WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has taken command of Iranian naval operations in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military has revealed.

That means U.S. naval forces are operating in the same waters as an organization the United States considers a major supporter of terrorist activity.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the disclosure Wednesday at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was answering questions from military students.

Afterward, in a written statement, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said, "Based on activities observed in the Arabian Gulf over the past several months, it appears the Iranian navy has shifted its patrol areas to the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman -- leaving the IRGC navy to provide the primary Iranian naval presence in the Arabian Gulf."

The move is of concern to the U.S. Navy, which has long viewed the IRGC's forces as more antagonistic than Iran's regular navy.

Mullen said Iran made a "strategic decision" in recent months to "essentially give the entire Gulf to the IRGC over the next four or five years."

"That's a big deal, because I think part of the leading-edge challenge with Iran is the IRGC specifically," Mullen said.

For the past several months, IRGC forces have occupied a sunken barge and crane near Iraqi oil terminals at the northern end of the Persian Gulf. The IRGC is using the site as an observation post for the area, which is patrolled regularly by U.S. and coalition naval forces.

Mullen's comments reflect the chairman's concern about not just Iran's nuclear program, but also its arms shipments to Iraq and Afghanistan and statements against Israel, a senior U.S. Navy official said.

The United States has long said it believes the IRGC is behind those arms shipments, but it has stopped short of saying the central government of Iran is responsible for those actions.

IRGC forces earlier this year seized a group of British sailors at the northern end of the Gulf and held them for several days. The British had been conducting a boarding of a merchant vessel, as part of an approved coalition operation in the Gulf.

Since that incident, security measures for boarding parties have been stepped up, a senior U.S. Navy official said. New procedures during all boardings include flying an armed helicopter overhead and having an armed vessel close by.

A U.S. Navy official in the region said that operations in proximity to Iran's regular navy have been "formal and correct," but added that IRGC forces "rarely respond" to U.S. Navy attempts at ship-to-ship communications with them.

Several U.S. Navy officials said the move is militarily significant for the United States because of the IRGC's terrorist affiliation. U.S. Navy ships would not want IRGC vessels sailing too close to them because of that concern, they said.

One official said Iran's regular naval forces evoke less concern because they "represent a nation state."

The IRGC was formed in 1979. Under Iran's constitution, the corps' task is to protect the revolution, which generally means that it makes sure that domestic forces don't threaten the theocratic state, said analyst William Samii of the Center for Naval Analyses. The center is a government-funded think tank for the Department of the Navy in Alexandria, Virginia.

In contrast, the conventional forces are tasked with protecting the country's borders and guaranteeing its security.

The naval move "makes perfect sense," Samii said in a telephone interview.

In recent years, the Iranian military has recognized that, in a toe-to-toe fight with the U.S. military, "they'd get squashed," Samii said.

In response, it has been focusing more on alternative tactics, in which the Revolutionary Guards excel, such as setting mine fields and using large numbers of small boats either packed with explosives or manned by personnel carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The thinking is that at least one would be able to get close enough to a large enemy military vessel to attack it, Samii said.

"Iran is trying to send a signal that it is ready for any military eventuality and that it is prepared to defend itself aggressively," he said.

But the move could backfire by driving Iran's Gulf neighbors into the arms of the United States, which has guaranteed the security of Arab states in the Gulf for decades, Samii said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...avy/index.html

We need to hit Iran and hit them now before it's to late. Do we have to wait for another 9/11 to happen first?

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John McCain For President and Duncan Hunter for Vice President 2008!

If you attack the Clintons publically make sure all your friends know your not planning on commiting suicide

Democrats...so much crap it takes two Johns to hold it all.

What makes you think that even IF another 9/11 happens, it will be Iran's fault? Because the Bush admin is probably going to make that the case regardless? And what do we do when China and Russia retaliate on multiple levels?

Start volleying nukes until last man standing?

I fail to see why the strike is necessary because Iran is guarding their own country.

But enlighten us Nevada. I mean, afterall, you're just a bundle of wisdom on this board.

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"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

-Ronald Reagan

No, you enlighten us Pauli, what is it you would have us do? Please do not say, SEND IN THE ISRAELIS. They would more likely than not, be willing to go.

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"We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all, we cannot go on being led as we are. Somehow or other, we must get into the Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory."~Leo Amery 1940, while staring at Chamberlain

War loving Cons are always telling me that, in spite of all their belligerent posts about Iran, no one is really advocating war against Iran.


I present exhibit number one:


Originally Posted by Nevadamedic

We need to hit Iran and hit them now before it's to late. Do we have to wait for another 9/11 to happen first?

Telling you what? I'm sorry, I missed it.

