Japanese ship owner contradicts U.S. account of how tanker was attacked

[Road Warrior]

This was off the coast of the UAE..


Two Japanese Oil Tankers Attacked Near Strait of Hormuz

No doubt the anti-American types will claim the ghost of LBJ has risen from the grave to initiate a Gulf of Tonkin incident. ... or that it’s the CIA.

 

[Lyndon]

More likely Mossad

 

[sooda]

Two Japanese Oil Tankers Attacked Near Strait of Hormuz

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

excerpt:

The latest incident comes after the U.S. alleged that Iran used mines to attack four oil tankers off the nearby Emirati port of Fujairah last month. Iran has denied being involved, but it comes as Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen also have launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.

Cmdr. Joshua Frey, a 5th Fleet spokesman, said the U.S. Navy was assisting the two vessels that he described as being hit in a “reported attack.” He did not say how the ships were attacked or who was suspected of being behind the assault.

Dryad Global, a maritime intelligence firm, preliminarily identified one of the vessels involved as the MT Front Altair, a Marshall Islands-flagged crude oil tanker. The vessel was “on fire and adrift,” Dryad added. It did not offer a cause for the incident or mention the second ship.

The firm that operates the Front Altair told The Associated Press that an explosion was the cause of the fire onboard. International Tanker Management declined to comment further saying they are still investigating what caused the explosion. Its crew of 23 is safe after being evacuated by the nearby Hyundai Dubai vessel, it said.

The second vessel was identified as the Kokuka Courageous. BSM Ship Management said it sustained hull damage and 21 sailors had been evacuated, with one suffering minor injuries. Iranian state television said 44 sailors from the two tankers have been transferred to an Iranian port in the southern province of Hormozgan.

The timing of Thursday’s reported attack was especially sensitive as Abe’s high-stakes diplomacy mission was underway in Iran. On Wednesday, after talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Abe warned that any “accidental conflict” that could be sparked amid the heightened U.S.-Iran tensions must be avoided.

His message came just hours after Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacked a Saudi airport, striking its arrivals hall before dawn and wounding 26 people Wednesday.

Abe met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday, the second and final day of his visit. There were no immediate details about what they discussed.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, a top government spokesman, told reporters that Abe’s trip was intended to help de-escalate tensions in the Mideast — but not specifically mediate between Tehran and Washington.

His remarks were apparently meant to downplay and lower expectations amid uncertain prospects for Abe’s mission.

Tensions have escalated in the Mideast as Iran appears poised to break the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, an accord that the Trump administration pulled out of last year.

Iran’s nuclear deal, reached in 2015 by China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the U.S., saw Tehran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of crippling sanctions. Western powers feared Iran’s atomic program could allow it to build nuclear weapons, although Iran long has insisted its program was for peaceful purposes.

In withdrawing from the deal last year, Trump pointed to the accord not limiting Iran’s ballistic missile program and not addressing what American officials describe as Tehran’s malign influence across the wider Middle East. Those who struck the deal at the time described it as a building block toward further negotiations with Iran, whose Islamic government has had a tense relationship with America since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and subsequent hostage crisis.

Already, Iran says it quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium. Meanwhile, U.S. sanctions have cut off opportunities for Iran to trade its excess uranium and heavy water abroad, putting Tehran on course to violate terms of the nuclear deal regardless.

Sooo... I read this twice. I can't see anywhere it offers an explanation of why Iran would want to attack Japanese ships? Could you maybe quote the specific bit, please?

 

[sooda]

Sooo... I read this twice. I can't see anywhere it offers an explanation of why Iran would want to attack Japanese ships? Could you maybe quote the specific bit, please?

Abe met with the Ayatolla in Iran on the same day.

They probably couldn't tell the tankers were Japanese

 

[Lyndon]

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

Abe met with the Ayatolla in Iran on the same day.

so?

They probably couldn't tell the tankers were Japanese

Ridiculous. Any state actor would have access to radar and transponder data.

