Scoop Link: Govt Line On Hormuz Incident Unravels

Analysis by Gareth Porter

Scoop Link: Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (IPS) - 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.

The new information that appears to contradict the original version of the incident includes the revelation that U.S. officials spliced the audio recording of an alleged Iranian threat onto to a videotape of the incident. That suggests that the threatening message may not have come in immediately after the initial warning to Iranian boats from a U.S. warship, as appears to do on the video.

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Go to full article: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40747

Text also available at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011108J.shtml

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ENDS