Author Topic: There are now 3 US Carrier Strike Groups sitting off the shores of Iran  (Read 4195 times)

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Christians4LessGvt

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Third US carrier, 4,000 Marines augment US armada
opposite Iran


DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

June 28, 2010, 10:45 PM (GMT+02:00)


USS Nassau: More US naval-air-marine muscle off Iran

debkafile's military sources report that Washington has posted a third carrier opposite Iran's
shores. It is supported by amphibious assault ships and up to 4,000 Navy and Marine Corps
personnel, bringing the total US strength in these waters to three carriers and 10,000 combat
personnel.

The USS Nassau (LHA-4) Amphibious Ready Group 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, tasked with
supporting the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet area of operations, is cruising around the Bab al-Mandeb
Straits where the Gulf of Aden flows into the Red Sea. Its presence there accounts for Tehran
announcing Sunday, June 27 that its "aid ship for Gaza" had been called off, for fear an American
military boarding party would intercept the vessel and search it. This would be permissible under
the latest UN sanctions punishing the Islamic Republic for its nuclear program.


The third US carrier group to reach waters around Iran consists of three vessels:

1. The USS Nassau Amphibious Assault ship is not just an enormous landing craft
for the 3,000 Marines aboard; its decks carry 6 vertical take-off AV-HB Harrier attack plans;
four AH-1W Super Cobra, twelve CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters,
as well choppers convertible to fast V-22 Osprey airplanes capable of landing in any conditions.
This vast warship has 1,400 cabinets for sleeping the entire Marine-24th Marine Expeditionary
Unit aboard.

2.  The amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde which carries 800 Marines
equipped for instantaneous landing.

3.  The amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland which carries 400 Marines and
102 commandos trained for special operations behind enemy lines.

debkafile adds: The USS Ashland was the target of an al Qaeda Katyusha rocket attack in 2005 when
it was docked in Jordan's Aqaba port next door to the Israeli port of Eilat. One of the rockets exploded
in Eilat airport. The ship exited harbor in time to escape harm.

These new arrivals are a massive injection of naval, air and marine muscle to the strength Washington
has deployed in the Persian Gulf-Red Sea-Indian Ocean arena in recent months.

The USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group consisting of twelve warships is cruising in the
Arabian Sea opposite Chah Bahar, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards biggest naval base not far
from the Iranian-Pakistan border. It is there that most of Iran's special commando units are housed.

Also posted in the Arabian Sea, further to the west, is the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Strike Group.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan - June 12, 1987

sirs

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This NOT from Debka

As unconfirmed reports of an imminent Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities pick up steam in the Middle Eastern media, a US-based strategic intelligence company has released a chart showing US naval carriers massing near Iranian waters.

The chart, published by Stratfor and obtained by the Zero Hedge financial blog, shows that over the last few weeks a naval carrier -- the USS Harry S Truman -- has been positioned in the north Indian Ocean, not far from the Strait of Hormuz, which leads into the Persian Gulf. The carrier joins the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which was already located in the area. The chart is dated June 23, 2010.

Reports of mass movements of Israeli and US naval warships have been circulating through the media for weeks. On June 19, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that 12 US and Israeli warships were seen moving through the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

And a report from the Associated Press published Saturday evening cited "unconfirmed" reports from Israeli and Iranian media that Saudi Arabia has allowed Israel to use its territory in preparation for an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

"The allegation could not be independently confirmed, and the Saudis deny cooperating with the Israeli military," AP reported.
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

Christians4LessGvt

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An Attack On Iran Imminent: Warns Fidel Castro

I have absolutely no doubt that as soon as the American and Israeli warships
are deployed -alongside the rest of the American military vessels positioned off the
Iranian coasts - and they try to inspect the first merchant ship from that country,
there will be a massive launching of missiles in both directions.


By Fidel Castro  -  28 June, 2010  - Cuba.cu



As I was writing every one of my previous Reflections, and a catastrophe was quickly zeroing
in on humanity, my major concern was to fulfill the primary duty to inform our people.

