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A radio prankster may have broadcast the threat against US ships
that brought the United States and Iran close to confrontation in
the Strait of Hormuz last week, a newspaper that covers the US Navy
said.
The weekly Navy Times quoted US Navy officers in the Gulf as saying
the message may have been broadcast by "Filipino Monkey", a
notorious radio heckler whose voice has been heard for years in the
area.
The male voice, in accented English, said "I am coming to you...You
will explode after...minutes."
According to a soundtrack and video released by the Pentagon, the
threat was made as five small Iranian speedboats maneuvered around
three US warships on January 6 as they passed through the Strait, a
vital route for world oil shipments.
Tehran has described the encounter as normal and said its boats
were merely trying to identify the US vessels.
"Filipino Monkey" is famous in the Gulf for listening to
ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumping in with insults and
epithets, said Navy Times, which is published by Gannett Co
Inc.
The Navy had no immediate comment on the newspaper report.
US officials initially said they believed the threatening audio
message came from one of the Iranian boats but have since said they
are not certain of its origin.
The incident, in which the Navy said one ship came close to firing
on an Iranian boat, drew public condemnation from President George
Bush and a formal US protest, further straining ties between the
two countries.
Washington and Tehran are at odds over a range of issues from
Tehran's nuclear program to its support for Shi'ite militia in Iraq
and for militant groups elsewhere in the Middle East.
