Posted on 03/28/2007 3:42:33 AM PDT by maquiladora
The Ministry of Defence has presented evidence which shows that the fifteen personnel detained by Iranian authorities on Friday 23 March 2007 were operating in Iraqi waters when they were seized.
The briefing, at defence headquarters in London, was given by Vice Admiral Charles Style, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments). Vice Admiral Style, who is responsible for providing strategic advice to operational commanders, explained in detail where the Royal Navy personnel were located when they were seized:
"The aim of this brief is to provide a factual account of the incident during which fifteen Royal Naval personnel were seized by the Iranians last Friday. By way of background, HMS CORNWALL was in charge of the coalition force, which - alongside the Iraqi Navy - is operating in the Northern Persian Gulf.
"This force maintains the sovereignty and integrity of Iraqi territorial waters under UN Security Council Resolution 1723, and with the approval of the Iraqi Government. The ship – and others in the coalition - maintain a presence patrolling there. They are also charged with protection of the Iraqi offshore oil infrastructure – economically very important - and the security of merchant vessels.
"On 23 March a boarding team consisting of seven Royal Marines and eight sailors - who were embarked in two of HMS CORNWALL's boats - conducted a routine boarding of an Indian flagged Merchant Vessel which was cooperative throughout. They investigated this vessel after witnessing her unloading cars into two barges secured alongside. Since early March the force has conducted 66 routine boardings. So the one that I'm talking about was entirely routine business, and conducted in a particular area where four other boardings have been completed recently.
"As shown on the chart, the merchant vessel was 7.5 nautical miles south east of the Al Faw Peninsula and clearly in Iraqi territorial waters. Her master has confirmed that his vessel was anchored within Iraqi waters at the time of the arrest. The position was 29 degrees 50.36 minutes North 048 degrees 43.08 minutes East. This places her 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territorial waters. This fact has been confirmed by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
"The Iranian government has provided us with two different positions for the incident. The first we received on Saturday and the second on Monday. As this map shows, the first of these points still lies within Iraqi territorial waters. We pointed this out to them on Sunday in diplomatic contacts.
"After we did this, they then provided a second set of coordinates that places the incident in Iranian waters over two nautical miles from the position given by HMS CORNWALL and confirmed by the merchant vessel. The two Iranian positions are just under a nautical mile apart – 1800 yards or so. It is hard to understand a reason for this change of coordinates. We unambiguously contest both the positions provided by the Iranians.
"I should just explain at this point that the boats remained connected at this point. One of the seaboats was connected via data link, which communicated its position continually to the ship where it was displayed, superimposed on an electronic chart, on a purpose built console. During the boarding this console was constantly monitored and indicated, throughout, that the boats had remained well within Iraqi territorial waters.
"Our boarding started at 0739 local time and was completed at 0910 with the merchant vessel having been cleared to continue with her business. Communications were lost with the boarding team as the boarding was finishing … at 0910. HMS CORNWALL's Lynx helicopter, which had been covering the initial stages of the boarding, immediately returned to the scene to locate the boarding team.
"The helicopter reported that the two seaboats were being escorted by Iranian Islamic Republican Guard Navy vessels towards the Shatt 'Al Arab Waterway and were now inside Iranian territorial waters. Debriefing of the helicopter crew and a conversation with the master of the merchant ship both indicate that the boarding team were ambushed while disembarking from the merchant vessel. Both boats were equipped with a GPS chart plotter.
"On Sunday morning, 25 March, HMS CORNWALL's Lynx conducted an overflight of the merchant vessel, which was still at anchor, and once again confirmed her location on Global Positioning System equipment. Her Master confirmed that his vessel had remained at anchor since Friday, and was in Iraqi territorial waters.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, my primary message is clear. HMS CORNWALL with her boarding party was going about her legal business – in Iraqi Territorial waters, under a United Nations Security Council Resolution, with the explicit approval of the Iraqi government.
