"Threats" to the U.S. Nazy

UPDATE: As of Jan 15, it appears that the Associated Press and National Public Radio have now covered this story. But no mention in other mainstream U.S. media as far as I can tell.

Last week we've heard the news on the "aggressive" incident between Iranian boats and U.S. naval vessels (including a destroyer) in the Strait of Hormuz. During the close encounter, the U.S. personnel heard a threat on the radio: "I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes." The Bush administration has been utilizing this for all they can to trump up the threat of Iran.

Then I hear on Harry Shearer's radio program from Sunday that retired Navy officers believe the voice to be from a prankster in the area known as the "Filipino Monkey." Apparently, it is a fairly common practice worldwide, and particularly in the crowded Strait of Hormuz, for pranksters to interrupt other radio transmissions with threats and abuse. The self-named "Filipino Monkey" is particularly notorious and well known in the area.

A Google search doesn't come up with any mainstream media coverage of this important update, which was originally printed by the Navy Times. The highest profile media report comes from the U.K.'s The Guardian, which on Monday wrote:

Rick Hoffman, a retired captain, told the paper: "For 25 years, there's been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats. He used to go all night long. The guy is crazy.

"Could it have been a spurious transmission? Absolutely."

An unnamed civilian mariner told the Navy Times: "They come on and say Filipino Monkey in a strange voice. You're standing watch on bridge and all of a sudden it comes over the radio. It's been a joke out there for years."

The Guardian further notes that on the dubbed-over video released by the U.S. Navy "a strange voice, in English, can be heard saying "I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes." The voice sounds different from one heard earlier in the recording and there is no background noise that would usually be picked up from a speedboat radio." Emphasis added.

One would think that naval personnel would come to the conclusion that the transmission probably came from a prankster. Maybe not in the heat of the moment, though the different voice and lack of background noise seems suspicious. When presented with this theory, the Navy's response has been to shrug and say "we don't know where it came from." It seems clear that this is another incident of the Bush administration flat out lying and willfully ignoring inconvenient facts. And like a repeat of 2003, the mainstream media seems to be going along for the ride. One wonders why both the U.S. government and media have so little credibility...

Update II on Tuesday's quote

Again, the War Room blog at Salon.com posts the journalistic follow-up with a portion of today's press conference transcript.

Quote of the day: I hope he's lying

Update: It looks like I'm not the only one to find Bush's insistence of being ignorant on an important matter troubling. Salon.com's War Room blog asks:

What's worse -- the idea that George W. Bush continued to ratchet up his rhetoric on Iran after he was told in August or September that Iran may have halted its nuclear weapon program, or the idea that Bush was told then only that there was some kind of "new information" on Iran and didn't bother asking what that information might be?

The top story in the news today is the Bush administration's acknowledgment that Iran is not actively putting together nuclear weapons and Bush's press conference this morning. The national intelligence estimate (NIE) on Iran had been long delayed, presumably due to internal arguments over it's conclusions.

At the press conference this morning, Bush was asked why he was continuing the war-mongering remarks at Iran just weeks ago, as the NIE was being finalized. His response was he didn't know about the conclusion regarding Iran's not actively seeking nuclear weapons until last week. Another reporter followed up:

Q Mr. President, thank you. Just to follow, I understand what you're saying about when you were informed about the NIE. Are you saying at no point while the rhetoric was escalating, as "World War III" was making it into conversation, at no point nobody from your intelligence team or your administration was saying, maybe you want to back it down a little bit?

THE PRESIDENT: No, nobody ever told me that. Having said -- having laid that out, I still feel strongly that Iran is a danger. Nothing has changed in this NIE that says, okay, why don't we just stop worrying about it. Quite the contrary. I think the NIE makes it clear that Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat to peace. My opinion hasn't changed.

This is a spectacular remark on so many fronts. The continuing insistence in light of evidence from his own administration shouldn't surprise anyone, but troubling all the same.

But what I think is most spectacular is the "No, nobody ever told me that." Huh? I hope and believe that he is lying here. As the intelligence community has been undoubtedly debating the conclusion regarding Iran's lack of a nuclear weapons program for many months, if not years. This isn't some random country we're talking about. This has been one of the big diplomatic focuses of this administration. And he just heard of this conclusion last week?

Certainly, it's not hard to believe that this president would lie to cover up another lie. "No, I really didn't know that the intelligence community is confident Iran hasn't been seeking nuclear weapons for four years when I was saying we were going to get into World War III." It kind of looks bad.

But, couldn't one say it looks worse that our president (and the rest of the administration) was pursuing a key foreign policy track based on incredibly false assumptions? (Hmmm, sounds familiar...) Oh wait, this incredible reversal from the intelligence community doesn't change a thing. He tells us right away, "My opinion hasn't changed." We can't let pesky facts get in our way. Especially when they may interfere with war and the threat of war.