Not to mention...if you ever get briefed on the British "resistance" technique, they tend to not fold too easily. Not that some haven't (and not trying to judge, either way).
Looks like the Ayatollah has some new guests. This smells of all the same BS that went down during the first hostage crisis in 79. Remember how those guys were treated "humanely" too.
While I do believe this letter is a fake or at the least coerced, I believe that you are mistaken: Raid police apologise for 'hurt'
I think he just got his letters mixed up. If he'd said, say, "The British use an 's' instead of a 'z' in apologise," he would have been accurate, and that fact may call into question the validity of the letter. Not that it would be hard to question, seeing as how it came from a member of the British military in the custody of the Iranian government.
This is starting to get annoying. Now they are saying Brittan's words and actions are causing delays in releasing the sailors, and they've apparently forged another letter from the woman sailor to Parliament asking Brattain to pull its troops from Iraq.
Taken from Kickflip's link: Removed text due to copyright protection - HJ Fine. Evidently the "wrong behavior of those who live in Teheran" ultimately resulted in US troops rounding up some 300 Iranian agents in Iraq, and some are singing like canaries. This link has my favorite quote from Gen. Petreaus to date: http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/03/us_holds_300_prisoners_linked.php
I'm not speaking from experience as a POW or anything, and I think its hard to put yourself in the situation, but is anyone else surprised that they've gotten 4 "confessions" this early? Does article V of the code of conduct strike a chord with anyone? I have no doubt their situation sucks, but people have done a very good job of resisting captors in wars past, and I can only hope that they realize how their statements (coerced or not) are not improving their situation. Just my thoughts.
We shouldn't take any publicly released info allegedly coming from the captives at face value. Iran has an agenda it is pursuing and is using this as propaganda to get closer to successfully reaching it. Even if these alleged confessions came from the captives, there are too many x factors for any of us sit here and judge whether or not they making the right choices in captivity including: what type of environment are they in, what threats and other exploitation techniques are being used against them? Are they Resistance trained? Since there is no declared war with Iran, what rules apply (Geneva Convention, Law of Armed conflict etc if any) to their situation and do the captives know what they are entitled to? Even if they did know, the Iranian govt still is going to do what it wants. The best we can do is watch events unfold and hope for the safe return of the captives. Once they return there will undoubtedly be in depth debrief sessions to piece together what was really happening to them in there. After the pertinent info is gathered, judgments will be made by those who need to make them. Personally I think we'd be doing them a disservice by saying they are doing things wrong when we aren't there and don't know what they are going through.
Mark Twain said it best...and it's as true today as it was 150 years ago: “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on...or by idiots who really mean it.” You be the judge...
I seriously doubt the veracity of that article, especially since they never define what they mean by "prisoners tied to Iran’s intelligence agencies".........
British hostages being released today, CNN is showing each of them meeting Ahmadinejad; he's shaking their hands, whispering sweet nothings into their ears...Bully for the Brits.
I just about broke my TV set watching the latest news. Mahmoud is calling it an "Eastern Gift to Britain." England is already thanking him...wtfo? Thanking him for what exactly?
How about we send over 3 new hostages? one from Britain, one from Greece, and one Pakistani American? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263927,00.html
15 Hours of crap being blown up in your country damaging your infastructure and creating chaos both with your economy and political hold on the people. I figured an hour for each of the Sailors and Marines taken captive sends a clear diplomatic message to the rest of the world that this is direct retribution for a criminal act of state sponcered piracy. And it provides its own timeline to end which keeps the economic fallout of such an attack to a minimum.
Does anyone else find the behavior of the British captives unprofessional? Obviously I'm not there, and I don't know if they have had any resistance training, however, anyone who is in a military and operating in the gulf has to at least be aware of the tensions with Iran. It does not appear there is any physical abuse, and I don't think I would go on TV confessing my country is wrong. Even if they decided to do that for "proof of life" they are all on TV tonight high fiving in suits, shaking Abishamsa's hand (however you spell that dude's name) and acting like idiots.:icon_rage Have some military bearing and don't give the Iranians the image of being the "good guys!" Seriously, I hope none of us would act like that in that situation. Maybe we need to send the code of conduct to London!
