Navy's version of Iran speedboat story unravels

But networks don't correct inflammatory early versions
clipped from www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - Despite the official and media portrayal of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz early Monday morning as a serious threat to U.S. ships from Iranian speedboats that nearly resulted in a “battle at sea”, new information over the past three days suggests that the incident did not involve such a threat and that no U.S. commander was on the verge of firing at the Iranian boats....[New information] includes the revelation that U.S. officials spliced the audio recording of an alleged Iranian threat onto to a videotape of the incident....Further undermining the U.S. version of the incident is a video released by Iran Thursday showing an Iranian naval officer on a small boat hailing one of three ships. ...Furthermore, as the New York Times noted Thursday, the recording carries no ambient noise, such as the sounds of a motor, the sea or wind, which should have been audible if the broadcast had been made from one of the five small Iranian boats....The only boat that was close enough to be visible to the U.S. ships was unarmed, as an enlarged photo of the boat from the navy video clearly shows. ... [There is] no ... evidence of Iranian boats “making a run on U.S. ships” as claimed by CBS news. ...

To introduce a couple more elements to the excellent coverage given this story by other writers here:

Navy officers now admit that these small boats, some with machine guns, others unarmed, were virtually incapable of damaging the US vessels. The much-heralded "objects" in the water were never thought dangerous. Follow the link to read the details. Best comment I've read: What happened to the skier?

How 'bout we learn from this?

The President's government wants very much to dominate Iran. Big Media wants very much to support overseas corporate adventure. Reminds me of what Kurt Vonnegut said when asked what he learned from military service in World War II: "Not to believe anything my government said."

From Havana harbor to the Gulf of Tonkin to Iraqi WMD, we gullible Americans have swallowed utterly unreliable tales, and followed leaders with ulterior motives into murderous tragedy. Here we go again. (It bears repeating that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said that Israel should be "wiped off the map." It's an English colloquialism! See Iran-US relations, part 2.)

In this tall tale, as in all the others, the corporatocracy scores: most Americans will never know the story was groundless.

But then, there's this blogosphere . . .