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Blame the monkey
Posted By katie allison granju
I heard a bizarre and fascinating theory yesterday on NPR about the possible backstory to the recent, dangerous run-in between Iranian boats and U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf:
On January 6th, five small Iranian boats approached two U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran. At the same time, the U.S. ships received a threat over the radio: “I am coming to you.” After twenty seconds, the voice continued: “you will explode in a few minutes.”
The threat came over Channel 16, the universal radio channel for seafaring ships, and a transmission on Channel 16 could have come from anywhere in the region. The U.S. Navy has not officially attributed the radio threat to the Iranian boats. But a video of the incident released by the Pentagon includes audio of the radio threat mixed in, suggesting, to some, that the Iranian boats were the source.
A report in the Navy Times now raises another possibility. The threat could be the work of the “Filipino Monkey,” the racially derogatory handle given to any number of pranksters voicing profane comments or threats over Channel 16. Mariners remember hearing insults and other inappropriate chatter from various radio operators who get dubbed “Filipino Monkey” as far back as the early 1980s.
“The Filipino Monkey…was actually started back in the 80’s,” said Jon Hewson, a 17-year veteran of the British Merchant Marine, now based in Dubai.
“They would just come in a high-pitched voice and scream out the term ‘Filipino Monkey.’ And sometimes they would go on for one or two minutes and when they would stopped, somebody else would it pick up. It was a real nuisance.”
The Filipino Monkey phenomenon was particularly troublesome during the “Tanker War” of the 1980’s, when commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf became targets of hostile fire. Hecklers would frequently jam Channel 16, which is also used to send emergency distress signals.
American mariners say to this day, the Filipino Monkey is a recurring problem in the region.
Jan 15th, 2008
