the world what’s revealed behind the curtains – a shopping trolley?
good find. trump, bolton, and pompeo are plenty ignorant and arrogant enough for this to sound plausible.
“President Donald Trump and his inner circle are planning an extensive invasion of Iran, according to a source working in the White House.” I’ll believe it when I see it. Do they know what an invasion of Iran involves?
Indeed.
Trump wants to send 120,000 troops apparently, which would approach the size of the American force that invaded Iraq in 2003. There is no obvious staging post and US /Iraq relations aren’t good with the Shia dominated govt there. Seems like it could turn into a hot mess. Why any American would want this after Bush and Iraq?
Mehdi Hasan, when asked today about the state of America on BBC 2’s Politics Live simply said : Batshit! (crazy)
He was right.
On this page you’ve posted that Corbyn can win an election in the UK and the US can invade Iran.
I don’t know what you’ve been smoking, but it must be some heavy duty gear.
Every Tory leadership candidate is boasting only they can stop Corbyn.
I agree, invading Iran would be madness. But when has that stopped anyone?
If Trump’s wanting to send 120,000 troops they aren’t going there just to get a sun tan.
@J
An interesting piece; all the more so if one actually reads the entire article. Who exactly is/was David Goldberg (decd.)? A silicon valley CEO, who died as a result of an accident while on holiday in Mexico, and who resembles the individual portrayed as David Goldberg here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSL2D4cTt6Rx-QHVydEqSg
I say ‘resembles’, because I cannot see them as one and the same person, despite allowing for an interval of time, coupled with the ageing process. The fact that David Goldberg the entrepreneur died in 2015 supports my conclusion.
David Elias Goldberg, having died somewhat mysteriously on June 8th apparently (just days before the Gulf of Oman incident), is unavailable for scrutiny. As are the YouTube videos he is supposed to have published exposing White House intentions, courtesy of the anonymous former W.H. employee (now whistle-blower), known as ‘Isabel’. Contrary to the claims of Israel News, it appears her story has NOT been aired on Mr Goldberg’s suddenly dormant YouTube channel. In fact none of the videos Israel News readers are invited to view are available.
In sum therefore the David Goldberg character presented by Israel News as the conduit of ostensibly highly classified intel from Washington, appears to be fictitious. That leads to an intriguing two-part question: Who could have invented him, and why? Might the answers be found in the accuracy of his ‘prediction’ concerning a false flag attack on boats in the strait of Hormuz? The article dated 18 April pre-dates even the earlier tanker attack on 12 May.
Israel News is a not a bona fide news service. It’s a blog inaugurated in February this year. So was the false flag ‘prediction’ a lucky guess, or is the blogger (not Goldberg) genuinely ‘in the know’?
@ j June 17, 2019 at 15:14
I can’t find any info on ‘Jewish Center for Antisemitic Study’, or any obituary for Goldberg.
Well, well. Roger Stone is claiming what Mr Murray, Assange, Binney and most readers of this blog know – that the Russians didn’t hack the DNC server.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/huge-development-roger-stone-files-two-court-documents-blasts-fbi-and-muellers-false-allegations-that-russians-gave-dnc-emails-to-wikileaks/
This is going to be interesting, especially it is now a matter of record that the entire thing was based on CrowdStrike’s redacted and draft report.
A couple of Trump’s early tweets re Iran, war, Obama: https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/141604554855825408/ and this https://mobile.twitter.com/BrandisVannoy/status/1128744923954589697 (I don’ tweet, but think these are legit – apologies if not, or if someone else has posted these links here in a comment above).
Trump’s dangerous nonsense continues. 1,000 more troops are being sent by the US to the region. We have sent 100 but ours are ‘special forces’! Of course. We are so good at dirty deeds.
Gulf of Oman: US sends more troops amid tanker tension with Iran
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48671319 (warning – fiction alert!)
PS I have never heard of ‘tanker tension’. 🙂 Surface tension of liquids. Yes.
@ Sharp Ears June 18, 2019 at 08:24
I dunno; I should imagine there is quite a bit of ‘tension’ among tanker crews in that area at the moment!
Caitlin Johnstone also ‘got it’, quoting Pompeo’s lies.
7 Reasons to Doubt US Version of Gulf-of-Oman Incident
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/14/7-reasons-to-doubt-us-version-of-gulf-of-oman-incident/
Currently Sky News’ Colin Brazier is giving Deborah Haynes, Sky’s Foreign Affairs Editor, airtime to rehearse all the same lies. Previously she was the Defence Correspondent on the Times. It’s all so pat.
She also holds Hunt’s line on her Twitter.
BREAKING: UK @foreignoffice says it’s “almost certain that a branch of the Iranian military – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – attacked the two tankers on 13 June. No other state or non-state actor could plausibly have been responsible”
14 Jun 2019
https://twitter.com/haynesdeborah/status/1139598522276339713?
How do these types manage to sleep soundly?
I read the first paragraph in the voice of Doug Stanhope, in his most sarcastic tone.
Law in Action right now (Radio-4) is about Assange:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00060xd
The truth emerges, days later.
Trump – I didn’t wage war with Iran but we wrecked their systems and materiel.
‘The US launched a cyber-attack on Iranian weapons systems on Thursday as President Trump pulled out of air strikes on the country, US reports say.
The cyber-attack disabled computer systems controlling rocket and missile launchers, the Washington Post said. It was in retaliation for the shooting down of a US drone as well as attacks on oil tankers that the US has blamed Iran for, the New York Times said.
There is no independent confirmation of damage to Iranian systems.
The US has also imposed sanctions President Trump described as “major”.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48735097
There will be retaliation.