A US naval armada is en route to blockade Iran and start WWIII (the story gets better every day)

Larry Kummer, Editor

16 years ago

Summary: The rumors about a US armada sailing to the Gulf continue to rattle around the Internet, despite having almost no supporting evidence. Moving from their base of military, geopolitical, and those focused on the Middle East, they have moved to the Internet mainstream. This post reviews the story, including the latest and grandest version, plus the official US denial.

For now I will stay with my original view: these rumors are a tower of guesses built on a slight foundation. Although they may prove to be true, so far they demonstrate only how little fact is required to kindle a firestorm on the Internet, a testimony to the gullibility of even well-educated and informed people (i.e., those who circulate these stories as facts, not speculation).

If these rumors prove to be false, this episode will go to the top of my growing list of evidence that the Internet Can Make Us Dumber. If Alexander is correct that this is the start of WWIII, I will apologize to him (assuming we are both still alive afterwards); see below for more on this.

A brief review for those not following these rumors

It started with a brief mention in the Kuwait Times that “learnt that two aircraft carriers are scheduled to arrive in the Gulf and the Red Sea in preparation for the expected war at any time.”

Next The Media Line’s defense analyst said the carriers could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan.

Then the post “Massive US Naval Armada Heads For Iran“ hit cyberspace, by Timothy Alexander writing as Lord Sterling, posed at his blog “Europe” on 7 August 2008. In this version, a massive multi-national (with French and UK warships) armada to blockade Iran. This was the version the M. Simon reported as fact at Classical Values, to which the Instapundit linked. {see the amazing update below for Simon’s description of the basis for his story}

On 12 August Stratfor said “there is not yet credible reason for concern based on the information available about the disposition of the U.S. Fleet.” and Debkafile repeated the story.

Now it gets even better

All good stories grow in the telling. Now Alexander provides more detail in “08/08/08 The Beginning of the Summer Olympics and the Third World War“, 11 August 2008 — Excerpt from this long (1800 words) and fascinating post:

The blockade is being set up to cause a war. To cause a war with a nation that has a true MAD (mutually assured destruction) environment with the neo-con controlled nations. To cause a war that will eventually result in the use of weapons of mass destruction throughout the world. To cause World War III.

… On the 5th of August, days before the attack on South Ossetia, in my article “The Good and the Bad and the Truly Ugly”, I quoted an interesting prophecy from Nostradamus, Quatrain X.74 which reads “The year of the great seventh number accomplished, it will appear at the time of the games of slaughter, not far from the age of the great millennium, when the dead will come out of their graves.” This could refer to the Seven Year Tribulation, which could well be the time from 9/11/01 to 9/11/08, at the time of the Olympic Games, not far from the age of the great millennium (the beginning of the Third Millennium in 2000/2001), and Armageddon (when many dead saints are suppose to “come out of their graves”). It is interesting that the dates of the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks and now the 8/8/8 attack all have occult meanings.

He cites as cobberation … Debkafile (for more on this see Does reading Debkafile make us smarter, or dumber?). He also relies on confidential sources. This is the site that generated such excitement over the web, whose speculation so many report as fact (check Google for evidence).

Finally we get an official response from the US government: “‘Reports of Iran blockade are false’“, Jerusalem Post, 14 August 2008 — Opening:

Reports that a large American, British and French naval force – made up of nuclear aircraft carriers carrying dozens of fighter jets, warships and submarines – is en route to the Persian Gulf to blockade Iran are untrue, the US Department of Defense told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

“As a matter of policy we do not discuss current or future ship’s movements. However, I can tell you that reports of an alleged naval blockade of Iran are false,” said Lt.-Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

“We routinely rotate deployed naval forces in the USCENTCOM area of responsibility to maintain our commitment to promoting security and stability in the region,” he added. The US Central Command covers the Middle East, East Africa and Central Asia.

Update

M Simon posted a comment here, explaining his basis for reporting the armada/blockade rumor as fact:

“As to a blockade of Iran? Who knows? The source I found refers back to Debka. And you know they get it right about 50% of the time.”

This jolly attitude towards the facts is a major reason why the Internet functions so poorly, so often making us dumber instead of smarter. A coin gets it right 50% of the time.

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