2 Navy boat crews seized by Iran?

[Riley]

Seems this is a developing situation...

http://www.nationalreview.com/corne...en-american-sailors-and-accuses-them-snooping

Wonder if we hear about it during the STOU address tonight? More importantly, I wonder what we'll actually do about it.....

 

[shotty]

America has lost a lot of respect around the world. No fear of what might happen. Is our leadership going to draw another "line in the sand"?

 

[mugsy]

The WH position is that the Navy boats were stranded due to mechanical trouble with one of them. The Iranians are said to be holding them until the personnel until morning - they aren't prisoners.
We shall see if this develops further.

 

[dennishoddy]

The WH position is that the Navy boats were stranded due to mechanical trouble with one of them. The Iranians are said to be holding them until the personnel until morning - they aren't prisoners.
We shall see if this develops further.

There are some inconsistencies in the WH position. There were two boats. Reports say one had a mechanical issue, then continues to say that boat drifted into Iran's waters.

Why didn't the other one tow the disabled boat? I'm not familiar with the current in that area, but I'm sure the other boat could have kept it out of those waters.

I suspect we haven't heard the end of this. Time will tell.

 

[Sanford]

"Search and rescue teams from the Harry S. Truman Strike group were scrambled to aid the crew but stopped short after the crew was taken by the Iranians."

Link: UPDATED: Iran Seizes Two U.S. Navy Riverine Patrol Boats, Tehran Pledges to Release Crews

 

[Fredkrueger100]

America has lost a lot of respect around the world. No fear of what might happen. Is our leadership going to draw another "line in the sand"?

According to Obama in his state of the Union address we are more respected now than when he took office. He made it seem as if we are untouchable. Biggest bunch of bs I have ever watched. And all the idiot fools giving him standing ovations made me want to puke.

 

[Riley]

Its been a while since I starred at the charts but Farsi Is. is just about the middle of the North Arabian Gulf, so some 60 or so miles from mainland on either side.

Unless recent agreements have changed things there, we recognized three miles for territorial waters.

If the boats were transiting they would have likely been on the south side of any transit scheme meaning they would have had to have been drifting north for quite some time.

I guess I could comment on our "new", 1 or possibly no carriers in the gulf policy, but I think it's clear as the early consequences begin to be observed that it will continue our recent foreign policy sucess....

 

[dennishoddy]

How do you lose communication with two different craft?

 

[RETOKSQUID]

Lots of computer equipment on some of those small boats, would be a real shame if the Iranians downloaded some new super virus to their computer networks while trying to take a look at our toys, and not know about it.

 

[4play]

I don't know anything about the actual boat, but are these normally used in open waters while traveling moderate distances? What is the max range of a boat like that? I'm estimating that journey would be around or at least 250-300 nautical miles, a pretty good distance for a smallish boat. Do they plan operations like that to be running on fumes when they get to their destination, refuel or carry extra fuel? I'm thinking its possible that they were doing something else or coming from/going to somewhere else, not travelling from Kuwait to Bahrain but what do I know.

Supposedly they drifted more than 1 mile into 12 mile territory of Farsi island and that is where a military base for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is. I also read the boats are not considered high-tech and don't contain any sensitive equipment, so there were no concerns about the Iranians gaining access to the crafts. If they were cleared of hostile or wrongdoing why are they still being detained or held for an extra period of time? Things over there are pretty volatile right now, it seems like it's only going to get worse.