Please explain this Reuters report on yahoo:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five Chinese ships including a Chinese naval vessel harassed a U.S. Navy ship in the South China Sea on Sunday, at one point closing to within 25 feet of the ocean surveillance ship, the Pentagon said.

A Defense Department statement said the Chinese vessels "shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity" to the USS Impeccable, which was conducting routine operations in international waters 75 miles south of Hainan Island.

The Pentagon identified the Chinese vessels as a Navy intelligence ship, a bureau of maritime fisheries patrol vessel, a state oceanographic administration patrol vessel, and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers.

The Pentagon said the U.S. ship was operated by a civilian crew under contract with the Defense Department and accused the Chinese vessels of violating international law.

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Here is the link to the article: news.yahoo.com...

I find it wierd that it was a "US Navy ship" (doesn't that mean NAVY?) USS Impeccable but it was "operated by a civilian crew under contract wiht the Defense Department"

Can you knowledgable people please explain this?

Thank you!

on going thread

If you want my opinion, it is all staged to bring even more fear to the public. Manipulation is written all over this...

They are DOD employees on this ship. It is a research vessel. There is already a thread on this subject.

the part of the report that says the U.S. Navy sprayed the chinese ship with its fire hose and then the chinese sailors disrobed to their underwear on the deck and waved the chinese flags. Hilarious.

U.S. accuses China of "unprofessional acts" yet it sprays their ship with a fire hose? LOL!

I guess what I am askinging if I didnt' make it clear. This is a US NAVY Ship why do they say it had civilian crew?

CIA, NSA, etc etc are all civilian government employees. It's an Intel gathering ship regardless of "what" they claim it is. So? Primarily civilians on board.

Even if they are alphabet agency on board I would think it would primarily have Navy personell on a Navy ship. This seems very wierd to me, I wondered if it was misprint at first. The picture of the USS Impeccable in the other forum looks really wierd also.

Reminds me of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident which you can read about in depth through our FOIA documents forum:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

WASHINGTON – Chinese ships surrounded and harassed a Navy mapping ship in international waters off China, at one point coming within 25 feet of the American boat and strewing debris in its path, the Defense Department said Monday. The Obama administration said it would continue naval operations in the South China Sea, most of which China considers its territory, and protested to China about what it called reckless behavior that endangered lives.

At one point during the incident Sunday the unarmed USNS Impeccable turned fire hoses on an approaching Chinese ship in self defense, the Pentagon said. At another point a Chinese ship played chicken with the Americans, stopping dead in front of the Impeccable as it tried to sail away, forcing the civilian mariners to slam on the brakes.

"We view these as unprofessional maneuvers" and a violation of international law, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

news.yahoo.com...



[edit on 9-3-2009 by antar]

This is a research ship so they have contractors from various defense companies performing research. It is funded by the DOD. If you want to see how contracts work. Take a look at this link: fbo.gov These are contracts where the Different government entities contract work out to the private sector. You will see that there is alot of opportunities that mirror work that is performed by the military. So this ship was most likely funded under the Department of Navy and they did not want to expend their manpower under something that could be contracted out.

-Kdial1

I find it more than a little scary that ANY US military branch would have US military equipment like a ship, plane or tank manned by NON US military persnell. Was this not how Hitler brought in Fascism? Using non military and foriegn soldiers? Forgive me if I am naive and only now getting my eyes opened.

reply to post by pianopraze


Its a deep submersible recovery Ship and is my belief that it is there to pick up the North Korean Missile that is expected to be fired soon. We are there either to shoot it down and recover or pick up rocket booster pieces or something, no other reason to send a DSRV Ship to those waters...

Originally posted by pianopraze
I find it more than a little scary that ANY US military branch would have US military equipment like a ship, plane or tank manned by NON US military persnell. Was this not how Hitler brought in Fascism? Using non military and foriegn soldiers? Forgive me if I am naive and only now getting my eyes opened.

Please remember the majority of these contractors are Veterans that are performing the same job they did in the service.

How do you think a person like me that served in the military would get a decent job when my specialty was Air surveillance radars? Well this is where the contracts come for our veterans and keep them employed.

If we did not have Defense companies we would have lots of homeless vets much like what happened with Vietnam.

-Kdial1

I am a disabled vet myself. But it still distresses me that a US Military vessel is manned not by us military but by civilians. Civilian contracting with Ratheon, GE, ad nauseum in building weapons and systems is one thing, this is another. I have to a great deal felt alex jones et all were a little over zealous in their conclusions. This is the first thing that really makes me wonder... well maybe Haliburton taking over - what was it Tecrit? with private soldiers- is another.

Originally posted by pianopraze
I am a disabled vet myself. But it still distresses me that a US Military vessel is manned not by us military but by civilians. Civilian contracting with Ratheon, GE, ad nauseum in building weapons and systems is one thing, this is another. I have to a great deal felt alex jones et all were a little over zealous in their conclusions. This is the first thing that really makes me wonder... well maybe Haliburton taking over - what was it Tecrit? with private soldiers- is another.

They do everything you can imagine.

Look at the hostages from Columbia that were recently released after years of captivity, they were defense contractors and their jobs were counter-narcotics operations. Their plane crashed unfortunately and they were captured.

You want to see everything they do just research it, it is available publicly online:

Services from 1 defense contractor

Defense industry is involved in everything, you are just realizing it now. You just had an epiphany. Go through the list and you will see everything it is involved in from Norad to actually having pilots.

-Kdial1

-Kdial