"We continue to request immediate consular access to them and their immediate release."

The British response when it's time to racket up the diplomacy:

"We are a patient people. We continue to request immediate consular access to them and their immediate release. Please."

Have no fear, diplomacy will solve everything.

Posted by: s at March 31, 2007 2:41 PM

I just love Iran! They are such good neighbors.

Posted by: champ at March 31, 2007 3:01 PM

This is why I disagree with the policy of telling your soldiers it is ok to sign these ridiculous admission of guilt.

BTW, aren't we all relieved that McCain and Co. pushed through that anti-torture bill? Specially now that we see the iranians sticking so literally to the geneva convention. sarc/off

Posted by: Paratisi at March 31, 2007 3:13 PM

Tony Blair is incapable of understanding this situation like Bill Clinton. These Iranians could strip these Britons naked, make them run the cheering mobs, cover them with excrement, pee on them, sell them at auction to who could whip them, televise it on al Jazeera, sell tickets and Mr. Blair would still be looking like Jimmy Carter running around for Teddy Kennedy's hand to shake.

For the sake of Britain, are there not any Torries left to light a fire under the wee Prime Minister as Churchill did to Chamberlain?
Get off your backsides lads and show your Henry V's blood.

The Iranians tried this with Americans in northern Iraq at the first of the month and our troops retreated under fire and shot an Iranian soldier. If you are not going to throw the big bomb my British friends, you sure as the world is round can seize some Iranian asset like an oil terminal to humilate these dogs of war.

Get thee an asset and bargain or do what the Russians did in Lebanon when their people were kidnapped in the 80's. They grabbed the family members of the terrorists, cut off a certain maleness, shoved it in the terrorist's mouth and then shot him in the head, and then, returned said terrorist in a bag and said more was coming unless their people were freed.
Russia has had no more hostages in the Middle East.

Buck it up Tony and get on with the show. Either take back your citizens or give these soldiers to a real nation who will fight for them.

Posted by: Lame Cherry at March 31, 2007 3:58 PM

How long till the next elections in England?

This is getting tiresome.

I sure how that a more "macho" type of person will make some much-needed hay out of all of this.

Posted by: Allahfanculo at March 31, 2007 4:05 PM

"We continue to request immediate consular access to them and their immediate release."

Request? Now that's some strong language. The Iranians must be soiling their knickers after that. Maybe Blair should say, "Please with sugar on it." This is demoralizing.

Posted by: Pelayo at March 31, 2007 4:39 PM

Lame Cherry, I have heard that story also. Another one is about the attempted takeover of the Russian embassy in '79. The Russians allegedly said that if that happens Teharan will be vaporized. The Russian embassy was left alone.

I classify both of those stories as urban legends. I would certainly like to see both of those stories verified.

Posted by: Pelayo at March 31, 2007 4:45 PM

Take Qeshm Island, plant the flag, and establish a refueling platform for Western navies. Name it after the sailors.

http://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/qeshm/

Dredge in millions of cubic yards of fill and establish an unsinkable airbase. Destroy anything that comes close.

Posted by: pez at March 31, 2007 5:30 PM

Kharg Island:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10888

Posted by: pez at March 31, 2007 5:38 PM

Margaret Thatcher was born twenty five years too early.

Where is Blair? What the hell is this man doing?

Posted by: Dane at March 31, 2007 5:43 PM

Tony Blair is incapable of understanding this situation like Bill Clinton. These Iranians could strip these Britons naked, make them run the cheering mobs, cover them with excrement, pee on them, sell them at auction to who could whip them, televise it on al Jazeera, sell tickets and Mr. Blair would still be looking like Jimmy Carter running around for Teddy Kennedy's hand to shake.

For the sake of Britain, are there not any Torries left to light a fire under the wee Prime Minister as Churchill did to Chamberlain?
Get off your backsides lads and show your Henry V's blood.

