A nation of people who think doing this to toddlers glorifies Allah and is thus great, is capable of all kinds of crazy sh!t.
Posted on 06/22/2004 7:58:49 AM PDT by kattracks
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said it was interrogating and could prosecute eight members of Britain's Royal Navy who strayed into Iranian waters on the border with Iraq (news - web sites), as the incident threatened to spiral into a major crisis.Rejecting appeals from Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for the sailors and Royal Marines to be freed quickly, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi replied that Iran had yet to finish questioning the trespassers.
"After interrogating these people and after we are sure of how this matter happened, we will take the necessary measures," Kharazi said in a statement.
State television, which showed video footage of the group being held blindfolded in a cramped room, quoted a military source as saying the group would be put on trial "for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters."
Adding to British frustrations, Iran also appeared to be denying British diplomats immediate access to the team -- arrested by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday along the Shatt al-Arab waterway that demarcates the southern border between Iran and Iraq.
"We are still trying to get access," a spokesman at the embassy, Andrew Dunn, told AFP. "We do not know where they are being held."
In London, the Foreign Office called for the eight naval personnel to be released "as soon as possible" and summoned Tehran's ambassador to London, Morteza Sarmadi over the incident, which comes amid a fresh downturn in relations between Tehran and London.
"Mr. Sarmadi saw a senior official," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "The ambassador was asked to explain why the eight are being held, for their release as soon as possible and for full consular access to them meanwhile."
Iran's Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Alam, a branch of Iran's state television network, said the Britons had already "confessed" to having strayed into the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway -- where the mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow into the Gulf.
Al-Alam identified the two officers in the group as Robert Webster and Thomas Higgins. Webster told the channel that the team, en route from the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr to the main southern city of Basra, had made a "navigational fault".
Having earlier shown the eight sitting comfortably on sofas, the channel then broadcast video of them sitting on the floor in a small room blindfolded. Their hands and feet were not bound. They were dressed in military fatigues and appeared to be unhappy but unharmed.
The channel also showed images of captured equipment, including a vast array of weapons, communications equipment, GPS devices, night-vision goggles and cameras.
"With this equipment they were carrying they could not have lost their way," an Iranian military source was quoted as saying in an ominous warning. "They could not have just been on a simple patrol."
Britain says the team combined Royal Marines and Royal Navy training personnel -- involved in training Iraqis to patrol the strategic and sensitive Shatt al-Arab waterway -- had merely been bringing a repaired boat from Umm Qasr port to Basra when they were detained.
"We have no idea why they were taken at this particular point in time," said Squadron Leader Spike Wilson, a spokesman for the British forces who control southern Iraq from their headquarters in Basra.
British armed forces control the Basra region. They patrol, in conjunction with Iraqi security forces, parts of the Shatt al-Arab, mostly to combat smugglers and militants seeking to infiltrate Iraq and fight against the US-led coalition.
"The Iranians are claiming that we went over their international boundary. That's not something that's unusual, to be perfectly honest," Wilson said.
Ties between Iran and Britain have been strained in recent weeks.
Britain was the co-sponsor of a resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last Friday that heavily criticised Iran for failing to cooperate fully with an investigation into its nuclear programme.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s spokesman refused to speculate on whether the border incident was related to the IAEA resolution, which has deeply angered Iran's clerical rulers.
The British embassy was also targeted in May during a string of angry demonstrations, sparked by an Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, as well as the entry of US-led coalition troops into Iraq's holy Shiite Muslim cities.
During some of the protests, the embassy was pelted with stones and hit by home-made bombs.
But contacts with Iranian troops along the far southern Iran-Iraq border area have generally been described by British sources as cordial, and the incident is the most serious in the sensitive area since the toppling of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April last year.
(((((PING))))))
Regards, Ivan
And it's not like we (the English and Americans) don't have a nice launching pad a little to their south.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s spokesman refused to speculate on whether the border incident was related to the IAEA resolution, which has deeply angered Iran's clerical rulers.
Took 'em long enough to mention it. This is the real point of Iran's actions. Hard to see how they intend to use it -- perhaps it's a way for them to escalate until they have a pretext to announce they've already got nukes.
This is going to erupt into something much more devastating then when China "detained" one of our aircraft back in 2000(2001?).
#1, Iran is not China.
#2, Iran needs an attitude adjustment and has been begging for one all year.
#3, The Jimmy Carter Syndrome died the day Reagan took office.
#4, Bush & Blair have extra, unopened cans of "whoop ass" at the ready.
<|:-)~~
Comments such as "the way to resolve this is to talk to Iranians at all levels and see if we can resolve this..." does not put forward a very defiant attitude.
I doubt that Maggie would have been so "diplomatic".
Time for an old-fashioned ultimatum.
#1, Iran is not China
Yeah - a BLACK STAIN on America's reputation, and a unmesureable loss of intelligence information and procedure - codes, equipment, etc.
From cowardly pilots to ignorant chain of command. Yes, I said cowardly pilots - his orders are to NOT get captured. By the time line of what happened, he never informed the crew in back that he was, in fact, surrendering to communist china.
Like Gary Powers and his U-2 - letting the Russians have the latest intel and propoganda treasure
I agree. This makes little sense unless they already have a rather robust Nuke supply. On the other hand, often the Islamic wackos don't make much sense.
A nation of people who think doing this to toddlers glorifies Allah and is thus great, is capable of all kinds of crazy sh!t.
"....spiral into a major crisis."
Calling Edwin Newman. Is there ever a minor crisis?
No argument here. Are there any reports on exactly how the Brits were taken into custody?
Condi Rice is credited with resolving the EP-E3 incident. This would be tougher. They're more nuts.
I think England is reacting way too softly about this.
However, one never knows, England may be acting meek and mild while preparing to "open up a can" behind the scenes.
OH MY GOD! what is that they are doing to that poor baby? I have never seen that before, what exactly is that they are doing. Those freaking bastards....
care to elaborate? I thought all the cans were either in a combat theater, or refitting to rotate into one. I didn't realize we'd left any 'unopened'.
There's always room for jell-o and there's always an unopened can of "WA" somewhere! I carry 2 or 3 wherever I go, don't you?
<|:-)~~
The Shiites annually celebrate the death of their favorite martyr (somehow related to Mohammed) by self-immolation. They all cut their scalps where a few scars don't relly mean much cosmetically. Besides, scalp really bleeds because of its rich vascular supply. It is difficult to see that done with the kids though. It is part of the early indoctrination.
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