Hundreds of firefighters battled from the air, land and water to save USS Bonhomme Richard. According to images circulating online, several fireboats were deployed to extinguish the flames, which was concentrated in the center portion of the vessel. An explosion was also heard on board the ship prior to the blaze, according to domestic media reports.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear, while the San Diego Police Department has not responded for a comment. There were, meanwhile, indications that the ship could continue burning for days.
The USS Bonhomme Richard was commissioned in 1998 and spent six years in Japan as part of the US Navy’s Forward Deployed Naval Force in the region. It is one of the most important warships in the US military, however, the media and the US government have pursued a policy of secrecy about it, while in the case of much smaller incidents in Iran, there has been widespread media hype in the US and Arab countries.
To shed light on the issue, we reached out to American analyst and columnist Stephen Lendman.
Referring to the US reason for their secrecy on the incident, he said, " A reason for what happened on the San Diego-based US naval vessel will be issued ahead. A report on the San Diego vessel incident will be forthcoming, something official that may be accurate or untrue. I accept nothing from official US or other Western reports at face value."
"While it’s possible that something nefarious happened on the USS Bonhomee Richard, injuring from 17 to 57 aboard, according to different reports, I suspect it was an accident, maybe from poor maintenance, perhaps from human error," he added.
He went on to say, "The US is very secretive, especially on all major issues, anything to do with its military and corporate interests it supports like backing harmful to human health products it permits to be sold to unsuspecting consumers."
Commenting on why the US creates an atmosphere and spread rumors against the countries in similar cases that occur in other countries like Iran while they kept silent about the incident of ship at the US Naval base in San Diego, Lendman, said, "Along with its press agent media, it wages propaganda war on all nations it doesn’t control — nations like China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and Cuba, etc. that refuse to be subservient to its interests at the expense of their own."
Stating that the reasons for the incident will never be determined, he said, "We’ll never know for sure what caused the Bonhomee Richard incident because the Pentagon is a lying machine like the White House, Congress, and press agent media."
Interview by Zahra Mirzafarjouyan
10:16 - 2020/07/18
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