| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
conspiracy analyst
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 27 Sep 2005
Posts: 2279
|
 Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject: British Marines Interviewed Hours Before Being Seized!! |
 |
|
Case of Wag the Dog or similar to the story on reporting the Collapse of WTC7 by the BBC 22 minutes before it happened?
So many soldiers in Iraq and the Indpendent interviewed the female marine hours before she was nabbed?
A close call, or a case of tomorrows news today?
| Quote: |
In her own words: the female sailor held captive in Iran
An exclusive interview with Faye Turney, hours before she was seized
By Terri Judd in Bahrain
Published: 28 March 2007
The woman who was captured by Iran's Revolutionary Guards while serving with the Royal Navy in Iraq spoke of her devotion to both her family and her job just hours before she was seized.
In an interview with The Independent, leading Seaman Specialist Faye Turney described how the crew of HMS Cornwall were well aware of the perils of operating in an area that had been targeted by suicide bombers. The 25-year-old mother, one of 15 sailors and Marines captured on Friday off the coast of Iraq, said: "I know by doing this job I can give [my daughter] everything she wants in life and hopefully by seeing me doing what I do, she'll grow up knowing that a woman can have a family and have a career at the same time."
Diplomatic pressure to free the 15 captives is to be stepped up today as defence officials produce evidence to prove the British servicemen and women were in Iraqi waters.
As Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, cut short a visit to Turkey to fly back to Britain for a statement today to the Commons, defence chiefs were planning to produce the global positioning system (GPS) co- ordinates as proof that they were not on Iran's side of the disputed waterway.
On the day before the British crew was captured Leading Seaman Turney had described how morale on HMS Cornwall had been buoyant since its arrival in the northern Arabian Gulf weeks earlier. She said: "The atmosphere on the boat is really good. We were made aware that some things can be really dodgy. [But] we've not really had anything that bad at the moment - that's always a good sign.
"My parents made sure I was under no illusions that I could, and can, go to war at any time. Sometimes it can be like a cruise being in the Navy but sometimes you may be called upon. And if you are then you just have to get on with it, That's what you're paid for."
For the past few weeks Leading Seaman Turney, along with the rest of the crew of HMS Cornwall, had been part of a massive military operation instigated three years ago after suicide bombers in three dhows attacked the Al Basra and Khawr Al Amaya oil terminals, killing three Americans. A three-kilometre exclusion zone was thrown up around each of the terminals - which pump out 90 per cent of Iraq's crude oil. They are patrolled by Iraqis, the British, Americans and Australians.
On Friday Leading Seaman Turney was part of a boarding team of 15 in what the British insist were categorically Iraqi waters when they were taken captive by by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in speedboats mounted with machine guns.
A day earlier she had talked of her devotion to her three-year-old daughter, Molly, and the guilt of leaving her behind at home in Plymouth to be cared for by her husband Adam, a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy.
Of her daughter she said: "She's bubbly, very headstrong, very girly, an absolute gem, a real diamond, a treasure. She's getting more of a character each day. It's a shame I'm missing that but she's a top girl and will grow up to be a very reliable, independent, strong young woman, which is exactly what I want for her.
"I love my job, I really do love my job but I love my daughter also. If I didn't love my job I wouldn't be able to do it but if I had to make a choice my daughter would win every time - without a shadow of a doubt, no question about it.
"I'm too up-and-about to sit behind a desk - I would support her if she wanted to do the same. As long as she's happy, I will support her."
The captured sailors and Marines have now been held by Iran for five days. The only other member of the group to be named is 21-year-old Paul Barton.
Ministers were yesterday discussing producing photographs of the ship the Royal Navy teams were searching when they were surrounded by the Iranian guards. The ship's engine had broken down and it is still moored where the incident took place.
Senior diplomatic sources said it was not clear what the Iranians' motives were, but they were discounting fears that the 15 are being held as hostages.
"It is very difficult to know what the motives are," said one Whitehall source. "Some say it is a response to our UN resolution over the weekend [imposing sanctions on Iran for its pursuit of a nuclear weapons programme] despite the fact that they were taken on Friday."
The Foreign Secretary made "robust" protests to the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran by telephone yesterday over the failure to grant consular access to the 15 detainees. London does not know where they are held, or who is holding them, although there were rumours they were being held in the capital. "What we are looking at is pretty muddled," said the source. "We don't know who has got them. We don't know their location but we are working with people with whom they have contact."
Tony Blair appeared to threaten an escalation in the diplomatic crisis if they were not released. He said: "I hope we manage to get the Iranians to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase."
But Downing Street quickly played down suggestions that the Prime Minister was hinting at the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from London or military action.
