Voice of the White House October 13, 2008
TBR News – October 13, 2008
“The final chapter of the sinister MV Iran Denyant has not yet been written but what has appeared in public, and most important, what has not, is a highly instructive example of how any kind of unwelcome news is treated inside the United States.
For example, today (October 13, 2008 ed) we read a most informative and unfortunate article in the New York Times concerning a man best described as a dangerous nut, circulating outrageous and totally untrue lies about Obama. The fabricator, one Andy Martin, was denied admission to the Illinois bar as a lawyer because he was deemed to be psychotic. Martin, who is known for his chronic filing of endless, pointless lawsuits against everybody in sight and is also well-known as an anti-Semite, is absolutely typical of the lunatic and vicious trash so eagerly embraced, and used, by the Republicans on a daily basis.
But the Denyant issue is far different, and far more important, than the usual vicious Republican lies and libels in a political campaign.
There are facts about this ship which I will list here, along with the deliberately misleading propaganda generated by American officialdom:
· The MV Iran Deyanat, a 44,458 dead weight bulk carrier is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking.
· According to the U.S Department of the Treasury; the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.
Major Iranian Shipping Company Designated for Proliferation Activity
September 10, 2008
U.S. Department of the Treasury
HP-1130
Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control today designated the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), and 18 other affiliated entities, for providing logistical services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).
"Not only does IRISL facilitate the transport of cargo for U.N. designated proliferators, it also falsifies documents and uses deceptive schemes to shroud its involvement in illicit commerce," said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "IRISL's actions are part of a broader pattern of deception and fabrication that Iran uses to advance its nuclear and missile programs. That conduct should give pause to any financial institution or business still choosing to deal with Iran."
· The MV Iran Deyanat departed Nanjing, China, July 28, and, according to its falsified manifest, planned to sail to Rotterdam, where it would offload 42,500 tons of iron ore and "industrial products" purchased by an unidentified “ German client
· The ship had a crew of 29 men, including a Pakistani captain, an Iranian engineer, 13 other Iranians, 3 Indians, 2 Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, stated to be Albanians
On August 21st, 2008, the MV Iran Deyant was heading towards the Suez Canal. As it was passing the Horn of Africa, about 80 miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was surrounded by speedboats filled with members of a gang of Somalia pirates who grab suitable commercial ships and hold them,, and their cargos and crews for ransom. The captain was defenseless against the 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades blocking his passage. He had little choice other than to turn his ship over to them
The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a small fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates - 50 onboard and 50 onshore. The Somali pirates attempted to inspect the ship's seven cargo containers but the containers were locked. The crew claimed that they did not have the "access codes" and could not open them. Pirates have stated they were unable to open the hold without causing extensive damage to the ship, and threatened to blow it up The Iranian ship’s captain and the engineer were contactd by cell phone and demanded to disclose the actual nature of the mysterious “powdered cargo” but the captain and his officers were very evasive. Initially they said that the cargo contained "crude oil" but then claimed it contained "minerals." Following this initial rebuff, the pirates broke open one of the containers and discovered it to be filled with packets of what they said was “a powdery fine sandy soil”
The Somali pirates initially set the ship's ransom at $2 million and the Iranian government provided $200,000 to a local broker "to facilitate the exchange." The $2 million dollar ransom agreement, which was supposedly secured on September 6th, never took place for reasons unknown. After September 10th, sanctions on IRISL were applied specifically because the company was said to engaged in illicit operations on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Serious negotiations between the Somali pirates and Iran were broken off completely. Iranian authorities subsequently denied that it agreed to the price nor had paid any money to the pirates. Nevertheless, after sanctions were applied to IRISL on September 10, the Iranians told the pirates that the deal was off. They told the pirates that they could not come from Iran and take possession of the ship “ because of the presence of the U.S. Navy." The region is patrolled by the multinational Combined Taskforce 150, which includes ships from the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet
Subsequently, it was disclosed that the U.S. government had offered to pay $7 million to the pirates to "receive entry permission and search the vessel." Officials in the Pentagon and the Department of State consistently refused to comment on the situation.
Immediately after the ship was taken and the mysterious deaths reported, U.S. Naval uints moved to the scene and prevented any movement of the MV Iran Deyanat. They were later joined by Russian, French and Dutch naval units
On Octrober 10, 2008, Somalian pirates released three Indians and 26 other members of the crew after keeping them in captivity for more than one and half months (Comment: If, as we are now told, the ship is “free” and enroute to Muscat or Iran, who crews her? The entire crew was released by the pirates and returned to their home countries. Ed)
The ship was released by Somali pirates on October 10, 2008, after a $250,000 cash bribe was paid by the U.S. Navy for her release.
The MV Iran Denyant was taken into immediate custody of a joint naval taskforce present, to include Russian and French ships. Crew members had all been interrogated and a number, deemed “uninformed of the ship’s course or cargo” were duly released to their diplomatic representatives. The ship was borded, occupied and thoroughly searched by U..S. .Navy specialists but a subsequent report on the suspicious cargo containers was heavily classified. Russian sources indicate that the ship was carrying a “highly radioactive” cargo in specially built” containers and that this cargo was falsely listed in the ship’s manifest. Also, there were many falsities in the manifest, to include a false listing of the cargo and the destination of it. A subsequent investigation into the alleged German firm to whom the “chemicals and machine parts” or “iron ore” or even “rocks, cement and metals” * were to be delivered proved that there was no such German firm involved. At the request of American authorities, the Russians have refused to release any further information.
The final disposition of the ship is, at this writing (August 13, 2008) not disclosed but she is in the current custody of the U.S. Navy..
***“Our vessel was not traveling from Iran but was going from China to the Netherlands. It was carrying rocks, cement and metals and not chemicals as reported by our foes,” said Mahmud Akhmadi from the Parliamentarian Committee on Security and Foreign Relations of Iran.
The problem with this ship should be fairly obvious. She was carrying a container cargo that to all intents and purposes was at least partially full of highly radioactive material, obtained as waste from Chinese atomic facilities. The new, and rather clever, propaganda story is that it is true the ship was full of this material but actually, the evil Iranians and, one planted story said, the Italian Mafia, planned to dump it illegally in Somali waters. Planted stories, put out by the DoD, state that various unspecified countries had been dumping tons of radioactive waste into the same area for “many years.” Given the terrible effects of such dumpings, it is not possible to believe that it ever happened. Not only would there be an immediately obvious die-off of huge numbers of fish, but the radioactivity in the water, and radioactivity is closely monitored by many countries, would attract world-wide notice.
One supposes that the next bit of creating writing will be that the radioactive material was really destined for Iranian evil purposes but the ship missed the turn into the Persian Gulf and somehow got lost hundreds of miles away. This story would be designed for those who have no access to world maps.
I have on my desk as I write, email print outs of official U.S. "story lines" on this and we know the Al Jazeera story about all the countries that dump "tons of radioactive waste into the ocean, just off Somalia." I would think that this might impress the illiterate foreigners who find out about it but it does not fool me or anyone who works for me.
I wonder what the next bullshit paper will contain? That the ship only contained contaminated Chinese milk? It is rather disappointing that our disinformation organs are not perhaps a little bit better. We ought to giftwrap their paychecks.,”
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A Complete Copy of the Voice of the White House from TBR News April 18, 2004- December 29, 2005
Last updated 19/10/2008