 

[sooda]

"The crew told us something came flying at the ship, and they found a hole," Katada said. "Then some crew witnessed the second shot."

Katada said there was no possibility that the ship, carrying 25,000 tons of methanol, was hit by a torpedo.

The United States has blamed Iran for attacking the Kokuka Courageous and another tanker, the Norwegian-owned Front Altair, on Thursday, but Tehran has denied the allegations.

"Flying objects" damaged Japanese tanker during attack in Gulf of Oman

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

They lied about the Maine... this isn't new.

 

[sooda]

so? Ridiculous. Any state actor would have access to radar and transponder data.

Greeks, Japanese, Norwegians and many others own and operate or lease tankers,

10 Largest Oil Tanker Shipping Companies In The World - Insider Monkey

 

[Lyndon]

Iran's response;

Iran: U.S. accusations over oil tanker attacks 'alarming'

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

Greeks, Japanese, Norwegians and many others own and operate or lease tankers,

10 Largest Oil Tanker Shipping Companies In The World - Insider Monkey

And? You don 't think the countries that control the world's busiest sea way keep track of the ships in their territory? You think military commanders just shoot at ships randomly without identifying their targets?

 

[sooda]

And? You don 't think the countries that control the world's busiest sea way keep track of the ships in their territory? You think military commanders just shoot at ships randomly without identifying their targets?

Military? Maybe they are just terrorists.

 

[sooda]

The Trump administration was quick to point fingers at Iran after explosions on two oil tankers from Japan and Norway in the Gulf of Oman.

Undoubtedly, Iran is a plausible suspect. It has repeatedly threatened to strangle the flow of Persian Gulf oil from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and the UAE if the U.S. embargoes Iranian oil. But the presence of a potential motive does not amount to the presence of evidence, and the owner of the Japanese tanker is already contesting the U.S. explanations.


But, if anything, the speed in which the Trump administration officially blamed Iran should give us pause, given John Bolton’s long history of fabricating intelligence in favor of war.

The mere process of gathering evidence — let alone conclusive evidence — of how the attack on Thursday was conducted and who was behind it would take days and weeks, not hours.

In his press conference Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in fact, carefully avoided claiming the existence of any evidence and presented his accusations as a “government assessment,” which is different from a U.S. intelligence assessment, of which this administration is historically rather skeptical. (Of course, that raises another question: If the administration doesn’t possess evidence and can only offer a "government" assessment — a theory, really — why give a press conference in the first place?)

continued

Opinion | Be skeptical of Trump's bluster that Iran is behind the tanker attacks

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

Military? Maybe they are just terrorists.

Maybe they were. In which case Iran isn't the perpetrator of the attack.

 

[sooda]

Maybe they were. In which case Iran isn't the perpetrator of the attack.

An Iranian small attack craft fired a surface to-air missile (SAM) at a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone this week, a senior defense official said on background Friday. The incident happened in the general area where explosions crippled two tankers in the Gulf of Oman Thursday, the official said.

The official also confirmed a report from CNN that a SAM allegedly fired by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen shot down an MQ-9 over the Red Sea earlier this week.

continued

Iran Fired Missile at US Drone Prior to Tanker Attacks: Defense Official

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

An Iranian small attack craft fired a surface to-air missile (SAM) at a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone this week, a senior defense official said on background Friday. The incident happened in the general area where explosions crippled two tankers in the Gulf of Oman Thursday, the official said.

The official also confirmed a report from CNN that a SAM allegedly fired by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen shot down an MQ-9 over the Red Sea earlier this week.

continued

Iran Fired Missile at US Drone Prior to Tanker Attacks: Defense Official

And? Is this meant as a response to what I said, or are you just posting random related articles?

 

[sooda]

And? Is this meant as a response to what I said, or are you just posting random related articles?

This time last year the Houthis attacked some tankers,,,

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

This time last year the Houthis attacked some tankers,,,

...And? What's your point?