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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We all hope and plan for the best possible situation. If history is to be a judge however, typically an aggressor does not give a defender much of a choice. Japan attacked the US. Germany attacked Europe. Initiative in war has tremendous advantages. Most aggressors utilize those advantages. The fact that the US and Britain are stretched thin with weak domestic support, helps to make us an easier target. We should expect the Iranian attack when we are at our weakest point.
It was posted elsewhere on FR that there had been a meeting of the Revolutionary Guard (or whatever they call themselves) 6 days prior to the "incident," where they planned the attack, with the approval of Ahmadinejad himself, of course.
In other words, it was also already planned that Ahmadinejad would not go to the UN. This was around the time he was demanding the visas for the 25 "security personell," which he knew he would not get, but which he intended to use as an excuse to blame us for his not going to the UN. The seizing of the British sailors gave him another excuse not to go to the UN. In other words, much of the timing of this incident had to do with the UN visit.
The question, of course, is why. The UN is pretty toothless, and it's hard to imagine that he was afraid of it. So perhaps it is really just a vast propaganda play, and he's holding fast because it is giving him lots of mileage in the ME at absolutely no cost to Iran. One of his objectives is dominance and leadership of the whole ME and Muslim world, and appearance is very important there.
"sound of crickets chirping"
...cat meowing in trash can,
...hubcap spiraling down to the pavement,
...car horn in distance,
...large wife yelling at skinny drunk husband.
Imagine that. I also expect they'll say it was "Bush's fault". ;-)
Thanks. The info that has been published here indicated that the sailors and Marines were unarmed and the ship's commander actually had to call Whitehall, not the US commander. But as I say, information has been sketchy at best here, except for jerks like Rosie O'Donnell who emerged immediately with Iranian-sponsored disinformation.
...tumbleweed blowing down an empty highway
...dog baying in the distance
:-)
"Such a system would make targets of all small unit activities in the area."
Especially now that everyone knows that. So, I guess Iran can just go grab some more.
That'll teach 'em. /s
I understand your feelings, but we have a CiC that has a track record and Constitutional powers to do what needs to be done... and he will!
LLS
True and sad nonetheless.
I can however see a slight reason for the weak defense posture. The Iranians may have wanted hostile fire. That could have been Plan A. Then Plan B was take the hostages. Perhaps the Iranians are and have been trying to provoke hostilities and we have been trying to avoid them. That does seem to fit the situation over there with regards to roadside bombs and Iranian insurgents infiltrating into Iraq.
Well he certainly has nothing to lose at this point but the clock is running. His time grows short. I hope you are not disappointed.
Perhaps they wanted to drive the price of oil upwards.
bttt
Just a final note from the Foreign Secretary. At the end of the Q&A after her statement she mentioned that there has been a hint that the captives will be shown on Iranian TV soon.
There's a lot of outcry in Britain, like the media here... you will not hear it.
Speaking of which, none of those yellow POS would be going on 'spring break' until the troops had their money. Can W sign something in lieu of their absence to fund them?
I have several friends in the British armed services. Universally they LOVE to train in America because the uniform they wear even as Allies garners them a level of respect and thanks that is virtually unknown in Great Britain. The British civilian population just loathes their own military forces! I don't know from whence this springs. It might be a reaction to an elitist officer corps that graduates from Sandhurst and is usually wealthy or connected or even Royal. It could be a sign of creeping socialism in the UK and Europe as a whole. It could be another sign of creeping Islamization of the UK, although I observed the phenomenon even back when I was on active duty in the 1980s.
At that time I made a lot of friends in the 1st PARA, 3rd Royal Anglian Infantry and 1st SAS when those outfits trained with mine at Fort Lewis. To the extent that I was invited by some of the officers to take leave, catch a "hop" over to the UK at Lakenheath AFB and deploy with the outfit to Northern Ireland (the schemes cooked up by Second Lieutenants all over the world are ASTOUNDING...& SCARY) where I would wear the uniform of a British private and run combat patrols in Belfast. LOL what an international incident THAT would have made! In the end, it wasn't common sense that took hold, it was God in the form of unbeatable logistics. But when those blokes left, they GAVE me all of their unexpended 9mm SUB GUN ammo, which was at the time, considerably "hotter" than standard ball ammo available stateside for 9mm handguns. That was nice. I probably got over a thousand rounds of the stuff.
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