To make matters worse for Washington, the Iranians returned everything on the ships with the exception of “two SIM cards that appear to have been removed from two handheld satellite phones," as the Pentagon statement avers. Those cards will tell the Iranians whom the crew members were communicating with on their sojourn, when those communications took place – and, perhaps, what the Americans’ real mission was all about.

Another factor in all this is the peculiar timing: it just so happened that those sailors wandered into Iranian waters – a few miles from the highly sensitive military base on Farsi Island – on “Implementation Day,” the day Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal was officially confirmed and the lifting of sanctions was scheduled to take place. This incident couldn’t have been a better pretext for the US to cancel the lifting of sanctions if it had been designed to do so.



Which raises the question: was it so designed – and, if so, by whom?

Another surprise was the release of Matthew Trevithick, 29, yet another prisoner no one (except his parents and our government) knew was behind bars in Iran. His resume is quite impressive: an intern at the Wilson Center, a stint in Kurdistan at the American University in Sulaymaniyah, four years at the American University in Kabul, later co-founder of the Syria Research and Evaluation Organization (SREO) with headquarters in Turkey. SREO, which the State Department calls “a valuable partner,” appears to be involved in transporting Syrian refugees into Europe. They also appear to be part of the joint US-Islamist effort to overthrow Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad: a poster distributed by SREO reads “ISIS and Assad are one and the same” – a revelation the Christian and Alawite citizens of Syria would no doubt dispute.



Like US intelligence operations since the beginning of the cold war, aside from its “humanitarian” façade, SREO has its tentacles into American cultural organizations, in this case the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, a gaggle of Washington-based literary do-gooders and thinly disguised spooks with literary pretensions. Trevithick co-authored the autobiography of the Afghan puppet government’s first Minister of Education, which was graced with an introduction by US ambassador Ryan Crocker.



What was Trevithick doing in Iran? He was there ostensibly to study Dari – President Obama described him as a “student” – but he apparently already knew Dari, and it looks like the Iranians figured he was studying something else.

The “prisoner swap” was in reality a spy exchange, as anyone with a lick of sense would have to conclude. Yet the US media won’t breathe the word “spy” in connection with anything having to do with our activities overseas: in this, like Mr. Trevithick’s SREO, they can be considered “a valuable partner” by our State Department.

SREO's research is now being used to justify the allocation of tens of millions of dollars from both governmental and nongovernmental organizations; everyone from the U.S. State Department to Save the Children relies on its access to Syrian locals. Nicolette Boehland, a researcher on Syria at Amnesty International, calls its work "an essential view on developments inside of Syria." An official at the State Department says SREO is a valuable partner, and "with regard to the situation of looting and trafficking of cultural property from Syria and Iraq, the data that SREO is producing is truly enlightening."



Despite contracts adding up to more than a million dollars, SREO remains remarkably small. Its offices are a two-story cement house in a residential neighborhood in a city in southern Turkey. Trevithick and Seckman, two of the five full-time employees, sleep in the basement.

Here are some overdue and all-too-brief words about the Iranian capture of those ten Navy personnel.The whole event is mysterious. The shifting explanations we have received heretofore tend to indicate that this event was a covert operation -- one that occurredWhite House approval.Glenn Greenwald may have been the first to note the suspicious narrative drift . The media repeatedly told us that the two US ships suffered from mechanical failure and drifted into Iranian waters. Then came thestory: The boats were in fine shape; a navigational error led them into the wrong placeSo now we're supposed to believe that seamanship has not advanced since the 19th century. We are supposed to believe that, in this era of GPS, no loud electronic signals warned the sailors that they were heading into a no-go area.We are also supposed to believe in the theory of simultaneous instrument failure onvessels.Justin Raimondo has written extensively about this incident -- here here , and here . From his most recent piece, we learn that the GPS devices were, in fact, quite functional.All of which brings me to my main point.It seems clear to me that we are dealing with some type of covert operation -- a conspiracy, if that word pleases you. But it is also quite clear that the Obama administration did not benefit from this op.Obama was theThat assertion will not sit well with those of you committed to the proposition that All Dems Are Evil. But let's apply common sense: This incident caused nothing but grief for the President and his party. It occurred on the eve of the deal with Iran, a deal which neocons see as a despicable betrayal. It occurred just before Obama's final State of the Union address. And it provided another opening for the Republicans to make outrageous, dangerous and nonsensical statements about Iran.It seems quite apparent to me that ten Navy personnel were used in a propaganda exercise -- an exercise directedthe current Commander in Chief.That's important.Whether or not you like Obama is irrelevant. If my theory is correct, then whoever engineered this event committed something worse than an act of insubordination.Raimondo also casts a suspicious eye on some of the prisoners released from Iranian custody. We're entering very spooky territory here, especially when it comes toguy..."ISIS and Assad are one and the same": As we've seen in a number of previous posts, this outrageously false claim has done immeasurable harm. The people who tell this lie know damned well that they are lying.Raimondo links to this article (in Men's Journal!) about SREO. Trevithick's partner was another young-ish guy named Daniel Seckman. MJ refers to them as -- get this! -- "American entrepreneurs." As if there was somethingabout setting up shop in Turkey to spread bullshit stories about a government that DC, Saudi Arabia and Israel hope to topple.And we're supposed to believe that this guyto wander into Iran for ridiculous reasons? In the middle of the Syrian war, this "entrepreneur" suddenly took a vacay from this enterprise in Turkey -- in order to study Dari, a language he already knew? IN FREAKIN'A country which SREO pronouncements had often assailed?Bullshit.He's not a student: He's a spy. Simple as that. I'll say it on TV. I'll say it to his goddamned smirking face in public. You'd have to be kid, akid, to believe for one second that this creep was anything other than a spy.So:(For more on the "What happened to Amnesty" issue, go here . SREO receives a prominent mention.)If Trevithick is spooked up, then what are we to think of his partner Dan Seckman? Is it not likely thatof these BFFs were spookier than Caspar?Raimondo doesn't tell you that Seckman writes for the Daily Beast , as well as the Christian Science Monitor and The Atlantic and Foreign Policy The spookification of our media is also a kind of coup.