And now I see them THANKING the Iranians for "respect and taking good care of us!" If they respected the Brits, the would have told them to turn their boat around and get out of their waters. End of story. There was no "Good will" intentions by Iran. I almost put this type of behavior on the brink of treason. Unbelievable!
Two things to consider. First, these people are (for the most part) junior enlisted personnel, likely not SERE trained. Second, despite our rough past with Iran since '79, the Brits have substantially better relations with Iran than we do, to include diplomatic relations and an embassy. So, the UK's posture WRT Iran is much less belligerent than ours would be in similar circumstances. Bottom line, we don't know all the facts, so let's not all race to crucify these people who wound up in a bad situation through no fault of their own. Brett
I will agree we don't know all the details, however they still appear unprofessional as Royal Navy and Marines. Putting your "buddy" in a headlock and giving him a nougey while awaiting your release on TV is no way to act. They had to have some sort of leadership on this rhib, who I feel should have tried to keep his men and woman in line with some decorum.
A couple things that you have to be aware of.......First, they were not POW's but peacetime detainees and the rules are a lot different. Very few people on this board have had thorough training on peacetime detention, I could probably count them on one hand, (the short lesson at SERE only skims the issues) but there are many differences in comparison to wartime. There are no international laws or set procedures like there is with POW's when it comes to their treatment or what they can and cannot do. While most of our enemies have ignored these rules in the past 100 years or so they still have the weight of international community and with all of their mechanisms and procedures, they occasionally help. Along with the Code of Conduct those rules are well known and are not in dispute. Even then they have been broken, mainly under duress. You have to realize that Iran was not really breaking any 'rules' by making these people appear on TV or holding them per se since there is no state of war that exists between Britian and Iran. If the Brits actually did violate Iranian territory (which I seriously doubt, but it is a possibility) then they actually have legal standing to go after them. Secondly, while some of the statements of the female sailor tread a gray area you have to look very closely at the statements of the two officers. Correct me if I am wrong, but they neither of them ever said that they intruded into Iranian waters but only pointed out where the Iranians said they were. Other things were caveated like saying they understand why the Iranians were mad about the 'apparent' intrusion, not that they were at fault. Earlier, another crewman, Lt Felix Carman, told Iranian television: "To the Iranian people, I can understand why you were insulted by our apparent intrusion into your waters." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6528235.stm You have to listen very closely to what was said, not just listen to the short blurbs they show on the tabloid news networks. From what I have seen they said what was necessary when they were put in front of the cameras. Even if they were not trained they said some things out of the playbook. Thirdly, we have no idea what sort of conditions they were held in or what they knew about how much attention their capture garnered, in official circles or in the media. When the EP-3 crew landed in China they had no idea how much attention the incident had garnered back home. Without any of this knowledge they would want to be seen and heard as much as possible for the 'proof of life'. A couple questions that you may not have thought of: How much footage was shot? It could have been hours of filmed interrogation that they cut to a few moments. What sort of conditions were they held in and what were they told they had to do? Did they tell them they had to appear in fron of the camera in order to get food, contact with other Brits, released, etc? There may have been a concious decision on the part of the officers to appear in front of the cameras to spare most of their men. Also, they apparently seperated the woman from the group for some time, did they tell her to make statements before she could rejoin her fellow sailors and marines? Things that none of us know. Finally, you do realize they are still in Iran, right? Until they get out of the country they are not scott free and have to still play nice. I would guess that they have even been instructed to say nice things by their superiors in order not to make things complicated. Even after they get home the British government might want them to lie low for a little bit so as not to complicate the bigger diplomatic issues and not to provoke Iran into doing another dumb thing. While Iran is making our life a bit more difficult in Iraq, it is not to the extent that many think. They could make life a lot more difficult than it already is.......a lot more difficult . So, I would give the Brits a lot of credit for getting through this ordeal. It does not sound like, other than some dubious statements out of the female sailor, that they made no admission of fault on their part. And it does not seem like they made no other serious errors. Let the Brits deal with their guys, they are good guys and I am glad to have them on our side. If they did something wrong I have faith that they will work it out, officially or unofficially. Unless you walk a mile in their shoes...........