AP Slickly Defends Iran, Strongly Implies U.S. Was Victim Of Persian Gulf Prankster
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A threatening radio message at the end of a video showing Iranian patrol boats swarming near U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf may have come from a prankster rather than from the Iranian vessels, the Navy Times newspaper has reported.
A video and audio of the Jan. 6 incident in the Strait of Hormuz featured a man in accented English saying “I am coming to you. … You will explode after … minutes.”
Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, said the Navy was still trying to determine the source of the transmission but believed it was related to the Iranian actions.
“The Iranian boats were coming close to the ships, making aggressive maneuvers and objects were being dropped into the water,” she told The Associated Press.
However, the Navy Times, a weekly newspaper published by the Gannett company, quoted several veteran sailors as speculating the transmission could have come from a radio heckler, widely known among mariners by the ethnically insulting term “the Filipino Monkey.”
The newspaper, which serves the Navy community, said U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf have heard the prankster — possibly more than one person — transmitting “insults and jabbering vile epithets” on unencrypted frequencies.
“Navy women — a helicopter pilot hailing a tanker, for example — who are overheard on the radio are said to suffer particularly degrading treatment,” the newspaper said Sunday. “Several Navy ship drivers interviewed by Navy Times are raising the possibility that the Monkey, or an imitator, was indeed featured in that video.”
Filipino Monkey is a name used by mariners around the globe for someone who uses his radio for unnecessary or inappropriate transmissions.
It also is sometimes used by the prankster himself. Two Navy officers said they have personally been aboard ships elsewhere in the world when all of a sudden they’ve heard someone from another vessel come on the radio and say, “Filipino Monkey, Filipino Monkey” over and over again in a singsong voice.
U.S. Navy officials at Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain could not immediately be reached for comment. However, Navy officials have said they were unsure where the transmission came from.
The threat, however, ratcheted up tensions in the incident, which began when Iranian patrol boats swarmed around three U.S. Navy vessels near Iranian waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has denied that its boats threatened the U.S. vessels and accused Washington of fabricating video and audio it released. Iran’s government has released its own video, which appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least yards from the American warships.
The Navy Times quoted Rick Hoffman, a retired captain, as saying a renegade talker repeatedly harassed ships in the Gulf in the late 1980s.
“For 25 years there’s been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats,” he said. “He could be tied up pierside somewhere or he could be on the bridge of a merchant ship,” Hoffman said.
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More fun than a barrel full of Filipino monkeys.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:36 amWell you know if the MSM says it that it is 99.99% BDS, anti-American, apease the enemy rhetoric.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:42 amI suppose those speed boats were no where in the vicinity of our ships, right?
January 15th, 2008 at 4:24 am“More fun than a barrel full of Filipino monkeys.”
yeah, could be ! (was that you ment though ?)
I remember a travel from La Rochelle to Santa Cruz of Tenerife with a catamaran : there were lots of oil tankers on our way that we had to stay aware of not crossing their line ; in a boring calm day, our skipper awaked the tankers pilots who were mostly “filipono”, he called them on their radio, give them the name of monkeys, and fuck the “gnaquees” … so we had immediately their response with all sort of insults too
January 15th, 2008 at 8:30 amFranchie, it’s my own version of an expression of “more fun than a barrel full of monkeys”. Maybe when the kids are going crazy the mother might say that. For the purposes of this story and to be sarcastic I added Filipino. It’s just playing with words and expressions. I’m sure the French do it, too.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:35 amthe TIMES papers are not affiliated with the military.. they are private MSM venues and should be treated as any of the MSM. there is nothing OFFICIAL in there make up..those boats were not pranksters,, and only the MSM is making a big deal out of it,, the NAVY did what it is trained to do and has done on several occasions but those nut jobs..or as we say here in the U.S. demorats…
January 15th, 2008 at 10:31 am