Iran says it arrests CIA spies, Gulf tensions simmer

[snoop1130]

Iran says it arrests CIA spies, Gulf tensions simmer

By Michael Georgy

 

FILE PHOTO: Tehran skyline as seen from Iran's interior ministry in Tehran, October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Gabriela Baczynska

 

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran announced on Monday it had captured 17 spies working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and sentenced some of them to death, deepening a crisis between the Islamic Republic and the West.

 

Iranian state television published images that it said showed the CIA officers who had been in touch with the suspected spies.

 

In a statement read on state television, the Ministry of Intelligence said 17 spies had been arrested in the 12 months to March 2019. Some have been sentenced to death, according to another report.

 

Such announcements are not unusual in Iran, and are often made for domestic consumption. But the timing suggests Tehran could harden its position in a standoff with Western powers which has raised fears of a direct military confrontation.

 

In recent weeks the United States has blamed Iran for attacks on shipping near the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil trade’s most important waterway, accusations Iran has denied.

 

The United States and Iran have downed drones operated by the other side and on Friday, Iran captured a British-registered tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran had previously warned it would respond to Britain’s seizure of an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar on July 4.

 

There was no immediate comment on the Iranian allegations by the CIA or U.S. officials.

 

Iran announced in June that it had broken up an alleged CIA spy ring but it was unclear whether Monday’s announcement was linked to the same case.

 

BRITAIN’S NEXT MOVE

 

Prime Minister Theresa May’s office has said she would chair a meeting of Britain’s COBR emergency response committee early on Monday to discuss the tanker crisis and the government was expected to announce its next steps in parliament.

 

As Britain weighed its next move a recording emerged showing the Iranian military defied a British warship when it boarded and seized the Stena Impero, underscoring the challenges Britain faces responding.

 

Experts on the region say there are few obvious steps London can take at a time when the United States has already imposed the maximum possible economic sanctions, banning all Iranian oil exports worldwide.

 

Washington imposed the sanctions after President Donald Trump pulled out of a deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, which had provided Iran access to world trade in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

 

European countries including Britain have been caught in the middle. They disagreed with the U.S. decision to quit the nuclear deal but have so far failed to offer Iran another way to receive the deal’s promised economic benefits.

 

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that Japan wants to make every effort to reduce tension between the United States and Iran before responding to an expected U.S. request to send its navy to safeguard strategic waters off Iran.

 

Japanese media have said Washington’s proposal to boost surveillance of vital Middle East oil shipping lanes off Iran and Yemen could be on the agenda during a visit to Tokyo this week by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.

 

“We have a long tradition of friendship with Iran and I’ve met with its president any number of times, as well as other leaders,” Abe told a news conference after his coalition’s victory in a Sunday election for parliament’s upper house.

 

“Before we make any decisions on what to do, Japan would like to make every effort to reduce tensions between Iran and the United States.”

 

The United States is struggling to win its allies’ support for an initiative to heighten surveillance of vital Middle East oil shipping lanes because of fears it will increase tension with Iran, six sources familiar with the matter said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-07-22

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[sammieuk1]

Time approaching to take them turbans down ????

[from the home of CC]

after torture you would admit to anything, makes it hard to really know the truth..

[HeyHeyHey]

The Tehran skyline is prime example of how high tech they are.

 

Dust left after US and the UK fart with only their two generation old weapons.

[bristolboy]

12 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Time approaching to take them turbans down ????

And Trump is just the man not to do it. He actually thanked the Iranians for not shooting down a plane filled with Americans and shooting down a drone instead.

[sammieuk1]

2 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

And Trump is just the man not to do it. He actually thanked the Iranians for not shooting down a plane filled with Americans and shooting down a drone instead.

He's waiting to play his Trump card to confuse em????

[bristolboy]

7 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

He's waiting to play his Trump card to confuse em????

He's sh*tting bricks and cursing Pompeo and Bolton for getting him into this mess. He's already backed way way down on his demands.

