.. Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 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 ++++++++++++ TJ proves once again that the best humour has more than a little truth in it. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkkbound04 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 To have one group of sailors abducted was unfortunate, two is careless, a third ..???? JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkkbound04 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 The simple way out of this is just point out the facts, 14 servicemen and one service women were accosted alledgedly in Iranian waters, well who was reading the map!!? JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreigner Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 + they were boarding an Iranian ship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkkbound04 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 I thought the ship was Indian registered.There was also a report at the weekend that the ship was not being allowed to move as its a critical piece of evidence in that its site is whats being disputed. I can't find the link for it now. JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 'Critical piece of evidence'? You think this case is going to get tried in the Hague or something? This affair is entirely a matter of who you choose to believe. Evidence is irrelevant. Even if it's a snapshot of some GPS gadget up a mast taken by a helicopter that just happened to be hovering overhead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkkbound04 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 It looks like the Iranians a seeking a way out along those lines, I think they just woke up to the reality of the mess they got themselves in.Hence the major climb down this evening by one of their leaders. JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 Well that's one way of looking at it. Or maybe they played Blair like a fiddle. http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk04022007.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkkbound04 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 Hmm, EU collectively turned on Iran, UN SC unanimous voted against them, confirmation again that Iran is not a rational state. I think Blair will be happy with the turn of events, nothing lost at this end and to be sure there won't be a 3rd lot of sailors kidnapped. The minute the hostages are free the truth will be out, the 'confessions' will be repudiated & the british media will go steaming into the Iraqi regime. The world a safer place after this? JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 EU, UN, Iran not rational, sailors, who's in who's waters, British media, blah blah...we all know the sailors will say they were forced to confess...so what?..it's all irrelevant. Blair will spin it as a victory but bottom line he wasn't prepared to back it up with force so he looks stupid. I think his problem is he lost his credibility by getting involved in the Iraq mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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