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Iran ‘to try Britons for espionage’
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1563877.ece ^

Posted on 03/24/2007 5:24:18 PM PDT by Weight of Glory

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iran; iraq; piracy; uk
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

bttt


81 posted on 03/24/2007 8:27:41 PM PDT by Chena ("Bush Bashing" not welcomed here.)
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To: Diogenesis

"Lady, F**k off! Make your own movie!"

82 posted on 03/24/2007 8:33:22 PM PDT by bygolly
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To: Berosus

:')


83 posted on 03/24/2007 8:40:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Saturday, March 24, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Weight of Glory

Why were they captured? Because their "commanding officer" instructed them to surrender?

If I was armed and on board, they would have had to shoot me!

Warrior 1st, diplomat 2nd.


84 posted on 03/24/2007 8:42:28 PM PDT by Prost1 (Fair and Unbiased as always!)
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To: Weight of Glory; Diogenesis; potlatch; ntnychik; devolve; Grampa Dave; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ...
JUST DO IT!

85 posted on 03/24/2007 8:44:01 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: I got the rope

Yep you did! I read that too!


86 posted on 03/24/2007 8:58:30 PM PDT by ConservativeMan55
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

What's that Greek crud in the title???


87 posted on 03/24/2007 9:24:14 PM PDT by SierraWasp (CA is pleagued with a GANG-GREENOUS REPELLICAN GOVERNOR!!! He's worsened the Gray Davis' MESS!!!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; Dog Gone; Grampa Dave; tubebender; dalereed; Jim Robinson; NormsRevenge; ...
Well... This can be laid immediately at the Democrat controlled CONgress feet!!! They were all told this would embolden America's enemies and here it is Hoyer, Pelosi, Murtha, et al you sick bunch of second guessing fools!!!

Just look what you're doing to one of our staunchest allies on earth!!! When you're unsure what to do, just display your incompetence for the whole danged world to see!!! (dejavue Jimmy Carter all over again)

I know... Barbara Boxer reminded all of us... "Elections have consequences."

88 posted on 03/24/2007 9:37:02 PM PDT by SierraWasp (CA is pleagued with a GANG-GREENOUS REPELLICAN GOVERNOR!!! He's worsened the Gray Davis' MESS!!!)
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To: SierraWasp
I don't know.....at the Website it is this:

Iran ‘to try Britons for espionage’

89 posted on 03/24/2007 9:39:24 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

How'd you git rid of that Greek crud in the title so fast??? It was turnin the single quote mark into some Greek, or maybe it was Pharsi, gibberish stuff and now it's magically disappeared!!!


90 posted on 03/24/2007 9:41:32 PM PDT by SierraWasp (CA is pleagued with a GANG-GREENOUS REPELLICAN GOVERNOR!!! He's worsened the Gray Davis' MESS!!!)
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To: SierraWasp

Looks like the Mods have adjusted it!


91 posted on 03/24/2007 9:42:30 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Ok, I'm gonna go watch a slide show and eat some popcorn... See ya!


92 posted on 03/24/2007 9:43:05 PM PDT by SierraWasp (CA is pleagued with a GANG-GREENOUS REPELLICAN GOVERNOR!!! He's worsened the Gray Davis' MESS!!!)
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To: PhilDragoo

Nice one, Phil!


93 posted on 03/24/2007 10:24:47 PM PDT by Seadog Bytes (OPM - The Liberal 'solution' to every societal problem. (Other People's Money))
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To: Diogenesis
"... but when Charles has not dreamed of being an intravaginal tampoon,.."

He wasn't dreaming!

94 posted on 03/24/2007 10:31:18 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: gpapa
That makes a lot of sense! Doing this to the Brits does not gaurantee we will respond with a military attack. We should support the British if they did.

If those were Americans the Iranians would find Jimmah Carter is no longer POTUS.

95 posted on 03/24/2007 10:35:48 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: Weight of Glory
The big difference between 2004 and now is that the environment wasn't charged with so much sabre rattling, open threats of nuclear war, and the disgusting absence of backbone in the US Congress and the UK. The media has gone out of its way to portray the Armed Forces as a beleagured, fractured, and corrupt institution. They've further gone on to illuminate ad nauseum the great distaste that mainland Europe has not only for the war, but for the United States AND Israel. The U.N. has proven to be a corrupt country club of third-world dictators, and has neither the will nor the moral legitimacy to actually enforce its own resolutions. And the Iraqi people don't seem to want its own independence from tyranny.

