Small Wars Journal

U.S.'s Evidence of Iran Threat Readied for Release by Pentagon

Fri, 05/17/2019 - 3:03pm

U.S.'s Evidence of Iran Threat Readied for Release by Pentagon by Anthony Capaccio - Bloomberg News

The Pentagon is working with its Defense Intelligence Agency to declassify and release images -- including two traditional sailing vessels carrying land-attack missiles -- to back up the Trump administration’s claims of a growing threat from Iran, according to four defense officials.

The evidence may be released within a day, according to one of the officials, because the White House recognizes it needs to disclose more documentation to skeptical allies, U.S. lawmakers and the public.

These include images of the two dhows, slow-moving vessels that U.S. analysts believe were carrying cruise missiles that are designed to attack land targets and would be fired directly from the boats rather than shipped to other locations, according to one of the defense officials.

The vessels could be easily disguised among the many dhows that transit the Persian Gulf in routine commerce -- unlike the easily spotted speedboats that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has long used to intimidate crews of oil vessels from other nations and occasionally to harass American ships in the Persian Gulf…

Read on.