putin and the pooh are both megalomaniacs, and their comeuppance will be the result of terrible and torturous deaths. russia will descend into chaos upon putin's demise and prc will collapse upon pooh's cancer and heart attack all rolled into one.
-
IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here. The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.
Chitchat Boeing 737 Crashed In Iran! 82 Persians Killed! Ayatollah's Missile Anyhow Shot Down Civilian Plane? LOL!
- Thread starter JohnTan
- Start date
But he wont sell his home in Iran and cut all his links and interests.
I say serve them right.
Putin is too smart and evil. He will be dealt with by a higher power eventually.
Iran is stupid. Their god looks away.
because he’s a skilled carpenter, builder, contractor, he returns to iran to help build and repair others’ homes too. they are losing skilled craftsmen to idiotic islamic policies. young men there don’t pick up the skills as they join sextremist groups or the repubican guards, and young women cannot be trained as craftsmen and carpenters due to strict laws to segregate certain jobs and hobbies between men and women.
Like I said Iranians are stupid to have this happen to their country. I also believe that Muslim nations due to the nature of Islam are more ripe for this type of lunacy.
The Iranian people were the ones who overthrew the Shah and started this regime. In the name of Allah and Islam to boot!
I have a colleague who is Iranian she says her parents regret helping to overthrow the Shah.
Serves them right!
This is why must be careful of changing long standing political powers. If your system is used to change it is ok. But when something has bee around for too long you will see all the bad stuff of course get unhappy. But you must also know that the situation has allowed these despotic dictators to get into power For So Long! Which means that after the old guy is thrown out....guess what it is likely you will get a new despot taking over!
So better to have malevolent dictator than cruel evil dictator.
Sinkies! Hear that or not?
And for those eager to throw out PAP well in the short term you may think it is good but history tells us that change is always chaotic and takes time. Not overnight.
Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission
An Iranian holds a newspaper with a picture of the debris of the Ukrainian plane that crashed in Tehran on Jan 8, 2020, outside a news stand in the Islamic republic's capital. (Photo: AFP/Atta Kenare)
12 Jan 2020 04:57AM
Bookmark
PARIS: When a Boeing passenger jet crashed in Iran early on Jan 8, speculation immediately swirled that the only plausible explanation was that it had been shot down by Iran.
The crash of the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight came hours after Tehran had launched a barrage of missiles at bases housing American troops in Iraq, retaliating for the killing of commander Qasem Soleimani in a US strike.
Immediately, theories multiplied arguing that Tehran's air defence system, on high alert for possible US retaliation, may have been triggered by accident.
Western leaders cited intelligence pointing to an accidental strike by Iran. Verified video images later emerged showing a missile striking a plane.
From Wednesday to Friday, Iranian officials repeatedly insisted that the plane had not been shot down. Early on Saturday however, the Islamic republic admitted that the plane had been hit by a short-range missile in what President Hassan Rouhani described as a "catastrophic mistake".
WHAT HAPPENED ON JAN 8?
The Boeing 737-800NG for UIA's flight PS752 between Tehran and Kiev took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport at 6.12am local time.
Although there was no distress message from the pilot, the plane had begun to turn back for the airport before crashing at 6.18am, said the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization. The aircraft came down near Sabashahr on the outskirts of Tehran.
There were 10 departures from Tehran airport that day before flight PS752, according to the Flight Radar 24 monitoring site. That raised questions as to why air traffic had not been halted given the situation.
All 176 people on board the flight PS752 - mainly Iranians and Canadians, including dual nationals, but also Ukrainians, Afghans, Britons and Swedes - were killed.
HOW DID PRESSURE GROW?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first major leader to publicly state Iran could be to blame. He said Canada had intelligence from multiple sources "including our allies and our own intelligence" that indicated "the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile."
"This may well have been unintentional," Trudeau added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first major leader to publicly state Iran could be to blame for the plane crash. (Photo: AFP/Dave Chan)
His language was echoed by other Western leaders including Dutch Premier Mark Rutte, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
US President Donald Trump said he had "suspicions" as "somebody could have made a mistake", and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then said the United States believed it was "likely" that an Iranian missile downed the airliner.
The New York Times also said it had verified a video appearing to show a missile hitting a plane at night above the Tehran suburb of Parand, west of the airport.
WHAT DID IRAN INITIALLY SAY?
For three days, Iranian officials refused to countenance any suggestion that one of its missiles had brought down the plane.
The country's civil aviation chief Ali Abedzadeh said that one "thing is for certain, this airplane was not hit by a missile", arguing that it would have exploded immediately if hit by a missile.
Experts questioned that claim, arguing that such missiles explode before coming into contact with the target.
WHAT DOES IRAN NOW ADMIT?
In an announcement early on Saturday that took many experts by surprise, Iran admitted it had "unintentionally" shot down the jet after a missile operator mistook the plane for a cruise missile.
Tehran said its systems had been on high alert for American retaliation in the hours after the Iranian strikes on bases housing US troops in Iran.
This handout photograph taken and released on Jan 11, 2019, by The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, shows people analysing the remains of the Ukraine International Airlines plane Boeing 737-800 that crashed outside Tehran. (Photo: AFP/STR)
"He had 10 seconds to decide," the aerospace commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said of the operator, who he insisted had "acted alone".
"He could have decided to strike or not to strike and under such circumstances he took the wrong decision."
Rouhani called it an "unforgivable mistake", vowed that compensation would be paid to the families while those responsible would be prosecuted.
WHAT KIND OF MISSILE WAS USED?
Unverified images posted on social media show the remains of a Russian-made Tor M-1 missile but Tehran has yet to give details on the kind of weaponry used.
Tehran received 29 such air defence systems from Moscow under a $700 million contract signed in 2005, a deal that caused considerable unease in the West.
The Bellingcat open-source analytics website has said the origin of the images is yet to be determined, and the people who captured the images have not come forward.
WHAT DOES UKRAINE WANT NOW?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, initially wary of blaming Tehran, has toughened his line since Tehran's admission.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, pictured on Jan 9, 2020 in a presidential press handout photo placing flowers at a memorial for the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines crash in Tehran, has toughened his stance on Iran. (Photo: AFP/HO)
After Zelensky spoke to Rouhani later Saturday, the Ukrainian presidency said that Zelensky asked Tehran to allow the bodies of the 11 Ukrainian victims to be repatriated "by Jan 19".
He added that Ukrainian diplomats had produced a list of steps to be taken to "resolve the compensation issue".
Despite the three days of denial from Tehran, some have compared its reaction favourably to that from Moscow over the crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Although the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team says a Russian-made BUK missile fired by pro-Russian separatists was to blame, Russia still denies any involvement.
Source: AFP
An Iranian holds a newspaper with a picture of the debris of the Ukrainian plane that crashed in Tehran on Jan 8, 2020, outside a news stand in the Islamic republic's capital. (Photo: AFP/Atta Kenare)
12 Jan 2020 04:57AM
Bookmark
PARIS: When a Boeing passenger jet crashed in Iran early on Jan 8, speculation immediately swirled that the only plausible explanation was that it had been shot down by Iran.
The crash of the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight came hours after Tehran had launched a barrage of missiles at bases housing American troops in Iraq, retaliating for the killing of commander Qasem Soleimani in a US strike.
Immediately, theories multiplied arguing that Tehran's air defence system, on high alert for possible US retaliation, may have been triggered by accident.
Western leaders cited intelligence pointing to an accidental strike by Iran. Verified video images later emerged showing a missile striking a plane.
From Wednesday to Friday, Iranian officials repeatedly insisted that the plane had not been shot down. Early on Saturday however, the Islamic republic admitted that the plane had been hit by a short-range missile in what President Hassan Rouhani described as a "catastrophic mistake".
WHAT HAPPENED ON JAN 8?
The Boeing 737-800NG for UIA's flight PS752 between Tehran and Kiev took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport at 6.12am local time.
Although there was no distress message from the pilot, the plane had begun to turn back for the airport before crashing at 6.18am, said the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization. The aircraft came down near Sabashahr on the outskirts of Tehran.
There were 10 departures from Tehran airport that day before flight PS752, according to the Flight Radar 24 monitoring site. That raised questions as to why air traffic had not been halted given the situation.
All 176 people on board the flight PS752 - mainly Iranians and Canadians, including dual nationals, but also Ukrainians, Afghans, Britons and Swedes - were killed.
HOW DID PRESSURE GROW?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first major leader to publicly state Iran could be to blame. He said Canada had intelligence from multiple sources "including our allies and our own intelligence" that indicated "the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile."
"This may well have been unintentional," Trudeau added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first major leader to publicly state Iran could be to blame for the plane crash. (Photo: AFP/Dave Chan)
His language was echoed by other Western leaders including Dutch Premier Mark Rutte, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
US President Donald Trump said he had "suspicions" as "somebody could have made a mistake", and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then said the United States believed it was "likely" that an Iranian missile downed the airliner.
The New York Times also said it had verified a video appearing to show a missile hitting a plane at night above the Tehran suburb of Parand, west of the airport.
WHAT DID IRAN INITIALLY SAY?
For three days, Iranian officials refused to countenance any suggestion that one of its missiles had brought down the plane.
The country's civil aviation chief Ali Abedzadeh said that one "thing is for certain, this airplane was not hit by a missile", arguing that it would have exploded immediately if hit by a missile.
Experts questioned that claim, arguing that such missiles explode before coming into contact with the target.
WHAT DOES IRAN NOW ADMIT?
In an announcement early on Saturday that took many experts by surprise, Iran admitted it had "unintentionally" shot down the jet after a missile operator mistook the plane for a cruise missile.
Tehran said its systems had been on high alert for American retaliation in the hours after the Iranian strikes on bases housing US troops in Iran.
This handout photograph taken and released on Jan 11, 2019, by The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, shows people analysing the remains of the Ukraine International Airlines plane Boeing 737-800 that crashed outside Tehran. (Photo: AFP/STR)
"He had 10 seconds to decide," the aerospace commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said of the operator, who he insisted had "acted alone".
"He could have decided to strike or not to strike and under such circumstances he took the wrong decision."
Rouhani called it an "unforgivable mistake", vowed that compensation would be paid to the families while those responsible would be prosecuted.
WHAT KIND OF MISSILE WAS USED?
Unverified images posted on social media show the remains of a Russian-made Tor M-1 missile but Tehran has yet to give details on the kind of weaponry used.
Tehran received 29 such air defence systems from Moscow under a $700 million contract signed in 2005, a deal that caused considerable unease in the West.
The Bellingcat open-source analytics website has said the origin of the images is yet to be determined, and the people who captured the images have not come forward.
WHAT DOES UKRAINE WANT NOW?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, initially wary of blaming Tehran, has toughened his line since Tehran's admission.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, pictured on Jan 9, 2020 in a presidential press handout photo placing flowers at a memorial for the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines crash in Tehran, has toughened his stance on Iran. (Photo: AFP/HO)
After Zelensky spoke to Rouhani later Saturday, the Ukrainian presidency said that Zelensky asked Tehran to allow the bodies of the 11 Ukrainian victims to be repatriated "by Jan 19".
He added that Ukrainian diplomats had produced a list of steps to be taken to "resolve the compensation issue".
Despite the three days of denial from Tehran, some have compared its reaction favourably to that from Moscow over the crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Although the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team says a Russian-made BUK missile fired by pro-Russian separatists was to blame, Russia still denies any involvement.
Source: AFP
Iran commander says requests to shut down country's airspace denied ahead of Ukraine plane crash
Updated 11 minutes ago
VIDEO 0:29 A statement read on Iranian state TV said responsible parties would be held accountable for the crash. ABC NEWS
An Iranian commander says repeated requests to close the country's airspace were denied before a civilian passenger plane was "unintentionally" shot down outside Tehran.
After initially denying responsibility, Iran has admitted to downing a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 bound for Kiev amid US hostilities in the region on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers on board.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps airspace unit, said in a press conference his unit accepted "full responsibility" for the incident.
In an address broadcast by state TV, he said that when he learned about the downing of the plane: "I wished I was dead."
PHOTO All 176 passengers on board the Ukrainian plane died in the incident. AP: EBRAHIM NOROOZI
"We are sorry about this incident and we consider ourselves mournful just like families of these martyrs and sympathise with them," he said.
"It is as such that we have lost our own loved ones and we are regretful about it."
He said the airline's pilot and crew had done nothing wrong, and instead an Iranian officer made the "bad decision" to open fire on the plane after mistaking it for a cruise missile.
But General Hajizadeh blamed the US for the tragedy.
"After all, this is the price of mischiefs, turbulences and actions of America in the region," he said.
"That night … the probability of fighter jets and cruise missiles entering the country was very high and [we] had prepared ourselves for an all-out conflict."
Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader has offered condolences and called for an investigation after his country's armed forces acknowledged that they accidentally shot down the plane.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who until Saturday kept silent about the crash — has since said the information should be made public and called on the armed forces to "pursue probable shortcomings and guilt in the painful incident".
PHOTO The plane crashed on shortly after take-off from Tehran's main airport. AP: MOHAMMAD NASIRI'Iran must take full responsibility'
Even as top Iranian officials and the military issued apologies, protests against authorities spread across Iran including in the capital Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan, Hamedan and Orumiyeh.
Foreign governments condemned Iran's actions, with Ukraine demanding compensation.
Canada, Ukraine and Britain, however, called Tehran's admission an important first step.
"I spoke with President [Hassan] Rouhani of Iran. I told him that Iran's admission that its own armed forces unintentionally shot down flight 752 is an important step towards providing answers for families but I noted that many more steps must be taken," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa.
"What Iran has admitted to is very serious. Shooting down a civilian aircraft is horrific. Iran must take full responsibility.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the country expects a full investigation, a full admission of guilt and compensation.
"Iran has pleaded guilty to crashing the Ukrainian plane. But we insist on a full admission of guilt," Mr Zelenskiy said.
"We expect from Iran assurances of their readiness for a full and open investigation, bringing those responsible to justice, the return of the bodies of the dead, the payment of compensation, official apologies through diplomatic channels.
"Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations."
President Rouhani tweeted the country "deeply regrets this disastrous mistake," promising that those behind the incident would be prosecuted.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:19
Footage appears to show a mid-air explosion close to the flight's last transponder position.
ABC News
Earlier on Saturday (AEDT), Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that "human error" was to blame for the incident, after initially denying Iran brought down the aircraft in the tense aftermath of missile strikes on US targets in Iraq.
A statement read on state television said the airliner had flown close to a sensitive military site and parties responsible for shooting down the jet would be held accountable.
The statement said the plane was mistaken for a "hostile target" after it turned toward a "sensitive military centre" of the Revolutionary Guard.
The military was at its "highest level of readiness" it said, amid the heightened tensions with the US.
"In such a condition, because of human error and in a unintentional way, the flight was hit," the statement said.
It apologised for the disaster and said it would upgrade its systems to prevent such "mistakes" in the future.
Iran had denied for several days that a missile downed the aircraft.
PHOTO Memorials for those killed in the plane crash have been held across Canada. AP: ROB GURDEBEKE/THE CANADIAN PRESS
But then the US and Canada, citing intelligence, said they believed Iran shot down the aircraft.
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, at least 57 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials.
The Canadian Government earlier lowered the nation's death toll from 63.
"This is the right step for the Iranian Government to admit responsibility, and it gives people a step toward closure with this admission," said Payman Parseyan, a prominent Iranian-Canadian in western Canada who lost a number of friends in the crash.
"I think the investigation would have disclosed it whether they admitted it or not. This will give them an opportunity to save face."
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:41
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wanted the crash "thoroughly investigated".
ABC News
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne offered her condolences to the victims and their families and said Iran's "acknowledgement and apology to all those affected was welcome".
Moving forward, she said it would be important that "a full and transparent investigation is undertaken, involving all nations who lost citizens in the tragedy".
"It is essential that all questions about how this tragedy happened are answered fully and that confidence is rebuilt in the safety of the international civilian air traffic network," she added.
Television reports on Friday indicated that debris had been cleared from the crash site, leaving the area to scavengers to pick over.
If the wreckage was indeed moved, some clues might have been lost unless the Iranians took careful steps to preserve evidence.
"Normally you would very carefully to map out a debris field," said Steve Wallace, former head of the accident-investigations office of the Federal Aviation Administration.
"If a missile struck the airplane, you would expect to find some pieces of it and residue of the explosive."
AP/Reuters
Updated 11 minutes ago
An Iranian commander says repeated requests to close the country's airspace were denied before a civilian passenger plane was "unintentionally" shot down outside Tehran.
After initially denying responsibility, Iran has admitted to downing a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 bound for Kiev amid US hostilities in the region on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers on board.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps airspace unit, said in a press conference his unit accepted "full responsibility" for the incident.
"Requests were made but due to some considerations it was not done and at the same time with the flights, the war situation continued to exist."
In an address broadcast by state TV, he said that when he learned about the downing of the plane: "I wished I was dead."
"We are sorry about this incident and we consider ourselves mournful just like families of these martyrs and sympathise with them," he said.
"It is as such that we have lost our own loved ones and we are regretful about it."
He said the airline's pilot and crew had done nothing wrong, and instead an Iranian officer made the "bad decision" to open fire on the plane after mistaking it for a cruise missile.
But General Hajizadeh blamed the US for the tragedy.
"After all, this is the price of mischiefs, turbulences and actions of America in the region," he said.
"That night … the probability of fighter jets and cruise missiles entering the country was very high and [we] had prepared ourselves for an all-out conflict."
Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader has offered condolences and called for an investigation after his country's armed forces acknowledged that they accidentally shot down the plane.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who until Saturday kept silent about the crash — has since said the information should be made public and called on the armed forces to "pursue probable shortcomings and guilt in the painful incident".
Even as top Iranian officials and the military issued apologies, protests against authorities spread across Iran including in the capital Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan, Hamedan and Orumiyeh.
Foreign governments condemned Iran's actions, with Ukraine demanding compensation.
Canada, Ukraine and Britain, however, called Tehran's admission an important first step.
"I spoke with President [Hassan] Rouhani of Iran. I told him that Iran's admission that its own armed forces unintentionally shot down flight 752 is an important step towards providing answers for families but I noted that many more steps must be taken," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa.
"What Iran has admitted to is very serious. Shooting down a civilian aircraft is horrific. Iran must take full responsibility.
Mr Trudeau said Mr Rouhani committed to collaborating with Canadian investigators, working to de-escalate tensions in the region and continuing a dialogue.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the country expects a full investigation, a full admission of guilt and compensation.
"Iran has pleaded guilty to crashing the Ukrainian plane. But we insist on a full admission of guilt," Mr Zelenskiy said.
"We expect from Iran assurances of their readiness for a full and open investigation, bringing those responsible to justice, the return of the bodies of the dead, the payment of compensation, official apologies through diplomatic channels.
"Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations."
President Rouhani tweeted the country "deeply regrets this disastrous mistake," promising that those behind the incident would be prosecuted.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:19
Footage appears to show a mid-air explosion close to the flight's last transponder position.
ABC News
Earlier on Saturday (AEDT), Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that "human error" was to blame for the incident, after initially denying Iran brought down the aircraft in the tense aftermath of missile strikes on US targets in Iraq.
A statement read on state television said the airliner had flown close to a sensitive military site and parties responsible for shooting down the jet would be held accountable.
The statement said the plane was mistaken for a "hostile target" after it turned toward a "sensitive military centre" of the Revolutionary Guard.
The military was at its "highest level of readiness" it said, amid the heightened tensions with the US.
"In such a condition, because of human error and in a unintentional way, the flight was hit," the statement said.
It apologised for the disaster and said it would upgrade its systems to prevent such "mistakes" in the future.
Iran had denied for several days that a missile downed the aircraft.
But then the US and Canada, citing intelligence, said they believed Iran shot down the aircraft.
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, at least 57 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials.
The Canadian Government earlier lowered the nation's death toll from 63.
"This is the right step for the Iranian Government to admit responsibility, and it gives people a step toward closure with this admission," said Payman Parseyan, a prominent Iranian-Canadian in western Canada who lost a number of friends in the crash.
"I think the investigation would have disclosed it whether they admitted it or not. This will give them an opportunity to save face."
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:41
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wanted the crash "thoroughly investigated".
ABC News
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne offered her condolences to the victims and their families and said Iran's "acknowledgement and apology to all those affected was welcome".
Moving forward, she said it would be important that "a full and transparent investigation is undertaken, involving all nations who lost citizens in the tragedy".
"It is essential that all questions about how this tragedy happened are answered fully and that confidence is rebuilt in the safety of the international civilian air traffic network," she added.
Television reports on Friday indicated that debris had been cleared from the crash site, leaving the area to scavengers to pick over.
If the wreckage was indeed moved, some clues might have been lost unless the Iranians took careful steps to preserve evidence.
"Normally you would very carefully to map out a debris field," said Steve Wallace, former head of the accident-investigations office of the Federal Aviation Administration.
"If a missile struck the airplane, you would expect to find some pieces of it and residue of the explosive."
AP/Reuters
Iranian ayatollah blaming the fiasco on lone operator instead of his generals. The PAP government would have taken full accountability and not push the blame to sole operator when the blame lay clearly with the commanders.
TEHRAN: The Iranian missile operator who shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet was acting alone when he opened fire because of a communications breakdown, a Revolutionary Guards commander said on Saturday (Jan 11).
The operator had mistaken the Boeing 737 for a "cruise missile" and only had 10 seconds to decide whether to fire, said Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, the Guards' aerospace commander.
"At various stages, it was reported... that cruise missiles had been fired towards the country," Hajizadeh said in remarks broadcast on state television.
The Ukraine International Airlines plane was brought down in Tehran hours after Iran launched a volley of missiles at US troops stationed at Iraqi bases on Wednesday.
All 176 people on board died.
"Given the information provided to the operator that it was a war situation and cruise missiles had been fired, this person identified this as a (missile)," Hajizadeh said.
"He was obliged to make contact and get verification. But apparently, his communications system had some disruptions.
"Either the 'jamming' system was the cause or the network was busy or whatever, he couldn't get in touch," said the Iranian general.
"He had 10 seconds to decide.
"Unfortunately under these circumstances, he made this bad decision, the missile was fired and the plane was hit and then... it turned and the spot that it crashed at was here," he said, pointing to a map.
The admission came after the Iran Civil Aviation Organisation rebuffed Western claims the plane had been shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran on Wednesday.
Source: AFP/hs
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...or-who-downed-jet-acted-alone-guards-12255012
TEHRAN: The Iranian missile operator who shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet was acting alone when he opened fire because of a communications breakdown, a Revolutionary Guards commander said on Saturday (Jan 11).
The operator had mistaken the Boeing 737 for a "cruise missile" and only had 10 seconds to decide whether to fire, said Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, the Guards' aerospace commander.
"At various stages, it was reported... that cruise missiles had been fired towards the country," Hajizadeh said in remarks broadcast on state television.
The Ukraine International Airlines plane was brought down in Tehran hours after Iran launched a volley of missiles at US troops stationed at Iraqi bases on Wednesday.
All 176 people on board died.
"Given the information provided to the operator that it was a war situation and cruise missiles had been fired, this person identified this as a (missile)," Hajizadeh said.
"He was obliged to make contact and get verification. But apparently, his communications system had some disruptions.
"Either the 'jamming' system was the cause or the network was busy or whatever, he couldn't get in touch," said the Iranian general.
"He had 10 seconds to decide.
"Unfortunately under these circumstances, he made this bad decision, the missile was fired and the plane was hit and then... it turned and the spot that it crashed at was here," he said, pointing to a map.
The admission came after the Iran Civil Aviation Organisation rebuffed Western claims the plane had been shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran on Wednesday.
Source: AFP/hs
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...or-who-downed-jet-acted-alone-guards-12255012
Iranian ayatollah blaming the fiasco on lone operator instead of his generals. The PAP government would have taken full accountability and not push the blame to sole operator when the blame lay clearly with the commanders.
TEHRAN: The Iranian missile operator who shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet was acting alone when he opened fire because of a communications breakdown, a Revolutionary Guards commander said on Saturday (Jan 11).
The operator had mistaken the Boeing 737 for a "cruise missile" and only had 10 seconds to decide whether to fire, said Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, the Guards' aerospace commander.
"At various stages, it was reported... that cruise missiles had been fired towards the country," Hajizadeh said in remarks broadcast on state television.
The Ukraine International Airlines plane was brought down in Tehran hours after Iran launched a volley of missiles at US troops stationed at Iraqi bases on Wednesday.
All 176 people on board died.
"Given the information provided to the operator that it was a war situation and cruise missiles had been fired, this person identified this as a (missile)," Hajizadeh said.
"He was obliged to make contact and get verification. But apparently, his communications system had some disruptions.
"Either the 'jamming' system was the cause or the network was busy or whatever, he couldn't get in touch," said the Iranian general.
"He had 10 seconds to decide.
"Unfortunately under these circumstances, he made this bad decision, the missile was fired and the plane was hit and then... it turned and the spot that it crashed at was here," he said, pointing to a map.
The admission came after the Iran Civil Aviation Organisation rebuffed Western claims the plane had been shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran on Wednesday.
Source: AFP/hs
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...or-who-downed-jet-acted-alone-guards-12255012
U sure?
MP Murali Pillai apologises for faulty fire hoses after Bukit Batok blaze
Firemen responding to a fire at Block 210A Bukit Batok Street 21 on Nov 1 found they could not use the fire hoses as the cabinets were padlocked.
