The Cheneyites Nearly Started WWIII Over "Filipino Monkey" Radio Signal

What century are we living in? Can someone explain to me how the US Navy quite literally almost declared war on Iran on the basis of a radio transmission from a phantom voice known as the "Filipino Monkey" (not my term by the way) radio transmission? Read the latest news about the near-war incident in the Strait of Hormuz:

"The threatening radio transmission heard at the end of a video showing harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a locally famous heckler known among ship drivers as the "Filipino Monkey."

Since the Jan. 6 incident was announced to the public a day later, the U.S. Navy has said it's unclear where the voice came from. In the videotape released by the Pentagon on Jan. 8, the screen goes black at the very end and the voice can be heard, distancing it from the scenes on the water.

<snip>

Indeed, the voice in the audio sounds different from the one belonging to an Iranian officer shown speaking to the cruiser Port Royal over a radio from a small open boat in the video released by Iranian authorities. He is shown in a radio exchange at one point asking the U.S. warship to change from the common bridge-to-bridge channel 16 to another channel, perhaps to speak to the Navy without being interrupted.

Further, there's none of the background noise in the audio released by the U.S. that would have been picked up by a radio handset in an open boat.

So with Navy officials unsure and the Iranians accusing the U.S. of fabrications, whose voice was it? In recent years, American ships operating in the Middle East have had to contend with a mysterious but profane voice known by the ethnically insulting handle of "Filipino Monkey," likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets.

Navy women -- a helicopter pilot hailing a tanker, for example -- who are overheard on the radio are said to suffer particularly degrading treatment."'

So, apparently the US Navy is operating with near zero ability to tell the difference between a radio pirate screaming profanities and a declaration of war. Based on this madness, the president of the United States nearly declared an all out war. Here is what our dear leader said earlier in the week about this incident:

"There will be serious consequences if they attack our ships, pure and simple," Bush said during a news conference in Jerusalem. "And my advice to them is, don't do it."

Bush was referring to an incident in which five high-speed Iranian boats reportedly threatened to attack the USS Port Royal, USS Hopper and USS Ingraham as they were entering the Persian Gulf on Jan. 6.

Defense officials said the Iranian boats maneuvered aggressively, threatened the U.S. ships via radio and dropped objects into the water in the path of one of the ships.

The U.S. president said "our ships were moving along very peacefully off the Iranian border in territorial water -- international waters -- and Iranian boats came out and were very provocative. And it was a dangerous gesture on their part."

Bush said that earlier in the day, Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, made it "abundantly clear that all options are on the table to protect our assets."

Protect our assets? Are you people collectively drunk? Does no one in this administration at least think it prudent to wait for an investigation before starting WWIII?

We are faced with two possibilities here in explaining this entire incident, and neither of them makes us look remotely good. The first possible explanation for this madness is that we are being led by morons who in turn get their information from other morons, who in turn are so inept that they should not be allowed anywhere near military machinery. This makes us look so incompetent that it quite literally is a danger to our national security. But this is not what I think happened. Call me cynical, I don't care.

The other possible explanation as to how a situation such as this may have happened -- and the scenario I believe to be likely -- is that we were either attempting to provoke Iran or we were attempting to frame Iran as a justification for war. The propaganda failed, which is why no one in the US government is making any sense when speaking about this incident.

Why do I believe we were attempting to recreate the Gulf of Tonkin? Well, we have been trying to go to war with Iran for years now, nearly doing so in March of 2006. We have created hysteria over a WMD threat, which fell apart. We later claimed that Iran was behind the insurgency in Iraq (most of the foreign fighters are Saudis by the way), which did not sell all that well either. We then went on to claim that Iran is why we are losing the war in Iraq and that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are the ones providing the IEDs that are being used against our soldiers.

That too did not go anywhere.  We have also supported the claim that not only is Iran willing to destroy Israel, but that they are also capable of doing so, yet American Jews did not buy it and would not support a war. Finally, we have also conducted illegal covert operations against Iran, including the use of terrorist groups (like the MEK), who have - either on their own or on our orders - assassinated 22 Iranian officials.

We still continue to menace Iran's turf and threaten an all out attack. Now, with the Cheneyites trying this hard to start a war, what would prevent them from creating an incident that could be used as justification? A sudden moral line that cannot be crossed? Or perhaps a lately developed conscience? Really, does anyone buy that this administration is operating in good faith on anything, let alone on the topic of Iran?

