Iranian Ships a Dry Run?

From the Washington Examiner:

Iran's surprising decision to move warships off the Atlantic coast poses a potential catastrophic threat to America from a nuclear or electromagnetic pulse attack, according to an expert who foresaw Iran's move.

Peter Pry, an expert on EMP attacks, said the ships are likely a dry run for a future attack, a maneuver meant to lull Washington into complacency while also embarrassing President Obama and his effort to convince Tehran to give up production of a nuclear bomb in return for a lifting of some economic sanctions.

I suspect that the propaganda from such a journey is the primary purpose. It's not clear to me what intelligence they could gather from such a trip that could not be found from public sources.