Iranian Hostage Crisis: Ahmadinejad-Style

What is with the Iranians and hostages?

Was megalomaniac Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looking for something to propel him back into the news?

I guess you can call for the destruction of Israel only so many times before the media stop reporting it.

A nice high profile hostage crisis seems to be just what bully Ahmadinejad ordered to feed his massive ego.

Besides, it's been over 25 years since the Iranians held Americans in captivity for 444 days during Jimmy Carter's disastrous presidential term. Maybe radical Iranians longed to relive those good old days so they rounded up some Westerners to hold captive.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that Britain must admit that its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture by the Mideast nation.

Manouchehr Mottaki's statement in an interview with The Associated Press came on a day of escalating tensions, highlighted by an Iranian video of the detained Britons that showed the only woman captive saying her group had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. Britain angrily denounced the video as unacceptable and froze most dealings with the Mideast nation.

The Iranian official also backed off a prediction that the female sailor, Faye Turney, could be freed Wednesday or Thursday, but said Tehran agreed to allow British officials to meet with the detainees.

Mottaki said that if the alleged entry into Iranian waters was a mistake "this can be solved. But they have to show that it was a mistake. That will help us to end this issue."

"Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem," he said late Wednesday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was attending an Arab summit.

It was the first time that Iran has publicly suggested a way to resolve the crisis, but British acquiescence appeared unlikely as the country has been insisting since the crisis began that its troops were in Iraqi waters and released a GPS readout on Wednesday to back up the claim.

Mottaki enjoys yanking the Brits' chain.

The Iranians are behaving like unruly toddlers testing the preschool teacher.

It's critical that the British do not go wobbly and submit to the ridiculous demands of the Iranians.

...Earlier Wednesday, a brief video of the captured Britons was shown on Iran's Arabic language satellite television station, Al-Alam.

One segment showed sailors and marines sitting in an Iranian boat in open waters immediately after their capture.

The video also displayed what appeared to be a handwritten letter from Turney, 26, to her family.

"I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters," it said. The letter also asks Turney's parents in Britain to look after her 3-year-old daughter, Molly, and her husband, Adam.

The video showed Turney in checkered head scarf and her uniform eating with other sailors and marines. Later, wearing a white tunic and black head scarf, she sat in a room before floral curtains and smoked a cigarette.

Turney was the only detainee to be shown speaking, giving her name and saying she had been in the navy for nine years.

"Obviously we trespassed into their waters," Turney said at one point, her voice audible under a simultaneous Arabic translation. "They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested. There was no harm, no aggression."

Does anyone actually believe that those are Turney's own words?

"They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people."

Yeah, right.

Her statement was clearly scripted.

Parading the British sailors and marines before the cameras is a disgusting display.

Furthermore, it's particularly disturbing that the Iranians chose to exploit the only woman captive. That was clearly a calculated move intended to persuade the British to acquiesce.

Read the spin from the Islamic Republic News Agency, Ahmadinejad's propaganda machine:

British marine Mrs. Faye Turney from F99 Royal Navy on Wednesday admitted entry into Iranian territorial waters and apologized for doing so.

Turney, who is going to be freed soon, said that Iranian coast guards treated them friendly and with hospitality.

"My name is Faye Turney. I come from England, I live in England at present. I have served on F99. I have served in Navy nine years, I was arrested on Friday on 23rd of March which obviously has passed internal waters.

"I was treated friendly and hospitable they are nice people, they explained why we were arrested, and there is no aggression, no hurt, no harm, they are very very compassionate," she said in an interview.

Meanwhile, she forwarded a letter to her family to inform them about her well-being.

An Iranian foreign ministry official handed over the letter to British Ambassador to Tehran Jeffrey Adams on Wednesday.

"I want you all to know that I am well and safe. I am being well looked after.

"The people are friendly and hospitable, very compassionate and warm. I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologise for us entering into their waters.

"Please don't worry about me; I am staying strong. Hopefully it won't be long until I am home, she said in part of her letter to her family.

Iran announced that she will be freed soon.

15 British marines, who had violated Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, were arrested on Friday.

What a load!

Have the so-called human rights organizations called out Iran for this exploitation?

I wonder what Rosie O'Donnell has to say about the treatment that the British sailors and marines are receiving.

She always blathering about torture and Gitmo and how horribly the U.S. treats detainees. She's so extreme that she was even eager to defend Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

How does the video of the hostages fit into her idiotic conspiracy theory?

"But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say: Gulf of Tonkin, Google it. Okay."

"Yes, but it’s very interesting too that, you know, these guys, they went into the water by mistake right at a time when British and American, you know, they're two, they’re pretty much our biggest ally and we're considering whether or not we should go into war with Iran."

Enough of the crazed O'Donnell and her lunacy.

The bottom line is the Iranians intentionally created an international crisis.

They set out to heighten tensions with the West.

Once again, Iran earns its place on the Axis of Evil.