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"We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all, we cannot go on being led as we are. Somehow or other, we must get into the Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory."~Leo Amery 1940, while staring at Chamberlain

Because wingnut radio and the rightwing media have trained cons, pavlovian-dog style, to assume that iran is on the verge of attacking us. Just like the brainwashing that led to the iraq war. Iran is a problematic country, but they're not stupid. They have no vested interest in attacking the homeland of the united states.

Plus, cons have their priorties all wrong. A nuclear attack against us, if it were to occur, will likely come from stolen radioactive material from one of the former soviet republics. The media this week reported that enriched uranium was just stolen from ukraine, or one of those countries.

Since 2001, Bush has downgraded america's efforts to help the former soviet states in securing their poorly guarded nuclear material. This is what you get, when you propagandize cons into waging wars against oil-rich countries that don't pose an imminent threat. Its about the oil, as General Abazaid recently said.


He wants to attack iran. I think he made that clear.

Hand in glove, far right and far left. Kudo, paulis!

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"We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all, we cannot go on being led as we are. Somehow or other, we must get into the Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory."~Leo Amery 1940, while staring at Chamberlain

OH MAH GUARD. THE PERSIANS ARE PATROLLING THE PERSIAN GULF!

Who in their reich mind could doubt that this isn't yet another deliberate provocation on their part? Look at their history. These people are unabashed warmongers!

Of course these belligerent bastards will claim their patrols are because of America's nuclear armed armada, with far more firepower than the entire D Day armada, that is threatening their country. BULLSHIT!

This is standard procedure for all empires. For instance, the Reich has always ignored hostile powers, with the same pronounced hostile intent, patrolling the Gulf of Mexico and both coasts.

Why Americans didn't even bat an eyelash when Russia set up missiles in Cuba!

So I too say we should nuke these bastards - before one of their grenade armed rubber duckies attacks one of our carriers.

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- says professed Mormon, Retired Gunnery Sergeant, who swears he never availed himself of their services

That's the best you can do? Quoting NM to make your case? Dude, you need some SERIOUS help.

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You can't always be first .... but you CAN be NEXT

Tell it like it is, chips!!!!!!!


Doesn't it make you sick to have to keep repeating basically the same things to those that so advocate continued and escalated WAR from the safety of their arm chairs?

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Psychoblues

Turning Mississippi Blue, Again,,,,,,,One Red Assed Republican At A Time

Meanwhile, back in the USSR, boys: "OH MAH GUARDSKI, THE AMERICANSKIS ARE PATROLLING ALL OUR COASTS!"

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- says professed Mormon, Retired Gunnery Sergeant, who swears he never availed himself of their services

What will they think of next?

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A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.

Iranian rubber rafts patrolling the Gulf of Iran is seen as a flagrant provocation to America's pirate fleet, permanently stationed there as a threat to Iran. But not a word, even in America's so-called librul Eschew Pork Times, about Russia patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and conducting live firing exercises there

Doesn't sacrosanct Israel (genuflects in general direction of Jerusalem) have a Mediterranean coastline. Then why isn't The Imperial Fleet at least menacing these Bolshie bastards. Has everyone forgotten so soon how Tsarist Russia treated its Jews?

Doesn't America have other Mediterranioinian .... um, Mediterraneanlander (?) allies that it will cause a nuclear holocaust over?

What about Crowatia, that is about the same size, population wise, as Israel. Whaddaya mean “Croatia doesn't matter because it's not the focus of a genocidal Jewish fable”?!!

Meanwhile, back in the United Semitic States of Um-Er-iKKKA, their strongman, Presidrunk Shultz “I-Know-Nothink!...Nothink!!” Bush, was heard to lament, “O-w-o-o! If only those Russistanis were as militarily feeble as Bhutan or Benin, we'd sure show them not to fuck with us!"

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- says professed Mormon, Retired Gunnery Sergeant, who swears he never availed himself of their services

what should we do because the IRGC is patrolling in international waters AND Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf?

Be vigilant. Be professional.

Dispatch them quickly to the bottom if they try to fuck with us.

The incredibly overwhelming firepower superiority of the US Naval forces in the region is mindboggling.

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"In a rich society, no one should be allowed to suffer from deprivation such as homelessness, starvation and illness. This ideal is essential, not simply as a matter of human good, but as the price we pay for a measure of domestic tranquility. "

John Kenneth Galbraith

I always got a kick out of going through the Straits of Hormuz at the Iranian version of PT boats rushing out to shake their fists at us. This really non-news. The Iranians have always patrolled the Persian Gulf as far as I know.

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You can't always be first .... but you CAN be NEXT