Iran Claims 19 Ships Targeted as Strait of Hormuz Crisis Escalates

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2:23Ben Meiselas:While Donald Trump continues to threaten Iran and Trump continues to lie saying the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has announced that it has targeted 19 ships in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 48 hours. Two days ago, it said it targeted seven ships, and in the past 24 hours, it said it targeted another 12 ships. The Trump regime CENTCOM claims that this is all a lie and that no ships were targeted. However, we are now learning that many Marines were actually seriously injured aboard a tanker about two to three weeks ago when Iran said it struck a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, which CENTCOM denied.

3:14Ben Meiselas:Here's what we are learning about that. An Iranian cruise missile struck a ship in the Strait of Hormuz two weeks ago, injuring eight U.S. Marines. This was an exclusive report last night by NBC. These Marines suffered smoke inhalation and possible traumatic brain injuries with concussion-like symptoms. However, the Pentagon and CENTCOM says that they were not seriously injured. This is how three U.S. officials responded to NBC when they were confronted with this data. This comes at a time where U.S. forces have been helping to try to get ships to use the Oman route, that southern route, in the Strait of Hormuz.

4:00Ben Meiselas:Let me be very clear as someone who was a former litigator who represented people who suffered traumatic brain injuries in car accidents and trucking accidents. And I'm not even talking about traumatic brain injuries from Shahi drones and cruise missiles. A traumatic brain injury, a TBI, is never a non-serious injury. Hence, it is called traumatic brain injury. And these individuals, these service members, these Marines who are suffering traumatic brain injuries will have their lives forever changed for the worse. And so if the Trump regime is now lying about this, how do you believe that these 19 ships were actually not targeted in the Strait of Hormuz?

4:48Ben Meiselas:Because Iran talked about the prior ships that were hit and Marines injured, and that has been covered up. Now, as you also will be aware, a few days ago, the Pentagon updated its website where it lists the killed in action and injured in action, and it added 29 sailors and eight Marines. So it's possible that these eight Marines that were added to the system a few days back are the eight Marines aboard that tanker who got those traumatic brain injuries, who I guess were working to try to get these tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and Iran was able to strike them. What about the 29 U.S. sailors?

5:31Ben Meiselas:And as I've said before, this is just the tip of the iceberg in my view. And I think there are perhaps thousands of service members who have suffered traumatic brain injuries from the Shahid cruise and ballistic missile strikes at the U.S. military bases by Iran that are being covered up in the Trump regime. Just as it's just a headache. So we don't need to report. These aren't really combat missions taking place. Regardless of whether these 19 tankers were targeted in the past 48 hours, as Iran says, what we know is happening in the Strait of Hormuz is there have been loud explosions throughout the night.

6:11Ben Meiselas:And both nights, we heard massive, massive explosions nonstop. And many believe, and my sources are telling me as well, that for sure, Iran has been launching these missiles that release mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran has been able to put out lots of mines in that southern route of the Strait of Hormuz. Now, that would be consistent with the satellite imagery we've been seeing over the past 24 hours. And I think it also explains the extra desperation of the Trump regime to try to manipulate the market and claim everything's going good. And we're now bringing out more oil through the Strait of Hormuz than even before the war started, which we know is all false.

7:01Ben Meiselas:And folks, this is why we got to look at satellite. We got to look at surveillance. We've got to look at the sources in the region. We got to do our due diligence when we do this reporting. It's what's so important for me here at the Midas Touch Network. So make sure you hit subscribe, by the way, to this YouTube channel. Double check your subscribe. Let's look at the satellite footage right here, these S1 images, right? No new vessels were seen in the Strait of Hormuz for 24 hours. Now, there's the Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and other satellite imagery that exists in this region. The Trump regime has banned planet labs and other satellite imagery here in the United States, but there are other satellite imaging throughout the world that we can look at here at the Midas Touch Network.

7:46Ben Meiselas:And so we know in the past 24 hours that there are no ships that have been going through the Strait of Hormuz. Now, these are very large ships, a lot of them. They're And so we would be able to see them and map what's happening if they were actually leaving through the Strait of Hormuz. And we have not seen any of that. What other data points do we have? Well, here's what we can confirm. Iran's IRGC Navy says it has seized a second U.S. large autonomous underwater vehicle, an AUV, in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. The water drone, known as a Remus 600 AUV, was captured during its spy mission.

8:33Ben Meiselas:Iran disabled it with electronic warfare and intelligence operations. Why? Because Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. You'll recall three weeks ago, the IRGC sees the Anduril Dive LD, one of the most highly sophisticated U.S. AUVs that there were. Remember, I showed you the video of what that looked like. And then the Trump regime was like, yeah, that wasn't even a big deal. It doesn't even matter. So we have AUVs being seized by Iran, F-35 parts being seized by China. And by the way, did you see the reporting or actually what Treasury Secretary Besant and Waltz and others were saying on the Sunday shows yesterday?

9:18Ben Meiselas:They were saying that Donald Trump was basically begging Xi Jinping to buy American weapons. Why would China want to buy American weapons? China has its own weapons that it's selling and it's giving to places like Iran and other places. But I digress. So here is what the IRGC posted yesterday showing that it captured the Remus 600 AUV. Let me play this for you so you can see for yourself.