The Iranians tried this with Americans in northern Iraq at the first of the month and our troops retreated under fire and shot an Iranian soldier. If you are not going to throw the big bomb my British friends, you sure as the world is round can seize some Iranian asset like an oil terminal to humilate these dogs of war.

Get thee an asset and bargain or do what the Russians did in Lebanon when their people were kidnapped in the 80's. They grabbed the family members of the terrorists, cut off a certain maleness, shoved it in the terrorist's mouth and then shot him in the head, and then, returned said terrorist in a bag and said more was coming unless their people were freed.
Russia has had no more hostages in the Middle East.

Buck it up Tony and get on with the show. Either take back your citizens or give these soldiers to a real nation who will fight for them.

We have never had anybody in the last 55 years who has understood Islam (Churchill in 1953 was the last one) and for the US, you have to go back 100 years to Theodore Roosevelt. Hasn't anyone read Hilaire Belloc or Bishop Fulton J Sheen from 60 or 70 years ago? They should be read because they predicted the future from the late 1930s and early 1950s onwards. And those who understand Islam are branded as racists and bigots by the fools who predominate today.

Posted by: Spirit Of 1683 at March 31, 2007 6:02 PM

How long till the next elections in England?

This is getting tiresome.

I sure how that a more "macho" type of person will make some much-needed hay out of all of this.

There's no Churchill in sight. And they would never elect me :(

Posted by: Spirit Of 1683 at March 31, 2007 6:10 PM

"They will be tried if there is enough evidence of guilt," Ansari was quoted by IRNA as saying.

And meanwhile, the soldiers/sailors are being made, one by one, to "confess" on Iranian TV and in forged letters. Iran is creating its own "evidence of guilt".

Posted by: staff_of_magius at March 31, 2007 6:40 PM

United States Military Code of Conduct

Article I

I am an American, fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.

Article II

I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist.

Article III

If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and to aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.

Article IV

If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.

Article V

When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.

Article VI

I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

Doesn’t the British military have a similar code? I still place the outcome on the shoulders of the ranking officer that could have blown the Iranians out of the water.

-XRDC

Posted by: XRDC at March 31, 2007 6:57 PM

Iranian Official: Sailors May Be Tried

Maybe "Pig Eyes" Ibby Hopper should be held for a future "enemy prisoner exchange" in the event any Americans are held hostage. That way we can get rid of this Herman Goering bully and get persons of value in exchange.

Posted by: Frank at March 31, 2007 9:31 PM

XRDC

wow so many brave rambo types out there typing away on your keyboards, telling the marines how they should've acted and not it is shameful they got captured.

i take it that on your next tours of duty in iraq/afganistan or on some of your other "walter mitty" adventures you're gonna rescue some cissy brits from the clutches of the iranian enemies, using only a rusty knife and your US army code of conduct!

Posted by: leonthepigfarmer at March 31, 2007 11:08 PM

When I was in grade school and early High School I had to fight a kid (a big Kraut kid) named Mark Kimbrell (his mother was a German-Marketta Kimbrell (she was the actress in the movie "the Pawnbroker"). The Kimbrells were very well off and lived in Jamaica Estates in Queens. I was a poor working-class Irish Catholic kid who lived in South Jamaica. We went to the same Immaculate Conception Shchool. This big Kraut fought me day after day until I really bloodied. However, I was a tough SOB, who as the Irish say, "don't back down".

I always wondered why this bastard Mark tried to practically kill me. But one day, his brother Andy (he wrote he book "The Masculine Mystique") told me his brother had a tiny dick. The next time the bastard attacked me, I told him I knew why he attacked me. I said, "Kimbrell, you are a prickless wonder. You fear me because of that. You knoew that all the girls like me. Eat your heart out you bastard". I saw the blood drain from his face.

Andy, his brother, never forgave me for that. Ibby Hooper and a lot of these Mulsim bastards are made of the same stuff as M. Kimbrell. A curse on bullies.

