Possible, but highly unlikely. You couldn't mastermind a conspiracy like that, involving a dozen victims, scores of low-level naval officers and high level policy makers, and two separate countries without it leaking like a sieve. And of course, you'd have no guarantee the Iranians would take your bait.

And why do this? To provoke a war with Iran? The Brits are trying to disentangle themselves from Iraq, and the Bush gang does not need any further complications in a situation they lost control of years ago. They certainly aren't trying to expand the war, they already have more war than they can handle.

No,I think this is exactly what it looks like. The bad guys took advantage of our complacency either to put pressure on us, or perhaps even because Ahmedinawhatsisface has an opposition out to embarass him while he's out of the country by interrupting his nuclear politics at the UN.

My guess about what happened is that the Brits on the scene had no authorization to initiate hostilities against the pirates without notifying the OTC, this only makes sense (you don't start shooting until your commander knows what you're up to so he can get his ducks in a row and not get caught with HIS pants down.) What if the Iranians were getting ready to launch a Silkworm attack, or what if the American airforce was grounded by a sandstorm. You have to call the boss and let him know your routine ops are about to turn into a fight. The Iranians simply picked a time and place where they guessed we were unprepared, and they've been studying us long enough to have thought it all over very carefully.