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Ship Attacks in the Persian Gulf…are they real?

By June 17, 2019July 9th, 2019Iran, Oil, Persian Gulf

I am getting some questions about the veracity of the reports coming out of Washington concerning the attacks on the last two Oil tankers coming out of Oman. Are these reports real? Were these really Iranian Revolutionary Guard trying to remove this limpet mine from the side of that ship?

Let me start off by saying that there is room for discussion.If you have read my blog before or if you are a regular reader of More than Meets the Eye you will know that I am not necessarily a supporter of the notion that there is no place for secrecy in a democracy. There are just some pieces of information that do not need to be shared outside a closed circle of people. Sp it feels funny when CENTCOM uses a sketchy video to justify its position that it was Iran who placed those explosives. It created more questions than answers.

Why? Several reasons came to my mind immediately as I looked at the CENTCOM video.

1. The Limpet anti-ship mine is a 42 kilogram (92.4 lbs) explosive. Usually attached outside a ship by a very strong magnet. It is usually placed under the water-line of the ships hull. The video showed alleged Iranian Revolutionary Guards sailors removing the explosive, presumably because it did not explode as it was supposed to. All this was being done above the water-line.

2. It would be the height of foolishness to carry out this kind of operation knowing that a U.S. Navy UAV (drone) was flying in the area.

3. There is no follow-on video establishing that it is in-fact an Iranian Revolutionary Guards crew. In other words, much is left up to the viewers untrained eye to come to any conclusions.

4. It would seem plausible to me that if the initial detonation was a Limpet mine, it would have left a much larger hole in that ship than it did.

Having said all this, I have no problem believing that Iran did in fact commit this act. The motive is there, both to commit the act and to try and hide it. My problem with this whole situation is that CENTCOM did a very sloppy job trying to establish a blame proof on Iran. If they are going to reveal Intelligence collection assets to prove their point, I know they have an entire array of systems which will demonstrate without question that Iran is behind this event.

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