…the Iran-Iraq War… for Iran.

So, it was Filipino Monkey, after all. The Pentagon has admitted that the footage of the famous incident of January 6 when five speedboats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)”buzzed” three US Navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz could have been compromised.

“I am coming at you. You will explode in a few minutes” - that was what the American navy men heard. An indignant Washington announced the US Navy was on the verge of firing on the IRGC boats, but for the latter abruptly turning away. President

George W Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates added their strident warning that Tehran would face dire consequences if “provocative actions” were repeated.

But the Iranian footage of the “incident” makes a laughing stock of the US administration. The funny thing is, it was an incident that didn’t happen. Commander Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, put a brave face, while admitting, “We don’t know for sure where they [threats] came from. It could have been a shore station.” Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon, Admiral Gary Roughhead, backed up explaining, “Based on my experience in operating in that part of the world, where there is a lot of maritime activity, trying to discern is very hard to do.”

“Filipino Monkey” is the code name given by the US Navy to a mysterious but profane voice which often challenges it in the Strait of Hormuz. The voice could be, if The Seattle Times newspaper is to be believed, “likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps in, shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets”. …

FULL