Today, I feel more relax than 26 days ago. As the situation evolves, I can reiterate and expand
on the information to the national and international public.

Obama has committed to attend the quarterfinals match on July 2, if his country?s team makes
it to that stage. He supposedly knows better than anyone that the quarterfinals will not be
contested because very serious developments will take place before that; or at least he should know.

Last Friday, June 25, an international press agency known for the attention to details in its
reports, published a statement by the Navy Commander of the elite Corps of the Guardians
of the Islamic Revolution General Ali Fadavi, warning "that if the United States and its allies
inspect Iranian ships in international waters they will have their response in the Persian Gulf
and the Strait of Hormuz."

The information was taken from the local news agency Mehr of Iran.

According to the press dispatch, said news agency reported that Fadavi added that "the Navy
of the Revolutionary Guardians currently has hundreds of vessels equipped with missile launchers."

The information, produced approximately at the same time of what Granma published or perhaps
before, seemed at some points an exact copy of the Reflections elaborated on Thursday
June 24th and ran by that paper on Friday 25th.

The coincidence can be explained by the simple use of a logical reasoning. I was completely
unaware of what the Iranian local agency had published.

I have absolutely no doubt that as soon as the American and Israeli warships are deployed
alongside the rest of the American military vessels positioned off the Iranian coasts-- and
they try to inspect the first merchant ship from that country, there will be a massive launching
of missiles in both directions. At that moment exactly the terrible war will begin. It's not possible
to estimate how many vessels will be sunk or from what country.

Knowing the truth timely is the most important thing for our people.

It doesn't matter if almost everybody, I'd dare say 99.9% or more of my compatriots,
instinctively cling to hopes and agree with my sincere wishes to be wrong. I have talked
to people close to me, and I have also received news from many noble, selfless and hardworking
people who have read my Reflections and do not challenge my considerations in the least but
rather absorb, believe and swallow my reasoning through a dry throat; however, they immediately
go back to the tasks to which they devote their energies.

That is precisely what we expect of our compatriots. But it would be worse to suddenly become
aware of extremely grave events without having heard as much as a news about such possibility.
Then there would be confusion and panic, and that would be unworthy of our heroic Cuban people,
which was very close to becoming the target of a massive nuclear strike on October 1962, and
still did not hesitate for a second in discharging its duty.

Our brave combatants and the military chiefs of our Revolutionary Armed Forces taking part in
heroic internationalist missions were close to becoming the victims of nuclear strikes against
the Cuban troops deployed close to the Angolan south border from where the South African
racist forces --at the time positioned on the Namibian border-- had been expelled after the
battle of Cuito Cuanavale.

The Pentagon, with the consent of the President of the United States, supplied the South African
racists through Israel with about 14 nuclear bombs, more powerful than those dropped on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as we have indicated in previous Reflections.

I am neither a prophet nor a fortune teller. Nobody told me a word of what was to happen.
It has all been the result of what I today describe as a logical reasoning.

We are neither new to this complicated issue nor are we meddlesome.

It is possible to predict what will happen in the rest of the Portuguese and Spanish
speaking Americas during the nuclear post crisis.

Under such circumstances, it will not be possible to talk of capitalism or socialism.
A stage will open that will see the management of the available goods and services
in this part of the continent. Certainly, every country will continue being ruled by those
who head the governments today, some very close to socialism and others euphoric over
the opening of the world market to fuels, uranium, copper, lithium, aluminum, iron and other
metals being sent to the developed and rich countries today that will suddenly disappear.

An abundance of food exported now to that world market will also disappear abruptly.

In these circumstances, the most basic products needed for life: food, water, fuels, and
the resources found in the hemisphere south of the United States will suffice to preserve
some of the civilization whose unbridled advance has led humanity into such a disaster.