10:09Ben Meiselas:There you saw that. So now, Barack Ravid, one of Donald Trump's chief propagandists, he's based in Israel. So is Donald Trump's other chief propagandist at State Regime Media Fox. Trey Yinkst also happens to be reporting out of Israel, which I just find just kind of odd that they're both like there in any event. And they're from there. Barack Ravid was posting the following yesterday. President Trump told me in a phone interview that he expects U.S. negotiators to engage in more talks with the country this week. Regional sources say another round of indirect negotiations will take place. Trump told me this is what Barack Ravid said, right?

10:47Ben Meiselas:Isn't this so predictable, this crap. I expect more talks with Iran this week. They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make. It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago. They overplayed their hand. It's what maybe you would have agreed to a year ago. Last February, Iran agreed to a deal that was, by all accounts, according to Oman's foreign minister, more favorable to the United States than Obama's JCPOA. So what the hell are you talking about? So if this deal, let's just say it was true, and this deal is more favorable than what we got a year ago. That means it would, we know Trump's lying.

11:25Ben Meiselas:That means it would be more favorable than the JCPOA, and you're turning that down because why? You wanna just destroy the lives of people throughout the world even more, and make gas prices and diesel prices surge even higher? And it's just more propaganda from Donald Trump and Barack Ravid. I look forward to more talks with Iran. They want to reach a deal. And that's what Barack Ravid was posting all day yesterday. And look what's happening. Look at the reality. The markets understand the reality now. And so crude opens up at$106 a barrel. You have WTI at$93 a barrel and going up. regardless of Axios and Al Jazeera and CBS, an unnamed source here and this and that, oil prices didn't move.

12:16Ben Meiselas:And you have M.B. Goluboff, Iran's parliament leader and top civilian political officer. He also used to be a top military guy. But here's what he writes. U.S. Gaslighting Bureau says Iran doesn't control Strait of Hormuz, but the market price is a big premium,$35 over pre-invasion and$50 using dated actual. So either the market's dumb or the US narrative laundromat is faking it. Free dollar vending machine in Hormuz for believers. Go and grab it. It's basically saying, if you really think you control the strain of Hormuz, go get the oil and sell it. You'll make a killing, quite literally, if you think that it's so easy to access.

13:03Ben Meiselas:There's a reason why the market prices where it is, because Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. Saturday nights with my wife and friends, Sunday mornings with my kids, those are both non-negotiables. Z-Biotics pre-alcohol is the small thing I added that made the whole weekend easier. Z-Biotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to break down acetaldehyde, a byproduct of drinking alcohol. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme that is designed to break down this byproduct. Pre-alcohol, your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and enjoy your next day activities.

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14:26Ben Meiselas:And there's other developments in the region that we need to be paying attention to also. All of this is happening and needs to be reported in a diligent fashion, and it needs to be brought together the way we're doing it here. So we know that Ansarallah, the Houthis, have launched major strikes against Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, also Yanbu in the west, also Abqaq on the east, and more locations throughout Saudi Arabia after Saudi Arabia launched a major attack on a civilian market area in the Thais area in Yemen. Food warehouses, stores, shop owners, and customers were really severely impacted.

15:14Ben Meiselas:Many people were killed in this and others were injured. So I'll show you just to show the B-roll of what that looked like, the video footage of the destruction following the Saudi strikes in Thais. So then Ansarala launched strikes against Saudi Arabia, and here's the data that's coming out. Parents across Riyadh just received emails from schools on Sunday, announcing a last minute plan to shift to remote learning for a week. According to messages seen by AFP, no official reason was given, but you had a lot of these kind of Saudi Arabian accounts online saying that it's because of the weather and that there is a lot of rain and snow in Riyadh right now.

16:01Ben Meiselas:And maybe that's why the schools are being canceled when in fact, the real likely reason is because you have these strikes taking place near Riyadh and people have a vested interest in trying to cover it up. Meanwhile, roll the B-roll here. Donald Trump's top deputy at the White House, Stan Scavino, is posting, this is real, AI videos of himself partying at the CCP dinner that existed at the White House, that state dinner. This is really something that they posted. The Republican official social media accounts posted yesterday, my heart goes out to the commanders of Israel, the volunteers among the people, bless the Lord.

16:47Ben Meiselas:That's what they wrote yesterday. And Donald Trump was at a golf tournament, the President's Cup golf tournament, where Trump appointed himself as the honorary chair. Okay. It was in Chicago at a country club there. on the taxpayer dime. And Donald Trump said the following about Iran. I think what's going to happen is we're going to win very soon. Play this clip. I think what's going to happen is we're going to win this war very soon. And as soon as we win it, it's going to go, the oil will go down, way down to what it was before the war. And the key is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. That's the key to the whole thing.