[Sujo]

26 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

after torture you would admit to anything, makes it hard to really know the truth..

Guantanamo is proof of that

[sammieuk1]

7 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

He's sh*tting bricks and cursing Pompeo and Bolton for getting him into this mess. He's already backed way way down on his demands.

No bricks he will take them out with a single tweet failing that he has the armed to the teeth mate Mr Kim to point his long things at the gulf instead of Guam ???? 

[marcusarelus]

10 hours ago, bristolboy said:

He's sh*tting bricks and cursing Pompeo and Bolton for getting him into this mess. He's already backed way way down on his demands.

He added sanctions not subtracted them. 

[phantomfiddler]

High time Iran got stomped on, turned into a car parking lot !

[ThaiFelix]

Never fear, Trump will just lie, deny it or back down as he usually does.

[sfokevin]

Related to this Secretary Pompeo was reported to have said that UK needs to take care of its own ships!... I wonder what Fox News would have said if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton/Obama Admin would have made such a statement... 

[bristolboy]

Just now, phantomfiddler said:

High time Iran got stomped on, turned into a car parking lot !

Trump disagrees wìth you. I woonder if there's a Hallmark greeting card "Thanks so much for not shooting down our plane"

[Pedrogaz]

The animosity toward Iran shows how powerful propaganda can be. 

[Tug]

13 hours ago, bristolboy said:

He's sh*tting bricks and cursing Pompeo and Bolton for getting him into this mess. He's already backed way way down on his demands.

I think Donald got us into this mess all by himsielf and appointing Bolton was another blunder on his part sad to all the poor souls caught up in this mess

[ThaiFelix]

11 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

The animosity toward Iran shows how powerful propaganda can be. 

Exactly!!  I was watching a movie/series the other day which was full of US flags in every corner, constant cries of "God bless the USA" and how the US was "saving the world".  The thing was that every enemy country mentioned had a fictitious name......except for Iran and North Korea?

 

Now why is that??

[Burma Bill]

Quote:-

"Prime Minister Theresa May’s office has said she would chair a meeting of Britain’s COBRA emergency response committee early on Monday to discuss the tanker crisis"

Send in the SAS on a covert operation to recover the vessel!!

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, Tug said:

I think Donald got us into this mess all by himsielf and appointing Bolton was another blunder on his part sad to all the poor souls caught up in this mess

Did you catch that news that when Trump went to North Korea he sent Bolton to Mongolia. Can't deny that Trump has a sense of humor, if only a cruel one.

It's pretty clear Trump isn't happy about having gotten into this mess.

[Morch]

5 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

The animosity toward Iran shows how powerful propaganda can be. 

 

And pushing the view that this doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with Iran is not propagandist...?

 

[Morch]

5 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

Exactly!!  I was watching a movie/series the other day which was full of US flags in every corner, constant cries of "God bless the USA" and how the US was "saving the world".  The thing was that every enemy country mentioned had a fictitious name......except for Iran and North Korea?

 

Now why is that??

 

Maybe you should try and watch some movies and series from said countries. See how they depict rivals. I've no idea what you watched, but doubt all such conform to your description.

 

Iran and North Korea names are used because there's ongoing hostility, and because there ain't going to be a whole lot of a backlash compared to other candidates.

[Srikcir]

21 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

Time approaching to take them turbans down ????

You're referring to a religion found predominantly in Western-styled democracies.

http://www.mashupamericans.com/issues/is-it-hot-under-there/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhism_by_country

• Sikhism is a religion recognized by the turban having about 25 million people around the world as the fifth largest world religion by population.
• Sikhism can be found predominantly in the Punjab state of India but Sikh communities exist on every inhabited continent, with the largest emigrant population being in United States (500,000), Canada and United Kingdom. 
• Iran is recorded to have 60 Sikh families (2012).