So the next time you hear, "they hate us for our freedom," whomever they are likely really hate us for this type of bullshit,  or  more accurately our  imperialism.

Comments

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Well blow me down: Larisa has made the list of bloggers ABOVE the "most recent" cut.

Long overdue.

Please check out her prior posts as well:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/#blogger_bio

Especially, this one from last week:

"Sibel Edmonds, the FBI whistle-blower who has been gagged for years by the Bush administration over intercepts she translated while at the bureau, was willing to go to prison to get her story told. She spent years trying to get her day in court, but the State Secrets gag against her prohibited her from telling her story even to a FISA judge. After years of trying to fight her way to through the maze of the US court system, Sibel Edmonds finally decided to tell her story no matter the consequences and offered to do so to any interested US media outlets."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/sibel-edmonds-speaks_b_80077.html

(Free plugs from a fan.)

[diamndpeace]

gCaptain.com is a blog written by a ship Captain (merchant, not navy). They have excellent coverage of the event. You can find it here:
http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/the-gorilla-from-manilla-strikes-again-filipino-monkeeeeey/

[DLSteinhardt]

Well, in the count your blessings department, even the Pentagon admitted from the beginning that the "explode" voice "might not" have come from the Iranians. Every news account I saw or heard (NPR and NYTimes among them) stressed "according to the Pentagon" or "according to the Navy" in every account. So as provocation to war, this one seems to have received more skeptical coverage than most.

[batguano]

Thank You Larissa for this piece.
The Bush/Neocon/Lieberman/AIPAC crowd and the right-wing Israelis will do everything in their power to continue to foment war with Iran and maintain a state of "conflict" and occupation; to ensure there will be NO Palestinian state, only Palestinians under the Israeli yoke and Israeli "settlements".
IF the Iranian Navy wanted to attack US ships it would NOT be with 20' speedboats, but with Sunburn and Yakhont cruise missles. Bush (The American Monkey) and Tricky Dick Cheney will speak any ridiculous lies and fabrications to push for more war.

[realpolitic]

The incident is so serious given Bush recently told the Israelis that the NIE that said Iran has discontinued their nuclear weapons program "does not reflect his own views." Of course, if someone were to ask what evidence his views were based on he would probably shake his head and say "my gut," or some nonsense. Journalists let Bush get away with basing policy on "his own views" entirely too often.

[deminmo]

A bad ecomomy is a recipe for war. Bush can't
really declare action on Iran like he did with
Iraq. Something else has to happen, and it will.

Bush has been gearing up since 2003, and training since 2005 for just such a confrontation. And since October of last year
with his reference ( and smirk ) to WW III,
and increased training with "bunker buster
bombs", increased spending with arms deals,
( Saudi Arabia $4.4 billion in 2006 to $20
billion on Jan 14 2007), where does it appear
we are headed? Why is he now talking no more
troop draw down in Iraq?

War stops the election, martial law stops any
freedoms.

[dexxjones]

MOST of our political foriegn policy and MOST of our previous wars and ideologies have been based on contrived and ridiculous assumptions and plots.

from the "domino theory" to some of the supersecret defense projects currently in development, its almost always based on outlandish and contrived plotlines.

the plain fact is that without these fairy stories, the badies wouldnt have a chance.

they are continually aided by a populace that believes in goofy ghost stories (ie religion)

the sooner we stop humouring the "magic thinking" crowd, the sooner we will have a sane defense/foriegn policy machine.

i dont want to fucking hear another word about jesus from our elected officials.

[NoFactsJustTruth]

Larisa, this just showed up on yahoo news
"
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - President Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger "before it's too late."
"
I'm sure you also heard this week that the preznutz, using some jedi mind trick on himself, believes the advisors that're telling him he'll wind up this term with a 45% approval rating(the typical rating for wartime presidents?), and most likely BECAUSE he's think's he'll have started another war.

Of course, if the most republicant of democrats gets elected later this year, everything will likely be swept under a corporate rug again, little will change and REAL, PROPER investigations into crimes and war crimes committed will still be blocked by a new CONgress telling us what voters think is important, is NOT to them.