Now, that said, a very important news item from last week got virtually no play in the media, regarding Iran:

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2625206&C=mideast

High-level Iranian and Saudi officials have exchanged visits over the past few weeks in an effort to defuse ethno-sectarian conflict spreading in their volatile region. Saudi King Abdullah bins Abdul Aziz and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad met here March 3. The meetings followed January and February meetings here and in Tehran between Ali Larijani, who is secretary-general of the Iranian National Security Council, and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan.

“There is too much at stake for each party, and the regional problems have become interlinked with one another and thus harder to deal with,” said Abdulwahab Badrakhan, a political analyst based in Doha, Qatar.

The two oil-rich nations are an unlikely peacemaking duo. Saudi Arabia is a predominantly Sunni Muslim Arab state with strong ties to the United States, while Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim Persian country that supports Shiite militias in Iraq and Lebanon and leads an anti-Western axis with Syria.

But “Riyadh sees the chances of war increasing by the day with no practical solution in sight for the standoff between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear problem, and thus Saudi Arabia wants to make sure it will not be part of any future regional war,” said Anwar Eshki, director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah.

So, Eshki said, Saudi leaders told their Iranian counterparts to cool it.

“Tehran was told that it had to adhere to the will of the international community and to help resolve the mounting sectarian tension in Lebanon and Iraq in order to escape any military confrontation with the West,” he said.

The Saudis also told the Iranians that if they responded to U.S. attacks by striking out at Persian Gulf Arab states, these countries would enter the war on America’s side, he said.

Saudi leaders are not sure Tehran will react to their message.

“Most hard-line Iranian leaders have not yet taken any action to defuse the tension in the region and have kept their rhetoric on the nuclear file very high and non-compromising,” said Assad Shamlan, a political science professor at the Saudi Diplomatic Institute.

Yet after the meeting, the mood was cautiously optimistic here.

“The fact that the Iranians have been seeking Saudi help to quell the tension is a proof that Tehran was really scared and wants to halt this madness,” Shamlan said. Tehran senses that its popular support in the region is slipping away, Badrakhan said.

“Iranians realize now that the tide is turning against them, with more Arab countries becoming uneasy with their increased military threats and their radicalization of Shiite communities,” he said. “This situation is depriving Iran of Arab and Muslim support or sympathy that Tehran would need at the time of a U.S. attack.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz have all spoken in the past year of an Iranian-controlled Shiite crescent coming into shape in the Middle East with Syria’s help. And Arab governments fear that Iran would become a hegemonic power if it acquires nuclear weapons. END.

So, plain and simple, Iran did not get anything near what it wanted out of the Saudis. The Saudis, instead, told Iran that if they want a war, Saudi Arabia will side with the U.S. The meeting broke up early, from what I read elsewhere, and he returned to Tehran. Next, he intended to come to the U.N. Why? Simple. It was his last hope. As a final slap in the face, the Russians pulled their workers from the site of the nuclear reactor they're building, and then cut off fuel deliveries all together. Why? Because Iran, like a subprime borrower, couldn't pay the bill.

Next thing you know, 15 British soldiers are taken hostage on false pretense and charged with espionage. Given the recent moves by Ahmadinejad, his humiliation on the world stage, and perhaps a financial crisis in the Tehran government, the table is set for an irrational man to do something entirely irrational. Whereas in 2004, it made sense to release them, the Iranian government may not feel there's much to lose. I don't like their prospects at this point. If, God forbid, these men are executed, all bets are off. But with the rhetoric intensifying this weekend, it's clear that Ahmdinejad's postponement of the U.N. speech ha snothing to do with visas and everything to do with Iran's next move...

96 posted on 03/24/2007 11:03:16 PM PDT by Rutles4Ever (Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna)
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To: Weight of Glory

The information I got was the British ship was trailing a shipment of black market automobiles. This has nothing to do with espionage. Iran is playing with fire.


97 posted on 03/24/2007 11:28:43 PM PDT by jonrick46
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To: El Gato
'Us' as in the "US", the political spineless wonders who only care about re-election and lining their own pockets, not 'us' as in you and me.
98 posted on 03/25/2007 3:40:31 AM PDT by b4its2late (Liberalism is a mental disorder.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Step two in the dance


99 posted on 03/25/2007 5:25:47 AM PDT by Valin (History takes time. It is not an instant thing.)
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To: SierraWasp

Many of us tried to warn those who bought the bs of teaching us a lesson by electing Pelosi and her Hatriotics to control our country.

However, they didn't listen, and like during the Clintoonian years, we and the world will pay for allowing the Hatriotics to be in power.


100 posted on 03/25/2007 8:50:17 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (GW has more Honor and Integrity in his little finger than ALL of the losers on the "hate Bush" band)
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