Iran to free Brits

[nos351]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070404/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_britain

Wonder if those Iranians captured in Iraq get released too. Monte Hall has done his magic again.

[O.C White]

I got to give it to the Arabs they know how to play this propaganda game to the max.

[Faceman]

I got to give it to the Arabs they know how to play this propaganda game to the max.

Gunny, Iranians aren't Arabs, they are Persians. Call an Iranian an Arab and you just might get shot.

Other then that I can't disagree with you, these people play the western media like a fiddle.

[O.C White]

Gunny, Iranians aren't Arabs, they are Persians. Call an Iranian an Arab and you just might get shot.

Other then that I can't disagree with you, these people play the western media like a fiddle.


So if he/she shoots that means I can shoot back?

[Faceman]

Sure, feel free!!!

[Chris Uratchko]

Wow someone else on here actually knows Iran is not an arab nation....

[O.C White]

Maybe I should have just used the classification Mid eastern then I could lump them all in together?

[Faceman]

Wow someone else on here actually knows Iran is not an arab nation....

Yeah, once and a while I read, LOL.

[taxman]

They are on their way home.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070404/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_britain;_ylt=AkIdnrO46A2sz2QlBC5zEqnMWM0F

[Ed-vancedEngines]

Hmm?

So did somebody (US) blink for a few minumtes to allow this?

The announcement followed the sudden release of an Iranian diplomat in Iraq that raised new hope for resolving the standoff.

The call for talks came hours after Iranian diplomat Jalal Sharafi was freed by his captors in Iraq. He had been seized Feb. 4 by uniformed gunmen in Karradah, a Shiite-controlled district of Baghdad.


Iran alleged the diplomat had been abducted by an Iraqi military unit commanded by U.S. forces — a charge repeated by several Iraqi Shiite lawmakers. U.S. authorities denied any role in his disappearance.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said the Iraqi government had exerted pressure on those holding Sharafi to release him — but he would not identify who had held Sharafi.

But another senior government official said Iraqi intelligence had been holding him. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.

Sharafi was a second secretary at the Iranian Embassy involved in plans to open a branch of the Iranian national bank. U.S. officials allege that Iran provides money and weapons to Iraqi Shiite militias.

Sharafi was abducted a month after the U.S. military arrested five other Iranians in northern Iraq. The U.S. described one of those captives as a senior officer of the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said his government also was working "intensively" for the release of the five other Iranians to "help in the release of the British sailors and marines."

It was unclear whether the Iraqis had won Sharafi's freedom on their own initiative to encourage a settlement, which would ease tension without endangering their own claim to the waters where it occurred.
Nevertheless, the release of Sharafi and efforts to free the five other Iranians suggested that the parameters of a deal might be taking shape.

[O.C White]

Back door politics at it's finest.

[Monty Mikho]

Wow someone else on here actually knows Iran is not an arab nation....


Chris I have to admit.. I was impressed to.. I thought you were the only one here who knew anything.. Can you tell us about their culture now?

[George Klass]

Maybe someone can refresh my memory, but wasn't the Cuban Misssle Crisis handled almost completly through back door political channels too?

Hey, whatever it takes to get results, right?

[taxman]

You need a "refresh" George, it wasn't backdoor. Pretty direct I would say if Kennedy and Nikita were talking on the phone together.

[George Klass]

I think that if you check, it was alot more back door than you think. Krueschev (if I recall) wanted to keep the negotiations away from his "politboro", and didn't Kennedy use some newspaper guy to be a go-between at some level?

But however it happend, the issues were delt with by one head guy talking to another head guy, with nobody in between. Condi Rice may be Bush's gopher, but she is no "head guy".

[Ed-vancedEngines]

Neither is Pelosi. lol.

Well, I guess that Iran has another boat or two to add to their fleet now.

Ed

[Bluenoser]

I guess Rosie is right. Iran isn't so bad, right?:peeing (no icon for fat pig)

[George Klass]

You are right about that Ed. But we have a "head guy" and he's doing nothing about the issues with Iran except to make his usual rhetoric speeches. If "our head guy" got personally involved himself, there might not be a need for anyone else (like Pelosi and the Repub congressmen) to be talking to "their head guy"?

