Something Just Went BEZERK in the Sea of Oman. The Iranian Navy just bombed a Japanese Tanker

Kale plants in!!!

:crazytater:

Fail. You need to change your name to Acolyte2 first.

This event certainly bears our full attention. The stakes are too high to ignore.

For the past 12 or so hours, blame opinion has included a range wide of possible actors, despite it being too early to tell who's actually responsible.

Personally, I'm on the fence regarding Iran. I just don't see it.

With people like Kerry and Obama making constant rounds trying to usurp us on the world stage, my eyes are currently focused in their direction.

It's not difficult to imagine where they want the end game to lead.

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I'm getting in on this, just in case it winds up becoming another iconic thread. It has all the hallmarks.

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there is something in Sea of Oman

3.5% of GLPers believe its Godzilla

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Why.... Just why

China on Tuesday warned against opening a "Pandora's box" in the Middle East after the United States announced the deployment of 1,000 additional troops to the region amid escalating tensions with Iran.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi also urged Tehran to not abandon the nuclear agreement "so easily" after Iran said it would exceed its uranium stockpile limit if world powers fail to fulfil their commitments under the agreement in 10 days.

The United States ratcheted up pressure on Iran Monday, announcing the deployment of additional troops to the Middle East and producing new photographs it said showed Tehran was behind an attack on a tanker ship in the Gulf of Oman last week.

"We call on all parties to remain rational and restrained, not to take any actions to provoke the escalation of tension in the region, and not to open a Pandora's box," Wang told reporters in Beijing during a joint press conference with visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

"In particular, the United States should change its practice of extreme pressure," Wang said.




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coverage of the initial incident...

June 14: The Japanese owner of one of the oil tankers attacked near Iran on Thursday said the vessel was struck by a projectile and not by a mine, which is what U.S. officials assessed as the source of the blast.

“We received reports that something flew towards the ship,” Yutaka Katada, president of Kokuka Sangyo, said at a press conference Friday. “I do not think there was a time bomb or an object attached to the side of the ship,” he said, adding that a projectile landed above the waterline.

On Thursday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the Japanese oil tanker, Kokuka Courageous, had an “unexploded limpet mine on their hull following an initial explosion.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.



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Speaking to TIME, Trump argued that the Gulf of Oman is less strategically important for the United States now than it used to be, citing China and Japan as nations that still rely on the region for significant proportions of their oil. “Other places get such vast amounts of oil there,” Trump said. “We get very little. We have made tremendous progress in the last two and a half years in energy. And when the pipelines get built, we’re now an exporter of energy. So we’re not in the position that we used to be in in the Middle East where … some people would say we were there for the oil.”

Trump said he agrees with the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Iran was behind the attacks, saying, “I don’t think too many people don’t believe it.” But he also downplayed Iran’s aggression, arguing that the country has adopted a less hostile posture towards the United States since he became president.

“If you look at the rhetoric now compared to the days when they were signing that agreement [the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from], where it was always ‘death to America, death to America, we will destroy America, we will kill America,’ I’m not hearing that too much anymore,” Trump said. “And I don’t expect to.”

Earlier, the Pentagon released 11 photos of the tankers, some of them close-ups, and a detailed timeline in an effort to bolster its public case that Iran attacked the ships. The new set of color photos released on Monday, some of them taken from a U.S. Navy surveillance helicopter, appear to show Iranian navy personnel and close-up markings of the damage.

Iran has denied the U.S. accusations, saying they had nothing to do with the tanker explosions.




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Last Edited by Digital mix guy Spock on 06/20/2019 12:02 AM

But the principal evidence used to justify Iranian involvement has been the method employed. The two tankers were mined above the waterline – damaging them, but not sinking them – prompting the conclusion the actions were designed to make a point. There were no fatalities in either case, with both crews rescued.
Jack Watling, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said the attacks were “very precise, to avoid the risk of an oil spill”, to make the point that “Iran can impose a cost on the United States, and that the US can’t police the waterway around the strait of Hormuz”.


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Thread: Iran shoots down U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk ‘spy’ drone in Hormozgan Province | UDPATE: US confirms drone was shot down by Iranian missile

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So so strange

Iran’s downing of U.S. drone keeps Strait of Hormuz in spotlight: Here’s what you need to know



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Here's a look at what might've driven elements within Iran, particularly its Revolutionary Guard Corps, to carry out the tanker attacks.

There is a gamble behind it that wasn't there before, which is: 'If other countries retaliate, we are willing to take the risk because we have really nothing to lose at this point'," Tabrizi described. "And that is a dangerous way to feel."

Iran's economy is expected to shrink by 6% this year, after having contracted 3.9% last year, the International Monetary Fund says. By contrast, it clocked 3.8% growth in 2017, before the Trump administration re-imposed economic sanctions after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal that offered the Islamic Republic relief from prior sanctions.


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Last Edited by Digital mix guy Spock on 06/21/2019 07:32 AM

military experts emphasize that attaching and removing limpet mines on ships is risky and requires a great deal of expertise. The explosive devices are magnetically attached to ships, usually below the waterline. Limpet mines are usually manually placed by a swimmer or combat diver on the underside of a ship's hull. The blast that tore into the hulk of the Kokuka Courageous, according to US data, was a good meter above the waterline. American evidence against Iran focuses on this ship.



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