VIDEO: Royal Navy Crewman 'Confess' on Iranian Television

I think its a safeguard for when they go to war, and they will.

In showing the Iranian people they are 'within' there rights for capturing the Brits...with the 'alleged' confessions... it allows for any leniency towards the government later on with the sh*t hits the fan.

Sort of reminds of another war.... hmmmm....

Forced video confession or not if they entered Iranian waters Iran was within it's rights to have them detained.

They aren't hostages.

If Iranian soldiers were found entering the US waters and driving down the coast I'd hope someone would detain them and find out why.

America has detained MANY foreigners with impunity and most times without adequate cause or charge and yet that's all fine and well. Are the detained foreigners of the USA all hostages or are we so hypocritical that it only counts when it happens to us?

This should be handled carefully and diplomatically, we shouldn't rush to action or judgment till all the facts have surfaced. Remember what happened when we set out to find those WMD's that were a threat to our safety?

I hope this gets settled and the soldiers are set free. I doubt they posed any threat to Iran. From what I've seen the soldier have been treated humanely, and even given three meals a day. Thank goodness they didn't end up like those in Abu Ghraib.

p.s. Does any one ACTUALLY think Iran is stupid enough to believe it can defeat the USA and it's allies in a war? I don't think they want that at all. Are they paranoid about the USA and allies sabotaging its infrastructure as well as spying...sure.

I don't blame them for it either considering that it was recently revealed that America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran .

It's obvious those "confessions" are fabricated for domestic use, possibly as part of beating the war drum. I also think it is obvious that the Iranian leadership are trying to provoke some assault from Western powers, to justify their agenda.

I'm not convinced it's just to get buy offs on the UN sanctions and if it had been for trading their own American held hostages... well, we would have had some indications. But we don't know what's going on behind the scenes --- except it seems frightingly quiet there.

It is not obvious to me what the Iranians might have up in the sleeve.

Originally posted by khunmoon
It's obvious those "confessions" are fabricated for domestic use, possibly as part of beating the war drum. I also think it is obvious that the Iranian leadership are trying to provoke some assault from Western powers, to justify their agenda.

I'm not convinced it's just to get buy offs on the UN sanctions and if it had been for trading their own American held hostages... well, we would have had some indications. But we don't know what's going on behind the scenes --- except it seems frightingly quiet there.

It is not obvious to me what the Iranians might have up in the sleeve.

I wasn't disputing whether the confessions were fabricated or not, my point was if they entered Iranian waters they had a right to detain them just as we detain foreign citizens with less cause ALL the time and for AS LONG as we want.

The arrogance of some of my own countrymen astounds me sometimes, in that we can't step outside ourselves with any type of empathy.

This whole "do as we say not as we do" mentality is annoying.

They've now managed to get three hand written letters out of the lady sailor. I plan on taping some of the news coverage so I can look at her latest image in a freeze frame. I'm wondering if she is sleep deprived or if she's been narco interrogated. A little body language analysis might turn up something of interest.

Originally posted by Justin Oldham
They've now managed to get three hand written letters out of the lady sailor. I plan on taping some of the news coverage so I can look at her latest image in a freeze frame. I'm wondering if she is sleep deprived or if she's been narco interrogated. A little body language analysis might turn up something of interest.

Is this your field then? I for one would be very interested to know what you see from the footage

Iran wants the world to believe they entered their waters. Blair & co wants us to believe they did not. Leaders lie all to the time to make 'the truth' fit their agenda. To get a definate proof is not likely in the nearest future -- if ever.

But what is possible is the sailors might know the truth ...or by the Iranians made to believe their truth. In other words they might be getting brainwashed.

They don't exactly look broken or haunted in the footage we've seen, so I not sure what to believe.

Only thing I know the higher up the more and bigger they'll lie.

Let me clarify I'm not on the Iranian side, and anyone who knows me will know I'm definitely not on the side of an unlawful alliance.

Originally posted by Justin Oldham
They've now managed to get three hand written letters out of the lady sailor. I plan on taping some of the news coverage so I can look at her latest image in a freeze frame. I'm wondering if she is sleep deprived or if she's been narco interrogated. A little body language analysis might turn up something of interest.

Exactly what I'm touching in my last post -- before I'd seen yours.

I've noticed she smokes on lot of the footage of her, from the boat to the dinner ...and it's Iranian cigarettes in the latest (very bad cigarettes).

[edit on 30-3-2007 by khunmoon]

Originally posted by khunmoon
Exactly what I'm touching in my last post -- before I'd seen yours.

I've noticed she smokes on lot of the footage of her, from the boat to the dinner ...and it's Iranian cigarettes in the latest (very bad cigarettes).

[edit on 30-3-2007 by khunmoon]

If that isn't a time for some stress relief when you can get it I don't know what is.

Originally posted by khunmoon
This is definitely a worsening of the situation. We've had forced letters written and now a forced video confession.

After yesterday's harsh worded condemnation by the UN and now this humiliation, one must ask how much longer will the British stand up to this?

Are they really that stupid those Iranians that they want war by all means?


[edit on 30-3-2007 by khunmoon]

Actually you should ask the question to yourself, and the people like you. Are Americans and British are really that stupid that they still want to invade MORE countries in the Middle-East?

These soldiers being "forced" into confessing on video is just pure unfounded speculation... they actually look quite happy and unconstrained.

I've seen images of Afghan or Iraqi prisoners in US detention centers in worst conditions than this...

