Friday, January 11, 2008

US War Plans and the "Strait of Hormuz Incident": Just Who Threatens Whom?


by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, January 11, 2008

"Instigated by the Pentagon, a bungled media disinformation campaign directed against Iran has unfolded.

Five Iranian patrol boats, visibly with no military capabilities, have been accused of threatening three US war ships in the Strait of Hormuz.....

Coinciding with Bush's Middle East trip, the intent of the Pentagon's propaganda ploy is to present Iran as the aggressor......

But in fact with the exception of alleged verbal abuse on the part of the Iranian coastguard, which Tehran denies in a carefully worded statement, nothing happened other than a routine patrol operation.

Just Who is Threatening Whom?

The incident must be put in a historical perspective.

Realities are turned upside down. Known and documented since 2003, the Pentagon has drawn up detailed and precise plans for U.S. sponsored attacks on both Iran and Syria. Israel and NATO are partners in this military adventure.

Moreover, barely mentioned by the Western media, there has since Summer 2006, been a massive concentration of US Naval power in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, which are part of those war preparations. Since 2006, US war ships with advanced weapons systems have been stationed almost continuously within proximity of Iranian territorial waters.

Large scale US war games have been conducted.

Numerous acts of provocation directed against Iran have been undertaken.

These war vessels are deployed in the context of US-NATO-Israeli war plans in relation to Iran. The first phase of these war plans was formulated in the immediate wake of the US led Iraq invasion in July 2003, under a scenario entitled "Theater Iran Near Term". (TIRANNT). (See Michel Chossudovsky, "Theater Iran Near Term", Global Research, February 2007)....."

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