Spinning the Straits of Hormuz

Following up on this post, Cernig at Newshoggers has done an outstanding job of keeping a taught line on what is now appearing to be a massive spin-job.

When ships of the USN, led by USS Port Royal, were transiting the Straits of Hormuz an alleged encounter with Iranian Revolutionary Guard fastboats resulted in the Pentagon releasing an edited tape which the Pentagon suggested was a provocative act.

Things have changed, however, as the Pentagon's version of the tape, conveniently released just as Bush was leaving for the Middle-East, is now the short cut and has clearly been altered.

Cernig has provided the full version of the tape broken down into a five part playlist. There are some distinct differences between the long version and the Pentagon edit. In all five parts there are no suspicious white boxes in the water and there are no threatening voice radio calls. In fact, the first section of the tape jibes completely with the Iranian version of events.

There is a mystery however, and Cernig spells it out.