Posted by: Frank at March 31, 2007 11:28 PM

Trust me-all this bully crap, wherever it comes from, is based in personal problems. This truth is underestimated, even in history. I'm right.

Posted by: Frank at March 31, 2007 11:56 PM

My father was a Geordie from Newcastle Upon Tyne,have other ancestors who were taken from Tregony in Cornwall,charged for trifling offenses & shipped off to Oz as convicts.All of us ,American,South African,Canadian or from former colonies have ties,links and BLOOD to Britain. Love or hate the old Gal-she is still our Mother and we must go to her defence if she is ATTACKED!
Blair's Foreign Policy Chickens are coming back to Roost with a vengeance heavily infected with Avian Bird Flu-no doubt about it this man will go down in History on par with Neville Chamberlain as one of Britain's worst Leaders.
Precisely because of Blair's Foreign Policy Blunders starting with Kosovo where he backed Albanian Muslims against Christian Serbs,loudly advocating the bombing of Serbia,dragging Britain into Afghanistan & Iraq-he is terrified what might happen next and is very concerned with 'saving face' for HIMSELF-those 15 Sailors
are only PAWNS in an ENDGAME.Take a gawk at this
guy on Telly who tried to play Napoleon and has ended up looking like a sheepdog with dose of mange;his hair's falling out,his eyes have a wild look,hands twitching[perhaps Bair's a secret toper as well].
You won't get any answers from this wreck or courageous conduct either.Those poor sailors are on their own and they know it.One thing I will say for Americans is that they move heaven & earth to get their soldiers back which is probably why Iranians abducted Britons instead as
a 'soft target.'
Mrs Thatcher has been lauded here & don't doubt she would be more effective with her handbag than
Blair with with a Battlecruiser. Bad mark against
Maggie is Holy Warriors of Taleban which she had
secretly flown into a training camp in Scotland
& shown how to use latest military hardware...
Guess it is easy to be wise with benefit of Hindsight though.

Posted by: Morgane at April 1, 2007 12:18 AM

I never forgot the last confrontation with Mark. You name the demon, you have control over the demon. It's the truth. Name their demon-and be specific. And "don't back down" as my dear Irish grandmother used to tell me-LOL.

Posted by: Frank at April 1, 2007 12:29 AM

"wow so many brave rambo types out there typing away on your keyboards, telling the marines how they should've acted and not it is shameful they got captured.

i take it that on your next tours of duty in iraq/afganistan or on some of your other "walter mitty" adventures you're gonna rescue some cissy brits from the clutches of the iranian enemies, using only a rusty knife and your US army code of conduct!" from: leonthepigfarmer posted above!

I think that XRDC was speaking about the support vessel that was in the immediate vicinity of the sailors and could have blown the Iranian vessile to hell, except for the fact that it was reported that the commander called London for permission. PC gone completely a muck in war time. We would all be speaking German if we had commanders like that or for that matter politicians like we have today back then, they just do not get it today! Where is Patton when you need him? Oh I forgot he died.

Posted by: kwg1 at April 1, 2007 3:28 AM

leonthepigfarmer

That definately wasn't a slam on the sailors. Just those making the decisions to let them be carted off like lambs to the slaughter.

It just as easily could've been me during the first gulf war and I don't know how it would've felt to have been abandoned by my command.

-XRDC

Posted by: XRDC at April 1, 2007 9:50 AM

Morgane wrote: "Love or hate the old Gal-she (Britian) is still our Mother and we must go to her defence if she is ATTACKED!"

Morgane, I am not going to defend someone who refuses the defend themselves.

I can trace my ancestry to the Thornhill families in Virgnia in 1690. I have traced other branches to families who came to the US from Britain and Germany over two hundred years ago. I am so far removed from England, Ireland, and Wales that I am an American first. Unless the British find new leaders with basic courage and the will to confront a murderer, I am not going to lose one minute of sleep over what the British do or do not do.

Posted by: Pelayo at April 1, 2007 12:30 PM