Investigate the Pentagon's Strait of Hormuz Scandal

The Pentagon has been caught with its pants down on the bogus story of Iranian boats threatening to "explode" U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz January 6. Now that that patently false story has blown up in its face, Congress should find out who is responsible and make them accountable.

Here's a tip for anyone in Congress who cares about the public trust: the trail of lies and fabrication in this case leads to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. As I reported earlier this week for Inter Press Service, the lurid press stories of an Iranian threat to blow up U.S. ships that began the coverage of the incident did not come from some rogue freelancer. They were a direct result of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bryan Whiteman's briefing for the Pentagon press corps on the morning of January 7.

It was Whitman who supplied all those juicy details that filled the press stories, including the Iranian phone threat, the objects dropped in the water which reporters were told could have been explosives, and the titillating story that at least one Iranian boat was "a heartbeat from being blown up," as reported by ABC News. All of which turned out to be flatly untrue.

Whitman could not have given that briefing, however, without the authority of the Secretary of Defense himself. The responsibility goes to the top of the Pentagon.

Equally blatant in its intent to deceive was the decision to put together a short video clip of the incident in which a mysterious voice seems to issuing a taunting threat against the U.S. ships. That voice was grafted on to the soundtrack of the video in order to dramatize that element of the story.

The question many were asking when it became clear that the voice on the video was that of the "Filipino monkey" -- the heckler or hecklers who have been horning in on ship-to-ship communication in the area to hurl insults, threats and racial epithets for many years -- was who was responsible for fabricating such a ridiculously lurid and obviously phony video.

When I started to investigate that question, the Pentagon press office referred me to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet information office in Bahrain. But both that office and the Navy's Office of Information steered my back to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. And sure enough, the press office at the Pentagon, which is part of the OSD, confirmed that the "leadership" of the Department of Defense was in on the decision on what to release to the public.

So Gates was in on both the original decision to disseminate a false account of the incident in the Strait and the decision to release a video that was deliberately rigged to dramatize the supposed threat by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps navy to blow up a U.S. warship. In both cases there can be no doubt that the decisions made only after consulting with the White House.

Could Gates and the White House have been taken in by reports from overeager commanders in the Gulf who sent panicky reports that presented an exaggerated sense of threat -- like the nervous sonarmen who thought they were under attack in the Tonkin Gulf in 1964, at least for an hour or so?

Not very likely. The commander of the 5th Fleet, Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff told Pentagon reporters on January 7, "I didn't get the sense from the reports I was receiving that there was a sense of being afraid of these five boats."

Furthermore, an official at the 5th fleet headquarters told me that everyone there knows about the "Filipino Monkey" problem. Anyone who has ever transited the Strait is told to expect such taunts and threats over the ship-to-ship channel. It is inconceivable that any of the naval officers involved would have failed to make clear in their reports on the incident that they believed the threat that came over the VHF channel was probably that of the infamous heckler.

When high officials are caught deliberately creating a phony threat to American ships, Congress has a duty to investigate. It seems very likely that laws were broken in this bumbling effort at deception. But thus far we have had only pained silence from the Democratic leadership in Congress. And apparently there are no plans by either the Senate or House committee on Armed Services to carry out an investigation into the outrage.

Are the Democrats protecting Bob Gates? He has been widely credited with helping to restrain Dick Cheney's desire for military action against Iran, which men of good will must applaud. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that Gates is also personally responsible for using the Pentagon's propaganda machine to support a political line -- both at home and abroad -- aimed at keeping up political pressure on Iran, even it means doing violence to the facts.

In the post-NIE phase of American policy toward Iran, protecting Gates from the consequences of the Strait of Hormuz scandal no longer a matter of preventing a war. It will only implicate the Democrats in the administration's broader anti-Iran scheme -- and all the lies that seems to require.

Comments

[peterg76]

Trying to start an unncessary war is a war crime.

[TXfemmom]

Not being able to trust anyone in government, and seeing such a thing perpetrated in this manner, at the highest levels of government, just leads to the realization that it is time for another mini-revolution, which flushed out all the people such as this and reaffirms and strengthens the Constitution, that piece of paper which Bush and Cheney and their thugs, routinely ignore.

[ArchAngel]

Have you seen the car insurance tv commercials that use celebrities to help explain customer stories?

Well, they should find and use the guy with the fake accent used to dub over the voice on the video...

[SkippyJones]

It was despicable - and you bet Bush was in on it - he wouldn't have got so far out in front of this issue by screaming that "Iran shouldn't have done it!" if he weren't. Right there, yet again, is an impeachable offense - either for being 'in on it' or being so derelict in his duty as commander-in-chief that he would make worldwide aggressive proclamations about an incident that our own military fabricated. Bush should be the man he claims to be and immediately investigate this blatent propaganda effort and dismiss those responsible from public service. In a bygone year a President would have done exactly this (if it were exposed to the light of day like this is) because he would know that the American public would demand it. now, the American public is asleep behind their dvds and digital cable and xboxes and the only thing that will wake them up is another terrorist attack, a military draft or citizen round-ups. This is why we now have a dictatorship not a democracy - and the serpent tongue behind this administration is just as surely engineering its rein in the next - democrat or republican. Sorry, but this democratic congress is a joke - compromised, yellow, god only knows. but so goes our democracy, not with so much as a wimper from those in Congress who have sworn to uphold it. I am sickened. Sickened. It is like 'scandal overload' - what next - torture, mass spying, lying about nuclear weapons to lie a country into war to steal another country's natural resources, committing treason against our own CIA agents on the trail of nuclear proliferation, trying to provoke American into a THIRD war in the middle east. Can anyone fathom the mess we are in? This is like being scared to confront a spoiled child who has been throwing things around the house and now holds a book of matches. Hearings - now. 5-10 million missing emails - no backups - this criminal regime has destroyed evidence of its own illegality - breaking numerous laws by so doing. We are a criminal country, America.

[Berettasskeeter]

I haven't seen any news or official footage of new information on the incident. Can you direct me? Or is this just overblown nonsense from the left?
Semper fi

[DavidByron]

Bush lies, Democrats do nothing.

Not exactly news but I do wonder about this line from above,

"aimed at keeping up political pressure on Iran"

Was that the aim here? The story was a one day hit, quickly buried and would have been forgotten about two days later if not for the various "That story was faked" follow up stories. How does such a big goof put any pressure on Iran when Iran never once blinked even during the very real incident when they captured several Royal Navy seamen?

If this story had been a year ago it would have been part of the build up for a war or a bombing run but that's all now out of the question and the anti-Iran rhetoric has been notched down.

So why the heck this story and now?

[Napoleon]

There are 3 important issues here. First, as Gareth Porter says, the Pentagon knowingly fabricated a war threat by small Iranian vessels, and covered it up.

. Second, notwithstanding their knowledge within a few days that the threats had been fabricated, the media gave Gates, Rice, and Bush a free ride by not holding them to account for the fabrication, and cover up. Garth Porter was an exception to this blind attitude. I should add that NBC evening news, in the early part of this week, also reported that the Defense Dept's video was supplemented with an audio threat that the Navy admitted could not be confirmed to have come from the Iranian sea vessels. In his article, Porter makes two valuable contributions, namely, continuing to emphasize the issue of a fabrication of a war threat, and demanding a Congressional investigation of the falsified war threat (hopefully, the Democratic candidates for the presidency will support this demand).

