Cop The Truth: Iran parades British hostages UPDATED

Well, we all knew that this was coming.

Here's video of the hostages from LiveLeak (commentary in Arabic).

One question: don't these people get some type of SERE training? The female Marine already seems to be writing letters admitting guilt and wearing Iranian garb. She also spoke to Iranian camera crews:

"Obviously we trespassed," Turney said on the footage broadcast by Al- Alam, an Arabic-language, Iranian state-run television station that is carried across the Middle East by satellite. She was also shown in uniform eating with sailors and marines and at one point was shown smoking a cigarette with eyes downcast.

"My name is leading sailman Faye Turney. I come from England. I have served in Foxtrot 99. I've been in the navy for nine years," she said.

"They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested, there was no harm, no aggression," she said.

After only five days of captivity and, apparently, no torture? And She's a Royal Marine? I know all of the story isn't out yet, but don't Royal Marines and Sailors have a Code of Conduct for such circumstances? Yikes. Britain has said that her statements may have been coerced, and I hope, for her sake, that they are right. She sure seems a long way from this story.

No wonder she will be released at any time now, according to the Iranians.

So what happened?

Britain's military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when Iran seized the sailors and marines on Friday.

Vice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday—a location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position two miles east, placing the British inside Iranian waters—a claim he said was not verified by global positioning system coordinates.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," Style said.

Style gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant ship boarded by the sailors and marines.

The Brits will have no trouble confirming the coordinates of their people, as I'm sure they were under constant surveillance from the HMS Cornwall. Not that it will have any influence on the Iranian position, of course.

The Iranian intentions are clear:

embarrass the U.S. and Britain
show the world that they can act against the world's superpowers with impunity
divert the focus from their illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons
test the response of the allies and the U.N.

Well, mission accomplished. The Iranians have been pushing and killing westerners for years and still we back down from them, every single time. This is yet another example of why we will never be able to stop them from building, obtaining, using and/or selling their own nukes. Our government lacks the courage to do what is necessary, yet again.

And some of our "allies" in the region are actively choosing sides, and I don't mean ours.

The UAE called the Iranians "brothers" and insisted that they will never allow the U.S. or GB to attack from their country. Source.

'We have reiterated to our Iranian brothers, in a letter delivered recently by the Foreign Minister (Shaikh Abdullah), that we are not a party to the conflict between Iran and the US and that we shall never allow the use of our soil for any military, security or intelligence activities against them,' he was quoted as saying in an interview with the London-based Arabic daily Al Hayat, a report on which was made available through the state-run Emirates News Agency WAM.

They do, however, support our navy with continued use of their ports, etc. They plan to sit this one out and support the eventual winner, like most of the Gulf States. But guess who they will look to when the Iranians are threatening the world with nukes?

This is yet another byproduct of a Congress that refuses to support our President, our military or the mission that we are involved in in that region. Never mind the fact that those troops were sent into this fray at the direction, and with the support of, Congress.

The Iranians see this lack of support and courage and are emboldened. The Iranians, and the rest of the world, can see what so many Americans, apparently, cannot: that Congress is full of opportunistic, self-serving, over-inflated egos who care for nothing more than furthering their own political aims, and those of their party.

And it seems that the lack of courage to do the right thing is spreading. Just ask Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon.

It's long past time to confront Iran for their murder of our troops, for their support of terrorism worldwide, for their pursuit of nuclear weapons. The Arab states won't do it, the U.N. won't do it, so it's left to us, preferably with the help of Israel, GB, Australia, etc.

But is must be done.

More on the situation:

***UPDATED***: Female Sailor, not Marine. Thanks for the (numerous) corrections!

***UPDATED***: Drudge, via My Way News, is reporting that Iran's Foreign Minister is demanding that Britain admit that the Marines and Sailors were in Iranian waters before the situation can be resolved.

Clearly, that's not going to happen.

***UPDATED 03/29/07***: More details on the capture and Iran releases the female sailor's 'anti-war' letter.

"Isn't it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?" said the letter, addressed to the British parliament.

Coercion, for sure. But now Iran has withdrawn its offer to release her due to GB's 'incorrect attitude'.

Breitbart, via Drudge: British leaders "have miscalculated this issue" and if they follow through with threats, the case "may face a legal path".

It seems that the Brits will demand U.N. support and PM Blair has vowed that Britain won't negotiate with Iran, and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages.

"The important thing for us is to get them back safe and sound, but we can't enter into some basis of bargaining," Blair said. "What you have to do when you are engaged with people like the Iranian regime, you have to keep explaining to them, very patiently, what it is necessary to do and at the same time make them fully aware there are further measures that will be taken if they're not prepared to be reasonable.

"What you can't do is end up negotiating over hostages; end up saying there's some quid pro quo or tit for tat; that's not acceptable," he said.

This one is going to get ugly, quickly.

OMG, too funny! Jimmy Carter is offering to mediate the entire situation. Probably because he did such a great job in negotiating the release of our hostages when Iran kidnapped them in '79.

“As everyone knows, I have tremendous hands-on experience in handling a crisis of this nature,” said Carter, who spoke briefly to reporters during a break from building a house for former Guantanamo Bay prisoners. “And I understand the Iranians. The manner in which you negotiate with them is highly dependent on the specifics of the issue. And in this case, where their sovereignty has been violated by tea-loving imperialists, a deft touch is critical.”

Carter said that his people were reaching out to the British government to offer his assistance.

Your legacy was determined long ago, Jimmy.

Now just go away.

***UPDATED 03/30/07***: It seems that the female sailor was collapsed completely. She has now released a third letter, this one addressed to the 'British people':

I am writing to you as a British service person who has been sent to Iraq, sacrificed, due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments.

[...]

I believe that for our countries to move forward we need to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives.

I have written a letter to the people of Iran apologizing for our actions.

The Iranians are sweet, caring, sensitive, intelligent, blahblahblah. Talk about "aiding and abetting the enemy"! Her abysmal conduct is bordering on treason. There is no excuse for this type of conduct, coercion or not. And a second Sailor has admitted "guilt" over the incident.

I don't think for a second that Iran would dare execute or torture any of these people. But then, it is Iran, so who knows.

If nothing else, this incident will serve as a "what not to do when captured by the enemy" example for future training purposes. Guess they missed the examples of John McCain, Michael Durant and the sailors of the USS Pueblo.

It's time for the Brits to take control of this thing before Iran gets any more traction. Iran needs to learn the lesson that there is a price to be paid for terrorism, for kidnapping, and for murder. They need to learn it painfully and indelibly.

We all want these Sailors and Marines released safely and immediately. I fear that anything less will lead to some nasty consequences.

There's some great analysis of the video of the initial capture at Verum Serum. It also brings up a good point: why did the Iranian vessels have videocameras? More planning?