Firemen responding to a fire at Block 210A Bukit Batok Street 21 on Nov 1 found they could not use the fire hoses as the cabinets were padlocked.PHOTOS: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS INTERVIEWEE
Published
Nov 15, 2019, 6:06 pm SGT
SINGAPORE - Bukit Batok MP Murali Pillai apologised on Friday (Nov 15) over two faulty fire hoses that could not be used by firemen during a serious fire on Nov 1, telling residents that he was accountable to them as their elected representative.
In his first public comments on the matter since the day of the blaze, he said: "I am clear in my mind that, as your elected representative, I am accountable to you for both issues. These incidents should not have happened and, for that, I must apologise."
He also disclosed that a contractor responsible for ensuring that there is water supply to the hoses at Block 210A, Bukit Batok Street 21 was being investigated.
Two officers from the Jurong-Clementi Town Council, which Bukit Batok single-member constituency comes under, would also be disciplined for padlocking the cabinets that housed the hoses, he added in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
The issue had come to light when firemen responding to a fire on the 13th floor of the block on Nov 1 found that they could not use the hoses.
First, the cabinets were padlocked. And after one of the padlocks was broken, the officers found that there was no water supply to the hose.
Mr Murali said he was at the scene that day and had learnt about the issues from the firemen.
"I was naturally concerned about both matters and immediately responded that the SCDF officers would have to investigate these issues," he added.
After its investigations, the SCDF announced on Nov 8 that it had issued warnings to the town council over the faulty and locked hoses.
"I must stress that SCDF took notice of the matter on the day of the fire incident itself; not later, owing to anyone else drawing attention to this matter," said Mr Murali in an apparent reference to a claim by Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan that the SCDF's follow-up with the town council came after he made a report.
Dr Chee, who had contested in Bukit Batok against Mr Murali in the 2016 by-election, had called on the MP to account for the matter after hearing from residents about the faulty hose reels.
Following the incident, the Jurong-Clementi Town Council had said, in response to media queries, that its appointed contractor had checked and certified that the hoses were in working condition just two weeks before the fire.
The town council also explained that the cabinets were locked to prevent vandalism and misuse of the hoses.
In his statement, Mr Murali explained that JKeart, the contractor responsible for maintaining the fire hoses, had insisted that there was water supply to the hoses on the day of the fire and had also provided a video to the town council as proof.
This video was shown to the SCDF earlier this week.
But after consulting the SCDF, the town council had accepted the SCDF's position on the matter and is now investigating JKeart's assertions, said Mr Murali.
Meanwhile, the town council has also identified the two people who were responsible for the cabinets being locked.
Mr Murali said the two town council officers had directed that small padlocks be used so that they can be dislodged using force.
"This was a mistake on their part. They have admitted to their mistakes. The town council management will pursue disciplinary action against them," he added.
Dr Chee, in response to Mr Murali's statement, said in a Facebook post: "I commend Mr Murali for addressing the matter of the fire incident at Blk 210A at (Bukit Batok) and the points that I raised in my previous posts. I am gratified to note that the town council is investigating the inconsistencies and dubious practices, and that it will take action where needed."
He also took credit for eliciting responses from Mr Murali and the town council, saying that he had taken the time to do his homework to establish the facts and also persistently questioned the People's Action Party MP and the town council.
He cited the matter as a prime example of how an effective and responsible opposition should work to put pressure on those in positions of authority.
"I have been careful not to let the matter degenerate into a personal attack against Mr Murali (like calling him to perform hara-kiri a la a certain Mr Khaw) but, at the same time, it was important to hold his feet to the fire because of the gravity of the situation," he added referring to Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan.
The fire on Nov 1 had started in a one-room flat on the 13th floor of the block.
The family living there - an elderly couple and their son - had been rescued and hospitalised for burn injuries and smoke inhalation.
Mr Murali said he has visited them in hospital along with community volunteers.
Referring to one of the victims as Madam Goh, he said he knew her personally and she "still figures in my prayers every day".
He added that she was still in the intensive care unit (ICU), while her son was transferred to the high-dependency ward after a few days in the ICU and her husband has been discharged.
He also said that on the day of the fire, after the three victims were sent to hospital, he and his volunteers had channelled their energies to helping the affected families living on the 14th and 15th floors of the block.
"They were not able to use their toilets, draw water, etc because the service pipes were damaged by the fire on the 13th floor. Through the coordination of our community volunteers, HDB and town council, we managed to restore services in record time. We distributed emergency relief packages for affected families," he said.
"I also met and thanked several residents who helped with the evacuation during the (fire)."
Introductory Offer at $0.99/month
Unlock all Premium articles and discover exclusive stories, in-depth analysis, award-winning multimedia content and more. Cancel anytime.
Serves the Iranians right.when the yanks shot down an Iranian air liner despite heaps of warnings the Iranians kpkb till no end. Now they get their just desserts for they shot an airline down without warning. So who the aggressors here?
Iran Air Flight 655 - Wikipedia
Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The aircraft, an Airbus A300, was destroyed and all 290 people on board were killed.[1] The jet was hit while flying over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, along the flight's usual route, shortly after departing Bandar Abbas International Airport, the flight's stopover location. The incident occurred during the final stages of the Iran–Iraq War, which had been ongoing for nearly eight years. Vincennes had entered Iranian territory after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Iran Air Flight 655
The reason for the shootdown has been disputed between the governments of the two countries. According to the United States government, the crew of USS Vincennes had incorrectly identified the Airbus as an attacking F-14 Tomcat, a U.S.-made jet fighter that had been part of the Iranian Air Force inventory since the 1970s. While the F-14s had been supplied to Iran in an air-to-air configuration,[8][9] the crew of the guided missile cruiser had been briefed that the Iranian F-14s were equipped with air-to-ground ordnance.[10] Vincennes had made ten attempts to contact the aircraft on both military and civilian radio frequencies, but had received no response.[11] According to the Iranian government, the cruiser negligently shot down the aircraft, which was transmitting IFF squawks in Mode III, a signal that identified it as a civilian aircraft, and not Mode II as used by Iranian military aircraft.[12][13] The event generated a great deal of criticism of the United States. Some analysts blamed the captain of Vincennes, William C. Rogers III, for overly aggressive behavior in a tense and dangerous environment.[11][14] In the days immediately following the incident, US President Ronald Reagan issued a written diplomatic note to the Iranian government, expressing deep regret.[15] However, the United States continued to insist that the Vincennes was acting in self-defense in international waters.
In 1996, the governments of the United States and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice which included the statement "...the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident..."[16] As part of the settlement, even though the U.S. government did not admit legal liability or formally apologize to Iran, it still agreed to pay US$61.8 million on an ex gratia basis in compensation to the families of the Iranian victims.[17] The shootdown was the deadliest aviation disaster involving an Airbus A300.[18][19][20]
Background
USS Vincennes had been deployed to the Persian Gulf at short notice to compensate for the lack of AWACS cover
In 1984, the war between Iraq and Iran had expanded to include air attacks against oil tankers and merchant shipping of neighboring countries, some of whom were providing aid to Iraq by shipping Iraqi oil. The Flight 655 incident occurred a year after the Iraqi Air Force attack on the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark on 17 May 1987, which killed 37 American sailors. U.S. naval forces had also exchanged gunfire with Iranian gunboats in late 1987, and the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts had struck an Iranian sea mine in April 1988. Two months before the incident, the U.S. had engaged in Operation Praying Mantis, resulting in the sinking of the Iranian frigate Sahand. Tensions were therefore high in the Strait of Hormuz at the time of the incident with Flight 655.
In response to the pattern of attacks on shipping, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a NOTAM on 8 September 1987 warning all Persian Gulf countries that civilian aircraft must monitor the 121.5 MHz VHF International Air Distress or the 243.0 MHz UHF Military Air Distress frequencies and be prepared to identify themselves to U.S. Navy ships and state their intentions.[21]
On 29 April 1988, the U.S. expanded the scope of its navy's protection to all friendly neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf outside declared exclusion zones, which set the stage for the shootdown.[2] At about the same time, Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Vincennes was rushed to the area on a short-notice deployment, as a result of high-level decisions, to compensate for the lack of AWACS coverage, which was hampering U.S. monitoring of the southern Persian Gulf. Vincennes, fitted with the then-new Aegis Combat System and under the command of Captain William C. Rogers III,[2] departed San Diego on 25 April 1988 and arrived in Bahrain on 29 May 1988.
As the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest is 21 nautical miles (39 km) wide,[22] in order to traverse the strait, ships must stay within sea lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of customary Law of the Sea.[23] It is therefore normal for ships, including warships, entering or leaving the Persian Gulf to transit Iranian territorial waters. During the Iran–Iraq War the Iranian forces frequently boarded and inspected neutral cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz in search of contraband destined for Iraq. While legal under international law, these inspections added to the tensions in the area.[2]
Shootdown of Flight 655
Locater map depicting Iran Air 655's origination point, destination and approximate shootdown location. (Air corridor not necessarily a direct path.)
The plane, an Airbus A300 (registered as EP-IBU), flown by 37-year-old Captain Mohsen Rezaian, a veteran pilot with 7,000 hours of flight time, left Bandar Abbas at 10:17 Iran time (UTC+03:30), 27 minutes after its scheduled departure time. It should have been a 28-minute flight. After takeoff, it was directed by the Bandar Abbas tower to turn on its transponder and proceed over the Persian Gulf. The flight was assigned routinely to commercial air corridor Amber 59, a 20-mile (32 km)-wide lane on a direct line to Dubai airport. The short distance made for a simple flight pattern: climb to 14,000 feet (4,300 m), cruise, and descend into Dubai. The airliner was transmitting the correct transponder "squawk" code typical of a civilian aircraft and maintained radio contact in English with appropriate air traffic control facilities.
Aegis screen displays in the combat information center on board Vincennes
On the morning of 3 July 1988, USS Vincennes was passing through the Strait of Hormuz returning from an escort duty.[2] A helicopter deployed from the cruiser reportedly received small arms fire from Iranian patrol vessels as it observed from high altitude. Vincennes moved to engage the Iranian vessels, in the course of which they all violated Omani waters and left after being challenged and ordered to leave by a Royal Navy of Oman warship.[24] Vincennes then pursued the Iranian gunboats, entering Iranian territorial waters to open fire. Two other US Navy ships, USS Sides and USS Elmer Montgomery, were nearby. Thus, Vincennes was in Iranian territorial waters at the time of the incident, as admitted by the U.S. government in legal briefs and publicly by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crowe, on Nightline.[25][26] Admiral Crowe denied a U.S. government coverup of the incident and claimed that the cruiser's helicopter was over international waters initially, when the gunboats first fired upon it.[25][27]
Contrary to the accounts of various Vincennes crew members, the cruiser's Aegis Combat System recorded that the airliner was climbing at the time and its radio transmitter was squawking on only the Mode III civilian frequency, and not on the military Mode II.[28]
Flight 655 was first detected by the Vincennes immediately after takeoff when it received a short IFF Mode II, possibly leading the crew of the Vincennes to believe that the airliner was an Iranian F-14 Tomcat (capable of carrying unguided bombs since 1985[29]) diving into an attack profile. Since the USS Stark incident, all aircraft in the area had to monitor 121.5 Mhz, the International Air Distress (IAD) radio frequency. A total of 10 attempts were made to warn the airliner, seven on the Military Air Distress (MAD) frequency, and three on the IAD frequency. There were no responses.[18]
At 10:24:22, after receiving no response to multiple radio challenges, Vincennes fired two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles, one of which hit the airliner at 10:24:43.[30] The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the water soon after. None of the 290 passengers and crew on board survived.[30] The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were never found.[31]
Nationalities of the victims
According to the documents that Iran submitted to the International Court of Justice, the aircraft was carrying 290 people: 274 passengers and a crew of 16. Of these 290, 254 were Iranian, 13 were Emiratis, 10 were Indians, six were Pakistanis, six were Yugoslavs and one was an Italian.[32]
U.S. government accounts
A missile departs the forward launcher of Vincennes during a 1987 exercise. The same launcher was used in Flight 655's downing.
In the first hours after the shootdown the Pentagon denied the accusations from Iran that the US Navy had shot down the plane.[33] According to the U.S. government, USS Vincennes mistakenly identified the airliner as an attacking military fighter and misidentified its flight profile as being similar to that of an F-14A Tomcat during an attack run; however, the cruiser's Aegis Combat System recorded the plane's flight plan as climbing (not descending as in an attack run) at the time of the incident.[28] The flight had originated at Bandar Abbas, which served as both a base for Iranian F-14 operations and as a hub for commercial civilian flights.[14] According to the same reports, Vincennes unsuccessfully tried to contact the approaching aircraft, seven times on the military emergency frequency and three times on the civilian emergency frequency. This civilian aircraft was not equipped to pick up military frequencies and the messages on the civilian emergency channel could have been directed at any aircraft. More confusion arose as the hailed speed was the ground speed, while the pilot's instruments displayed airspeed, a 50-knot (93 km/h) difference.[34]
This was finalized in a report by Admiral William Fogarty, entitled Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on 3 July 1988 (the "Fogarty report").[10] Only parts of this report have been released (part I in 1988 and part II in 1993). The Fogarty report stated, "The data from USS Vincennes tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from take-off at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down".
