Was the Farsi Island US Sailors Detention Staged for Political Reasons?

A January 16 Thomas Lifson blog quoted former Navy SEAL Matt Bracken's contradiction of official accounts of what caused two US boats to be captured and taken to Farsi Island -- where there's a major Iranian naval base, including Revolutionary Guard to protect Iran interests in the 'Persian' Gulf. Bracken's analysis is that all riverine boats have radar and multiple GPS devices, including chart plotters with a boat's icon on the chart : "For an open-water transit...the course is...planned in advance by the leaders of the Riverine Squadron, with specific attention given to staying wide and clear of any hostile nation's claimed territorial waters. The boats are given a complete mechanical check...and...sufficient fuel to accomplish their mission plus extra. If...one boat broke down, the other would tow it, that's why two boats go on these trips....It's called "self-rescue" and it's SOP....I can state with complete confidence that both Iran and our own State Department are lying. The boats did not enter Iranian waters. They were overtaken in international waters by Iranian patrol boats that were so superior in both speed and firepower that it became a hands-up situation, with automatic cannons in the 40mm to 76mm range pointed at them point-blank....This takedown was no accident or coincidence, it was a planned slap across America's face....The released sailors will be ordered not to say a word...and the Iranians will have taken every GPS device, chart-plotter etc off the boats, so that we will not be able to prove where our boats were taken. The 'strayed into Iranian waters' story being put out by Iran and our...State Department is utter and complete BS." ~~~~~ A later update from Bracken added : "The Iranians would have known to the minute when the boats were leaving Kuwait, and their probable course to Bahrain, so an intercept would be simple....if the Iranians jam our boats so they cannot communicate, and then swoop in....overwhelming them with numbers at point-blank....it’s a fait accompli....Once they have control of our boats, they can drive them to Farsi Island, and remove every single GPS device, radar, cell phone etc. Then, there can be no proof of where the attack happened. And worst of all, Obama and Kerry are happy to go along with the lie, in order not to upset the nuclear deal applecart." ~~~~~ The US version of events hasn't altered. The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday about new details released by the US military Monday : the boats veered into Iranian waters, and then one of them experienced a mechanical problem; the only equipment taken from the boats are two digital SIM cards that were in two satellite phones; the boats were expected to receive fuel alongside the Coast Guard cutter Monomoy in international waters around 2 pm.; at 2:10, the Navy received a report that the sailors were being approached by Iranians; by 2:29, it was hard to reach the US boats; and by 2:45, US Naval Central Command (NAVCENT) was notified that...communications with the sailors were lost : "Immediately, NAVCENT initiated an intensive search and rescue operation with aircraft from USS Harry S. Truman, the US Air Force, US Coast Guard, UK Royal Navy and US Navy surface vessels....NAVCENT...notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone...at 6:15 pm (GMT), USS Anzio received a communication from the Iranians that the RCB sailors were in Iranian custody." The Monday military release said : "At some point one RCB had...a mechanical issue...which caused the crews to stop....the second RCB also stopped....in Iranian territorial waters, although it's not clear the crew was aware of this." ~~~~~ Dear readers, we still don't know how or why the sailors ended up in Iranian territorial waters. Bracken doesn't offer a reason for the Iranian "slap" in the face. But, the known facts support the idea that the entire affair was fake -- staged to make Iran and Obama/Kerry look like good guys before the lifting of sanctions and $150 billion injection into the world's great terrorism financier. The affair was staged to provide political cover.