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Introduction – June 19, 2019

Still from a video released by the US Central Command allegedly shows Iranian Revolutionary Guards removing an unexploded limpet mine from tanker. Of course this blurred image proves exactly nothing and could easily have manipulated. Click to enlarge

New colour photos released by the U.S are unlikely to convince many. They purportedly show Iranians removing an unexploded limpet mine from the Kokuka Courageous. But blurred and out of focus they show little beyond a few indistinct figures aboard a small boat.
It’s even less credible than the ‘evidence’ Colin Powell presented at the UN. that purportedly proved the existence of Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Nonetheless, on the basis of these indistinct photos the Trump administration is trying to make the case for military strikes on Iran. Despite the fact that they prove precisely nothing we are expected to believe that the photos justify going to war.
More telling were comments by Yukon Jack in the readers comments section yesterday:
“It looks to me like the Iranian sailor is unattaching a magnetic mooring device…
“If the device was an explosive device the rescue boat would have been on the other side of the tanker the farthest away from the potential blast area and only one trained expert would be in the boat near it.
“Since the rescue boat is much smaller and lower than the tanker (a) magnetic mooring device is how you hold the vessel near the bigger tanker in surging waters while trapped crewmembers are unloaded.”
To make matters worse the media is treating the photos as entirely credible, as the Guardian does below. This makes the media as complicit as they were when they repeated the lies about Saddam’s WMD without question. Ed.

Method of attack on tankers remains key evidence against Iran

Dan Sabbagh – The Guardian June 18, 2019

An image the US says shows the Iranian military removing an unexploded limpet mine from the Kokuka Courageous. Photograph: US navy/Reuters. Click to enlarge

The sophistication of the attacks on two shipping tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week had already led most independent analysts to conclude Iran was responsible for the high-profile explosions.

But there has been scepticism from some key countries, including Germany and Japan, after the US initially released a grainy black and white video it said showed Iranian forces removing an unexploded mine from one of the two targeted ships. Iran has denied involvement.

The fresh set of colour images released by the US Department of Defense overnight add a little more visual clarity to the diplomatic debate, including an image of an armed speedboat with troops in red life-jackets on board, and life-jacketed personnel by the side of the Japanese vessel that was struck last week.

A photo the US says shows an Iranian patrol boat after reportedly removing an ‘unexploded limpet mine’. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images. Click to enlarge

But the principal evidence used to justify Iranian involvement has been the method employed. The two tankers were mined above the waterline – damaging them, but not sinking them – prompting the conclusion the actions were designed to make a point. There were no fatalities in either case, with both crews rescued

Continues …