10 US Navy sailors and a pair of riverine boats were returned to US custody by the Iranian government today after yesterday’s incident in which the boats strayed into Iranian waters around Farsi Island, and reportedly one of them even ran aground on the island.
The sailors cited “mechanical problems” for the incident, and on Iranian television one of them was shown to have apologized for the “mistake” of crossing into Iranian waters. Obama Administration officials are insisting that the apology is not a formal apology from the US.
Speaking on CBS This Morning, Vice President Joe Biden insisted the US doesn’t have to apologize for a problem that the boat had, and Secretary of State John Kerry insisted the US “had nothing to apologize for.”
Iran made clear yesterday that they were taking the sailors’ word for it that the incident was unintentional, and the only reason they were kept overnight was because it happened too late on Tuesday for them to be returned that night.
Iranian officials today were quick to point out that what happened and the chain of events that followed was in line with how any two countries might resolve such n issue, and indeed it seems to provide a hopeful sign that, despite continued condemnation from hawks, US rapprochement with Iran is moving forward.
For anyone upset by the treatment of our sailors by Iran after they were picked up in Iranian waters, look up the pictures of Abu Ghraib’s prisoners and see how they were treated.
I doubt if they want to see their own reflection or
believe their lying eyes.
The claim that these sailors were mistreated is unfounded. The Iran coast guard had no clear idea why they were there. They had to check for firearms. The waters were quite rough. If you have to stand with your hands behind your back you will fall. The sailors were much safer on their knees.
This comment is from a person who has sailed several times on the North Sea.
Very good comment and logical explanation. FOX News has sure been distorting this whole affair. The hypocrisy on the Bush Neocon Central Network is so over the top!
Mary
If an Iranian launch somehow fell into American hands trying to sneak into lets say New York Harbor, I can easily imagine that the American coast guard and navy sailors would certainly use at the very least enough force to contain and control the men. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if a few extra punches and kicks were made along with racist comments about the damn ‘towel-heads’ or something like that.
Iran said the US sailors made a navigational error and violated their territorial waters. I don’t believe Iran in this case. It was an intentional error on the part of the US navy to stir up trouble and give the US government an excuse to kill more Muslim people.
Yeah, claiming ‘navigational error’ in this age of GPS is very lame. Yeah, right. I’d be shocked if the defense industry didn’t put a GPS on every one of those fancy boats just to raise the price. So, what’s the odds that both boats suddenly had malfunction or badly operated GPS systems. Not likely.
But, it seems to make a useful fiction for everyone to agree on in order to calm this thing down. Same with the ‘mech error’ story now. Like these are the first boats in a century or two not to have ropes and cleats to be able a rope too. Somebody was playing cowboy, perhaps with at least a nudge, nudge, wink, wink sort of authorization from above if not firm support. And, they blew it. Either their expensive boat broke down at just the wrong time or they didn’t know where the shallows were in the dark or something equally stupid. But, they got caught. But, no one wants a war over this, so its easy to find the simple lie that lets everyone off the hook, no matter how much Nutter McCain rants and rave.
testing.-ak
Commentators elsewhere have wondered why the “good boat” did not tow the “bad boat” away from Iran’s territorial waters. The answer may be simple. Towing in rough waters is not as simple as moving a toy boat in your bathtub. Neither boat may have had adequate towing equipment on board and neither boat may have had the adequate fastening studs for towing ropes.
An attempt to tow might have ended in a disaster.
Jan de Hartog would confirm.
This was intentional, ie a semi-covert or covert op. Perhaps a test of the Iranian response. You don’t drift three miles — or whatever the territorial limit is — ll the way onto Farsi Island by accident.
But as covert ops go this is an interesting one. Don’t want to go all conspiracy whackadoodle on you, but who schedules a covert op to land on Farsi Island with its Iranian naval base, just before the President’s State of the Union address and just days before Obama’s legacy, the US-Iran Nuclear deal is to be “consummated”?
Someone in the Pentagon, CIA, or Mossad who doesn’t like Obama, that’s who.
The US Navy/Pentagon know about Farsi Island: who it belongs to and with great precision, where it is. Then too, the Pentagon, Centcom, Fifth Fleet Command in Bahrain, the riverine boats’ immediate commander, several different military satellites, and the CIA all know in real time and to an accuracy of a couple of meters precisely where those two boats were, and all of the above are in real time communication contact both manually and with automated telemetry. So any “navigational error” is nonsense. Meanwhile the “drifting accidentally” into Iranian waters? Not only that, but drifting all the way to shore,… what is that,… three miles?!!! Puleeeese!! Any mechanical problem, and the one boat throws the other a line and tows it home, after contacting headquarters and advising them of the problem.
This story just screams out “Total Bullshjt!!!”
Since all we have is this lame and insulting “cover” story, and the real “experts” haven’t even stopped laughing yet, may I invite all you aspiring conspiracy types to weigh in here.
Yo! Michel Kenney, can you tell us how Putin is behind this?