Back to the Cuban Missle Crisis for a minute. According to wickipedia.com, the name of Kennedy's "back channel connection" to Krueschev was John Scali of ABC News, who secretly met with Alexandr Fomin (real name Alexasndre Feklisov), a "retired" KGB agent. Between "lunches" between these two, they passed the negotiation letters back and forth between Kennedy and Krueschev. And like any good negotiations, both sides were able to claim a "victory". We got the missles (aimed at us) out of Cuba and the Ruskis got the missles (aimed at them) out of Turkey.

I was never a fan of Kennedy (although I voted for him over Nixon) but he had more diplomatic skills in his little finger than the entire Bush team has all together.

[O.C White]

George,

does the head guy at FFW ever get involved? No he has you do it gopher. So you should know what gophers do.

[George Klass]

LOL, very true Gunny, but I am allowed to make "foreign policy" for FFW.

[Shelton_Barrs]

LOL, very true Gunny, but I am allowed to make "foreign policy" for FFW.

that certainly explains alot...LOL

[purpleplymouth]

Gunny, what about the fine Iranian suits they were wearing and all the jovial handshakes? I have lost alot of respect for the British Marines.

[Ed-vancedEngines]

When the British Sailors sold out their mission aka their country by siding with the enemy, that about did it for me with them.

I hope that the others showed a little gumption and backbone than the three on TV did. In my opinion those three should be shunned and maybe even arrested when they get home. Maybe today's military is different buit I hope ours has not changed that much.

I was never a POW, thankfuly. I did go through some POW orientayions and training before going to Vietnam though and They did do quite a lot to try to make us break down without causing any serious injury but still we dod get put through some kkinda hell just for training purposes in case we were taken prisoner.

To me those well fed not bruised or hurt three sailors are a disgrace to any nation's uniform. I guess they will come back home as heros though.

Ed

[George Klass]

Ed, I do understand what you are saying and your outlook on this, but like everything else in life, there are other points of view. Maybe, before these sailors are arrested and vilified for trying to stay alive, the Brits might consider arresting and vilifying the idiots (officers, etc.) that put them into that position so close to the border in the first place. I'm not trying to make excuses for the enlisted men and women but I get damn sick and tired of reading about our Marines and soldiers that are accused and punished for "wrong doing", when it was not their idea to be in that particular position in the first place. And I'm not buying this "well, they volunteered" crap either. If the military leaders make stupid decisions that lead to these kinds of problems, then it is they that should get the shaft, not the poor grunts that are trying to carry out the stupid orders.

[O.C White]

Hey George,

while your post packs passion, and a little emotion, there is a such thing as lawful orders that must be obeyed.

Doing a recon off someones coast is a lawful order. Raping a child is not a lawful order.

Believe it or not us brainless robots do still have the right to obey what we feel is a lawful order compared to what is not a lawful oder.

[George Klass]

That's not the way I remember it Gunny. As a grunt, my job was to follow orders as given, not just the ones that I agreed with.

[O.C White]

That's not the way I remember it Gunny. As a grunt, my job was to follow orders as given, not just the ones that I agreed with.

George,

when you get a chance say the oath of enlistment to yourself. Never mind I forgot it has been 40 years since you said it:

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Now I don't know what part of regulation according to the UCMJ you are talking about but that is what I remember. There is rule in the UCMJ that says it's okay to rape and kill unlawful.

[George Klass]

Make that about 47 years, you bald headed bastard. I may have taken an oath like that, I don't remember, but I do remember that the 2nd Lu that was on my ass all the time used to tell me, "don't think, just do it".

[O.C White]

I do remember that the 2nd Lu that was on my ass all the time used to tell me, "don't think, just do it".

George,


if he told you that he was doing you a favor.

[Bluenoser]

Wow! You got the "Don't think" part down pat! Your 2nd Lu would be proud!

[O.C White]

Wow! You got the "Don't think" part down pat! Your 2nd Lu would be proud!

2nd Lt must still be around then.