Japan Suggests Israel or U.S. Could be Behind Tanker Attack, as President of Company Calls Pentagon Report Fake

A source within the government of Japan has suggested that Israel, as well as the US itself, could be behind an attack on a Japanese tanker, according to the Japanese daily Japan Today.

In an article "Japan demands more proof from U.S. that Iran attacked tankers," the newspaper's online version reports:

If having expertise sophisticated enough to conduct the attack could be a reason to conclude that the attacker was Iran, "That would apply to the United States and Israel as well," said a source at the Foreign Ministry.

Liberal/progressive commentator Cenk Uygur of the popular program The Young Turks said on a show recently that only Israel or Saudi Arabia had motive to attack a Japanese tanker, in order to blame it on Iran, after the president of the tanker company called US claims that Iran was responsible "false." Iran has categorically denied any involvement.

Israeli hardliners have long advocated for US military action against Iran.

President Trump recently cited a video released by the Pentagon as showing what the Pentagon says is a limpit underwater mine being removed by an Iranian special forces crew. But observers with military backgrounds say that the video does not show a limpit mine, which is large, heavy, and conical, but magnetic ladder rungs used for climbing the sides of ships.

The president of the tanker company insists unequivocally that the ship was fired upon by "flying objects," not mines.

CBS News said:

"Company president Yutaka Katada said Friday he believes the flying objects seen by the sailors could have been bullets. He denied any possibility of mines or torpedoes because the damage was above the ship's waterline. He called reports of a mine attack "false.""

The Washington Post in an article entitled "Trump rejects Iran’s denials that it attacked tankers, citing video released by Central Command" wrote:

"the head of the Japanese shipping company that owns one of the targeted tankers challenged the U.S. assertion that the vessel was attacked with limpet mines. He said Friday that the crew reported it was hit by “a flying object.”"

The New York Times reported:

"One of the tankers that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman was struck by a flying object, the ship’s Japanese operator said on Friday, expressing doubt that a mine had been attached to its hull."

In 2005 Israel publicly acknowledged carrying out a 1954 attack on American targets in the Middle East, known as the Lavon Affair, in which Israeli operatives planted bombs which were then falsely blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood.

And in 1967, in a still highly disputed incident, the crew of a US surveillance ship, the USS Liberty, say a 75 minute attack by Israeli warplanes was deliberate. The attack expended hundreds of rounds of cannon fire, rockets, napalm, machine-gun fire at lifeboats, and a torpedo from an Israeli patrol boat. It has been opined by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Admiral Thomas Moorer, that the attack may have been intended to draw the US into war with Egypt.

The attack killed 34 US sailors and wounded hundreds of others.

The Israeli newspaper Haraatz on last May 20th ran an article entitled "Netanyahu's Iran Dilemma: Getting Trump to Act Without Putting Israel on the Front Line" states:

"Even if Trump's instinct tells him it's best to avoid war with Iran, no one can be certain of his intentions - not even Netanyahu."

The Israeli secret service, the Mossad, proclaimed the slogan "by way of deception thou shalt make war." It has been changed to “without deception, a nation falls.”

In 2007, former commander of NATO and former presidential candidate General Wes Clark told an audience that a series of regime changes was planned by the Pentagon since before the invasion of Iraq. Clark said a general in the Bush administration told him before the invasion:

"This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran."