15 British sailors seized by Iranian forces - (bay of tonkin?)

Rich

The Living Force
Times online said:
Fifteen Royal Navy personnel were seized today by Iranian naval warships in Iraqi territorial waters in the north Arabian Gulf, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The personnel were said to be conducting a routine inspection in the area, when they were surrounded by an Iranian vessel and escorted to waters controlled by Iran.

The Foreign Office said that Iran’s ambassador in London had been summoned and Britain was demanding their immediate safe release.

The MoD said the incident happened at around 10.30am local time. “The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters,ᾠ a spokesman said.

“We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.

“The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.ᾠ

The Pentagon also confirmed the detention, saying that the Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate HMS Cornwall during the routine operation. The area – on the Iran-Iraq southern border, is of high strategic importance, and is regularly patrolled by British Navy personnel protecting against smuggling.
http://www(dot)timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1558228.ece
 
the scotsman said:
A journalist on board the ship, Ian Pannell, said that they had just boarded a dhow, a traditional Arabian sailing vessel.

Mr Pannell said: “While they were on board, a number of Iranian boats approached the waters in which they were operating – the Royal Navy are insistent that they were operating in Iraqi waters and not Iranian waters – and essentially captured the Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel at gunpoint."
It is not the first time that British servicemen have been taken captive by Iranian forces in the troubled waters between Iran and Iraq.

Eight servicemen were seized and detained in July 2004 after their patrol boats were said to have strayed into the Iranian side of the Shatt al Arab waterway.

The capture of the six Royal Marines and two Royal Navy sailors sparked a tense stand-off.

The men were blindfolded and held for three days during which they were paraded on Iranian TV.

The Iranians failed to meet deadlines for the return of British equipment, including boats, weapons and radios.

It was thought the group were on their way to Basra to deliver one of the patrol boats to the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service.

The then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the crews were “forcibly escorted� into Iranian waters.

He said British personnel were issued with modern charts and equipment which should have been sufficient to prevent them straying across the border.
insistant? essentially? modern charts?
 
http://news(.)yahoo.com/s/ap/20070323/ap_on_re_eu/british_seized_iran

This one is pretty good. It reads like, you give us back our sailors, while we keep some of your people hostage!
 
Isn't it odd that this black op propaganda fell on THIS day? march 23!
Exactly one month day by day after the release of the film "The Number 23" in movie theaters.

Reminds me of the fact that the movie 'Pearl Harbour' was released in the summer of 2001, a few months before 9/11...

A friend sent me his interpretation of the event this afternoon:

"A live interview with the Commodore of HMS Cornwall say the ship lost communication with the boats BEFORE the Iranians turned up. Yet there was a helicopter above the incident. No word yet of any communication between the helicopter and the Navy boats. The commander has just (2:00) said that "the extent and definition of territorial waters is very complicated" in the area. In his interviews since the story broke, the commander has NOT said what nationality the boat was that was checked by his men, presumably Iraqi,since the Royal Navy are obviously claiming they were in Iraqi waters. Very possible that the British were actually sent into Iranian waters on purpose, in order to goad the Revolutionary Guard, but don't want to admit it...... On the other hand, the US are still holding 5 Iranian Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq in January; perhaps this latest incident is to get them returned.

On the same day, today, news comes of a British officer claiming the Iranians are supplying arms to 'insurgents' in Basra but **very little info** released about his sources.... I see the BBC (News 24) are already interpreting the seizure of the sailors as Iranian revenge for the British officer's claim. Could possibly be, but it's more likely that the two moves were planned in sync by the Brits, who are playing their usual fig leaf role for the Americans, provoking (on behalf of the USA) Iran into actions that the US would rather not be seen provoking them into. And as the number 23 is everywhere in Anglo-US culture, and as the Iraq war and the war against Serbia in 1999 both started in the week of the 20th March (20.3), it is at least possible that this is yet another black op designed to draw the Iranians into foolish moves that will result - at the very least - in further tough international action against Iran, and at worst in military action.

Nb most Iranian officials are on holiday because it's the traditional Persian New Year. Shades of July 1914....?

The British media swing into gear, insinuating not only that the British were doing nothing wrong but that the British operation is legitimised by UN resolution......guess which?......No.1723. An interesting number; it just happens to be the number of the year in which British Freemasonry received its constitution, which for Freemasons corresponded to the year 5723 of Freemasonry.

