DAMASCUS - A study was recently reported
in the Nursing Standard Magazine, conducted by the
University of Sheffield, based on the response of
250 boys and girls aged between four and 16. Both
young and old found clowns unattractive and in
some cases scary. Penny Curtis, a senior
researcher at Sheffield, noted, "We found that
clowns are universally disliked by children. Some
found them quite frightening and unknowable."
When reading that statement, one imagines
the typical red-nosed, white-faced, fuzzy-haired,
over-sized shoes clown we see in commercials and
at birthday parties. There are also other
clowns out there - in the
waters of the Persian Gulf (out of all places) -
that are dangerous and equally "scary" to people.
At least this is what US sailors
discovered on January 6. This time, a faceless
clown known as the "Filipino Monkey" sparked off a
maritime diplomatic crisis in the Strait of Hormuz
between the United States and Iran - two countries
that have been at loggerheads since George W Bush
came to power in 2001.
Reportedly, the
threats came from Iranian ships belonging to the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. The US
released a video of the incident, where a US crew
member is heard speaking into a communication
radio saying: "This is coalition warship. I am
engaged in transit passage in accordance with
international law. I maintain no harm. Over!" The
voice on the other end - speaking in heavily
accented English - says: "I am coming to you. You
will explode in minutes!"
The Pentagon has
since admitted that it dubbed the mysterious voice
over its video "to give a better idea of what is
happening". The Iranian version has no smidgen of
aggressive behavior. It shows an Iranian official
speaking in Persian trying to identify one of the
warships (Number 73). He then says: "Navy warship
73; this is Iranian navy patrol boat on channel
16. Come in! Over!" An American voice is heard
responding: "This is coalition warship 73. Roger!
Over!" The Iranians then ask the American boat to
switch to channel 11, and the Americans comply. No
threats. No strange and deadly voice coming
through the radio saying: "You will explode!"
The Iranians downplayed the entire ordeal,
stressing that there was routine questioning of
the US warships. The Arab media on the other hand
paid little attention to the entire ordeal,
claiming that it was yet another publicity stunt
by Bush to escalate tension in US-Iranian
relations. Iran might be an ambitious and defiant
nation - but it is certainly not stupid and would
never issue such a ludicrous threat: "You will
explode," even if it actually intended to blow up
a US ship.
But the question remains, who
is the Filipino Monkey?
Filipino
monkey According to different reports, the
"Monkey" (or "Monkeys", there may be more than
one) have been monitoring the airwaves of the
Persian Gulf since the late 1980s. Roughly a punk
version of World War II Japanese and German
propaganda broadcasters Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally,
the Filipino Monkey has been harassing maritime
traffic of all stripes, listening to ship-to-ship
radio traffic and then interrupting, usually with
abusive insults. The Filipino Monkey nickname
reportedly came from taunts hurled at Filipino
sailors.
Rick Hoffman, a retired US Navy
captain, told Navy Times: "For 25 years, there's
been this mythical guy out there who, hour after
hour, shouts obscenities and threats. He used to
go all night long. The guy is crazy. Could it have
been a spurious transmission? Absolutely. He
added, "I don't think it was the Iranians. It was
not related. It was someone spoofing."
An
unnamed civilian mariner told the Navy Times:
"They come on and say Filipino Monkey in a strange
voice. You're standing watch on bridge and all of
a sudden it comes over the radio. It's been a joke
out there for years." He bursts in on radio
transmissions, makes odd, racist and sometimes
aggressive remarks, then signs off with loud and
hysteric laughter, saying: "Hee, hee, hee ...
Filipino Monkey!"
Some media attention to
this phenomenon started during Operation Earnest
Will in 1987, when the US military was protecting
Kuwaiti oil tankers during the final stage of the
Iran-Iraq War. The "Monkey" burst in on marine
channel 16, (the International Emergency Distress
Frequency), which all ships are required to
monitor with obscene statements and laughter
before signing off.
Another retired
official backed Hoffman's statement, saying: "It
wouldn't have surprised me at all. There's all
kinds of chatter on Channel 16. Anybody with a
receiver and transmitter can hear something going
on. It was entirely plausible and consistent with
the radio environment to interject themselves and
make a threatening comment and think they're being
funny." He finally noted, "Guys would just get
bored!"
If the Americans have invested in
the practical joke of a radio prankster, then this
shows a great deal of bankruptcy in US diplomacy.
It is almost unimaginable that the Americans would
resort to such a cheap technique to build up an
argument against Iran.
This is even worse
then the "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction
and is linked to al-Qaeda" argument the Americans
used in 2001-2002 to prepare for their invasion of
Iraq.
Equally unbelievable is the fact
that a madman has been on the airwaves of the
Persian Gulf since 1987 - meddling with maritime
civilian and military operations - and neither the
Iranians, nor the Americans, nor the all-mighty
Iraqis under Saddam Hussein - have been able to
catch him and put him in jail, or an asylum.
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian
political analyst.
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