The third issue raised in this case is a racial one. The term "Filipino monkey" is a racially derogatory label that originated from an earlier time when one or more individuals in the Philippines latched onto common carrier airways to make comments of all kinds. Like George Allen's use of the term "macaca" to refer to a person of South East Asian ancestry, the U.S. Navy and others are perpetuating the use of a racially derogatory term, "Filipino monkey" to label people of South East Asia, now the Philippines, as animals. Because the story of the Pentagon's fabrication of the video can't realistically be disentangled from the use in the Navy of a racially derogatory term, i.e., "Filipino monkey", I suspect both the mainstream media and the Bush administration prefer to have this story wear itself out rather then having to take justified criticisms for both fraud and allowance of the use of racist name calling. Even NBC evening news, when reporting on the discrepancy in the Pentagon and the Navy's account, refrained from referring to the term "Filipino monkey" or criticizing its use as racially derogatory.

[SubparDude]

:
The curious thing about WWIII is there will be little understanding - or interest - in whatever starts it. It just won't matter.

That's the insanity of MAD or MIRVs or The Decider.
:

[mkelch]

Just add this to the pack of lies that need investigation but will not be investigated. The eithical foundation of our government has collapsed. If the rule of law is not enforced then there is no law. This transcends politics and moved power to the ruling class.

[outnow]

There have been many exploding ships and cases of shots having been fired across the bow.

The USS Maine and the "Yellow Journalism" of William Randolf Hearst fuels the Spanish American War. 20% of the entire population of the Philippine Islands died. In 1976 Admiral Rickover determined that the explosion was from inside the ship.

The then was the case of the USS Lousitainia when U-boats fired on US shipping carrying weapons to Europe with civilian "Human shields." We entered that war to save the world from wars and lost 600,000 men.

Then we had Pearl Harbor which we knew was coming. Our aircraft carriers were out on maneuvers and we had a mothball fleet. The documents are still "classified." We had embargoed all oil and scrap iron headed to Japan.

The we had the Gulf of Tonkin incident wherein the skipper was nervous because his vessel was in disputed waters and he had been calling in naval artillery shots from his radar installation on board his ship.

Now we are told the either Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11 or that he had WMD or that we were spreading freedom and democracy. Over one million lie dead. Even the Gulf War was the subject of Henry Gonzales impeachment inquiry.

Some of the events that formed the casus belli of the Mexican-American War were dubious, according to Abrahan Lincoln and John Quincy Adams.

The right wing and much of the left wing are bellicose. We are that much closer to nuclear war each day.

[desmirl]

Now that we have a Gulf of Tonkin... er... I mean, Gulf of Hormuz incident, can we invade Iran? Nothing of substance happened in the Gulf of Tonkin incident (most likely bogus radar returns and no one who was there earned a Purple Heart) and nothing of substance happened in the Gulf of Hormuz, but the Military Industrial Maniacs can smell profit... er... I mean blood in the waters.

[RTIII]

I'm a STRONG supporter of INVESTIGATIONS.

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: Senators and CongressPeople have staff ready to take your call RIGHT NOW.

Lately, I've been calling my Senators and Representatives nearly daily and _yesterday_ even got a letter from Feinstein addressed to me personally and a call I made recently! _gasp!_

The point is; they DO listen. Make a ruckus or don't bitch later about the results (of not bitching).

[CorkExaminer]

There is one over-arching reason why the Democratic candidates will never go after this issue--they are under the influence of the same interests as the R candidates. Don't you guys even understand how your own political system is working?

[dwillisno1]

Mr. Porter. I don't know if you read the comments, if you do, are you the Gareth Porter who I went to high school with back in Illinois in the late fifties? Gary as he was know as then sang with me and two others in a barbershop quartet. His dad was a teacher at the local school.

Whatever the case, I enjoy your blogs and find them very insightful.

[TheFacilitator]

Great opportunity for Edwards, Clinton and Obama to ask the tough questions to all Republican candidates, except Ron Paul. Once more, the real world is laughing at us, and no Democrat has the courage to stand up. A spineless and irresponsible Congress. Cheney and Lieberman, senator of Israel, are working against our interest, but paid by our taxmoney.