Unforgettable Crime of Supporters of Human Rights!

The free people of the world have always sustained damages from superpowers particularly the criminal United States and so long as they are not resolute to confront global polytheism and infidelity as well as the domineering US they will witness fresh crimes. 

The noble Iranian people must be mindful that our war today is not a war against Iraq or Israel, not against Egypt, Jordan and Morocco nor is it a war against superpowers of the West and the East, our war is for our school of thought.

It is a war against all the inequalities of the worlds of Capitalism and Communism. Our war today is a war against the luxurious life of the rich rulers of Islamic countries. Such a war does not know any weapon; this war is not limited to borders; housing, bitterness, poverty and hunger cannot affect this war; this is the war of faith, the war of faith-based values of the Revolution against the dirty world of money, force and luxury; our war is the war of sanctity; the battle of grandeur, dignity and resistance against inhumanity; our combatants are breathing in the world of pure faith and belief.

The Muslims of the world, who know it is a war between arrogance and Islam will not let domineering powers lead an easy life and will deal blows to palace dwellers.  The explosion of the passenger airplane rings an alarm for all air travels. We must do our utmost effort to avoid the recurrence of such tragic events. I offer my condolences to the relatives of the victims of the disaster and share in their grief.

Part of Message by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei on the Crime of Aggressive US

The tragic and disastrous incident of raiding a passenger plane and the killing of hundreds of innocent men, women and children onboard indicate the mad wrath and rancor of the United States toward our Revolution and the Islamic system. It shows that in confrontation with Islam the Great Satan has moved toward falling in the swamp of the most brutal crimes. 

It indicates that the wicked global arrogance has reached nowhere through its use of political, propaganda and military plots against Islamic Iran; thus the enemy does not know any other way but to resort to violent and shameful terrorism. The event also shows the depth of a disaster which humanity is facing today.

How come a government, which claims civilization, with all its hypocrisy on human rights and pretension to oppose terrorism astonishingly uses the products of human progress in a practical way, brutally and mercilessly killing hundreds of passengers in a free and authorized airspace, leaving hundreds of families in the grief of their lost beloved? Hereby on behalf of the Iranian nation I introduce the US administration and US President Ronald Reagan as criminal and murderer. 

The wrath of the enemy is the reason for our victory and the occurrence of the terrible and disgraceful crime by the US is another reason for its failure in forcing our nation back in political arena. I express condolences on the sad occasion of the martyrdom of a group of defenseless passengers to our great leader and dear father as well as the Iranian nation, bereaved families in particular and pray to God to give them patience and resistance as well as heartfelt and spiritual tranquility.

Most Terrible Crime of History

The targeting of an Iranian passenger plane in the Persian Gulf by US forces on 3 July 1988 is a sad proof of US state terrorism which annually calls vigilant and free consciences to judgment.

The terrible crime, committed by US forces deployed on the deck of the USS Vincennes on 3 July 1988 at 10:22 local time by firing two missiles, was recorded in the criminal history of the White House at a time when Americans were joyfully celebrating the independence anniversary of the United States. After the combatants and brave soldiers of the Islamic Army during the Sacred Defense era incredibly disrupted all military equations of global arrogance through their victories and conquests and when the theory of "Crisis Control" by prominent Zionist theoretician Henry Kissinger regarding the Islamic Revolution reached a deadlock, the criminal leaders of the so-called White House found direct military operation as the only way to counter the Islamic Republic of Iran, and since architects of US state terrorism never draw any border between military and non-military scenes or innocent civilians and military individuals, this time around criminal commander of the USS Vincennes warship William Rogers shot down the passenger plane of the Islamic Republic of Iran with 290 defenseless people onboard including men, women, children and the elderly and in this way the US entered the battlefield in favor of the Iraqi regime with an intention to pressure Islamic Iran.

More disgraceful is that despite all illogical justifications and reasons by the White House officials and Pentagon senior authorities two years after the occurrence of the bloody incident which came in violation of human rights, the then US president George Bush regardless of the vigilant consciences of the world awarded the murderer of 290 Iranian passengers a Legion of Merit. 

In a letter of appreciation George Bush lauded Captain Rogers for his "exceptional merit" as commanding officer of the Vincennes and says:" The wartime decisions by Captain Rogers are compatible with the highest military traditions of the US Navy.” Bush continues:" My understanding is that the crew intended to show the capability of the Aegis electronic battle management system!!!!" The shamelessness of the US is to the extent that in a bid to test the capability of the Aegis Missile System it kills hundreds of innocent people and leaves thousands of families in grief, because despite their false claims what is of no value to Americans and the White House politicians is the lives of people…!!!!!!

The then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff William Crowe apparently and hypocritically described the incident as a great human tragedy. Through using such a psychological clause on the one hand he intended to avoid the outburst of public wrath and on the other hand to give the news networks of the Great Satan an opportunity to cover up and manipulate the news and analyses of the inhuman event based on their satanic values.

In the incident the main tragedy is the killing of passengers of the Islamic Republic of Iran airliner by American politicians, and this is not an "understandable accident" but actually a "declaration of war" and the massage of the victims of the anti-human tragic event with the passage of 15 years still calls on vigilant consciences across the world to judge.