The Fogarty report also stated, "Iran must share the responsibility for the tragedy by hazarding one of their civilian airliners by allowing it to fly a relatively low altitude air route in close proximity to hostilities that had been ongoing".[10]
When questioned in a 2000 BBC documentary, the U.S. government stated in a written answer that they believed the incident may have been caused by a simultaneous psychological condition amongst the eighteen bridge crew of Vincennes, called "scenario fulfillment", which is said to occur when persons are under pressure. In such a situation, the men will carry out a training scenario, believing it to be reality while ignoring sensory information that contradicts the scenario. In the case of this incident, the scenario was an attack by a lone military aircraft.[35]
Iranian government account
According to the Iranian government, the shootdown was an intentionally performed and unlawful act. Even if there was a mistaken identification, which Iran never accepted, it argues that this constituted negligence and recklessness amounting to an international crime, not an accident.[36](§4.52–4.54)
In particular, Iran expressed skepticism about claims of misidentification, noting that the cruiser's advanced Aegis radar correctly tracked the flight and its Mode III beacon; two other U.S. warships in the area, Sides and Montgomery, also identified the aircraft as civilian; and the flight was well within a recognized international air corridor. It also noted that the crew of Vincennes were trained to handle simultaneous attacks by hundreds of enemy aircraft.[36](§4.50) Iran found it more plausible that Vincennes "hankered for an opportunity to show its stuff".[36](§4.52)
According to Iran, the U.S. had previously issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) warning aircraft that they were at risk of "defensive measures" if they had not been cleared from a regional airport and if they came within 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) of a warship at an altitude of less than 2,000 feet (610 m). Flight 655 had been cleared from a regional airport and was well outside those limits when it was attacked.[36](§4.62) Even if the plane had truly been an Iranian F-14, Iran argued that the U.S. would not have had the right to shoot it down, as it was flying within Iranian airspace and did not follow a path that could be considered an attack profile, nor did it illuminate Vincennes with radar.[36](§4.60–4.61) Prior to the incident, Vincennes had entered Iranian territorial waters,[36](§4.65) and was inside these waters when it launched its missiles.[36](§1.27) Even had the crew of Flight 655 made mistakes, the U.S. government would still remain responsible for the actions of Vincennes' crew, under international law.[36](§4.56)
Iran pointed out that in the past "the United States has steadfastly condemned the shooting down of aircraft, whether civil or military, by the armed forces of another State" and cited El Al Flight 402, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 and Korean Air Lines Flight 007, among other incidents.[36](§4.66–4.70) Iran also noted that when Iraq attacked USS Stark, United States found Iraq fully responsible on the grounds that the Iraqi pilot "knew or should have known" that he was attacking a U.S. warship.[36](§4.49)
Independent sources
In 1989, prior to the public exposure of the Vincennes' position inside Iranian waters on Nightline by Adm. William Crowe, Professor Andreas Lowenfeld, of the Editing Board of the American Journal of International Law, criticized the official U.S. position which claimed that the U.S. was not legally liable for the incident,[37] and wrote:[38]
The captain of USS Vincennes, William C. Rogers III
In an article published in Newsweek magazine on 13 July 1992, John Barry and Roger Charles argued that Rogers behaved recklessly and without due care.[25] However, the subsequent Fogarty report concluded that Rogers acted in a prudent manner based on the information available to him, and the short time frame involved. He also proceeded according to the prescribed rules of engagement for USN warship captains in that situation.[full citation needed]
They also accused the U.S. government of a cover-up, but Admiral Crowe denied any knowledge.[40] An analysis of the events by the International Strategic Studies Association described the deployment of an Aegis cruiser in the zone as irresponsible and felt that the value placed on Aegis cruisers by the U.S. Navy had played a major part in the setting of a low threshold for opening fire.[41] Vincennes had been nicknamed "RoboCruiser" by crew members and other U.S. Navy ships, both in reference to its Aegis system, and to the supposed aggressive tendencies of its captain.[11][42]
The International Court of Justice case relating to the attack, "the Aerial Incident of July 3, 1988, (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America)", was dropped on 22 February 1996 following settlement and reparations by the United States.[43]
Three years after the incident, Admiral Crowe admitted on American television show Nightline that Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles.[26] This contradicted earlier navy statements. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) report of December 1988 placed USS Vincennes well inside Iran's territorial waters.[44]
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci, and CJCS Admiral William Crowe brief media representatives at the Pentagon about the shootdown on 19 August 1988.
Commander David Carlson, commanding officer of USS Sides, the warship stationed nearest to Vincennes at the time of the incident, is reported to have said that the destruction of the aircraft "marked the horrifying climax to Captain Rogers's aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago".[45] His comment referred to incidents on 2 June, when Rogers had sailed Vincennes too close to an Iranian frigate undertaking a lawful search of a bulk carrier, launched a helicopter within 2–3 miles (3.2–4.8 km) of a small Iranian craft despite rules of engagement requiring a four-mile (6.4 km) separation, and opened fire on small Iranian military boats. Of those incidents, Carlson commented, "Why do you want an Aegis cruiser out there shooting up boats? It wasn't a smart thing to do." He also said that Iranian forces he had encountered in the area a month prior to the incident were "pointedly non-threatening" and professional.[46] At the time of Rogers's announcement to higher command that he was going to shoot down the plane, Carlson is reported to have been thunderstruck: "I said to folks around me, 'Why, what the hell is he doing?' I went through the drill again. F-14. He's climbing. By now this damn thing is at 7,000 feet." Carlson thought Vincennes might have more information, and was unaware that Rogers had been wrongly informed that the plane was diving.[45] Carlson is also reported to have written in the U.S. Naval Proceedings that he had "wondered aloud in disbelief" on hearing of Vincennes' intentions. In speculating on the "climate" that led up to the incident, Carlson stated that Vincennes, shortly beforehand dubbed by officers aboard the Sides as "RoboCruiser" for its aggressiveness, engaged in a pattern of aggressive behavior over the prior month because the crew of the Vincennes "felt a need to prove the viability of Aegis in the Persian Gulf, and that they hankered for the opportunity to show their stuff."[47] Carlson believed that this aggressiveness also contributed to the decision to chase after IRGC gunboats that had earlier fired in the vicinity of the ship's Seahawk helicopter, and that the subsequent engagement with small Iranian gunboats heightened tensions aboard Vincennes and contributed to the incident that occurred as the gunboat engagement was ongoing.
A slide presentation given by graduate students on M.I.T.'s Aeronautics & Astronautics course in Spring 2004, titled "USS Vincennes Incident",[48] included a comment that Captain Rogers had "an undeniable and unequivocal tendency towards what I call 'picking a fight.'" On his own initiative, Rogers moved Vincennes 50 miles (80 km) northeast to join USS Montgomery. An angry Captain Richard McKenna, Chief of Surface Warfare for the Commander of the Joint Task Force, ordered Rogers back to Abu Musa, but a Vincennes helicopter pilot, Lt. Mark Collier, followed the Iranian speedboats as they retreated north, eventually taking some fire:
Throughout its final flight, Flight 655 was in radio contact with various air traffic control services using standard civil aviation frequencies, and had spoken in English to Bandar Abbas Approach Control seconds before Vincennes launched its missiles. According to the U.S. Navy investigation, Vincennes at that time had no equipment suitable for monitoring civil aviation frequencies, other than the International Air Distress frequency. Subsequently U.S. Navy warships in the area were equipped with dialable VHF radios, and access to flight plan information was sought, to better track commercial airliners.
The official ICAO report stated that 10 attempts were made to contact Iran Air flight 655: seven on military frequencies and three on commercial frequencies, addressed to an "unidentified Iranian aircraft" and giving its speed as 350 knots (650 km/h), which was the ground speed of the aircraft their radar reported.[11] Flight 655's crew, however, would have seen a speed of 300 knots (560 km/h) on their cockpit instruments, which was their indicated airspeed, possibly leading them to conclude that Vincennes was talking to another aircraft.[citation needed] Both Sides and Vincennes tried contacting flight 655 on several civilian and military frequencies. International investigations concluded that the Flight 655's crew assumed that the three calls that they received before the missiles struck must have been directed at an Iranian P-3 Orion (see below). The International Civil Aviation Organization said that the flight crew should have been monitoring the civilian frequency.[49] They also said that "American warships in the gulf had no equipment that allowed them to monitor civilian air traffic control radio frequencies, and thus no means of hearing the many radio transmissions between Iran Air Flight 655 and air traffic controllers that would have identified the aircraft to the Vincennes's crew."[50]
Potential factors
Newsweek covers for 12 September 1983 (left) and 18 July 1988 (right), illustrating the KAL007 and Iran Air incidents respectively. The caption "Murder in the Air" framed the KAL incident as a deliberate act of war, whereas "Why It Happened" framed the Iran Air incident as a tragic mistake.[56]
Robert Entman of George Washington University studied coverage surrounding the incident in U.S. media, comparing it to the similar incident that happened to Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which was shot down by the Soviet Union five years earlier. Using material from Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS Evening News, the research found clearly evident framing techniques used to demonize and blame the foreign enemy.[56] He stated that by "de-emphasizing the agency and the victims and by the choice of graphics and adjectives, the news stories about the U.S. downing of an Iranian plane called it a technical problem while the Soviet downing of a Korean jet was portrayed as a moral outrage."
The study is important not only because it demonstrated ethnocentric bias in news media outlets, but also because Entman included polling that appears to show that the unbalanced coverage swayed public opinion against the Soviet Union and Iran.[57]
In July 2014, when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in Ukraine, some commentators noted the discrepancy of U.S. official position and media coverage of the two similar incidents.[47][58][59]
In a comparative study of the two tragedies published in 1991, political scientist Robert Entman points out that with KAL 007, "the angle taken by the US media emphasised the moral bankruptcy and guilt of the perpetrating nation. With Iran Air 655, the frame de-emphasised guilt and focused on the complex problems of operating military high technology".[60][a]
Aftermath
The event sparked an intense international controversy, with Iran condemning the attack. In mid-July 1988, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn the United States saying the attack "could not have been a mistake" and was a "criminal act", a "massacre", and an "atrocity". George H. W. Bush, then-vice president of the United States in the Reagan administration, defended his country at the United Nations by arguing that the U.S. attack had been a wartime incident and that the crew of Vincennes had acted appropriately to the situation.[61] The Soviet Union asked the U.S. to withdraw from the area and supported efforts by the Security Council to end the Iran–Iraq War. Most of the remainder of the 13 delegates who spoke supported the U.S. position, saying one of the problems was that a 1987 resolution to end the Iran-Iraq war had been ignored.[62] Following the debate, Security Council Resolution 616 was passed expressing "deep distress" over the U.S. attack and "profound regret" for the loss of human lives, and stressing the need to end the Iran–Iraq War as resolved in 1987.[63]
Iranian postage stamp issued 11 August 1988 after the shootdown
Inside Iran, this shootdown was perceived as a purposeful attack by United States, signalling that the U.S. was about to enter into a direct war against Iran on the side of Iraq.[13] In August 1988, a month after the shoot-down, the Iranian government released a 45 rial postage stamp illustrating the event, where the ship shooting the missile is painted with the colors of the American flag, with a map of a burning Iran in the background.
In February 1996, the United States agreed to pay Iran US$131.8 million in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice relating to this incident,[43] together with other earlier claims before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal.[16] US$61.8 million of the claim was in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed in the shoot-down: $300,000 per wage-earning victim and $150,000 per non-wage-earner.[64] In total, 290 civilians on board were killed, 38 being non-Iranians and 66 being children. It was not disclosed how the remaining $70 million of the settlement was apportioned, though it was close to the value of a used A300 at the time.
The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human lives, but never formally apologized or acknowledged wrongdoing.[17] Informally, on July 5 of 1988 President Ronald Reagan expressed regret; when directly asked if this statement was intended as an apology to Iran, Reagan replied "Yes."[15] George H. W. Bush, the vice president of the United States at the time commented on a separate occasion, speaking to a group of Republican ethnic leaders (7 August 1988): "I will never apologize for the United States – I don't care what the facts are... I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." The quote, although unrelated to the downing of the Iranian air liner and not in any official capacity, has been attributed as such.[65][66][67]
Bush used the phrase frequently[68] during the 1988 campaign and promised to "never apologize for the United States" months prior to the July 1988 shoot-down[69] and as early as January 1988.[70][71]
The incident overshadowed Iran–United States relations for many years. The former CIA analyst Kenneth M. Pollack wrote: "The shoot-down of Iran Air flight 655 was an accident, but that is not how it was seen in Tehran."[72] Following the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 five months later, the British and American governments initially blamed the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian militant group backed by Syria, with assumptions of assistance from Iran in retaliation for Flight 655.
