The Filipino Monkey

Banging head against desk...

The threatening radio transmission heard at the end of a video showing harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a locally famous heckler known among ship drivers as the “Filipino Monkey.”...
In recent years, American ships operating in the Middle East have had to contend with a mysterious but profane voice known by the ethnically insulting handle of “Filipino Monkey,” likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets....

Rick Hoffman, a retired captain who commanded the cruiser Hue City and spent many of his 17 years at sea in the Gulf was subject to the renegade radio talker repeatedly, often without pause during the so-called “Tanker Wars” of 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.”

There have been naval incidents in the past, there will be more again. If the hype that this particular one got can cool down the tendencies in the Gulf, great. But the goal here was to create something that wingnut zombies can discuss over and over again in an effort to promote future war with Iran.

UPDATE: There were two other incidents between Iranian crafts and US warships in December. They were previously unreported. Hm, I wonder why? Maybe because they were routine and unremarkable and shouldn't have been released to be used as wingnut war fodder? But now that the Pentgon and the Administration is feeling heat about the Filipino Monkey incident, they have to release these other two. Good to know.