A while ago, Iranian navy ships purposefully annoyed US warships. Shortly afterwards the Pentagon released a video of the encounter, with sound added to it separately. Here’s the video of the encounter: 

Obviously, the “blow up” sentence sounds a bit awkward. It could very well be that this wasn’t said by someone in the boats, but by someone on land. That would obviously explain the quality difference, etc.

That explanation, however, doesn’t satisfy everyone, most notoriously Hooman Majd writing for the Huffington Post. Hooman accuses the Pentagon of faking the video and of lying to the American people and international community. Not just about the voice, but also about the entire nature of the encounter.

That’s a very serious allegation. The HuffPo should, obviously, be very careful before it publishes an article like that: it needs to be written by an impartial expert.

Well, not so in the case of Hooman. Hooman is born in Iran. Not only that, he’s far from an expert:

Hooman Majd has had a long career as an executive in the music and film businesses. He was Executive VP of Island Records, where he worked with a diverse group of artists including U2, The Cranberries, Tricky and Melissa Etheridge; and Head of Film and Music at Palm Pictures, where he executive-produced James Toback’s “Black and White” and Khyentse Norbu’s “The Cup” (Cannes 1999).

Michael Goldfarb deals with Majd’s drivel, and he’s supported by Stuart Koehl. Koehl and Goldfarb aren’t the only ones who take offense, though. Scott, who worked in the US navy once, also responds to Majd’s article and explains why the Iranian-American is wrong.

Cernig, meanwhile, agrees with Hooman Majd, seemingly believing that the US Navy would lie to the American people about something as serious as this, while the thugs in Tehran are seemingly considered to be more reliable.

I understand the questions about the voice, but the encounter seems to have been - this is clear - orchestrated by Iranian Revolutionary Guard members. Even without the voice, the intend of the Iranians is clear. As such, it would seem completely illogical to for the US to fake it.

What’s more, if I have to choose between the word of the US and that of Iran, I choose the US. Every time.