An official spokesman stressed that London was seeking to defuse the situation, and said Mr Blair was referring to the publication of the evidence that they were not in Iranian waters when they were taken.
As the diplomatic wrangling intensified, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We have been clearly stating we are utterly certain that the personnel were in Iraqi waters. We so far have not made explicit why we know that because we don't want to escalate this.
"We may have to go to the step where we become more explicit why we know. We don't want to do this too soon because we prefer to resolve this quietly. If that is not possible, we may have to be more explicit.
"We want to resolve this quickly without having a public confrontation with them."
Asked what proof the British might produce, the spokesman replied: " There is a boat which we inspected."
Reports that Iran had fired a missile at a US ship in the Persian Gulf sent oil prices soaring last night, but Lt Cmdr Charlie Brown, of the US Navy, said the rumors were untrue. The British government also said that none of its forces had been attacked.
|
[/quote]
Last edited by conspiracy analyst on Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
conspiracy analyst
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 27 Sep 2005
Posts: 2279
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:10 pm Post subject: Craig Murray on the conflict... |
|
|
| Quote: | Iran's arrest of sailors was legitimate, says former UK envoy
26-03-2007
London, (IRNA) -- Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray Monday supported Iran's decision to arrest 15 UK marines in the Persian Gulf last week.
"In international law the Iranian government were not out of order in detaining foreign military personnel in waters to which they have a legitimate claim," Murray said, who was also a previous head of Foreign Office's maritime section, carrying out negotiations on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"For the Royal Navy, to be interdicting shipping within the twelve mile limit of territorial seas in a region they know full well is subject to maritime boundary dispute, is unnecessarily provocative," he said.
The former envoy said that this was "especially true as apparently they were not looking for weapons but for smuggled vehicles attempting to evade car duty."
"What has the evasion of Iranian or Iraqi taxes go to do with the Royal Navy?" he questioned in comments on his webpage, set up after he was sacked from his post in 2004 after criticizing British foreign policy.
While working for the Foreign Office, Murray was also head of the UK's Embargo Surveillance Centre, analyzing Iraqi attempts to evade sanctions and providing information to UK military forces and to other governments to effect physical enforcement of the embargo.
He said that under international law, Britain would have been allowed to enter Iranian territorial waters if in "hot pursuit" of terrorists, slavers or pirates."
But added "they weren't doing any of those things."
"Plainly, they were not engaged in piracy or in hostilities against Iran. The Iranians can feel content that they have demonstrated the ability to exercise effective sovereignty over the waters they claim," the former envoy said.
He criticized the "ridiculous logic" of Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying he was creating a mess that "gets us further into trouble."
The Daily Mirror, which has been an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, reminded its readers Monday that "if the UK had never joined the disastrous invasion of Iraq, the 15 would not have been put in a position where they could be seized."
In its editorial on the incident, it also said that "US threats in the recent past to launch military strikes on Iran have inflamed tensions." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
conspiracy analyst
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 27 Sep 2005
Posts: 2279
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
US ready to use its petroleum reserves?
| Quote: | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States could use its large Strategic Petroleum Reserve to counter a short-term disruption in Middle East Gulf oil shipments caused by tensions with Iran, the head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.
"We have substantial emergency supplies" of oil to offset problems in Gulf shipping," EIA's Guy Caruso told reporters.
Oil prices shot up this week as traders worried that a dispute the West has with Iran's nuclear program and Iran's continued holding of U.K. Royal Navy personnel could escalate and result in disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles about a third of the world's seaborne oil shipments.
"There is no need to panic" among oil traders over possible Gulf oil shipping disruptions, Caruso said.
Reuters Pictures
Photo
Editors Choice: Best pictures
from the last 24 hours.
View Slideshow
The U.S. emergency oil stockpile, which was created by Congress in 1975 in response to the Arab oil embargo, holds about 689 million barrels of crude at four storage sites in Texas and Louisiana.
About 4 million barrels of oil a day can be taken out of the emergency reserve, double the average 2 million barrels of crude a day that is bound for the U.S. market from the Gulf, Caruso said.
Separately, Caruso said he expects more U.S. refineries will come back online in the weeks ahead and draw down crude oil inventories as they ramp up gasoline production for the busy spring driving season.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Linda
Validated Poster
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 558
Location: Romford Essex
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
http://www.davidicke.com/content/view/6342/48/
What really happened to British Navy boarding party?
By Justin Walker
'There is something very fishy going on. HMS Cornwall is a state of the art ship with a radar tracking system that would have seen the Iranian boats as they left port. Why did the captain of HMS Cornwall not go to cut off the Iranians?. Why did the gemini boats not fight or at least run away when they saw the six boats coming?. No RN captain would send its people out without protection! Either the captain is an incompetent fool OR he was ordered to stand by and do nothing!' -- Beryl Hutchinson, Larnaca, Cyprus
'Knowing the waters well and having been myself 'captured' by the IRG, something smells here. Cornwall had the eye in the sky (helicopter) watching overhead, the zodiac boats can do 30 knots and the interdict was approx 2 miles from Cornwall. How did they not see the Iranian fleet steam up and 'surround' the zodiacs? How do you surround a rubber dinghy capable of 30 knots. Or is this the issue the USA has been needing to justify an offensive move against Iran?' -- Phillip Carr, Sherborne
The above people made these comments in the BBC 'Have Your Say' section of the BBC News website. If you know anything about the military and how things are done, there is absolutely no way that these poor sailors and marines were accidently allowed to be captured - this was a carefully planned 'psych op' to escalate British and overseas public opinion into accepting military action against Iran.
Poor Faye Turney -- interviewed by the BBC just moments before she went out on this 'routine' search of a 'smuggling' ship. We all know from our research into 9/11 that you have to believe in huge coincidences if you are to believe the official story. Well how about this ... there are currently thousands of British servicemen and women operating in Iraq and the Gulf and, guess what, not only does the BBC embed itself with the actual ship that was going to be involved with this major news story (along with selected newspaper journalists), but they also just happen to interview the young woman a couple of hours before she goes out on patrol. The 'hidden hand' needs a human face to get the most from this sort of operation -- if it were just fifteen hunky males in trouble, we would be concerned but not that concerned ... but a young mother with a three-year-old waiting back home for Mummy to come back, now that's something to really get people animated about.
Now to the actual capture itself. The military always, when they put their people into harms way, ensure that close support is available in the form of immediate firepower and reinforcements. The only exception to this are Special Forces who are trained to operate independently of other friendly units and to be able to operate behind enemy lines without immediate backup. A boarding party from a Royal Navy ship are not Special Forces, even though half of them in this particular case were Royal Marine commandos. The normal procedure for a Royal Navy boarding party is for their ship to place itself in a position were it can give covering or warning fire from its most appropriate weaponry, which in this case would have been shipboard mounted GPMGs (General Purpose Machine Guns) and the ship's helicopter. In other words, the boarding party's ship would be no more than 1800 metres (effective range of a mounted GPMG) away from the designated ship to be searched. So what happened in this particular case -- how far away was HMS Cornwall from this freighter? If it was further than two kilometres then that boarding party was deliberately sent out to be captured ... and if Cornwall was within two kilometres then why no support given with warning shots?
HMS Cornwall is bristling with radar and high tech surveillance devices -- how come they did not pick up the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's patrol boats as they were approaching the RN boarding party? And what about the helicopter -- one report says it was sent away when it was seen that the boarding party had received a friendly welcome from the suspected freighter. If that's true, then this is a break with normal SOPs (standing operational procedures).
It is also reported that the Cornwall had communication problems with the boarding party -- now problems with radios do occur, but the ship should have been close enough for other forms of communications to be used (lights, rockets and signal flags) in order to alert the boarding party as to the Iranian patrol boats movements. We also learn from other sources that Commodore Nick Lambert, senior naval officer in the area, was desperately trying to sort out Rules of Engagement with the Ministry of Defence in London and that hesitation here prevented any action from being taken to save the boarding party from capture. Excuse me! Rules of Engagement are decided before deployment and are constantly reviewed, and at no time would you put your people into harms way without knowing your latest Rules of Engagement.
One final thing -- the Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) used by the boarding party are capable of over 30 knots and, as we have seen when Greenpeace use them effectively, are extremely manouvreable. I just find it very strange that skilful avoiding tactics using excellent boatmanship (which you would expect from the Royal Navy), but not firing any shots to exacerbate the situation, were not used by the boarding party to get back to the Cornwall -- assuming of course the Cornwall was at a distance offering 'close support'.
The Ministry of Defence should give us an accurate, minute by minute, account of what happened, but my belief is that we will never know the full truth. Let's hope that some of the Navy personnel involved will speak out. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
conspiracy analyst
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 27 Sep 2005
Posts: 2279
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:44 pm Post subject: Uncivilised Iranians? |
|
|
| Quote: |
Call that humiliation?
No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch
Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.
It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn't be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head - but at least they wouldn't be humiliated.
And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.
The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!
What's more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting "stress positions", which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It's all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.
And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is "unhappy and stressed".
What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her "unhappy and stressed". She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.
As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer - whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq.
· Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python
www.terry-jones.net
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Chat
Usergroups
Calendar
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
