Iran Watch: Iran Parades Brit Hostages on TV

Reuters: Iran shows British sailors on television

Iranian television showed on Wednesday British sailors held since last week after Britain turned up the heat by halting official contacts with Iran.

Tehran said earlier it would free a woman among the 15 soon.

Britain said the broadcast, in which the woman was reported to have said they had apparently been in Iranian waters when they were seized, was “completely unacceptable.”

There was no doubt the sailors were in Iraqi waters and entitled to be there when they were seized, Britain said.

AP: Iran Shows Video of British Crew

Iranian state TV showed video Wednesday of 15 British sailors and marines who were seized last week, including a female captive in a white tunic and a black head scarf who said the British boats had “trespassed” in Iranian waters.

Britain called the broadcast “completely unacceptable” and said it was concerned that the statements from sailor Faye Turney were coerced. The British government earlier released what it called proof the boat crews were seized in Iraqi waters, and said it was freezing all contacts with Iran except negotiations to release them.

Iran’s foreign minister said Turneyâ€”the only female captiveâ€”would be freed on Wednesday or Thursday, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said it had received no confirmation of that.

The British military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were taken Friday, and it released what it said were the GPS coordinates that proved that.
Several hours later, Tehran broadcast the video on an Arabic-language satellite channel, along with a letter from Turney saying the sailors and marines were inside Iranian waters when they were captured.
“Obviously we trespassed into their waters,” Turney said, sitting by herself against a floral curtain and smoking a cigarette.

“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.

Turney, 26, was also shown eating with several fellow sailors and marines.
What appeared to be a handwritten note from Turney to her family said, in part, “I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters.”

The video also showed a brief scene of what appeared to be the British crew sitting in an Iranian boat in open water immediately after their capture.

Before the video was broadcast, a Blair spokesman said any showing of British personnel on TV would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions.

“It’s completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television,” the Foreign Office said after the broadcast. “There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters.”

In the meantime, Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush have been in communication while the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS John C. Stennis conduct war games in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran.

The question is:

How long WILL the United States and Britain put up with this BULL SHIT?

Isn’t this hostage scenario just like the 1979 attack on the United States Embassy in Iran?

Stay tuned……