The main 'expert' the BBC has been calling on on News 24 since the story broke is veteran "Middle East expert" Adel Darwish. On him see http://www.fandy.us/experts/adel-darwish.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adel_Darwish Note the conservative media who Darwish has mostly written for. Darwish is pushing a propaganda message that this is all being orchestrated entirely by the Iranians at the expense of the innocent British. He has also just said that people expect that war with Iran is more likely to happen 'by accident' than by design. He is now (2:40) saying that US satellite pictures will "prove" where the boats were (technology of course can NEVER be doctored, as we know...)

"Adel Darwish is a British reporter, author, journalist and broadcaster. He has worked for major UK papers like the Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Times.

Additionally, Mr. Darwish's work appears in The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, The Scotsman, The Washington Post, The Economist and The Middle East Magazine.

Mr. Darwish is a frequent commentator on foreign affairs with the BBC, SKY News and ITN, as well as major American and Canadian Networks and occasionally with some Arabic language networks such as Egyptian Radio, Nile TV and Kuwait TV"

Finally, the day before this incident, 22nd March (223, or 322 if you prefer the American style, 322 being of course the signature number of Skull & Bones), after 2 years of investigations, the Metropolitan Police (a well-known bastion of Freemasonry in the British establishment) SUDDENLY (the media all note how "surprising" this is) report the first 3 arrests in the case of the 7.7.2005 bombings in London. I'm not claiming there's any direct connection between that event and today's events in the Gulf, but one should keep one's ears open as to the timing of things..... as the modern public are 'massaged' and psyched up constantly on all fronts by Establishment media who now have nearly 100 years of experience of 'black propaganda' and manipulation of the public, especially in matters relating to foreign affairs."
 
this event puts me in mind of the last years baiting of Hizb'allah to capture Israeli soldiers who were sent across the border into Lebanon, only for the Israelis to then claim that it was Hizb'allah who crossed into Israel, which of course was then used to launch the attack on the Lebanese people. Will the same happen with Iran? We only have the word of the British navy and government that the sailors today were in Iraqi waters....

Then today, TV news outlets were claiming that the US have given a Visa to Ahmadinejad to travel to the UN security council meet tomorrow (saturday) in NY, but Iranian news is reporting that he is not attending because the US gov would not give him a Visa.

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0703244432015933.htm

So is he going or not??

Joe
 
I was stunned today while listening to national radio (Canada). The hosts were talking about all sorts of things and then mentioned the captured sailors.

One of them said (I'm paraphrasing): "You know if you keep sticking a stick in someone's face, eventually the guy is gonna stand up and knock you on your rear. The Americans and the British, if they keep doing this to Iran, will get themselves in a mess and they will have deserved it. Everybody can see they are deliberately poking sticks in Iran's face".

8| 8| 8|

I have to admit, I was more than surprised to hear this...


Cheers.
 
Joe said:
So is he going or not??
He's not going no but the different news agencies report the same press release in different ways.

forbes said:
Deputy spokesman Tom Casey also denied the U.S. or its visa processing system were responsible for the cancellation of the president's trip to the United Nations. "Any suggestion that visa issues are the cause of President Ahmadinejad's decision not to travel to New York is false," he said. "Rather, it would appear that he is unwilling to stand before the Council and take the heat for his continued defiance of the international community."http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/24/ap3548310.html
not surprising to see it spun this way.

As for the 15 sailors, the image returned to me of the British hostages paraded on TV during the Iraq attack. I wonder if these guys will get some air time?

I observed a further similarity to Iraq in the current reported use of 'Iranian revolutionary guard' (elite military) being involved (bbc news). Shades of the 'elite republican guard' that Iraq had. Is it psychologically more threatening if they have an organised elite military?

nice to see the canadians saying it as it is Azur!
 
guardian said:
Fury as Iran shows footage of captured sailors on television
Iran dramatically raised the stakes in its tense diplomatic stand-off with Britain last night, broadcasting a propaganda video of the British sailors and marines seized last week, including a "confession" that they had entered Iranian waters.

The Foreign Office reacted furiously to the video, calling it "completely unacceptable" and expressed "grave concerns" about the conditions under which Leading seaman Faye Turney was persuaded to admit on film that the 15-strong British naval patrol had strayed into Iranian territory last Friday.
http(css)www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2045229,00.html
It dumbfounds me that the sequence of events is so predictable and orchestrated. Are Joe-public really swallowing this?

