Posted by D. Cupples (photo from U.S. DoD) | Four days ago, U.S. military officials told the media that small Iranian boats had threatened two U.S. Navy destroyers and a Frigate. Two days later, the Navy released a video of the indicent, including audio of someone saying "I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes." 
The Iranian government denied having made a threat and released its own video of the incident -- only the voices on that tape said: "'Coalition warship No. 73 this is an Iranian navy patrol boat." Yesterday, the U.S. military softened its original message. ABC News reports:
"The Navy never said specifically where the voices came from, but many were left with the impression they had come from the speedboats because of the way the Navy footage was edited.
"Today, the spokesperson for the U.S. admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet clarified to ABC News that the threat may have come from the Iranian boats, or it may have come from somewhere else.
"'We're saying that we cannot make a direct connection to the boats there," said the spokesperson. "It could have come from the shore, from another ship passing by. However, it happened in the middle of all the very unusual activity, so as we assess the information and situation, we still put it in the total aggregate of what happened Sunday morning. I guess we're not saying that it absolutely came from the boats, but we're not saying it absolutely didn't." (ABC News)
This is a pretty serious issue to be iffy about.
Thousands of people are likely reminded of the Bush Administration's erroneous implications about Iran's alleged nuclear program, made even after a National Intelligence Estimate indicated that Iran had stopped that program in 2003.
People with better long-term memories may remember the Administration's repeated errors about Iraq's alleged WMDs and alleged connection to 9/11 (which were also debunked).
Perhaps film-making technologies have evolved to the point that someone, somewhere, could resolve the dueling-video issue by comparing the Iranian and U.S. governments' video accounts of the recent boat incident.
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