Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Remember the Vincennes

Did America ever APOLOGIZE to the Iranians?

"If you believe Iran "harassed" US ships, you have ..."

"Tue, 01/08/2008 - 05:02 - clark

The US navy claimed yesterday that Iranian fast boats harassed them in the Straits of Hormuz. On July 3, 1988, USS Vinceness shot down Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) killing 290 innocent civilian from six nations including 66 children.

The US navy initially claimed that they mistakenly identified the passenger liner as an Iranian fighter, and denied that they were not inside Iranian territorial waters.

But the official ICAO investigation found that the US Navy guided missile cruiser's attempts to contact Iran Air 655 were sent on the wrong frequency and addressed to a non-existent "Iranian F-14".

US government's own investigations found that both IR655 and the USS Vincennes were inside Iranian territorial waters at the time of the attack.

Instead of admitting its mistake and issuing an apology, the US Government the people responsible for the atrocity were awarded medals for "heroic achievement".

"The U.S. has a long history of sailing into Iranian waters and otherwise provoking Iran," Journalist Reese Erlich , the author the news book The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis said. "Remember on July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down an unarmed Iranian passenger plane and the U.S. tried to cover up the incident. In that context, the U.S. version of events must be carefully examined. It seems highly unlikely that Iran planned to blow up U.S. naval ships and precipitate a major incident or even war. If the U.S. attempts to make propaganda points based on the incident, it will reflect a new truculence coming out of Washington."

"I will never apologize for the United States of America. I don't care what the facts are." -- George Bush, Newsweek, August 15, 1989"

Yeah, that's what I thought!