How to sink a battleship. By now, you’ve heard about the stand-off between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the US Navy in the Strait of Hormuz — the one where Iran’s boats were “a heartbeat from being blown up“. So this would be a good time, then, to provide a link to this piece by Fariborz Haghshenass on Iranian naval tactics. Haghshenass is the nom de plume of a former Iranian military officer who often writes on Iranian military capabilities. This “explainer” piece is a good one… Danger Room, Wired

The reality of confrontation? Translating the Iranian view. In a piece titled “The reality of the recent confrontation (?) of the Iranian boats with Americans vessels” (Question mark used by the source), the state-controlled website Tabnak seems to claim that the speedboats which apparently threatened to explode American warships were in fact American, or at least definitely not Iranian…I have tried to translate the piece with all its ambiguities. Therefore, if you do not understand what they mean, I do not fully understand the Persian text either. Apparently, Tabnak is asserting that this was a scam and that the boats were harmless or even non-Iranian. Kamangir

Bush speaks of war while laying the foundations for peace. With one year left all of a sudden the little Bush feels a need to go to the middle east to show a facade of concern but in actuality to create more division to be used for his gain but it will give him cover if there are elections and his predecessor will get the blame for his mess in the middle east and have to quell that and the world as it thanks to Bush is taking sides and preparing for war. An average American patriot 

Blast from the past. The US navy claimed yesterday that Iranian fast boats harassed them in the Straits of Hormuz. On July 3, 1988, USS Vinceness shot down Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) killing 290 innocent civilian from six nations including 66 children. The US navy initially claimed that they mistakenly identified the passenger liner as an Iranian fighter, and denied that they were not inside Iranian territorial waters. Truthnews

Insight into troubled waters Specialized Iranian Republican Guard were in the five patrol boats that attempted a “dry run” on the United States Navy on January 6, 2008. According to one individual in the know, (via email): “U.S. naval forces protection procedures” were “tested, with the objective of softening them for a forthcoming terrorist attack.” A U.S. admiral says, “I would not be surprised if something is up. … The Fleet is on high alert. Standing orders.” Right Truth