Freed Britons arrive at Tehran airport - Update - British navy crew leaves Iran

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/4/07 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

as of 2006 http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/gasoline_taxes.html

[KittyKares]

I’d love to hear what they say in private once they are out of Ahmadinejad’s control.

[La Enchiladita]

Maybe it will be Breaking News when the aircraft lands in London...

How long is the flight, I wonder; if on schedule, the flight left Tehran approx. 45 minutes ago.

[SaxxonWoods]

Thank you! So taxes isn’t the reason. Boutique fuels perhaps.

[NormsRevenge]

About 5 and a half hours flight time or so from Tehran to London

[conserveababe]

Maybe out of Iranian airspace already?

[NormsRevenge]

It’s 2738 miles from Tehran to London

[La Enchiladita]

If the flight is on schedule, perhaps they are nearly “out of there.”

*Whew*

[conserveababe]

The announcement of the release came hours after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) met with President Bashar Assad in Damascus, trying to show that a U.S. dialogue with Syria — rejected by the Bush administration — could bring benefits for the Middle East. The British sailors were not part of their talks, and it was not clear if the release was timed to coincide with her visit.

October surprise!

[cmotormac44]

So far as we all know——we gave an intelligence dept general back, now we wait to find out what the Brits gave-

[Prost1]

They should not have been taken captive.

If they were armed, it should not have happened.

Their Rules of Engagement was to surrender.
This is no way for a Country to operate.
England is an embarrassment. And they requested we embarrass ourselves in order to get their people home.

Once the troops are home, we should destroy Iran.

Anything short of their destruction means they win, we lose.

[conserveababe]

He first gave a medal of honor to the commander of the Iranian coast guards who captured the Britons, and admonished London for sending a mother, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, on such a dangerous mission in the Persian Gulf.

I'm sure Ahmadnutjob's support of barbaric policies like executing female rape victims makes him fully qualified to make a comment like this. (obvious extreme sarcasm)

Bad news for freedom, though. Ahmadnutjob's already got the liberals kissing his ass, now, with this comment, he'll have the undying love of the kick-women-out-of-the-military Neanderthals too.

To the Neanderthals in Iran, the USA, and everywhere: She volunteered for the military, she was not drafted, and she said herself in an interview that she knew the risks.

[LongElegantLegs]

Ahmadnutjob's already got the liberals kissing his ass, now, with this comment, he'll have the undying love of the kick-women-out-of-the-military Neanderthals too.

That's kind of a stretch...

[NormsRevenge]

British navy crew leaves Iran

ALI AKBAR DAREINI - AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070405/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_britain;_ylt=AqrUoEbCrzD3vxKQeQ3MZq2s0NUE

TEHRAN, Iran - Fifteen British sailors and marines released by Iran after nearly two weeks in captivity flew out of a Tehran airport Thursday aboard a commercial flight bound for London, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

The 15, whose release was announced Wednesday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left on a British Airways flight from Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport at about 8:30 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT), 30 minutes behind schedule.

They had arrived at the airport in a convoy of sedans that drove directly to the presidential VIP section of the airport, the AP reporter said. The convoy was escorted by several cars belonging to the elite Revolutionary Guards.

Wednesday’s announcement defused a growing confrontation between the two countries. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed “profound relief” Wednesday over the peaceful end to the 13-day crisis, telling the Iranian people that “we bear you no ill will.”

The crisis had raised oil prices and fears of military conflict in the volatile region. The move to release the sailors suggested that Iran’s hardline leadership decided it had shown its strength but did not want to push the standoff too far.

Iran did not get the main thing it sought — a public apology for entering Iranian waters. Britain, which said its crew was in Iraqi waters when seized, insists it never offered a quid pro quo, either, instead relying on quiet diplomacy.

Syria, Iran’s close ally, said it played a role in winning the release. “Syria exercised a sort of quiet diplomacy to solve this problem and encourage dialogue between the two parties,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said in Damascus.

The announcement of the release came hours after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) met with President Bashar Assad in Damascus, trying to show that a U.S. dialogue with Syria — rejected by the Bush administration — could bring benefits for the Middle East. The British sailors were not part of their talks, and it was not clear if the release was timed to coincide with her visit.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Pelosi’s surrender paid off.

For now.

[NormsRevenge]

I would have preferred her swapping herself and her entourage for the Brits.

[BIGLOOK]

Iran did not get the main thing it sought — a public apology for entering Iranian waters.

Hmmmm.....think they got what they wanted....politically and financially.

Black moving white's pawns in a chess game, Norm.

[FairOpinion]

UPDATE; They left Tehran, the plane took off.

Britons leave for London, ending Iran standoff

TEHRAN - The 15 British military personnel who had been held by Iran left Tehran on a flight to London on Thursday, ending a two-week standoff that raised international tension and rattled financial markets. Iranian officials whisked the 15 through the airport building to the British Mediterranean Airways plane, keeping them away from journalists, witnesses said.

"The plane has taken off," Iran Radio said.

A British diplomat, asking not to be named, said the Britons would travel in the business class section and that no one apart from the 15 and people accompanying them would be allowed in that part of the plane.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks and G’
Nite!

[GATOR NAVY]

Look at the top note on that graphic-state and local sales tax isn’t included in that figure. It only shows the excise taxes. Plus you are right about the boutique fuels. California has no one to blame themselves for $4.00 gasoline.