Thanks, Larisa, I get the email alert and NEVER miss your posts, even if I don't comment on every one. Great-great stuff, lady. Thank you.

[FogBelter]

Larisa,

You mean to tell me that with all of the trillions of dollars we waste on half-assed products from Defense Contractors the Navy hasn't come up with a Communications System that can't be be hacked? I think the only "Monkeys" in this story are working for Naval Procurement in the Pentagon.

Maybe if the Brass would spend less time on junkets with Thai hookers under-written by their Contractor friends, and more time thinking about their f'ing jobs we wouldn't risk stumbling, like idiots, into WWIII.

And as for the "Filipino Monkey" slight ... that's about par for the US Military. I had a Filipino/American friend who was drafted, and went to Vietnam. After he finished boot camp and just before deploying to Vietnam, his commander pulled him from his battalion and had him face the rest of the men. Then his Commander said,

"Gentlemen, this is what your enemy looks like."

Some things from the US Military you can always count on.

[tcagle]

The radio intercept ops on our ships knew what was going on, I guarantee you. We used to mess around with the Russians all the time like this in the Navy back then.
Good luck ever finding out the truth through the entertainment media that swallowed the real news many moons ago. Thankfully we have your help, Larisa.

[mbaty]

I hope that you continue to bring our attention to these probably contrived scenarios. I'm using the word "probably" as a double-entendre, because, like 9/11, it just has to be plausible enough for everyone to allow some sort of military action in the following shock without too much questioning or pesky calls for diplomacy. After all, there's only a few months left to take advantage of the massive privatization and exclusive, no-bid contracts for the friends of the Bushites/Cheneyites.

[realpolitic]

Yes, the incompetence of this administration leads one to believe that we should change the constitution so the president is no longer commander-in-chief. Perhaps some guy working as a toll booth operator can be commander-in-chief or my bowling buddy- Bob.

What was Cheney doing during the transmission of the threatening, phony middle eastern sounding voice? He may have been doing a poor imitation to get us into another war. After all, it is a new year and our country needs a new war. The others have grown tiresome and of course, the Iranians are the only thing keeping our military from prevailing in Iraq. The neocons insist on just one more war, just another small squirmish, please.

[raptor]

Them's fightin' words. An Indian cricket player calls a Australian Anglo-West Indian cricket player a "monkey", he gets disqualified (and that's reversed), all hell breaks loose, it's front-page news for a week, and dominates the letters to the editors in newspapers.
Cricket, don't ask

[nopartygal]

Yessir, Ladies and Gents, this stuff just keeps getting scarier and scarier. Not so much because of the lame scenarios being erected one after another, trying to lead us into yet another, ever more dangerous, predictably (still) illegal war, but more because of the simplistic US public, who thinks in fairytale sound bites and swallows all this crap being fed to them by our faux media (not limited to just FOX, alas).

And to add to the haze of unbelievably transparent shit that is going down with just this one incident, please read the BBC report, which states:

"The video released by the US implied that the warning was part of a series of transmissions to the ships from the Iranian craft.

It turns out that the warning was added onto the video. It was a radio recording made separately.

Experts say it could have come from another ship in the area or from a radio transmitter on shore. The channel used by the Iranian vessels to make their inquiries is an open one."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7182637.stm

Say what????? Let me repeat that bit: "It turns out that the warning was added onto the video. It was a radio recording made separately." Much like the all the phony Osama Bin Laden tapes we are being bombarded with lately, our side is once again arranging in a juvenile, transparent game of cut and paste which is evident to everyone beyond our borders, but not to the good, solid, flag-waving, "our government would never do that kind of thing" lobotomized little "good citizens" of the USA... And that blind faith, that solid, cohesive, patriotic unit, that flag waving trusting horde... that is what scares the bejeezus out of me. You can't reason with blind fanaticism.

[clevelandchick]

Larissa,

The whole reason I subscribe to your posts from Huffington is illustrated in this one tonight.

Literally Dr. Evil & Mini-Me are running the country - a heckler nearly brought us to WWIII.
How embarrassing.

And you know what, months from now Bush will try to use this incident as past justification for bombing Iran. And our ADD Mediacracy will swallow the story hook,line and sinker.

Sorry if I sound jaded but we still have over 300 days left of Dubya.

Keep on kicking butt Larisa.