Post-tour of duty medals
Despite the mistakes made in the downing of the plane, the men of USS Vincennes were awarded Combat Action Ribbons for completion of their tours in a combat zone. The air-warfare coordinator on duty received the Navy Commendation Medal,[14] but The Washington Post reported in 1990 that the awards were for his entire tour from 1984 to 1988 and for his actions relating to the surface engagement with Iranian gunboats.[73] In 1990, Rogers was awarded the Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer [...] from April 1987 to May 1989." The award was given for his service as the commanding officer of Vincennes from April 1987 to May 1989. The citation made no mention of the downing of Iran Air 655.[74][75]
Iran Air Flight 655 - Wikipedia
Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The aircraft, an Airbus A300, was destroyed and all 290 people on board were killed.[1] The jet was hit while flying over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, along the flight's usual route, shortly after departing Bandar Abbas International Airport, the flight's stopover location. The incident occurred during the final stages of the Iran–Iraq War, which had been ongoing for nearly eight years. Vincennes had entered Iranian territory after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Iran Air Flight 655
| Aircraft | |
|---|---|
| Shootdown | |
An Airbus A300 similar to the aircraft involved in the incident, EP-IBT | |
| Date | 3 July 1988 |
| Summary | Shot down by a missile fired from USS Vincennes; reason for shootdown disputed |
| Site | Strait of Hormuz, near Qeshm Island, Iran 26°40′06″N 56°02′41″E |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A300B2-203 |
| Operator | Iran Air |
| IATA flight No. | IR655 |
| ICAO flight No. | IRA655 |
| Call sign | IRANAIR 655 |
| Registration | EP-IBU |
| Flight origin | Mehrabad International Airport Tehran, Iran |
| Stopover | Bandar Abbas International Airport Bandar Abbas, Iran |
| Destination | Dubai International Airport Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
| Occupants | 290 |
| Passengers | 274 |
| Crew | 16 |
| Fatalities | 290 |
| Survivors | 0 |
In 1996, the governments of the United States and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice which included the statement "...the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident..."[16] As part of the settlement, even though the U.S. government did not admit legal liability or formally apologize to Iran, it still agreed to pay US$61.8 million on an ex gratia basis in compensation to the families of the Iranian victims.[17] The shootdown was the deadliest aviation disaster involving an Airbus A300.[18][19][20]
Background
USS Vincennes had been deployed to the Persian Gulf at short notice to compensate for the lack of AWACS cover
In 1984, the war between Iraq and Iran had expanded to include air attacks against oil tankers and merchant shipping of neighboring countries, some of whom were providing aid to Iraq by shipping Iraqi oil. The Flight 655 incident occurred a year after the Iraqi Air Force attack on the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark on 17 May 1987, which killed 37 American sailors. U.S. naval forces had also exchanged gunfire with Iranian gunboats in late 1987, and the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts had struck an Iranian sea mine in April 1988. Two months before the incident, the U.S. had engaged in Operation Praying Mantis, resulting in the sinking of the Iranian frigate Sahand. Tensions were therefore high in the Strait of Hormuz at the time of the incident with Flight 655.
In response to the pattern of attacks on shipping, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a NOTAM on 8 September 1987 warning all Persian Gulf countries that civilian aircraft must monitor the 121.5 MHz VHF International Air Distress or the 243.0 MHz UHF Military Air Distress frequencies and be prepared to identify themselves to U.S. Navy ships and state their intentions.[21]
On 29 April 1988, the U.S. expanded the scope of its navy's protection to all friendly neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf outside declared exclusion zones, which set the stage for the shootdown.[2] At about the same time, Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Vincennes was rushed to the area on a short-notice deployment, as a result of high-level decisions, to compensate for the lack of AWACS coverage, which was hampering U.S. monitoring of the southern Persian Gulf. Vincennes, fitted with the then-new Aegis Combat System and under the command of Captain William C. Rogers III,[2] departed San Diego on 25 April 1988 and arrived in Bahrain on 29 May 1988.
As the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest is 21 nautical miles (39 km) wide,[22] in order to traverse the strait, ships must stay within sea lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of customary Law of the Sea.[23] It is therefore normal for ships, including warships, entering or leaving the Persian Gulf to transit Iranian territorial waters. During the Iran–Iraq War the Iranian forces frequently boarded and inspected neutral cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz in search of contraband destined for Iraq. While legal under international law, these inspections added to the tensions in the area.[2]
Shootdown of Flight 655
Locater map depicting Iran Air 655's origination point, destination and approximate shootdown location. (Air corridor not necessarily a direct path.)
The plane, an Airbus A300 (registered as EP-IBU), flown by 37-year-old Captain Mohsen Rezaian, a veteran pilot with 7,000 hours of flight time, left Bandar Abbas at 10:17 Iran time (UTC+03:30), 27 minutes after its scheduled departure time. It should have been a 28-minute flight. After takeoff, it was directed by the Bandar Abbas tower to turn on its transponder and proceed over the Persian Gulf. The flight was assigned routinely to commercial air corridor Amber 59, a 20-mile (32 km)-wide lane on a direct line to Dubai airport. The short distance made for a simple flight pattern: climb to 14,000 feet (4,300 m), cruise, and descend into Dubai. The airliner was transmitting the correct transponder "squawk" code typical of a civilian aircraft and maintained radio contact in English with appropriate air traffic control facilities.
Aegis screen displays in the combat information center on board Vincennes
On the morning of 3 July 1988, USS Vincennes was passing through the Strait of Hormuz returning from an escort duty.[2] A helicopter deployed from the cruiser reportedly received small arms fire from Iranian patrol vessels as it observed from high altitude. Vincennes moved to engage the Iranian vessels, in the course of which they all violated Omani waters and left after being challenged and ordered to leave by a Royal Navy of Oman warship.[24] Vincennes then pursued the Iranian gunboats, entering Iranian territorial waters to open fire. Two other US Navy ships, USS Sides and USS Elmer Montgomery, were nearby. Thus, Vincennes was in Iranian territorial waters at the time of the incident, as admitted by the U.S. government in legal briefs and publicly by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crowe, on Nightline.[25][26] Admiral Crowe denied a U.S. government coverup of the incident and claimed that the cruiser's helicopter was over international waters initially, when the gunboats first fired upon it.[25][27]
Contrary to the accounts of various Vincennes crew members, the cruiser's Aegis Combat System recorded that the airliner was climbing at the time and its radio transmitter was squawking on only the Mode III civilian frequency, and not on the military Mode II.[28]
Flight 655 was first detected by the Vincennes immediately after takeoff when it received a short IFF Mode II, possibly leading the crew of the Vincennes to believe that the airliner was an Iranian F-14 Tomcat (capable of carrying unguided bombs since 1985[29]) diving into an attack profile. Since the USS Stark incident, all aircraft in the area had to monitor 121.5 Mhz, the International Air Distress (IAD) radio frequency. A total of 10 attempts were made to warn the airliner, seven on the Military Air Distress (MAD) frequency, and three on the IAD frequency. There were no responses.[18]
At 10:24:22, after receiving no response to multiple radio challenges, Vincennes fired two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles, one of which hit the airliner at 10:24:43.[30] The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the water soon after. None of the 290 passengers and crew on board survived.[30] The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were never found.[31]
Nationalities of the victims
According to the documents that Iran submitted to the International Court of Justice, the aircraft was carrying 290 people: 274 passengers and a crew of 16. Of these 290, 254 were Iranian, 13 were Emiratis, 10 were Indians, six were Pakistanis, six were Yugoslavs and one was an Italian.[32]
| Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iran | 238 | 16 | 254 |
| United Arab Emirates | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| India | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Pakistan | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Yugoslavia | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Italy | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 274 | 16 | 290 |
A missile departs the forward launcher of Vincennes during a 1987 exercise. The same launcher was used in Flight 655's downing.
In the first hours after the shootdown the Pentagon denied the accusations from Iran that the US Navy had shot down the plane.[33] According to the U.S. government, USS Vincennes mistakenly identified the airliner as an attacking military fighter and misidentified its flight profile as being similar to that of an F-14A Tomcat during an attack run; however, the cruiser's Aegis Combat System recorded the plane's flight plan as climbing (not descending as in an attack run) at the time of the incident.[28] The flight had originated at Bandar Abbas, which served as both a base for Iranian F-14 operations and as a hub for commercial civilian flights.[14] According to the same reports, Vincennes unsuccessfully tried to contact the approaching aircraft, seven times on the military emergency frequency and three times on the civilian emergency frequency. This civilian aircraft was not equipped to pick up military frequencies and the messages on the civilian emergency channel could have been directed at any aircraft. More confusion arose as the hailed speed was the ground speed, while the pilot's instruments displayed airspeed, a 50-knot (93 km/h) difference.[34]
This was finalized in a report by Admiral William Fogarty, entitled Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on 3 July 1988 (the "Fogarty report").[10] Only parts of this report have been released (part I in 1988 and part II in 1993). The Fogarty report stated, "The data from USS Vincennes tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from take-off at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down".
The Fogarty report also stated, "Iran must share the responsibility for the tragedy by hazarding one of their civilian airliners by allowing it to fly a relatively low altitude air route in close proximity to hostilities that had been ongoing".[10]
When questioned in a 2000 BBC documentary, the U.S. government stated in a written answer that they believed the incident may have been caused by a simultaneous psychological condition amongst the eighteen bridge crew of Vincennes, called "scenario fulfillment", which is said to occur when persons are under pressure. In such a situation, the men will carry out a training scenario, believing it to be reality while ignoring sensory information that contradicts the scenario. In the case of this incident, the scenario was an attack by a lone military aircraft.[35]
Iranian government account
According to the Iranian government, the shootdown was an intentionally performed and unlawful act. Even if there was a mistaken identification, which Iran never accepted, it argues that this constituted negligence and recklessness amounting to an international crime, not an accident.[36](§4.52–4.54)
In particular, Iran expressed skepticism about claims of misidentification, noting that the cruiser's advanced Aegis radar correctly tracked the flight and its Mode III beacon; two other U.S. warships in the area, Sides and Montgomery, also identified the aircraft as civilian; and the flight was well within a recognized international air corridor. It also noted that the crew of Vincennes were trained to handle simultaneous attacks by hundreds of enemy aircraft.[36](§4.50) Iran found it more plausible that Vincennes "hankered for an opportunity to show its stuff".[36](§4.52)
According to Iran, the U.S. had previously issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) warning aircraft that they were at risk of "defensive measures" if they had not been cleared from a regional airport and if they came within 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) of a warship at an altitude of less than 2,000 feet (610 m). Flight 655 had been cleared from a regional airport and was well outside those limits when it was attacked.[36](§4.62) Even if the plane had truly been an Iranian F-14, Iran argued that the U.S. would not have had the right to shoot it down, as it was flying within Iranian airspace and did not follow a path that could be considered an attack profile, nor did it illuminate Vincennes with radar.[36](§4.60–4.61) Prior to the incident, Vincennes had entered Iranian territorial waters,[36](§4.65) and was inside these waters when it launched its missiles.[36](§1.27) Even had the crew of Flight 655 made mistakes, the U.S. government would still remain responsible for the actions of Vincennes' crew, under international law.[36](§4.56)
Iran pointed out that in the past "the United States has steadfastly condemned the shooting down of aircraft, whether civil or military, by the armed forces of another State" and cited El Al Flight 402, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 and Korean Air Lines Flight 007, among other incidents.[36](§4.66–4.70) Iran also noted that when Iraq attacked USS Stark, United States found Iraq fully responsible on the grounds that the Iraqi pilot "knew or should have known" that he was attacking a U.S. warship.[36](§4.49)
Independent sources
In 1989, prior to the public exposure of the Vincennes' position inside Iranian waters on Nightline by Adm. William Crowe, Professor Andreas Lowenfeld, of the Editing Board of the American Journal of International Law, criticized the official U.S. position which claimed that the U.S. was not legally liable for the incident,[37] and wrote:[38]
Lowenfeld also pointed out that the amount of compensation paid for Iranian victims was one-tenth the amount demanded from Iraq for American dead aboard the U.S.S. Stark.[39]
The captain of USS Vincennes, William C. Rogers III
In an article published in Newsweek magazine on 13 July 1992, John Barry and Roger Charles argued that Rogers behaved recklessly and without due care.[25] However, the subsequent Fogarty report concluded that Rogers acted in a prudent manner based on the information available to him, and the short time frame involved. He also proceeded according to the prescribed rules of engagement for USN warship captains in that situation.[full citation needed]
They also accused the U.S. government of a cover-up, but Admiral Crowe denied any knowledge.[40] An analysis of the events by the International Strategic Studies Association described the deployment of an Aegis cruiser in the zone as irresponsible and felt that the value placed on Aegis cruisers by the U.S. Navy had played a major part in the setting of a low threshold for opening fire.[41] Vincennes had been nicknamed "RoboCruiser" by crew members and other U.S. Navy ships, both in reference to its Aegis system, and to the supposed aggressive tendencies of its captain.[11][42]
The International Court of Justice case relating to the attack, "the Aerial Incident of July 3, 1988, (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America)", was dropped on 22 February 1996 following settlement and reparations by the United States.[43]
Three years after the incident, Admiral Crowe admitted on American television show Nightline that Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles.[26] This contradicted earlier navy statements. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) report of December 1988 placed USS Vincennes well inside Iran's territorial waters.[44]
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci, and CJCS Admiral William Crowe brief media representatives at the Pentagon about the shootdown on 19 August 1988.