 

[sammieuk1]

2 hours ago, Srikcir said:

You're referring to a religion found predominantly in Western-styled democracies.

http://www.mashupamericans.com/issues/is-it-hot-under-there/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhism_by_country

• Sikhism is a religion recognized by the turban having about 25 million people around the world as the fifth largest world religion by population.
• Sikhism can be found predominantly in the Punjab state of India but Sikh communities exist on every inhabited continent, with the largest emigrant population being in United States (500,000), Canada and United Kingdom. 
• Iran is recorded to have 60 Sikh families (2012).

 

Just this type

 

[ThaiFelix]

On 7/23/2019 at 4:21 PM, Morch said:

I've no idea what you watched, but doubt all such conform to your description.

So you dont watch a lot of movies/TV series??

 

"Iran and North Korea names are used because there's ongoing hostility, and because there ain't going to be a whole lot of a backlash compared to other candidates."

 

I somewhat see your reasoning there but it seems for the effort needed why change the others but not two more?  No its obviously subliminal brainwashing.

 

[ThaiFelix]

On 7/23/2019 at 4:18 PM, Morch said:

 

And pushing the view that this doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with Iran is not propagandist...?

 

Hahaha!! You think that a couple of comments in an expat forum in a small country could be classed as propaganda??   It doesnt quite cater to the masses lol!

[Morch]

16 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

So you dont watch a lot of movies/TV series??

 

"Iran and North Korea names are used because there's ongoing hostility, and because there ain't going to be a whole lot of a backlash compared to other candidates."

 

I somewhat see your reasoning there but it seems for the effort needed why change the others but not two more?  No its obviously subliminal brainwashing.

 

 

So you make a lot of pointless comments? Not everyone is necessarily into your own to-watch-list.

 

Go back in time, and watch similar stuff. Germans, Russians, Chinese, Vietnamese, and all sort of ME types were the villains of choice - around the time they were the main opposition. As times change, so does the content. It's more a reflection of reality rather than "obviously subliminal brainwashing".

[Morch]

16 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

Hahaha!! You think that a couple of comments in an expat forum in a small country could be classed as propaganda??   It doesnt quite cater to the masses lol!

 

The comment, the view it represent and the agenda are propagandist in nature. It doesn't matter if it's the original comment, or if it appears on mass media. As for the "expat form in a small country" bit - it's not much of an effort or investment to "cover" such outlets. And rather more effective than some imagine if the country in question does not have a whole lot of English language platforms.

[ThaiFelix]

4 hours ago, Morch said:

 

So you make a lot of pointless comments? Not everyone is necessarily into your own to-watch-list.

 

Go back in time, and watch similar stuff. Germans, Russians, Chinese, Vietnamese, and all sort of ME types were the villains of choice - around the time they were the main opposition. As times change, so does the content. It's more a reflection of reality rather than "obviously subliminal brainwashing".

No I dont make a lot of pointless comments like your first sentence above.  And my to-watch list is usually latest releases. (how that matters to you, I dont know??)

 

You always come close to making sense then quickly veer away.  As I asked previously why not change all the countries names to fictitious ones.

[ThaiFelix]

4 hours ago, Morch said:

 

The comment, the view it represent and the agenda are propagandist in nature. It doesn't matter if it's the original comment, or if it appears on mass media. As for the "expat form in a small country" bit - it's not much of an effort or investment to "cover" such outlets. And rather more effective than some imagine if the country in question does not have a whole lot of English language platforms.

Once again you dont make much sense.  I feel you are just trying to have the last word...again.

[Morch]

55 minutes ago, ThaiFelix said:

No I dont make a lot of pointless comments like your first sentence above.  And my to-watch list is usually latest releases. (how that matters to you, I dont know??)

 

You always come close to making sense then quickly veer away.  As I asked previously why not change all the countries names to fictitious ones.

 

A pointless comment would be " So you dont watch a lot of movies/TV series??" included in your previous post. Your watch list determines what you watch, and as a result, what you complain about.

 

Talk about "making sense", then raise some bogus question like why would all countries names be changed to fictitious ones - doesn't make much sense. Why would countries names be changed? It this some new PC thing?