By Craig Whitlock and Jason Ukman
The Washington Post
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WASHINGTON — For the U.S. Navy, it was a public relations jackpot: An aircraft carrier cruising the seas in the Middle East this week stumbled upon an Iranian fishing vessel in distress, hijacked by pirates.

Forces from the aircraft carrier's strike group swiftly made the most of the moment.

They seized 15 Somali pirates without firing a shot and rescued 13 hungry Iranian fishermen who had been held hostage for several weeks.

There was no official response, much less a thank you, from the Iranian government after the Navy on Friday released details of the rescue mission.

U.S. officials, in contrast, couldn't stop talking about it. The Navy publicized video of the rescue and plenty of photographs, including one shot of an Iranian fisherman giving a U.S. sailor a joyful hug.

Adding to the irony was that the aircraft carrier just happened to be the USS John C. Stennis.

That's the same carrier whose presence in the region had prompted Iran three days earlier to hector Washington to stay out of the Persian Gulf, spooking global oil markets.

After giving the Iranians fresh provisions and fuel, the Americans bade the crew a happy farewell Friday, along with a parting gift: U.S. Navy baseball caps for the grateful Iranians to wear as they posed for pictures.

Navy leaders tried to sound magnanimous but could barely suppress their glee.

"It was a great outcome for some innocent Iranian fisherman, and it's an indication of who we are as Americans," Rear Adm. Craig Faller, commander of the Stennis strike group, told reporters in a conference call Friday from his position in the North Arabian Sea. "We'd do that for any country in the world."

Source:Washington Post

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