Do you remember the Vincennes, boys and girls? She is the fourth of that name, CG-49 by hull number, a guided missile cruiser generally remembered for having shot down an Iranian airliner in 1988. The destruction of Iran Air flight Six Five Five killed all 290 passengers, including 66 children.

The reasons behind this appalling crime have never been fully (or even partially) explained. Here in San Diego, many of us remember the rest of the story, in which the captain of the Vincennes then tried to murder his wife by planting a bomb in her mini-van, and blaming it on "retribution" by the Iranians. Fortunately, the competence of local law enforcement was up to the challenge, and his machinations were revealed.

So, all that tedious history aside, where is the Vincennes today? According to official sources, she was decommissioned in 2005, sold to International Shipbreaking in mid-2010, and completely broken-up by November of last year, roughly 3 months ago. According to this timeline, Vincennes was in Brownsville, Texas from November 2010 onwards.

Yet other eye-witness sources have related that Vincennes was in fact in Bremerton until some time late last year, when she was towed out of harbor in the middle of the night.

From here, things get weird. There has even been some speculation that Vincennes was towed to the Persian Gulf, and is currently at 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain. This line of thinking then goes on to postulate that she is being prepared for use as a sacrificial lamb in a false-flag attack which will then be used as casus belli for an assault on Iran.

My first reaction was extremely skeptical. But, then again, in a world where so much of the so-called "news" is just smoke-and-mirrors, how can we say where the credible ends and the ridiculous begins?