Nevertheless, there are still some uncertainties. Will the two mightiest nuclear powers,
the United States and Russia, be able to refrain from using their nuclear weapons against
each other?

There is no doubt, however, that from Europe the nuclear weapons of Great Britain and France,
allied with the United States and Israel, --the same that enthusiastically imposed the resolution
that will inevitably unleash the war, which for the abovementioned reasons will immediately become
nuclear-- are threatening the Russian territory even though this country and China have done
everything within their capabilities to prevent the conflict.

The economy of the superpower will fall to pieces like a house of cards. The American society is
the least prepared to endure a catastrophe like the one the empire has created in the same territory
where it started.

We don't know which will be the effect on the environment of the nuclear weapons that will
unavoidably explode in various parts of the world, and that in the least serious variant will
happen in abundance.

As for me, to advance a hypothesis would be pure science fiction.
 

Fidel Castro Ruz
June 27, 2010
2:15 PM

http://www.hamsayeh.net/hamsayehnet_iran-international%20news1402.htm
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan - June 12, 1987

sirs

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Not from Debka?  What's Tee & Xo going to fret about?
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

Michael Tee

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Unless I'm missing something, it seems to me that any fighting in the Persian Gulf between the U.S. and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other would jack up the price of oil to levels that would threaten the economy of the U.S., either through market fears of the unknown or the actual closing of the Straits of Hormuz or both.  That being the case, I just don't think the U.S. will allow this to happen.

Of course, the U.S. has made serious miscalculations before - - Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan - - but never at a time when its economy was teetering so closely to the brink of the abyss.  Is it possible that advance preparations have already been undertaken with regard to stabilizing the price of oil regardless of war in the Gulf?  Possible, but I don't see how.  But still possible because WTF would I know about this anyway?

If war does break out, I hope the Iranians are prepared and I hope they have a surprise up their sleeve that will knock the socks off the Israelis and their American stooges.  Just as the Iraq invasion turned into a $3 trillion fiasco, maybe this newest project of fascism and militarism will turn out to contain the seeds of the aggressors' destruction.  Only time will tell.

Kramer

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Unless I'm missing something, it seems to me that any fighting in the Persian Gulf between the U.S. and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other would jack up the price of oil to levels that would threaten the economy of the U.S., either through market fears of the unknown or the actual closing of the Straits of Hormuz or both.  That being the case, I just don't think the U.S. will allow this to happen.

Of course, the U.S. has made serious miscalculations before - - Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan - - but never at a time when its economy was teetering so closely to the brink of the abyss.  Is it possible that advance preparations have already been undertaken with regard to stabilizing the price of oil regardless of war in the Gulf?  Possible, but I don't see how.  But still possible because WTF would I know about this anyway?

If war does break out, I hope the Iranians are prepared and I hope they have a surprise up their sleeve that will knock the socks off the Israelis and their American stooges.  Just as the Iraq invasion turned into a $3 trillion fiasco, maybe this newest project of fascism and militarism will turn out to contain the seeds of the aggressors' destruction.  Only time will tell.

Good excuse for Obama,

now he can blame the need

to attack Iran for the coming

depression.

Kill two birds with one stone:

Crush Iran & blame it on the

ruined economy. War rallies people

towards the president. Higher poll

numbers and maybe less democrat

losses in November. Hail Mary pass

but what the hell he has nothing o lose.

sirs

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You know......that's not as far fetched as it sounds.  Country rallies around a president at war, brings on some Independents, even some conservatives who are fooled into thinking that Obama has really "changed" now, & give himself 4 more years of Tee's referenced 50, to cram more socialist doctrine upon this country.

Very sharp theory, Kramer.  As little as the legs are, it might have legs       8)       The x-factor will be who has majority control of congress, of course
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

Christians4LessGvt

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War rallies people towards the president. Higher poll numbers...