With impeccable timing, having just voiced the above (this is an edit) and my disbelief at a colleague (who is an avid private-eye reader and for the most part is cynical about governments) my question is answered immediately:
He replied: "well they've got GPS data that shows they were in the wrong place, bloody Iranians they deserve everything they get".
:( sadly the mass-media is powerfully hypnotic and those belief systems firmly ingrained.
 
Rich said:
He replied: "well they've got GPS data that shows they were in the wrong place, bloody Iranians they deserve everything they get". =( sadly the mass-media is powerfully hypnotic and those belief systems firmly ingrained.
Very true - it sure seems like the programming is complete - or, if not fully complete then damn close.
 
http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2007/03/captured_marine.html

According to the link above, a maritime border between Iran and Iraq has never been defined in that area. So the British government has no basis to claim that the sailors were in Iraqi water. It is disputed territory.
 
anart said:
Rich said:
He replied: "well they've got GPS data that shows they were in the wrong place, bloody Iranians they deserve everything they get". =( sadly the mass-media is powerfully hypnotic and those belief systems firmly ingrained.
Very true - it sure seems like the programming is complete - or, if not fully complete then damn close.
In regards to the programming then I am just wondering if the CNN/BBC foreknowledge of WTC7 that was leaked some weeks back wasn't just a testing of how strong the hypnosis was. Laura mentioned somewhere, if I remember correctly, that it is part of hypnosis to test how strong the hypnosis is by just such a test. In the case of the CNN/BBC test then it appears that the hypnosis is working wonderfully, as we don't see mass protest or follow up enquiries into the matter.
The sleep is sound and the current vilifying of Iran by the hypnotist seems to work just fine. :zzz:
 
I just want to add my voice and because i work for a shipping company and we had a chat today about that in the office resulting a program in BBC i want to ask the obvious question that comes out from what the MOD claims.

The following were claimed by the MOD during the program.

1)They said in the program that they were 'ambushed' by the Iranians.

2) They claimed to have the helicopter in position

3) Another vessel (a frigate if i am correct) was nearby

So the question is simple.

How on earth the iranians sneaked up on them and ambushed them 1.7 miles inside 'iraqi' territorial waters?

Was the helicopter pilot sleeping or too busy watching their boats floating around?

Why the frigate with all the modern equipment did not pick up the iranians approaching?

And last how on earth you can ambush a boat in the middle on nowere? It just does not make sense since visibility or great in the sea....

Finaly lets assume that they have an answer to all the above then my conclusion is that their navy does not have a clue of what they are doing and can be ambushed by anyone that wishes to do so ...
 
eff said:
How on earth the iranians sneaked up on them and ambushed them 1.7 miles inside 'iraqi' territorial waters?
the times online has a theory
times said:
The British sailors and marines being held by Iran were ambushed at their most vulnerable moment, while climbing down the ladder of a merchant ship and trying to get into their bobbing inflatables.
htxp://www(dot)timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1582544.ece
 
eagles fly free said:
How on earth the iranians sneaked up on them and ambushed them 1.7 miles inside ''iraqi'' territorial waters?
The area is a high traffic area with who knows how many fishing vessels, etc so seeing a radar contact and identifying whos who visually can be difficult.
Was the helicopter pilot sleeping or too busy watching their boats floating around?
Good question.
Why the frigate with all the modern equipment did not pick up the iranians approaching?

And last how on earth you can ambush a boat in the middle on nowere? It just does not make sense since visibility or great in the sea....
Could be due to the above mentioned possible traffic density. Also even a smaller ship such as a frigate is going to have a hard time maneuvering due to draft restrictions (depth of water) in the area, so a lot is going on on the ship when operating in this area.

A small patrol boat can move pretty fast. Looking at the maps and the proposed location of the incident even if it occured in Iraqi territorial waters a patrol boat from Iranian waters could move into the area pretty quickly and if there was any confusion (ie communications not working - as mentioned in some articles, or any number of things that can happen on a ship) by the Brits then they could have been taken by suprise and out of position.

Rich said:
the times online has a theory

The British sailors and marines being held by Iran were ambushed at their most vulnerable moment, while climbing down the ladder of a merchant ship and trying to get into their bobbing inflatables.
Yep this is the most vulnerable time. That's why you have a helo that is supposed to provide cover.
 
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