Tilia outbound from Aqaba with a cargo of          attempting to break through the "blockade"
motor vehides and household goods. Careful         with prohibited cargo.
inspection revealed that most of the cars had
been stolen from Kuwait. The cars, many of               A boarding team of U.S. Marines and
which had been vandalized, had been sold by        Navy SEALs arrived via helicopter from USS
Iraq for overseas shipment at bargin prices.       TRENTON (LPD 14) and USS SHREVEPORT
The following day, USS SAMPSON (DDG 5)             (LPD 12) while a multinational boarding team
intercepted another ship with a similar load.      of U.S. and Australian personnel from the
Both vessels were sent back to Aqaba and           destroyers USS OLDENDORF (DD 972), USS
required to offload the plundered material         FIFE (DD 991) and HMAS SYDNEY (F 03)
before being allowed to proceed.                   arrived via small boat to inspect the vessel's

      From the early days of the interception      spaces.
mission, coalition warships effectively sealed           The actiyists attempted to interfere with
off commercial shipping inside the Persian         the boarding teams by forming a "human
Gulf. Once-crowdedGulfportsemptiedofoil            chain" to obstruct the team's passage. Team
shipping traffic within a few days following       members fired warning shots into the air after
the Iraqi invasion, and incoming merchants         several protesters grabbed for their weapons.
changed course to avert confrontation with         Boarders also used non-lethal smoke and noise-
coalition maritime forces.  Warships in the        maker grenades for crowd control. No injuries
crowded Red Sea remained busy as vessels           occurred,butitmarkedtheonlytimeboarding
headed to Aqaba, Jordan, to try and offload        teams fired their weapons during a boarding.
contraband for overland shipment to Iraq. In       After inspectors located cargo which violated
fact, 45 of the 51 merchant diversions directed    sanctions, the vessel which activists had
before the first week of March were performed      dubbed the "peace ship," was escorted by U.S.
by warships in the Red Sea.                        and Australian ships to Muscat, Oman.

      While Coast Guard LEDet teams and                  The early and continued success of the
Navy personnel performed the bulk of mer-          maritime intercept force was a reminder of the
chant boardings, Navy SEALs and Marines            effectiveness of surface forces in maintaining
were deployed via helicopter to board some         control of the sea. U.S. and allied naval block-
vessels considered potentially dangerous due       ades during the Civil War and both World
to their origins, the crews' attitudes or other    Wars were key to isolating the enemy by cut-
circumstances.                                     ting off supply lines. The 1962 quarantine of
                                                   Cuba during the missile crisis prevented de-
      By Christmas, the number of maritime         ployment of Soviet ballistic missiles capable of
intercepts neared 6,000, with 713 vessels al-      striking key U.S. population centers and miii-
ready boarded by U.S. and multinational            tary sites.
boarding teams. Tensions rose in the Gulf of
Oman when an Iraqi merchant, Thn Khaldoon,               The high degree of coordination exhib-
carried not only sugar, milk, spaghetti and tea    ited by the multinational naval force in enforc-
en route for Umm Qasar, but also hosted nearly     ing the U.N. sanctions reflected years of peace-
250 passengers later identified as "peace activ-   time training and cooperation between the
ists" protesting the allied embargo of Iraq by     United States and her allies. Building on the


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