Commander David Carlson, commanding officer of USS Sides, the warship stationed nearest to Vincennes at the time of the incident, is reported to have said that the destruction of the aircraft "marked the horrifying climax to Captain Rogers's aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago".[45] His comment referred to incidents on 2 June, when Rogers had sailed Vincennes too close to an Iranian frigate undertaking a lawful search of a bulk carrier, launched a helicopter within 2–3 miles (3.2–4.8 km) of a small Iranian craft despite rules of engagement requiring a four-mile (6.4 km) separation, and opened fire on small Iranian military boats. Of those incidents, Carlson commented, "Why do you want an Aegis cruiser out there shooting up boats? It wasn't a smart thing to do." He also said that Iranian forces he had encountered in the area a month prior to the incident were "pointedly non-threatening" and professional.[46] At the time of Rogers's announcement to higher command that he was going to shoot down the plane, Carlson is reported to have been thunderstruck: "I said to folks around me, 'Why, what the hell is he doing?' I went through the drill again. F-14. He's climbing. By now this damn thing is at 7,000 feet." Carlson thought Vincennes might have more information, and was unaware that Rogers had been wrongly informed that the plane was diving.[45] Carlson is also reported to have written in the U.S. Naval Proceedings that he had "wondered aloud in disbelief" on hearing of Vincennes' intentions. In speculating on the "climate" that led up to the incident, Carlson stated that Vincennes, shortly beforehand dubbed by officers aboard the Sides as "RoboCruiser" for its aggressiveness, engaged in a pattern of aggressive behavior over the prior month because the crew of the Vincennes "felt a need to prove the viability of Aegis in the Persian Gulf, and that they hankered for the opportunity to show their stuff."[47] Carlson believed that this aggressiveness also contributed to the decision to chase after IRGC gunboats that had earlier fired in the vicinity of the ship's Seahawk helicopter, and that the subsequent engagement with small Iranian gunboats heightened tensions aboard Vincennes and contributed to the incident that occurred as the gunboat engagement was ongoing.
A slide presentation given by graduate students on M.I.T.'s Aeronautics & Astronautics course in Spring 2004, titled "USS Vincennes Incident",[48] included a comment that Captain Rogers had "an undeniable and unequivocal tendency towards what I call 'picking a fight.'" On his own initiative, Rogers moved Vincennes 50 miles (80 km) northeast to join USS Montgomery. An angry Captain Richard McKenna, Chief of Surface Warfare for the Commander of the Joint Task Force, ordered Rogers back to Abu Musa, but a Vincennes helicopter pilot, Lt. Mark Collier, followed the Iranian speedboats as they retreated north, eventually taking some fire:
Radio communication
Throughout its final flight, Flight 655 was in radio contact with various air traffic control services using standard civil aviation frequencies, and had spoken in English to Bandar Abbas Approach Control seconds before Vincennes launched its missiles. According to the U.S. Navy investigation, Vincennes at that time had no equipment suitable for monitoring civil aviation frequencies, other than the International Air Distress frequency. Subsequently U.S. Navy warships in the area were equipped with dialable VHF radios, and access to flight plan information was sought, to better track commercial airliners.
The official ICAO report stated that 10 attempts were made to contact Iran Air flight 655: seven on military frequencies and three on commercial frequencies, addressed to an "unidentified Iranian aircraft" and giving its speed as 350 knots (650 km/h), which was the ground speed of the aircraft their radar reported.[11] Flight 655's crew, however, would have seen a speed of 300 knots (560 km/h) on their cockpit instruments, which was their indicated airspeed, possibly leading them to conclude that Vincennes was talking to another aircraft.[citation needed] Both Sides and Vincennes tried contacting flight 655 on several civilian and military frequencies. International investigations concluded that the Flight 655's crew assumed that the three calls that they received before the missiles struck must have been directed at an Iranian P-3 Orion (see below). The International Civil Aviation Organization said that the flight crew should have been monitoring the civilian frequency.[49] They also said that "American warships in the gulf had no equipment that allowed them to monitor civilian air traffic control radio frequencies, and thus no means of hearing the many radio transmissions between Iran Air Flight 655 and air traffic controllers that would have identified the aircraft to the Vincennes's crew."[50]
Potential factors
- The Aegis System software reuses tracking numbers in its display, constituting a user interface design flaw. The Aegis software initially assigned on-screen identifier TN4474 to Flight 655. Then just seconds before the Vincennes fired, the Aegis software switched the Flight 655 tracking number to TN4131 and recycled Flight 655's old tracking number of TN4474 to label a fighter jet 110 miles away. When the captain asked for a status on TN4474, he was told it was a fighter and descending.[51] Scientific American rated it as one of the worst user interface disasters.[52]
- The ship's crew did not efficiently consult commercial airliner schedules due to confusion over which time zone the schedules referred to – the scheduled flight times used Bandar Abbas airport time while Vincennes was on Bahrain time. The airliner's departure was 27 minutes later than scheduled. "The Combat Information Center (CIC) was also very dark, and the few lights that it did have flickered every time Vincennes fired at the speedboats. This was of special concern to Petty Officer Andrew Anderson, who first picked up Flight 655 on radar and thought that it might be a commercial aircraft. As he was searching in the navy's listing of commercial flights, he apparently missed Flight 655 because it was so dark."[48]
- An Iranian P-3 was in the area some time before the attack, thought to be flying a "classic targeting profile",[10] and in some reports providing an explanation why no radar signals were detected from Iran Air Flight 655.[53] Other reports state that the Airbus was immediately detected after takeoff by the cruiser's AN/SPY-1 radar at a range of 47 miles (76 km).[2]
- The psychology and mindset after engaging in a battle with Iranian gunboats. There are claims that Vincennes was engaged in an operation using a decoy cargo ship to lure Iranian gunboats to a fight.[54] These claims were denied by Fogarty in Hearing Before The Investigation Subcommittee and The Defense Policy Panel of The Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session, 21 July 1992. Also, the initial claims of Vincennes being called for help by a cargo ship attacked by Iranian gunboats have been ruled out.[54] That leads to claims that the Iranian gunboats were provoked by helicopters inside Iranian waters, not the other way around.[55] This might have contributed to the mistakes made.
- Just over a year before the Iran Air incident, on 17 May 1987, USS Stark had suffered near-catastrophic damage from two Iraqi Exocet missiles intended for an Iranian ship. Citing lax self-defense procedures (among other failures), the Navy issued the Stark 's CO and Tactical Action Officer letters of reprimand that ended their careers. The Navy also re-emphasized to all officers that defense of their ship was their first duty. With this event fresh in the minds of all Navy COs operating in the Persian Gulf, the Vincennes' crew may have felt that after making attempts to contact the airliner and receiving no response, their first duty was to defend the ship against hostile action. See "USS Stark incident."
Newsweek covers for 12 September 1983 (left) and 18 July 1988 (right), illustrating the KAL007 and Iran Air incidents respectively. The caption "Murder in the Air" framed the KAL incident as a deliberate act of war, whereas "Why It Happened" framed the Iran Air incident as a tragic mistake.[56]
Robert Entman of George Washington University studied coverage surrounding the incident in U.S. media, comparing it to the similar incident that happened to Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which was shot down by the Soviet Union five years earlier. Using material from Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS Evening News, the research found clearly evident framing techniques used to demonize and blame the foreign enemy.[56] He stated that by "de-emphasizing the agency and the victims and by the choice of graphics and adjectives, the news stories about the U.S. downing of an Iranian plane called it a technical problem while the Soviet downing of a Korean jet was portrayed as a moral outrage."
The study is important not only because it demonstrated ethnocentric bias in news media outlets, but also because Entman included polling that appears to show that the unbalanced coverage swayed public opinion against the Soviet Union and Iran.[57]
In July 2014, when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in Ukraine, some commentators noted the discrepancy of U.S. official position and media coverage of the two similar incidents.[47][58][59]
In a comparative study of the two tragedies published in 1991, political scientist Robert Entman points out that with KAL 007, "the angle taken by the US media emphasised the moral bankruptcy and guilt of the perpetrating nation. With Iran Air 655, the frame de-emphasised guilt and focused on the complex problems of operating military high technology".[60][a]
Aftermath
The event sparked an intense international controversy, with Iran condemning the attack. In mid-July 1988, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn the United States saying the attack "could not have been a mistake" and was a "criminal act", a "massacre", and an "atrocity". George H. W. Bush, then-vice president of the United States in the Reagan administration, defended his country at the United Nations by arguing that the U.S. attack had been a wartime incident and that the crew of Vincennes had acted appropriately to the situation.[61] The Soviet Union asked the U.S. to withdraw from the area and supported efforts by the Security Council to end the Iran–Iraq War. Most of the remainder of the 13 delegates who spoke supported the U.S. position, saying one of the problems was that a 1987 resolution to end the Iran-Iraq war had been ignored.[62] Following the debate, Security Council Resolution 616 was passed expressing "deep distress" over the U.S. attack and "profound regret" for the loss of human lives, and stressing the need to end the Iran–Iraq War as resolved in 1987.[63]
Iranian postage stamp issued 11 August 1988 after the shootdown
Inside Iran, this shootdown was perceived as a purposeful attack by United States, signalling that the U.S. was about to enter into a direct war against Iran on the side of Iraq.[13] In August 1988, a month after the shoot-down, the Iranian government released a 45 rial postage stamp illustrating the event, where the ship shooting the missile is painted with the colors of the American flag, with a map of a burning Iran in the background.
In February 1996, the United States agreed to pay Iran US$131.8 million in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice relating to this incident,[43] together with other earlier claims before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal.[16] US$61.8 million of the claim was in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed in the shoot-down: $300,000 per wage-earning victim and $150,000 per non-wage-earner.[64] In total, 290 civilians on board were killed, 38 being non-Iranians and 66 being children. It was not disclosed how the remaining $70 million of the settlement was apportioned, though it was close to the value of a used A300 at the time.
The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human lives, but never formally apologized or acknowledged wrongdoing.[17] Informally, on July 5 of 1988 President Ronald Reagan expressed regret; when directly asked if this statement was intended as an apology to Iran, Reagan replied "Yes."[15] George H. W. Bush, the vice president of the United States at the time commented on a separate occasion, speaking to a group of Republican ethnic leaders (7 August 1988): "I will never apologize for the United States – I don't care what the facts are... I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." The quote, although unrelated to the downing of the Iranian air liner and not in any official capacity, has been attributed as such.[65][66][67]
Bush used the phrase frequently[68] during the 1988 campaign and promised to "never apologize for the United States" months prior to the July 1988 shoot-down[69] and as early as January 1988.[70][71]
The incident overshadowed Iran–United States relations for many years. The former CIA analyst Kenneth M. Pollack wrote: "The shoot-down of Iran Air flight 655 was an accident, but that is not how it was seen in Tehran."[72] Following the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 five months later, the British and American governments initially blamed the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian militant group backed by Syria, with assumptions of assistance from Iran in retaliation for Flight 655.
Post-tour of duty medals
Despite the mistakes made in the downing of the plane, the men of USS Vincennes were awarded Combat Action Ribbons for completion of their tours in a combat zone. The air-warfare coordinator on duty received the Navy Commendation Medal,[14] but The Washington Post reported in 1990 that the awards were for his entire tour from 1984 to 1988 and for his actions relating to the surface engagement with Iranian gunboats.[73] In 1990, Rogers was awarded the Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer [...] from April 1987 to May 1989." The award was given for his service as the commanding officer of Vincennes from April 1987 to May 1989. The citation made no mention of the downing of Iran Air 655.[74][75]
- ^ "Mistaken Identity". Mayday. Season 3. Episode 6. 2005. Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic Channel.
- Nunn Wants to Reopen Inquiry into Vincennes' Gulf Location. Washington Times, 4 July 1992. Abstract: Senator Sam Nunn called on the Pentagon to probe allegations that the Navy "deliberately misled Congress" about the location of the USS Vincennes when it shot down an Iranian civilian airliner four years ago.