"The action by Iranian forces in arresting and detaining our people is unjustified and wrong. As such it is a matter of deep concern to us and the families of the people who have been taken. We continue not only to call for their safe, but for their safe and speedy, return, and we continue to seek immediate consular access to them as a prelude to their release."
Picture shows GPS location of the incident, as seen from a Royal Navy helicopter over the merchant vessel [Picture: MOD]
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1. We've been grabbing Iranians since December of 2006, last count over 300 of them.
2. We knew this would anger them, that's why we sent a second carrier, more troops, more aircraft, and more Patriots over there.
3. We knew they would try to retaliate, they openly promised to, two weeks ago.
4. As the iranians took the Brits hostage, the UK Commander called a US commander and was told to stand down.
If nobody here, at least answering publicly, can add up these facts, then I guess you all deserve the angst you are feeling, while flapping about, not even beginning to understand what is taking place here.
Stand back and take a look at the big picture.
I read on the east 48.43544.
Interesting. If you enter the coordinates in this format, it takes you over in what seems a more reasonable area to dispute..
29 50.174 N, 48 43.544 E
That looks like a parsing error in GE to me.
The only thing that makes sense to me (assuming we are not spineless) is that we are preparing our military action, and don't want to be goaded into acting before we are 100% ready. I hope that this is what is going on.
Folks we have lost this war. The media war has been lost. The public war has been lost. Nobody cares anymore. Iran could kill these soldiers and we would do nothing. Britain would do nothing.
It's over.
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It seems apparent to me that the diplomatic path of bringing Iran to heel is dead in the water. Ahmadinejad's cancellation of his UN speech is an inescapable neon sign that the Iranians are no longer willing to play the charade and are ready to get to the brass tacks.
Act one: The confrontation. The kidnapping of these British sailors in Iraqi waters is certainly a deliberate provocation with the goal of drawing military engagement from the West.
Act two: The accusations/rebuttal. Iran says they're spies and will be tried accordingly. The British and U.S. agree to keep the powder dry. Blair brings indisputable GPS evidence that this was an illegal action by Iran.
Act three: The outcome. Iran will release these soldiers unharmed - their attempt to provoke a first shot thereby quashed.
or
Act three: The outcome. Iran runs a show trial to humiliate the U.K. before releasing the sailors.
Any way it cuts, I don't think harm is going to come to them. Drawing military engagement over disputed waters is not the same as drawing military engagement over unlawful imprisonment/execution of British sailors. The former gives Iran wiggle room for cause. The latter would draw the outrage of the world.
It is an interesting theory you present. Something to think about. The incidents of GPS related errors you mention would surely have been investigated up one side and down the other. You can't have incidents like this without incident reports. If there was some evidence of monkey business going on like this I would imagine that our guys know the danger.
Unfortunately the screamers seem to be in charge because they own the media and (*cue whiny voice*) "They don't know why we're THERE!"
If I remember correctly, sometime in the late '70s (1979?), the Iranians captured the American Embassy, and we didn't do anything effective then, either, except make noise and plant yellow ribbons, until Reagan got into office.
Glad to hear the Brits still can get worked up about something.
... The game's afoot now, for sure...
I bet the Brit's ROE doesn't even allow them to defend themselves. Bastards....
Somebody should tell Rosie O'Donnel. She is confident the Brits were in Iranian waters for the purpose of provoking a war with Iran.
There. That's more like it.
You've hit on why, back in the bad old days when things didn't have to be counterintuitive to be true, you HAD to go to war over an incident like this. Because if you didn't, every tin-pan dictator, pirate, and thug would know you could be pushed around and intimidated.
Is it any wonder that these scumbags feel they can do whatever they want? I'm think the whole region needs their asses kicked. That little terrorist troll in Iran is just itching for a fight. They all need a serious attitude adjustment. I'd be a terrible diplomat, I just don't have the patience for this BS.
Of course, it is grade school-level human behavior. Class bullies need to get a punch in the nose. Of course the "elites" never learned this lesson.
Weren't the Marines from a Guided Missile Destroyer? Loss of live among the carpet pilots maybe.
So Pathetic.
Maybe that's the trouble.
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