Along with Debkafile, Timothy Alexander ignited the Internet firestorm on 7 August (GOOGLE to see the resulting posts and news stories) with "Massive US Naval Armada Heads For Iran" posted at his blog Europe.  On 18 August he posted a long article "Wars and Rumors of War", containing the following retraction (bold emphasis added):

We have a Bush Administration, who with the Brits and French and others, just completed a massive naval war game named "Operation Brimstone" that was announced as a training mission for the blockade of Iran. While two resolutions are pending before Congress (one in the House; the other in the Senate) "demanding" a blockade on Iran. And then the high level leaks that the battle groups were headed to Iran (yes, I know, I was taken in like UPI, DEBKA, and several major and minor news organizations). This was not really the case, but it laid the ground work in preparing the public for the next step. In the meantime the European Union has authorized a blockade in everything but name

So we can close this folder and file it under "The Internet can make us dumber."  This is evidence of almost total lack of sourcing by blogs, too many of which print rumors without any semblance of research.  While these rumors were ignored by the mainstream media, they were passed on by high-profile geopolitical blogs.  For example, by M. Simon at Classical Values, to which the Instapundit linked.  No retractions yet at those sites (so far as I see). 

The Internet can be a powerful tool, making us smarter and faster.  But only if writers and readers take more care with its contents.  Otherwise it can make us dumber.

Please share your comments by posting below (brief and relevant, please), or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).

My other posts about this rumor

1. More rumors of war: our naval armada has sailed to Iran!, 9 August 2008 — Tracing the origin of these rumors.
2. Update on the rumored armada sailing to Iran, 13 August 2008 — With updates from Stratfor and Debkafile.
3. A US naval armada is en route to blockade Iran and start WWIII (the story gets better every day), 14 August 2008 — More details from one of the bloggers who shot this story into cyberspace, and an official US denial.
4. UPI reports on the multi-national armada sailing to Iran, 15 August 2008

Other posts about the Internet: does it make us smarter or dumber?

1. Cable Cut Fever grips the conspiracy-hungry fringes of the web, 7 February 2008
2. Resolution of the Great Submarine Cable Crisis — and some lessons learned, 8 February 2008
3. What do blogs do for America?, 26 February 2008
4. The oddity of reports about the Iraq War, 13 March 2008
5. Euphoria about the Bakken Formation, 10 April 2008
6. The Internet makes us dumber: the Bakken euphoria, a case study, 15 April 2008
7. Does reading Debkafile make us smarter, or dumber? , 15 June 2008
8. A Congressman ignites a netstorm about Twitter, 9 July 2008