There is something fishy about the U.S. government's story about the Iran naval incident

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 15 January 2016

On Tuesday, two U.S. naval vessels were detained by Iran for trespassing in Iranian territorial waters. The original story from the U.S. government suggested that there had been a mechanical failure on one of the boats and, in the words of Joe Biden, it had then "drifted into Iranian waters," where it was detained.

The Intercept is raising a question as to the truthfulness of such a statement, especially now that the United States has changed its story. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Friday morning that the sailors had actually made a "navigational error" that took them into Iran's waters. The Intercept writes:

It is, of course, theoretically possible that this newest rendition of events is what happened. But there are multiple reasons to suspect otherwise. To begin with, U.S. sailors frequently travel between Bahrain and Kuwait, two key U.S. allies, the former of which hosts the Fifth Fleet headquarters; this was familiar waters.Moreover, at no point did either of the ships notify anyone that they had inadvertently "misnavigated" into Iranian territorial waters, a significant enough event that would warrant some sort of radio or other notification. [The Intercept]

"What we know for certain is that the storyline of 'mechanical failure' and 'poor U.S. boat in distress' that was originally propagated [...] was complete fiction," The Intercept concludes. Read their full analysis of the event here.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.