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US Concedes Voices on Recording May Not Have Been From Iranian Speedboats
By Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl
ABC News
Thursday 10 January 2008
Chilling threat could have come from the
shore or another ship, navy says.
Just two days after the U.S. Navy released the eerie video of Iranian speedboats
swarming around American warships, which featured a chilling threat in English,
the Navy is saying that the voice on the tape could have come from the shore
or from another ship.
The near-clash occurred over the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz. On the U.S.-released
recording, a voice can be heard saying to the Americans, "I am coming to
you. You will explode after a few minutes."
The Navy never said specifically where the voices came from, but many were
left with the impression they had come from the speedboats because of the way
the Navy footage was edited.
Today, the spokesperson for the U.S. admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet clarified
to ABC News that the threat may have come from the Iranian boats, or it may
have come from somewhere else.
We're saying that we cannot make a direct connection to the boats there,"
said the spokesperson. "It could have come from the shore, from another
ship passing by. However, it happened in the middle of all the very unusual
activity, so as we assess the information and situation, we still put it in
the total aggregate of what happened Sunday morning. I guess we're not saying
that it absolutely came from the boats, but we're not saying it absolutely didn't."
The Iranians have denied using the threatening language and are saying U.S.-released
video is fabricated. Today, the Iranian government aired its own video of the
event on state-run TV there. On the audio, the voice that the Iranians say is
the communication from their vessel can be heard identifying itself to the American
ship, "Coalition warship No. 73 this is an Iranian navy patrol boat."
The incident ended without shots being fired, but senior defense officials
told ABC News that the USS Hopper's gunners were within seconds of firing on
the Iranians.
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