Iran to start "extensive" military maneuvers in Gulf Thursday

[DoYouEverWonder]

EHRAN, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran said on Wednesday that it will stage "extensive" military maneuvers in the Gulf waters starting from Thursday, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Commander-in-Chief of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Seyed Yahya Rahim Safavi made the announcement as U.S.-led military maneuvers aimed at blocking the smuggling of nuclear weapons material and arms proliferation were being held in the Gulf waters.

The upcoming Iranian war games - codenamed "The Great Prophet 2"- are due to be carried out till Nov. 11 in the Gulf waters, the Sea of Oman and 14 provinces of the country, Safavi told a press conference.

The maneuvers will be staged by the IRGC's air, ground and navy forces as well as the Basij militia troops, he said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/01/content_5277701.htm?rss=1


I guess since Osama can't boost BushCo chances of winning the election, Iran will do what they can to take up the slack.

[acmavm]

1. Either the Iranians are out to show bush** that they aren't afraid of

him or they're itching for a fight too. Their leader is a nut case. So is ours.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. Everyone has been doing a lot of military exercises lately

Something we haven't seen in a lot of years now. Wonder what changed?

[truthisfreedom]

3. UK shit steaming in, US shit steaming in, Iran's shit steaming in... giant

pile of steaming shit.

[Donailin]

15. I swear to God

I had a brief conversation with an Iranian businessman today. He's been here since 1967. I asked him what he thought of world politics. His response?

Look who is making the money. We all are being played for fools. From Bush to Amadenijad to Perez to Putin to Chavez-- all of them puppets for the multinational arms dealers and weapons manufacturers and energy companies. He said if we wanted peace in Iraq we would have disarmed iraq the minute we stepped in, that we never would have fired the entire governmental infrastructure (from the teachers to the sanitation workers to the military commanders)and told them to take their guns with them. Protracted war in Iraq makes a nice cash flow at the expense of the american treasury. And they will keep up the war until there is no more treasury left so that then they can claim the government is broke and taxes will be needed to pay for more war only. Every entitlement program and every dept that serves the common interest will be dismantled because there will be no money left. Except for the war department.

He also said there is plenty of oil, that the only reason there is the illusion of limited supply is because there arent enough refineries. And then he said, why hasn't there been a refinery built in the last twenty five years? Because that would expedite flow and lower prices. Oil companies are cashing in now that the world economy is strong enough to sustain the high costs.

[Matilda]

16. He's right - it's Halliburton's War.

Doesn't matter how it all ends up, Cheney's on a winner.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. K & R

:kick:

[TheBaldyMan]

5. more scaremongering from the powers that be

there will be no war with Iran, there cannot be any war with Iran. Not enough troops, no money, no political will.

This is yet another 'OMG run for the hills, PANIC!' threads.

Grow up, you are not FReepers, stop acting like them.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. You don't think

Bush isn't going to claim that Iran is threatening us in order to score points with the sheeple?

We know that no one will be invading Iran any time soon, but that won't stop BushCo from stirring up their base with these new 'treats'.

[TheBaldyMan]

8. so why keep publicising the non-event of an attack that can't happen?

It's just that I have seen this stuff so many times before, every time I say the same thing and a few days later - OMG we're going in into Iran NOW! Argh! everybody panic!

It doesn't help anyone, it doesn't advance the debate and "Iran immanent invasion" threads were flogging a dead horse last year (2005). Still the same old same old continues and we'll be seeing OMG-IRAN-PANIC threads next year.

[Jester_11218]

7. PNAC's Gulf of Tonkin?

They already created their new Pearl Harbor...why not another Gulf of Tonkin?

Look out!

[twaddler01]

9. N. Korea wanna b's....too bad diplomacy has no meaning to *ies

[sarcasmo]

10. Just in time for the Election.

[moodforaday]

11. Aljazeera carries the story too

Aljazeera.Net - Iran plans Gulf war games

Iran has announced it will carry out war games in the Persian Gulf just days after six other nations, including the United States, held a series of exercises in the same area.

Iranian state television said the military manoeuvres - named "Great Prophet Two" - would take place in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman from Thursday.

"The war games are aimed at demonstrating the deterrent power of the guards against possible threats," General Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying.

Safavi stressed that the drills were not a threat to Iran's neighbouring countries, saying: "Our neighbours are our friends. The guards just want to prove that they ready to resist in any threatening situation."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E974E7AF-BC99-4543-93FB-9A2DB5EBF417.htm

[Jcrowley]

12. Pretext

Naval deployment under the "global war on terrorism" is occurring on several fronts: in the Eastern Mediterranean (NATO and Israel) along the Syrian-Lebanese coast, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean (US and allies) and Red Sea (Saudi Arabia). 

"These armadas are being built-up concurrently. The Eastern Mediterranean build-up is essentially characterized by Israeli and NATO naval and ground forces. In the Persian Gulf, the naval armada is largely American with the participation of the British, Australia, and Canada. In this extensive land mass between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, various military movements on the ground are occurring, including Northern Iraq and Georgia. 

The broader war theater would extend far beyond, northwards to the Caspian Sea Basin and eastwards to Pakistan and China's Western frontier. What we are dealing with is a chessboard for another Middle Eastern war, which could potentially engulf a much broader region." (Nazemroaya, Oct 2006)

These ongoing naval deployments under the "global war on terrorism" seek to create a legitimacy for waging war on Iran and Syria, which are the alleged "state sponsors" of al Qaeda. According to Debka, the Israeli intelligence think tank, the objective of the deployment of  US warships is "to prepare for a US-led military strike against Iran .... measures to fend off palpable al Qaeda threats to oil targets." 

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20061101&articleId=3657

The US navy has conducted military exercises (30th of October) 20 miles outside Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The war games were perceived by Tehran as an act of provocation. Iranian patrol boats came very close to US and coalition warships in the Persian Gulf.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Iran is responding to America's provocative maneuvers 20 miles

from Iranian shores.

[Az_lefty]

14. Oh goody, the inmates are running the asylum.

:hide: