It seems to me that the explanation about the announcement from Nasdaq is a reasonable explanation which shifts the blame away from IB. I would verify with Nasdaq whether or not this information is accurate, and get a copy of the announcement. If this story checks out, then I think IB has established that it is blameless in this particular incident. Congratulations and good job on those changes you were able to get made to SMART. I'll be looking forward to your new thread.
I believe IB. They haven't given me any reason to distrust them. I'd get worried if they continued to experience data outages and my quote vendor did not.