“I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes.”

We have belatedly learned that the threatening voice on the tape was not Iranian -- the accent is wrong, according to the Washington Post. The Navy now posits another source for the threat -- a practical joker given the insulting nickname Filipino Monkey.

In recent years, American ships operating in the Middle East have had to contend with a mysterious but profane voice known by the ethnically insulting handle of “Filipino Monkey,” likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets.

Could a prankster initiate the Apocalypse? Mark Twain would get a grim chuckle out of the idea.

But the Pentagon also says that the audio and video were recorded separately. So who really did the pranking? Is "Filipino Monkey" a cover story?

To me, the telling detail is this:

In part because of the threatening language, the United States has elevated the encounter into an international incident. Twice this week, President Bush criticized Iran's behavior as provocative and warned of "serious consequences" if it happens again.

If "Filipino Monkey" made the threat -- indeed, if there were any possibility of a prankster at work -- the President would have been so informed well before the video's public release. He would not have made any bellicose statements.

Ray McGovern compares the Strait of Hormuz encounter to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

My guess? A small band of neocon operators, who may or may not work within the American intelligence community, fabricated this incident in order to foment war with Iran. Cooler heads within the military want to prevent the ruse from giving rise to bloodshed. The "Filipino Monkey" story exists to save face.

I'm open to alternative scenarios.