Originally posted by Echtelion
These soldiers being "forced" into confessing on video is just pure unfounded speculation...

How many days of her life has this lady worn a scarf over her head? Yet you don't believe she's being forced into anything she doesn't want to do?
Right

Hi everyone, do we have any people on this site that know how to read body language? It seems to me having watched the video just once that the Soldier is making many gestures by his body language alone. I am so very sorry that this has happened. I also noticed that his voice seemed very weak and tones were low, any ideas why that would be?His rising up and out of his seated position followed by the other eye movements and hand coordinations are interesting to me as well. Normally while surrounded by forces you are told not to move a muscle. And the doomsday clock takes another unpresidented jump forward.

Originally posted by avro
why does it always have to come down to America and Britain to sort out the world

[edit on 30-3-2007 by avro]

They don't, they make the mess...

The BBC have just shown that the 2nd "confession" was heavily edited, I suspect the marine was saying something like "we were searching ships for smuggled goods under UN mandate". Sadly they aren't media savvy enough to realise that 20 minutes of filming will be edited down to 60 seconds of spin.

The 3rd letter from the servicewoman contains ungrammatical English, the BBC suggest she was told/asked to copy it out and that it was a translation from Farsi.

Sadly the Royal Navy operate a different policy upon capture. They leave it up to their servicepeople to exercise "common sense" in what they say or do. The army only give name, rank and number. Some of you may recall that during the 1st Gulf War the Iraqis had about 4 SAS soldiers captive but none of them were shown on TV, the reason for this is they refused to do it despite being tortured, whereas the RAF pilots said all sorts of stuff on TV having been threatened. The fact that Iraq has of course denied consular access to the sailors means of course that they don't know that the British line is that they weren't in Iranian waters.

[edit on 30-3-2007 by blank_day]

antar,

Certainly there is training to give out odd body language when you are saying something under duress. The RAF pilots in the first gulf war positioned their heads at odd angles for example.

[edit on 30-3-2007 by blank_day]

Originally posted by dbates

Originally posted by Echtelion
These soldiers being "forced" into confessing on video is just pure unfounded speculation...

How many days of her life has this lady worn a scarf over her head? Yet you don't believe she's being forced into anything she doesn't want to do?
Right

What does the scarf have to to do with being constrained?

I'd prefer that to wearing a (probably unclean) orange jumpsuit while sitting behind iron bars any day.

The scarf is JUST customary...thats all. Most countries have various customs that out of courtesy most travelers try and follow. If you've ever been anywhere in the world you'd know that trying to follow some basic customs goes a longer way with the locals than brazenly ignoring the culture of the place you visit. Just takes a little class.

In college when we were sent to study art at a synagogue we all had to where yamikas as part of the custom before entering. I'd never worn one before however I followed the rules as a male guest and did so for the day.

It wasn't the end of the friggin' world and I'm sure she's not having a struggle to drape a cloth around her head.

These detainees look like they are being treated just fine.

I find it amazing that the Iranians involved in this actually think anyone will believe these so called "confession" made under duress.

Its so blatantly obvious, and of course we´ve seen this before in the 1st gulf war.

the only difference is Iran isn´t at war (yet)

About scarfs. It's not more than 50 years ago scarfs were costumary in European culture. My mother used a scarf much like the one shown -- and she wasn't muslim. The girls I dated in high school all wore scarfs.

Nothing suspecious about scarfs, they've just become one of the symbols of todays xenophobia.

Originally posted by lee anoma
Forced video confession or not if they entered Iranian waters Iran was within it's rights to have them detained.

I'm not sure that is an accurate statement to make. It's been mentioned in several threads already the 'normal' operating procedures in cases such as this would first involve contacting the offending vessel and then taking it from there. I may be wrong, but this case differs massively from the norm in any case.

They aren't hostages.

I disagree. They are making demands to the effect they will not be released until those demands are met. The term hostages is correct by any definition.

If Iranian soldiers were found entering the US waters and driving down the coast I'd hope someone would detain them and find out why.

Mexican soldiers would be a more apt comparison to make in this situation. It's not as if the UK and US forces have just turned up out of the blue in that region.

This should be handled carefully and diplomatically, we shouldn't rush to action or judgment till all the facts have surfaced. Remember what happened when we set out to find those WMD's that were a threat to our safety?

Agreed.

I hope this gets settled and the soldiers are set free. I doubt they posed any threat to Iran. From what I've seen the soldier have been treated humanely, and even given three meals a day. Thank goodness they didn't end up like those in Abu Ghraib.

How do we know what is happening to those sailors/marines that have not been 'paraded' on TV? I'm not suggesting they are being subjected to anything, but there is an extremely high probability that those servicemen/woman that have been shown on TV are doing so because of a perceived threat as to what might happen to their colleagues should they choose not to comply. Iran already set this precedent in 2004 when they played this game the first time.

Cheers,
Zep

The irony is that the US with the UK's cooperation has been kidnapping people from their own countries all over the world, holding and torturing these foreign nationals in prisons for years now and the outcry about that is limited and mostly non existent.

Now Iran captures enemy troops (yes, the US and UK are Irans enemies, you practicaly declared war on Iran with the bullocks you've been trowing at them for quite some time now) exploiting these people for what, about a week and everyone is crying and whining in outrage and calling to goto war on Iran.

Treat people like you wish to be treated and quit whining like little spoiled brats.