Kramer you exactly correct!....I have stated on the record that if Obama "takes care of Iran", who I
think is the greatest threat to world security via their proxies since Adolf Hitler, then I will vote to re-elect
President Barack Obama....no doubt about it....Obama destroys Iran and I will vote for the man in 2012!



"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan - June 12, 1987

Christians4LessGvt

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Western oil firms stop business with Iran

By Stanley Carvalho -ABU DHABI

Mon, Jun 28 2010 ABU DHABI (Reuters) -

Iran faced growing economic pressure on Monday after two Western oil firms halted business with it,
and a Gulf Arab country seen as a trade lifeline for Tehran moved to freeze some Iranian-linked bank
accounts.

The developments underlined the major oil producer's increasing international isolation over a nuclear
programme it says is aimed at generating electricity but major powers suspect is intended for making bombs.

France's Total joined an expanding list of companies that have stopped gasoline sales to Iran, and Spain's
Repsol said it had pulled out
of a contract to develop part of the country's huge South Pars gas field in the Gulf.

"Total has suspended its sales of gasoline or refined products to Iran," a company spokesman said in Paris.

The decisions were announced four days after the U.S. Congress approved a bill to penalise firms supplying
gasoline to the Iran, which is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter but lacks sufficient refining capacity for
its own fuel needs.

The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, speaking in Washington on Sunday,
said targeted economic sanctions would probably not deter the Islamic Republic from seeking a nuclear capability.

Panetta also asserted that Tehran had enough nuclear material for two bombs if further enriched.

Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dismissed the latest punitive measures, declaring that his
country could become self-sufficient in gasoline production "within one week, there is no problem."

He told a Tehran news conference that Iran was prepared to resume nuclear talks with major powers
but only after a delay of several weeks to "punish" the West for imposing new sanctions, and with
friendly countries included at the table.

"Are they so afraid of two bombs? There are 20,000 bombs stockpiled and they are so afraid of the possibility
of the existence of two bombs? This is really amazing," he said.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions since 2006 over Iran's refusal to halt sensitive
uranium enrichment.

UAE "PLAYING BALL"

Moving to implement the latest round of measures, the UAE's central bank told financial institutions to
freeze any accounts belonging to dozens of Iran-linked firms
targeted by the June 9 U.N. resolution,
a banking source said.

Last week an Emirati newspaper reported that the seven-member United Arab Emirates federation
was "tightening the noose" on companies the Security Council suspects act as fronts for supplies
to Iran's atomic activities.

Iran and the UAE have close economic and historic relations and tens of thousands of Iranians
live and work in trade hub Dubai and elsewhere in the Arab state, many of them involved in
the multi-billion-dollar, re-export trade to Iran.

But Dubai's ties with Tehran have drawn scrutiny from the United States, which is spearheading a
drive to pressure Iran into halting nuclear enrichment, which can have both military and civilian uses.

Iran has long circumvented restrictions on goods blacklisted by sanctions and much of the trade
goes via the UAE, said Middle East analyst Gala Riani of IHS Global Insight.

"The UAE, and Dubai especially, has come under a lot of pressure... to tighten restrictions and controls
on Iranian firms," Riani said.

They are now "signalling that they are playing ball with the international community," she said.

The latest U.N. resolution calls for measures against new Iranian banks abroad if a connection to
the nuclear or missile programmes is suspected, as well as vigilance over transactions with any Iranian bank,
 including the central bank.

Going beyond the U.N. sanctions, the U.S. Congress last week approved new unilateral measures to
squeeze Iran's energy and banking sectors
. The European Union has also decided to implement additional measures.

Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Reliance Industries and independent Swiss trader Glencore are among suppliers that have
already either stopped fuel sales to Iran or decided not to enter into new trading agreements with it.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKDAH85080620100628
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan - June 12, 1987

Kramer

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Sirs & CU4, and he gets to look powerful not weak & spineless.

Michael Tee

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<<Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dismissed the latest punitive measures, declaring that his
country could become self-sufficient in gasoline production "within one week, there is no problem.">>

Wonder what the hell that means.  Obviously doesn't mean they're going to build a refinery in a week.