17:29Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump was asked, are there going to be strikes before midterms. And here's what he said. Play this clip. Are strikes before midterms still on the table for you? I don't want to say that. I don't want to say that. I mean, it's possible, but I just don't want to say that. And then a reporter said, do you think we're going to win this Iran war through the economic warfare? Here, play this clip. We're going to win this war through this economic warfare that the treasury department is waging or strikes. I think both. I think we'll win it both ways. We've already won it really through from a military standpoint, but that doesn't mean we've stopped that, but we're certainly winning it very big.

18:07Ben Meiselas:Well, what is Treasury Secretary Besson saying? Well, not surprisingly, Besson saying two weeks. In two weeks, Iran is going to cave. This is what Besson said yesterday. Play this clip. there's only 15 million more barrels of Iranian oil on the water that Iran will have nothing left to trade for anything. They will have nothing to trade for anything. Probably within the next two weeks, they are going to make their final deliveries of oil to China, and then they will have nothing. It is an empty set, and I believe that they are feeling the pressure here, and that's why they want to deal. Iran is not going to cave.

18:52Ben Meiselas:And the fact that after all of this catastrophic consequence flowing from this catastrophic war, you think that by applying more pressure and trying to attack the civilian population of Iran through economic coercion and other conduct, that that's going to be what makes Iran want to do a deal. That's not going to make it. It's going to push them further away from making a deal. And all you're doing is falling further into an escalatory trap because if indeed Iran feels that it is getting more and more economically cornered, it is going to escalate in the Strait of Hormuz. And we've seen Iranian generals essentially say, if we are unable to trade, we will make sure that our neighbors are unable to trade.

19:48Ben Meiselas:If we can't fly on civilian aircrafts and travel abroad, we're going to make sure that others in the region aren't able to travel abroad. And we heard Iran's foreign minister, Aragji, who was on Meet the Press yesterday, say, look, we're open to diplomacy. But if Trump wants a doomsday war, we're ready to have a doomsday war. Here's what he said. Let's play this clip. We are fully prepared for the war to be resumed. And I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war. But at the same time, we are ready. We stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose.

20:37he wanted unconditional surrender in the previous war in two days and now it's eight months that they are fighting with no result the new aggression uh would would be certainly the same we are fully prepared to that for that we have learned our lesson from the two previous wars and we have corrected our tactics we have changed our tactics and we are fully prepared to do that

21:01Ben Meiselas:Now, I want to also point out that you have in Basra right now, which is the main oil hub in Iraq, massive protests taking place because of the Iraqi government now saying that it may not allow Iranian, will not allow Iranian civilian aircraft to fly into Iraq. And Iraq and Iran, really kind of brother nations in terms of the Shiite populations there, obviously. There's a deep and dark history of the Iran-Iraq war going back and also the U.S. intervention therein, which also resulted, we learn our history in the late 80s under Reagan, the United States striking an Iranian civilian aircraft, resulting in the death of hundreds of Iranians, to which the U.S.

21:55Ben Meiselas:never apologized for. It's important we go back and just learn our history of the Strait of Ramuhs. We talk about that a lot here. But one of the Iraqi tribal sheikhs in Basra says he's giving the Iraqi government a 48-hour ultimatum to reverse its decision to halt flights to and from Iran. If the government does not reverse its decision, we will enter Basra airport and we will prevent the flights there. Listen to what this sheikh has to say. Let's play this clip.

22:37Ben Meiselas:And I'll just show you another video of the Basra protest. You'll see Basra erupting right here for yourself. Let's play it.

22:57Ben Meiselas:Now, I also want to talk briefly about this news out of the UK base over there. This is in the RAF Fairford base, the Royal Air Force Fairford base, the US base in England, where we have the B1, where five men were arrested and potentially charged with terroristic activity in the area. I've been careful how I've reported on it because I know we need more information. Obviously, what's being reported is deeply serious. What the Telegraph says is, driving home from a party in the early hours, a local farmer came across three seemingly abandoned white vans blocking a quiet country road. Confused, she turned her car around.

23:45Ben Meiselas:As she did so, she saw a group of masked men scattering into the trees and across the fields towards RAF Fairford. She accelerated away and called the police. And so I think we need more data about what's happening. And I'm going to be focusing a lot on the updates there and bringing it to you when we have it. And then finally you had Trump saying, we've taken a record amount of oil from the Strait of Hormuz. We've set a new record, more oil than before the war started. Here, play this clip. Last night we took a record amount of oil out from the Hormuz Strait, more than we took out before the war.

24:24Thank you very much.

24:27Ben Meiselas:Well, obviously that's not true. If it was true, then we would see the price of gas and diesel decrease. But we know it's lie after lie from this regime and it's deeply problematic. But I gave you the full lay of the land of what's happening right now. Think in the Estrade of Hormuz. Keep you posted every step of the way. Thanks for watching, everybody. Oh, can you pre-order WTF America? It's out now for pre-order. The pre-orders are really helpful. So if you plan on buying it October 20th, can you do the pre-order right now? Anyway, thanks for watching. Appreciate you. We're grateful for you.

25:07Breaking news right now. My brothers and I wrote a book. It's called WTF America. And well, doesn't that just say it all? It comes out officially this October, but you can pre-order your copy today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description below.

25:30Thank you.