Parmis: IRISL boxship lurking near compound hit

Tanzania’s shipping registry is managed by a company called Philtex Corporation, with a head office in Dubai, and offices in a number of other locations, including Austin, Texas, where the contact person for Philtex Marine Services{USA} is Chad Warren, a U.S. citizen, says he is now based. Reached by phone in Texas this week, Warren described himself as a deputy registrar of the Tanzanian shipping registry, but when asked to explain the Iranian vessels he said “I did not register any of these ships.”

Warren added that he has no access to the records of these Iranian ships, and said that their apparent persistence on the Tanzanian registry might be due to a policy of waiting for a 90-day provisional registration period to expire, rather than simply striking them off. Asked how that would explain the NITC tankers showing up on Lloyd’s as newly flagged after the end of August, he said, “I don’t know exactly what is going on.” Asked why the Iranian ships at issue would be using call signs identifying them as Tanzanian, he said their use of these call signs would be “invalid.”

Parmis ex-Iran Piroozi

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said October 11 the precise details of the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the compound in Libya still remain unclear.

One month after the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, Clinton said the administration is committed to uncovering the truth about what happened.

"There is much we still don't know and I am the first to say that," Clinton told reporters at the State Department after meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi.

Over the past two months, at least three Iranian-linked container ships, all blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, have called at the Libyan port of Benghazi. One of them, the Parmis, put in at Benghazi Anchorage as recently as August 30. Since then, it has been meandering along the Libyan coast, going west to the Libyan port of Misurata, then doubling back east this week, past the Libyan port of Sirte. For the Parmis, this is a voyage that began in early August at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, thence to the United Arab Emirates, then Egypt, and on to Libya. This repeats a similar circuit, in which the Parmis sailed in June from Iran, calling in early July at Benghazi. That’s not to suggest any ties between Iran, or the Parmis in particular, and Tuesday’s attack on the U.S. post in Benghazi. The full tale of who master-minded or helped stage that armed assault remains to be uncovered here

Ship Type: Container ship

Year Built: 2003 Length x Breadth: 207 m X 30 m Gross Tonnage: 25391, DeadWeight: 33853 t Speed recorded (Max / Average): 15.9 / 15.9 knots Flag: Tanzania [TZ] Call Sign: 5IM542
IMO: 9283007, MMSI: 677044200

 Ssaka (Until 2011 Feb 18) - Iran Piroozi (Until 2009 Jan 11) - Sakas (not Yet Confirmed) - Iran Piroozi (not Yet Confirmed)