Analyzing the Incident: "Intentional" or "Unintentional"

With an analysis of the main reasons and motives behind the US military attack against a civilian target and a search for the root cause of such a big crime of contemporary history we meticulously find out the main reasons and objectives of the United States in shooting down an Iranian passenger plane.

In the first place, two possibilities must be studied as to whether it was an unintentional or intentional act.

Technically speaking, it is impossible to consider the attack as an act of mistake, because it is tantamount to misidentification of the plane; this is while the USS Vincennes was equipped with the most sophisticated radar systems capable of controlling surrounding sea and air zones.

Despite contradictory remarks by US authorities even US military experts have admitted to the fact and rejected the claims by US leaders as unfounded.

In an article, the daily Washington Post writes: "Controllers of civilian Air Traffic are mostly able to spot airplanes through their size and distinguish them from each other, but it is not yet known how come an Airbus with a length of 175 feet has been mistaken for an F-14 jetfighter which is almost less than half of it".

On the other hand US military experts have described the USS Vincennes missile system as the following:" The ground-to-air missile system which shot down an Iranian passenger airliner is the most advanced combat system of the Navy in the world and it is very impossible for it to misidentify targets. The system is capable of tracking down over 200 targets at the range of 400 kilometers, determining their speed and direction. The system can also hit 15 to 20 targets simultaneously."

Despite such open acknowledgments, Pentagon announces the system has failed to properly identify the target.

In a detailed report quoting member of the US House of Representatives from California Bob Durnan Washington Times daily announced that in a secret meeting of foreign affairs committee in response to a question that what would have happened if the Vincennes commander had had properly identified the Iranian passenger plane senior US naval officials said:" Even in such a case we believe the decision of the Vincennes commander would remain unchanged!!"

To show the dishonesty of US officials a quick review of an event in which a Korean airplane was downed in 1983 by the former Soviet Union seems necessary:

During an attack by the former Soviet Union on a South Korean passenger plane in September 1983 Americans launched widespread propaganda ballyhoos in line with their objectives for attacking their global rival, raising the question as to why Russians had failed to distinguish between a passenger plane and a warplane.

When Russians hypocritically claimed they had failed to identify the type of plane in the dark of the night in a letter to US Congress Reagan wrote:" Russians should have identified the plane before shooting at it."

Now if we cast a glance at the disastrous and criminal event from their own logical framework this question is to be asked:" In view of the fact that the Iranian passenger plane unlike the Korean plane had not flown out of its air corridor, did the USS Vincennes warship identify or warn it before shooting it down? Had the plane changed route from its air corridor? How can an airplane, which has taken off from Bandar Abbas airport seven minutes before, be a threat to US warship?

To carry out a suicide operation!!!!!(as claimed by American authorities) must a giant Airbus with its limited maneuver power have necessarily been used? Can senior American military officials produce any convincing evidence over spotting a sort of invasion by the flying object (Airbus)? And thousands of more questions!!! What makes the claims of US politicians more ridiculous is the remark of the then US President Ronald Reagan who tried to justify the crime as "proper defensive action" or "meritorious defense".

US Objectives behind the Crime

1) Convergence of US with Iraq

One of the main objectives of the United States in its ambush against the Iranian passenger plane could be traced in the aggressive Iraqi war against Islamic Iran.

Undoubtedly the US has regarded the emergence of fundamental changes in its war policies, which is seen as steps in line with achieving the goals of Iran in the war, as a threat against its interests, because the US in its regional moves has always sought to disarm Iran and undermine the Islamic Revolution in the face of regional countries.

No doubt, the enemies of Islamic Iran will not allow Iran to reach a point of development where it can disrupt political and military equations at least across the super strategic Persian Gulf region. Thus, to achieve this end the enemy hatched different plots, the most fatal of which was the 3 July incident of 1988.

In other words, the most important goal of the US in committing such a crime was to deviate domestic opinions and minds away from "our real" fronts in the west of the country toward the Persian Gulf in a way that the Americans chose to launch all three stages of battle in the Persian Gulf and invasion of Iranian oil platforms right when our combatant forces were preparing to attack the Iraqi enemy.

This issue clearly shows that the United States always used to spark false crises out of limited marine clashes in convergence with Iran's power of invasion and the Iraqi power of defense.

2) Measuring "Invisible" Military Power

One of the US goals behind shooting down the Iranian passenger plane was to measure the unseen military power of Iran, which had been vague to Americans. They were sure in case of wide scale clashes the unknown military facilities of Iran in the Persian Gulf would emerge, through which they could deal military blows or at least identify them.

Therefore, the Americans created make-believe crises and intended to prepare the ground in a bid to achieve their goal.

In addition to such objectives, the US was after other goals including intelligence plans and their implementation by military agents affiliated to rival powers inside the United States.

Given the proximity of US presidential election in those days, it seemed that different factions of Democrat or Republican parties or any other parties had committed such a crime in a bid to hurt the image of rivals in the public opinion and weaken the representatives of the ruling party in the election.

Existing records from the past US elections show big scandals and it could be acceptable to those who are familiar with the CIA plots across the world in the fields of creating coups, domestic wars, border differences, assassinations and genocide that their operatives might have been involved in the massacre of 290 innocent and defenseless people in order to reach their goals.

(Foundation for Preserving Sacred Defense Works & Values)