I think when there is a boycott, it basically incentivizes the victim to find other sources of supply and other customers.  This has to be a good way for China to extend its influence into the Middle East.  Russia is going to have to make some choices - - here is the U.S.A. trying to ring it with missile batteries, moving into areas that once were its backyard and yet they are trying to kiss American ass, withholding, for example, delivery of an anti-missile defence system already ordered.  This is going to piss of the Iranians, obviously, and yet the Russians should know by now that the U.S.A. can never be trusted, because it's going all-out for world domination and that includes domination of Russia.  If the Russians come to their senses now, they can still mend their fences with Iran but the time is running out.

These boycotts, unenforced by war on Iran, will probably turn out to be beneficial to the Iranians and the Chinese in the long run, in the sense that anything that doesn't kill them will make them stronger. 

Why hasn't Iran built refineries when they could see these threats growing over the past years?  IMHO, I think they were smart not to.  The refineries can't be hidden inside mountains and anything they build would be vulnerable to air attack.  I'm sure the Americans and Israelis wish they had targets like oil refineries to threaten but they don't.  Wow, I don't know but I think the Iranians are a lot smarter than the Americans and the Israelis give them credit for, not that Ahmadinejad is going to win any MacArthur Genius Awards in the foreseeable future.  But he's only a figurehead, and I believe there are unforeseen surprises in store for the aggressors.  I sure as bitchin hell hope so, anyway.

Plane

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No, I don't think it is smart to prestarve oneself before an enforced fast.

I would be surprised if Iran had the potential to carry on a war for two weeks , not a mechanised war anyway.

If they are planning ahead they must be planning to say "just kidding " at some point.

In the present they get a monetary reward everytime the price of oil shoots up , as when war in the reagion is threatened.

That they are getting paid for each cry of wolf is enough explanation for me.

Plane

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An Attack On Iran Imminent: Warns Fidel Castro





"..... It's not possible
to estimate how many vessels will be sunk or from what country."


Hahahaha, Actually this would be the easy part.
Quote



It doesn't matter if almost everybody, I'd dare say 99.9% or more of my compatriots,
instinctively cling to hopes and agree with my sincere wishes to be wrong. ....


Good news .

No reason to think you are right.

Kramer

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An Attack On Iran Imminent: Warns Fidel Castro





"..... It's not possible
to estimate how many vessels will be sunk or from what country."


Hahahaha, Actually this would be the easy part.
Quote



It doesn't matter if almost everybody, I'd dare say 99.9% or more of my compatriots,
instinctively cling to hopes and agree with my sincere wishes to be wrong. ....


Good news .

No reason to think you are right.

he has more experience than Obama

Michael Tee

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from the alleged Fidel Castro article:

<< . . . Certainly, every country will continue being ruled by those
who head the governments today, some very close to socialism and others euphoric over
the opening of the world market to fuels, uranium, copper, lithium, aluminum, iron and other
metals being sent to the developed and rich countries today that will suddenly disappear.

<<An abundance of food exported now to that world market will also disappear abruptly.

<<In these circumstances, the most basic products needed for life: food, water, fuels, and
the resources found in the hemisphere south of the United States will suffice to preserve
some of the civilization whose unbridled advance has led humanity into such a disaster.

<<Nevertheless, there are still some uncertainties. Will the two mightiest nuclear powers,
the United States and Russia, be able to refrain from using their nuclear weapons against
each other?

<<There is no doubt, however, that from Europe the nuclear weapons of Great Britain and France,
allied with the United States and Israel, --the same that enthusiastically imposed the resolution
that will inevitably unleash the war, which for the abovementioned reasons will immediately become
nuclear-- are threatening the Russian territory even though this country and China have done
everything within their capabilities to prevent the conflict.>>

Either this is a really, really, really bad translation, or Fidel is writing nonsense.  Or both.