I assumed this was the case.  Now if we could just prove they duped the tape of threats too.

the hand snicker. This was a plant for anybody who saw the tape when it first played and was familiar with SOP procedures in the Gulf. Same thing different decade.

Thank god there were cool heads aboard these USN ships.

My kid was unfortunately there when this incident happened, on another ship but caught up in the tangle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...

The USS Cole is a strawman to this story.
http://jeff-huber.dailykos.com

He explains the Cole incident correctly. And passage through the Strait is just what it is.

Rice-Rummy had established the Pentagon Rapid Response Team and got nailed for the 'paid news stories' and propaganda in 05-06. Rice likened it to Radio Free Europe.

What Bushies just don't get is the Whole World is Snickering and Sneeing and they demean themselves and our military with the $hit.

http://www.gulfnews.com/...
http://www.gulfnews.com/...

The 'trip' to the ME has been disaster except oil has dropped $10 a barrel. My guess is that the Arabs are dropping it to help 'bail out' US lenders.
http://www.gulfnews.com/
links to Business or Banking and Finance are informative.

you hear threatening to blow up the Navy ships wwas actually transmitted by a prankster who was monitoring the radio traffic between the US and Iranian ships.  

I guess the straits are notorious for short-wave radio pranksters for whatever reason.

It's not hard to believe when you actually hear the tapes.  The "threatening" voice sounds computer generated, like that used by Steven Hawkins.  

are risking all our lives for their future political and financial gain.

IMHO.

IMPEACH ALREADY   !!!!!

"Naturally the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the
leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it’s always a
simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy or a
fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of
the leaders.  This is easy.  All you have to do is tell them they are
being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
for exposing the country to danger.  It works the same in every
country."

  --- Hermann Goering, Hitler’s Reich Marshall, at the Nuremberg
Trials after World War II.

Impeachment, in any normal times, would follow PDQ.

The key line for follow-up in the Asia Times piece is right at the beginning (my bold emphasis):

Senior Pentagon officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the January 6 US-Iranian incident in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran's military aggressiveness, a reconstruction of the events following the incident shows.

Forget the small fry, like Whitman. From whence did this "broader administration policy decision" derive? Who ordered it?

A little farther down, we get our answer (or the first inklings of it):

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Ballesteros of the Pentagon's Public Affairs Office told IPS the decision on what to include in the video was "a collaborative effort of leadership here, the Central Command and navy leadership in the field".

"Leadership here", of course, refers to the secretary of defense and other top policymakers at the department. An official in the US Navy Office of Information in Washington, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that decision was made in the office of the secretary of defense.

So it was Gates. It's Secretary of Defense, and former CIA chief Gates's resignation we should be calling for. But, I find it hard Gates would have initiated this all on his own. He must have consulted with, if not received orders from either Cheney or Bush. -- Funny though how those three letters keep popping up whereever you look: C-I-A.

Where's a free and enquiring press when you need one?