CNN: US naval ships were in the Arabian Sea searching for a missing sailor

[sabra]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/07/iran.us.navy/index.html

<snip>

The U.S. Navy also received a radio transmission that officials believe came from the Iranian boats. The transmission said, "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," the U.S. military officials told CNN.

When the U.S. ships heard that radio transmission, they took up their gun positions and officers were "in the process" of giving the order to fire when the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said.

After the radio transmission, one of the Iranian boats dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships, the officials said. It was not clear what was in the boxes, the officials said. See a map of the Strait of Hormuz »

No shots were fired, and no one was injured.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman downplayed the incident, calling it "ordinary," IRNA reported. Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that similar incidents had occurred in the past between Iranian and American ships, and the issues were resolved as soon as the ships recognized each other, IRNA reported.

...

On Friday, the U.S. Navy announced the same team of naval ships had been searching in the Arabian Sea for a sailor missing for a day from the USS Hopper. The outcome of the search was not immediately known Monday.

:crazy:

[bahrbearian]

1. Were we out there picking up a Seal Team ?

[acmavm]

2. Missing for a day? Now how could that be unless we are over

there in the Gulf doing some nasty business? It would seem to be kind of hard to get lost in the middle of the water. That has to be one dumb sailor (or else they were picking up a Navy Seal like was suggested before.)

[Hydra]

3. Bushco working their way up to an "incident"?

:puke:

[Windy]

4. Be very afraid people...

they don't like what is happening out here and they want to start something before Bush leaves office in case the next pres isn't a neo-con

[Rex]

5. Well. someone is playing games.

Dangerous, brinkmanship games. Not good. Now they were 'about to fire' when the Iranian ships pulled away. How charming.

Stop trying to start a war! Finish the ones you started first!

Geez, it is like talking to a group of, hmmm, lemurs!

Turn around, look at the mess you made.

Clean it up first.

Thanks.

[DS1]

9. Where's Fred when you need him?

Get him in his Admiral's suit

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

6. USS Hopper - named after Grace Hopper

[daleo]

7. Inventor of COBOL, wasn't she? n/t

[Supersedeas]

8. did they have a fancy name for the USS Vincennes - it had a confrontation with Iranians in the Gulf

too