- Fisk, Robert. The Great War for Civilisation – The Conquest of the Middle East. London: Fourth Estate, 2005. 318–328. ISBN 1-84115-007-X
- Marian Nash Leich, "Denial of Liability: Ex Gratia Compensation on a Humanitarian Basis" American Journal of International Law Vol. 83 p. 319 (1989)
- "Assumed Hostile" An academic case study by Pho H. Huynh, Summer 2003
- Fogarty, William M., (1988) "Investigation report: Formal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, 1988", United States Department of Defense, ASIN: B00071EGY8.
- International Court of Justice, (2001), "Case Concerning the Aerial Incident of July 3, 1988: v. 1: Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America", United Nations, ISBN 92-1-070845-8.
- Rochlin, Gene I. (1997). Trapped in the Net: The Unanticipated Consequences of Computerization. USA: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01080-3.
- Rogers, Sharon, (1992) Storm Center: The USS Vincennes and Iran Air Flight 655 : A Personal Account of Tragedy and Terrorism, US Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-55750-727-9.
'Our enemy is here': Iran protesters demand that leaders quit after plane downed
A woman holds a picture of newlyweds, victims of the crash of the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, as people gather to show their sympathy in Tehran, Iran January 11, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
13 Jan 2020 09:20AM
(Updated: 13 Jan 2020 09:34AM)
Bookmark
DUBAI: Protests erupted across Iran for a second day on Sunday (Jan 12), increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic's leadership after it admitted its military shot down a Ukrainian airliner by accident, despite days of denials that Iranian forces were to blame.
"They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here," one group of protesters chanted outside a university in Tehran, according to video posted on Twitter.
Other posts showed demonstrators outside a second university and a group of protesters marching to Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square, as well as protests in other cities.
Some state-affiliated media carried reports of the university protests, which followed demonstrations on Saturday sparked by Iran's admission that its military mistakenly shot down the plane on Wednesday, killing all 176 aboard, at a time when Tehran feared US air strikes.
A view shows the area after the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, crashed after take-off from Iran's Imam Khomeini airport, on the outskirts of Tehran, in this handout Maxar's WorldView-3 satellite image obtained January 11, 2020. Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS
The Ukraine International Airlines plane was downed minutes after taking off from Tehran bound for Kiev on Wednesday. Many on board were Iranians with dual citizenship, while 57 were holders of Canadian passports.
Residents of the capital told Reuters that police were out in force on Sunday. Some protesters in Azadi Square first called on officers there to join them, then turned their anger on the authorities, chanting anti-government slogans including "Down with the dictator" - a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to social media posts and Iranian media reports.
A woman shouts slogans as she gathers with people to show their sympathy to the victims of the crash of the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, in Tehran, Iran January 11, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The semi-official ILNA news agency said police moved to disperse the protesters, who it said numbered as many as 3,000. Videos posted online showed demonstrators running from police who used batons and teargas.
Reuters could not authenticate the videos.
Public anger boiled up following days of denials by the military that it was to blame for the crash, issued even as Canada and the United States said it appeared that Iranian air defences had shot down the airliner, probably in error.
"Apologise and resign," Iran's moderate Etemad daily wrote in a banner headline on Sunday, saying the "people's demand" was that those responsible for mishandling the crisis quit.
Relatives of the flight crew members of the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane that crashed in Iran, mourn at a memorial at the Boryspil International airport outside Kiev, Ukraine January 11, 2020. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
The latest unrest adds to mounting pressure on the Iranian authorities, who are struggling to keep the crippled economy afloat under stringent US sanctions.
Demonstrations against a hike in fuel prices turned political last year, sparking the bloodiest crackdown in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic.
About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on Nov 15, three Iranian Interior Ministry officials told Reuters, although international rights groups put the figure much lower and Iran called the report "fake news".
After saying on Saturday that he was "inspired" by the courage of the demonstrators, US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday: "To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free!"
Later on Sunday, Trump said on Twitter he did not care if Iran agrees to negotiate with the United States, after a senior adviser suggested the Islamic Republic would have no choice but to agree to talks.
'IRAN'S ENEMIES WANT REVENGE'
About 2,000 people packed a vigil for the air-crash victims in Toronto on Sunday, and a similar number attended a memorial in Edmonton, Alberta, where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke, his voice breaking,
Trudeau told the vigil he would "pursue justice and accountability" for the victims. "We will not rest until there are answers," he said.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said it had obtained visas for two of its investigators to travel to Iran.
A second team of investigators who specialize in aircraft recorder download and analysis will be deployed once TSB confirms where and when that activity would take place, the agency said.
People and families of the victims of the crash of the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, light candles as they gather to show their sympathy in Tehran, Iran January 11, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The downing of the plane came as Iranian forces were on high alert for US reprisals following tit-for-tat strikes.
A US drone strike in Iraq on Jan 3 killed prominent Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, responsible for building up Iran's network of proxy armies in Iraq and beyond. Tehran responded with missile strikes on US targets in Iraq.
No US soldiers were killed in the retaliatory attacks. But in the tense hours that followed, the Boeing 737-800 was cleared to take off from Tehran airport and brought down by a missile fired by mistake.
A woman holds a picture of newlyweds, victims of the crash of the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, as people gather to show their sympathy in Tehran, Iran January 11, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
13 Jan 2020 09:20AM
(Updated: 13 Jan 2020 09:34AM)
Bookmark
DUBAI: Protests erupted across Iran for a second day on Sunday (Jan 12), increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic's leadership after it admitted its military shot down a Ukrainian airliner by accident, despite days of denials that Iranian forces were to blame.
"They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here," one group of protesters chanted outside a university in Tehran, according to video posted on Twitter.
Other posts showed demonstrators outside a second university and a group of protesters marching to Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square, as well as protests in other cities.
Some state-affiliated media carried reports of the university protests, which followed demonstrations on Saturday sparked by Iran's admission that its military mistakenly shot down the plane on Wednesday, killing all 176 aboard, at a time when Tehran feared US air strikes.
A view shows the area after the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, crashed after take-off from Iran's Imam Khomeini airport, on the outskirts of Tehran, in this handout Maxar's WorldView-3 satellite image obtained January 11, 2020. Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS
The Ukraine International Airlines plane was downed minutes after taking off from Tehran bound for Kiev on Wednesday. Many on board were Iranians with dual citizenship, while 57 were holders of Canadian passports.
Residents of the capital told Reuters that police were out in force on Sunday. Some protesters in Azadi Square first called on officers there to join them, then turned their anger on the authorities, chanting anti-government slogans including "Down with the dictator" - a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to social media posts and Iranian media reports.
A woman shouts slogans as she gathers with people to show their sympathy to the victims of the crash of the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, in Tehran, Iran January 11, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The semi-official ILNA news agency said police moved to disperse the protesters, who it said numbered as many as 3,000. Videos posted online showed demonstrators running from police who used batons and teargas.
Reuters could not authenticate the videos.
Public anger boiled up following days of denials by the military that it was to blame for the crash, issued even as Canada and the United States said it appeared that Iranian air defences had shot down the airliner, probably in error.
"Apologise and resign," Iran's moderate Etemad daily wrote in a banner headline on Sunday, saying the "people's demand" was that those responsible for mishandling the crisis quit.
Relatives of the flight crew members of the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane that crashed in Iran, mourn at a memorial at the Boryspil International airport outside Kiev, Ukraine January 11, 2020. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
The latest unrest adds to mounting pressure on the Iranian authorities, who are struggling to keep the crippled economy afloat under stringent US sanctions.
Demonstrations against a hike in fuel prices turned political last year, sparking the bloodiest crackdown in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic.
About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on Nov 15, three Iranian Interior Ministry officials told Reuters, although international rights groups put the figure much lower and Iran called the report "fake news".
After saying on Saturday that he was "inspired" by the courage of the demonstrators, US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday: "To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free!"
Later on Sunday, Trump said on Twitter he did not care if Iran agrees to negotiate with the United States, after a senior adviser suggested the Islamic Republic would have no choice but to agree to talks.
'IRAN'S ENEMIES WANT REVENGE'
About 2,000 people packed a vigil for the air-crash victims in Toronto on Sunday, and a similar number attended a memorial in Edmonton, Alberta, where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke, his voice breaking,
Trudeau told the vigil he would "pursue justice and accountability" for the victims. "We will not rest until there are answers," he said.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said it had obtained visas for two of its investigators to travel to Iran.
A second team of investigators who specialize in aircraft recorder download and analysis will be deployed once TSB confirms where and when that activity would take place, the agency said.
People and families of the victims of the crash of the Boeing 737-800 plane, flight PS 752, light candles as they gather to show their sympathy in Tehran, Iran January 11, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The downing of the plane came as Iranian forces were on high alert for US reprisals following tit-for-tat strikes.
A US drone strike in Iraq on Jan 3 killed prominent Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, responsible for building up Iran's network of proxy armies in Iraq and beyond. Tehran responded with missile strikes on US targets in Iraq.
No US soldiers were killed in the retaliatory attacks. But in the tense hours that followed, the Boeing 737-800 was cleared to take off from Tehran airport and brought down by a missile fired by mistake.
I will play the devil's advocate for this. In terms of Islamic fundamentalism. Iran is much milder than Saudi Arabia and Iran is much more tolerant. Women can drive. Woman go to school. There are women lawyers and doctors. They very seldom have 4 wives. There are Jews and Christians in iran with full political rights. Pork is sold at non mudslimes shops. Women dont cover up like ninjas. They are very liberal as compared to Saudi Arabia. They are persians n Shitites and that is why they dont get along well with the Arabs. Iran also has alot of trade with the USA. B4 the sanctions usa consumer goods is very popular with the Iranians. There could have been a trade surplus on the usa. It would be much better for the yanks to have iran as an ally. But Saudis have too much influence in the usa to allow that. Peace would be possible in future when Saudi Arabia runs out off oil. N than its influence will decline n no longer has wat the yanks want . the yanks will drop them like a hit hot potato
Well said. I think the pap should always use the example of the French revolution and the guillotine to scare singkies into keeping pap in power indefinitely.
I have also heard similarities from Iraqis with regards to Saddam Hussein. And from South Africans with regards to Apartheid.
with sodomizemany gone, the hardliners and terrorists lost their leader and are running around like a chicken with its head cut off. u.s. will stand a better chance of befriending a more moderate regime. even the ayatollah was powerless and ignored with sodomizemany in (real) charge. with his demise we should see better u.s.-iran relations.
Iran and the US are now trading barbs on China's Weibo amid censorship on other platforms
PHOTO Many countries and companies operate Chinese social media accounts to speak to the vast Chinese audience. WEIBO
The world has been on alert since the United States killed Iran's revered military general Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad earlier this month.
For the moment, it appears as though Tehran and Washington will not be coming to armed blows in the immediate term, but that has not stopped the countries from trading barbs in the virtual sphere — in places largely unexpected.
In recent days, tensions between the US and Iran have been playing out on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform available to Chinese citizens.
PHOTO This Iranian Weibo post gives a visual nod to a tweet from President Donald Trump featuring the US flag. WEIBO: IRANIAN EMBASSY IN CHINA
"Qassem Soleimani has been supporting terrorism and inciting sectarian violence for decades, resulting in thousands of deaths … and supplying arms to militants acting for the Iranian regime in six countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan," reads the US embassy's Weibo post in reply.
The US embassy also released posts claiming that General Soleimani was responsible for "exporting" terrorism and sectarian violence, "killing thousands".
It has also released posts quoting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has praised US President Donald Trump for the decision to kill the Iranian general.
In parallel moves, the Iranian embassy released Weibo posts quoting Iranian officials on the tensions, including the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Major Western online platforms, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter are blocked from the Chinese internet, however, some users are able to get around this with the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).
Instagram wipes pro-Soleimani views, while Weibo doesn't
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:53
Mr Trump's imposition of sanctions on Iran have had implications for US social media giants.
ABC News
Like everywhere else on the Chinese internet, content on Weibo is heavily censored by censors who take down information deemed critical of the ruling Communist regime, such as details about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre or the global condemnation of Beijing's internment of Uyghur Muslims.
But presently, it appears as though China's censors are letting Iran and the US go at each other in full view of the Chinese internet — a situation that is ironically, not mirrored on some US social media platforms.
Instagram and its parent company, Facebook, told CNN on Friday that it would be censoring posts that voice support for General Soleimani to comply with US sanctions, in addition to posts that voice support for Iranians currently under American sanctions.
Various Iranian officials and industrial sectors of the country are currently subject to US sanctions, which were intensified after Iran's missile strikes on US military assets in Iraq.
In April, Instagram suspended General Soleimani's account after Washington designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organisation.
Instagram is one of the few Western social media platforms allowed on Iran's state-censored internet, though users can access Facebook and Twitter through VPNs.
But in recent weeks, it has become clear that Instagram has removed major Iranian accounts, rather than just individual posts.
Consequently, numerous Iranian journalists, human rights activists, news organisations and influencers have seen their accounts shut down in recent weeks, according to Coda, an investigative journalism website.
"Every person I saw that posted about Soleimani on Instagram, almost all of their posts have been removed," Amir Rashidi, an Iranian internet security and digital rights researcher, told Coda.
PHOTO The US has used a number of Weibo posts to criticise the legacy of Iran's Soleimani. WEIBO: US EMBASSY IN CHINA
Among Chinese social media observers, the online tiff between the Iranian and American embassies has been dubbed "the battle over Liangma Bridge", as the respective embassies are about 1.5 kilometres apart, separated by the Liangma River in central Beijing.
Under the embassies' respective posts, there are a variety of views reflected.
"Where there is oppression, there is resistance. Great Iranian people, add oil! To expel the fascist America from West Asia!" one Weibo user, Liu Yan Fei Yu, wrote.
Weibo users who wrote posts in support of Iran received a special shout-out last Thursday.
"At this very moment, we deeply feel the warmth from the messages from Chinese netizens," the post read.
However, Chinese users who were praised for submitting pro-Iranian views last week had shifted their tone, after it was revealed a missile fired by the Islamic Republic struck a Ukrainian commercial airliner, killing all 176 people onboard.
Presently, it is unclear if these Beijing embassies will be drawn into more virtual sparring, but in Iran's case, Chinese social media might be one of the few places the Islamic Republic might have left to state its case abroad.
On Saturday, the Weibo account of Iran's embassy in China said Iran reserved "the right to take further appropriate countermeasures" against Washington, and would "continue to maintain communication and coordination with partners in and outside the region, especially with China".
For other Weibo users, the irony of Chinese social media — and the Chinese language — becoming the place for an online US-Iran fight, has not been lost.
The world has been on alert since the United States killed Iran's revered military general Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad earlier this month.
For the moment, it appears as though Tehran and Washington will not be coming to armed blows in the immediate term, but that has not stopped the countries from trading barbs in the virtual sphere — in places largely unexpected.
In recent days, tensions between the US and Iran have been playing out on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform available to Chinese citizens.
"Qassem Soleimani has been supporting terrorism and inciting sectarian violence for decades, resulting in thousands of deaths … and supplying arms to militants acting for the Iranian regime in six countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan," reads the US embassy's Weibo post in reply.
The US embassy also released posts claiming that General Soleimani was responsible for "exporting" terrorism and sectarian violence, "killing thousands".
It has also released posts quoting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has praised US President Donald Trump for the decision to kill the Iranian general.
In parallel moves, the Iranian embassy released Weibo posts quoting Iranian officials on the tensions, including the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian embassy has also been taking screenshots of tweets from its Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and reposting them on Weibo with Chinese translations.
Major Western online platforms, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter are blocked from the Chinese internet, however, some users are able to get around this with the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).
Instagram wipes pro-Soleimani views, while Weibo doesn't
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:53
Mr Trump's imposition of sanctions on Iran have had implications for US social media giants.
ABC News
Like everywhere else on the Chinese internet, content on Weibo is heavily censored by censors who take down information deemed critical of the ruling Communist regime, such as details about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre or the global condemnation of Beijing's internment of Uyghur Muslims.
But presently, it appears as though China's censors are letting Iran and the US go at each other in full view of the Chinese internet — a situation that is ironically, not mirrored on some US social media platforms.
Instagram and its parent company, Facebook, told CNN on Friday that it would be censoring posts that voice support for General Soleimani to comply with US sanctions, in addition to posts that voice support for Iranians currently under American sanctions.
Various Iranian officials and industrial sectors of the country are currently subject to US sanctions, which were intensified after Iran's missile strikes on US military assets in Iraq.
In April, Instagram suspended General Soleimani's account after Washington designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organisation.
Instagram is one of the few Western social media platforms allowed on Iran's state-censored internet, though users can access Facebook and Twitter through VPNs.
But in recent weeks, it has become clear that Instagram has removed major Iranian accounts, rather than just individual posts.
Consequently, numerous Iranian journalists, human rights activists, news organisations and influencers have seen their accounts shut down in recent weeks, according to Coda, an investigative journalism website.
"Every person I saw that posted about Soleimani on Instagram, almost all of their posts have been removed," Amir Rashidi, an Iranian internet security and digital rights researcher, told Coda.
Irony of US and Iran taking to Weibo has not been lost
Among Chinese social media observers, the online tiff between the Iranian and American embassies has been dubbed "the battle over Liangma Bridge", as the respective embassies are about 1.5 kilometres apart, separated by the Liangma River in central Beijing.
Under the embassies' respective posts, there are a variety of views reflected.
"Where there is oppression, there is resistance. Great Iranian people, add oil! To expel the fascist America from West Asia!" one Weibo user, Liu Yan Fei Yu, wrote.
Weibo users who wrote posts in support of Iran received a special shout-out last Thursday.
"At this very moment, we deeply feel the warmth from the messages from Chinese netizens," the post read.
However, Chinese users who were praised for submitting pro-Iranian views last week had shifted their tone, after it was revealed a missile fired by the Islamic Republic struck a Ukrainian commercial airliner, killing all 176 people onboard.
"If it strikes the United States, it will also notify in advance, but it will strike the flight with their own people in it for real!"
Presently, it is unclear if these Beijing embassies will be drawn into more virtual sparring, but in Iran's case, Chinese social media might be one of the few places the Islamic Republic might have left to state its case abroad.
On Saturday, the Weibo account of Iran's embassy in China said Iran reserved "the right to take further appropriate countermeasures" against Washington, and would "continue to maintain communication and coordination with partners in and outside the region, especially with China".
For other Weibo users, the irony of Chinese social media — and the Chinese language — becoming the place for an online US-Iran fight, has not been lost.
Posted about an hour ago
Iran makes arrests in relation to Ukrainian plane crash, Justin Trudeau points finger at US
Updated about 3 hours ago
PHOTO: Mourners attend an outdoor vigil for the victims of a Ukrainian passenger jet which crashed in Iran, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Reuters: Chris Helgren)
RELATED STORY: 'They died immediately': Missile hit plane's cockpit from below, Ukraine says, as footage emerges
RELATED STORY: Ayatollah warns Iran missile strike is a 'slap on the face' against US
RELATED STORY: Dozens of Iranians and Canadians among 176 killed in Boeing crash
Arrests have been made over the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed all 176 people on board just after take-off from Tehran, Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday.
Key points:
The announcement came shortly after Iran's President called for a special court to be set up to probe the downing last week of the plane by Iranian forces.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili was quoted by Iranian state media saying that "extensive investigations have taken place and some individuals are arrested." He did not say how many individuals have been detained, or name them.
Iran, which initially dismissed allegations that a missile had brought down the jetliner, acknowledged — three days after Wednesday's downing and in the face of mounting evidence — that its Revolutionary Guard had shot down the Ukrainian plane by mistake.
PHOTO: Thousands of Boeing 737-800s are used by airlines around the world. (AP: Mohammad Nasiri)
'Unforgivable error'
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Tuesday the downing of the Ukrainian plane was an "unforgivable error" and Iran will punish all those responsible for the accidental shooting, adding that the "tragic event" would be investigated thoroughly.
"This is not an ordinary case. The entire the world will be watching this court."
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians — including many Iranians with dual citizenship — and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials.
There were several children among the passengers, including an infant.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau blames US and Iranian leaders
623 people are talking about this
On Tuesday, Justin Trudeau blamed the showdown between Donald Trump and Iran's leaders for the deaths of the 176 people killed, saying they would still be alive if it was not for escalating tensions.
The Canadian leader said those who died when the aircraft was downed by an Iranian missile could have been "right now home with their families" if it was not for escalating tensions in the region.
"This is something that happens when you have conflict and war, innocents bear the brunt of it," Mr Trudeau said in an interview with Global News Television on Monday.
Iran shot down the plane when it was bracing for possible US retaliation for a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing US troops in Iraq.
No one was hurt in that attack, which was carried out to avenge the killing of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in an American airstrike in Baghdad.
The shootdown and the lack of transparency around it has reignited anger in Iran at the country's leadership, with protesters taking to the streets in past days.
Reuters/ABC
Updated about 3 hours ago
PHOTO: Mourners attend an outdoor vigil for the victims of a Ukrainian passenger jet which crashed in Iran, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Reuters: Chris Helgren)RELATED STORY: 'They died immediately': Missile hit plane's cockpit from below, Ukraine says, as footage emerges
RELATED STORY: Ayatollah warns Iran missile strike is a 'slap on the face' against US
RELATED STORY: Dozens of Iranians and Canadians among 176 killed in Boeing crash
Arrests have been made over the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed all 176 people on board just after take-off from Tehran, Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday.
Key points:
- Several arrests were made after "extensive investigations" were conducted over the shootdown
- Iran's President said the downing of the plane was an "unforgivable error"
- The incident killed 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries
The announcement came shortly after Iran's President called for a special court to be set up to probe the downing last week of the plane by Iranian forces.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili was quoted by Iranian state media saying that "extensive investigations have taken place and some individuals are arrested." He did not say how many individuals have been detained, or name them.
Iran, which initially dismissed allegations that a missile had brought down the jetliner, acknowledged — three days after Wednesday's downing and in the face of mounting evidence — that its Revolutionary Guard had shot down the Ukrainian plane by mistake.
PHOTO: Thousands of Boeing 737-800s are used by airlines around the world. (AP: Mohammad Nasiri)'Unforgivable error'
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Tuesday the downing of the Ukrainian plane was an "unforgivable error" and Iran will punish all those responsible for the accidental shooting, adding that the "tragic event" would be investigated thoroughly.
"The judiciary should form a special court with a ranking judge and dozens of experts," Mr Rouhani said.
"This is not an ordinary case. The entire the world will be watching this court."
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians — including many Iranians with dual citizenship — and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials.
There were several children among the passengers, including an infant.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau blames US and Iranian leaders
Globalnews.ca
✔@globalnews
https://twitter.com/globalnews/status/1216835206382080002
In an exclusive interview with @DFriesenGlobal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that in his opinion, the "tensions" in the region led directly to the downing of a passenger jet outside Tehran which claimed at least 57 Canadian lives.
READ MORE: https://globalnews.ca/news/6404191/justin-trudeau-iran-plane-crash-2020/ …
673
5:31 AM - Jan 14, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
623 people are talking about this
On Tuesday, Justin Trudeau blamed the showdown between Donald Trump and Iran's leaders for the deaths of the 176 people killed, saying they would still be alive if it was not for escalating tensions.
The Canadian leader said those who died when the aircraft was downed by an Iranian missile could have been "right now home with their families" if it was not for escalating tensions in the region.
"This is something that happens when you have conflict and war, innocents bear the brunt of it," Mr Trudeau said in an interview with Global News Television on Monday.
Iran shot down the plane when it was bracing for possible US retaliation for a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing US troops in Iraq.
No one was hurt in that attack, which was carried out to avenge the killing of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in an American airstrike in Baghdad.
The shootdown and the lack of transparency around it has reignited anger in Iran at the country's leadership, with protesters taking to the streets in past days.
Reuters/ABC
Iran has dared Trump once
Trump chickened out
When Iran attacked Yankee bases with no retaliation from Trump
- now, Iran has dared Trumped again, twice in the space of a week or less
and Trump, as usual, has chickened out again.
The only reason Iranian regime admitted to shooting down the plane is Pompayo said
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/threatens-retaliate-iran-shoot-down-21256533
US threatens to retaliate if Iran did shoot down passenger plane killing 176
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a thinly veiled warning after the Boeing 737-800 jet was brought down
there is simply no other reason Iranians should admit to shooting down this plane
much like how yankee aegis system's only ''success' in war is shooting down iranian civilian airliner, and even awarding their troops medals for bravery?
wtf!
Trump chickened out
When Iran attacked Yankee bases with no retaliation from Trump
- now, Iran has dared Trumped again, twice in the space of a week or less
and Trump, as usual, has chickened out again.
The only reason Iranian regime admitted to shooting down the plane is Pompayo said
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/threatens-retaliate-iran-shoot-down-21256533
US threatens to retaliate if Iran did shoot down passenger plane killing 176
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a thinly veiled warning after the Boeing 737-800 jet was brought down
- The White House has threatened “appropriate action” if it is proved Iran shot down the passenger plane over Tehran, killing 176 people.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a thinly veiled warning after the Boeing 737-800 jet was brought down.
Western intelligence officials believe the aircraft was targeted after being
there is simply no other reason Iranians should admit to shooting down this plane
much like how yankee aegis system's only ''success' in war is shooting down iranian civilian airliner, and even awarding their troops medals for bravery?
wtf!Similar threads
