Faye Turney - Hostage in Iran
Credit: Chaotic Ramblings | ©Chaotic Ramblings
Promised Release of Faye Turney Isn't Happening
In my previous article, Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Cancels Trip to United States and United Nations, I reported that Iran had captured 15 British Navy personnel and cancelled his trip to the United States and the United Nations. I also conjectured that maybe Ahmadinejad had instigated this capture to use the British hostages as bargaining chips with the United Nations to stop sanctions against Iran. As the days have passed, I believe this hypothesis is coming near to being proved.Hostage Crisis Continues
Iranian television has released video footage of Faye Turney saying, "obviously we trespassed into their waters", a supposed acknowledgement of guilt. (YouTube Video Here) This video also contains footage of some of the British hostages eating and looking well, though not all fifteen of them could be seen. Even though the hostages look okay, we have no idea when this footage was taken. Nor do we know if the comments Faye Turney made were her own.
As of today, March 29, 2007, Iran still hasn't released the British hostages even though it had pledged to release the female hostage, Faye Turney. Instead, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, Iran's military chief, said that her release has been suspended due to "wrong behavior" by the British government.
Fortunately, Britain, after marathon negotiations today, was able to convince the United Nations Security Council to issue a press release stating "grave concern" over the hostage situation and Iran's actions. Unfortunately, however, that is all they could get the United Nations Security Council to do. With both sides ratcheting up the rhetoric, there is no guessing what might happen in this situation.
Two Letters: Real or Fakes?
Two letters, supposedly written by Faye Turney, have been released to the media. One letter, yesterday, was to her family and said:
"Dear Mum & Dad,
Comments
That's barbaric and inexcusable. Iran would be wise not to pull this trick again.
I just read this piece of yours, and then at about the same time, I found this at a forum I use: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=447110&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490 Have you read this yet? That is absolutely appalling. I can't believe they were treated that way. And then people are talking in the comments saying the UK people were just suck ups? That's awful. They were just trying to survive in a terrible situation. :(
I'm thrilled that the British sailors are home now. I wonder what will happen next.
Well, it looks like Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said he will release the British Hostages. We can only wait and see now. I hope these sailors get home safely and soon.
Jeff, the Brits were abiding by rules of engagement that prohibited them from taking the kind of action that would have prevented this. The Iranians came up behind the cargo ship, where they were in the umbra of the ship's radar signature, and then came up around the cargo ship in little fast-attack boats. They weren't far from the shore in any event, and there were no US forces in that area, as it is primarily policed by the Brits there (turned over from our Coast Guard a couple years ago, I believe). Once the Iraqis closed, there was literally nothing that could have been done without seriously endangering the British sailors and Marines. This is not some grand conspiracy to attack Iran; if we needed one, we had one when we found the "Made in Iran" IUDs in Iraq, and captured the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the border training Iraqi insurgents. When it happens, I don't think it'll be the US anyway; I think it will be Israel, just like it was in the 80s.
one point of interest...that's not a big body of water there - especially the part that is Iraqi territorial waters...not much more than a lake..and the U.S. has a big air cap and numerous naval vessels, plus the brit forces...still, some small Iranian boats were able to capture 15 brits and take them across Iranian waters without U.S. or British naval forces able to do anything about it..kind of like the way no aircraft were up in time to do anything on 9/11..probably the two people in the world who want confrontation the most are Bush and Ahmadinejad..they (and Mr. Blair) are all helped by this...
This is a precipice - one we cannot afford to tumble over. Bush is looking for reasons to go after Iran. They may be wrong in their actions, but are we going to bomb them to oblivion or send another thousand young men to die in the cause? We are dealing with people whose belief systems are so far beyond our capability of absorbing, that we will never understand each other.
Great report.
The worst move the U.S. & Britain could do is attack Iran in the same way Israel attacked Lebanon after its soldiers were kidnapped.
Capturing British Sailors and holding them hostage is an act of war. Iran did this with full knowledge of what they were doing.
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