The Strait of Hormuz has been in the news almost daily so I decided to take a look at some history (you guys know I cannot pass up a history lesson)….
I found an interesting piece about the UK and their involvement in the region in the 70s….(I hope some of my UK readers will help shed some light on this piece of history)….
Previously secret military files reveal links between the use of torture by British forces in Oman and Northern Ireland during the 1970s.
An army major who led the worst of these interrogations in the Gulf would later earn a senior role in a secretive intelligence unit in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles.
Although that unit colluded with paramilitaries, the officer involved appears to have been promoted to MI5’s most senior role in Northern Ireland.
The interrogations done by his men in Oman were more extensive than previously reported and would be considered illegal by today’s standards.
They were employed as part of a counter-insurgency campaign waged for Sultan Qaboos, a pro-British dictator installed in Oman after an MI6-backed coup in 1970.
U.K. support for Qaboos was driven by a desire to secure oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which is flanked by Iran on one side and the disputed Musandam peninsula to the south.
British planners helped Qaboos annex Musandam in 1970, creating an Omani exclave separated from the rest of the country and surrounded by the Trucial States (which are now the United Arab Emirates).
Britain inserted elite SAS troops into Musandam in December 1970 to round up suspected rebels.
Declassified has previously found that while one member of the Shihuh tribe was being questioned, he refused to give up his ceremonial dagger and was shot in the arm, shoulder and neck.
It can now be revealed that another detainee who allegedly escaped in March 1971 was shot in the back and shoulder.
Regarding the incident, Geoffrey Arthur — British political resident for the Persian Gulf — told Conservative Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home:
“We might also eventually have to face questions as to why such persons had been detained and/or interrogated by British forces at Sharjah, but we would naturally try to prevent this aspect getting out.”
These are events we knew nothing about (that is why it is called a ‘state secret’)….but it is fascinating to shine a light on this portion of the region’s history.
I hope my UK readers may have some further information that I do not have and if anything needs corrected please do just that.
Side Note: the war is costing average Americans dearly….
By late September, the total cost of the higher gas and diesel prices triggered by President Trump’s war against Iran exceeded $103 billion, according to my organization’s analysis of the federal government’s energy data. And those higher prices aren’t showing any sign of slowing. If current trends hold, the price tag by the end of this year will approach $180 billion.
For the average household, that comes out to $750 extra so far, and that figure is on pace to top $1,300 by year’s end.
For a family of four with two drivers, those costs are even higher, topping $1,000 already and slated to be over $1,700 by the end of the year if the war continues. Our interactive tool, online at itep.org/iran-war-fuel-cost, lets you punch in your region and household size to get a sense of how much your family’s costs are rising.
There you go….is it not about time to end this stupidity?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
IT IS INDEED TIME TO STOP THE STUPIDITY BUT THE STUPIDITY IS NOT ABOUT TO STOP- IN FACT THE PRESIDENT HAS ANNOUNCED THAT HE HAS A BIG SURPRISE COMING FOR THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS AND I AM THINKING INVOKING THE INSURRECTION ACT TO PRESERVE POWER MIGHT BE ONE OF THOSE BIG SURPRISES.
And yet most Americans do nothing but hope for a change….he is always promising a big announcement….so far all he has done is massage his ego. chuq
The UK has had very close ties with Oman and Jordan for as long as I can remember. When I was an EMT, our ambulance training school was training Omani Army medics in separate classes. UK special forces also trained troops from Oman, both here and in Oman itself. The recent intention to prosecute soldiers for ‘war crimes’ committed as long ago as the 1960s has caused some outrage here. Many of those accused are obviously very old now, and it is believed that it might be difficult to secure convictions based on ‘evidence’ that was mostly supplied by paid informers and double agents. It’s a long debate in this country, and it is going to drag on fror some time.
Best wishes, Pete.
Fascinating…..that is an interesting thought….but as you say so many years ago…..chuq
Of course the stupidity has to end. Currently it’s state sponsored criminality with plenty of innocent civilians losing their lives at the behest of war criminals like Hesgeth and Trump
Don’t forget the biggest war crimi8nal of them all BiBi……chuq
Just think of the thousands of deaths of innocent civilians that this aged, senile, mentally ill old man in DC is now directly responsible for, and for no reason other than to boost his own ego.
I know it is a crime that will go unpunished…..chuq
Great Britain has been militarily involved in the middle east for something like 225 years dating back to the Napoleonic wars, then providing weapons and military training to Persia (now Iran) in early 1800s. Then the occupation of Egypt in the 1880s to protect business interests in the Suez Canal. Then fought in major battles there during WWI, including the horror that was Gallipoli. Then it spearheaded the League of Nations military control over Transjordan, Palestine and Iraq. because Britain wanted the port of Haifa and Palestine specifically to support the transport of oil for private oil companies. Then there was the Sykes-Picot agreement between Britain and France in 1916 that basically carved up the Arab territories into colonial territories. Then, of course, it was one of the major powers involved in basically stealing a large swath of land from the Palestinians to create Israel.
What it amounts to is the whole area has been subject to invasions, thefts of land, the creation of dictatorships and support of cruel political regimes for centuries, all to generate profits for the already wealthy
The area around the Strait seems to be ripe for exploitation….then and now…..chuq