Iran has fired shots back at the United Kingdom in its propaganda war over the treatment of the 15 British sailors and marines while they were held in captivity.
Iran airs new video on UK sailors
Iran state television has broadcast video showing the recently freed British navy crew playing games, chatting, laughing and watching television during their captivity.
Tehran said the footage shown on Sunday refuted claims made by the soldiers two days earlier that they had been mistreated.
The crew said they had been blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells, tricked into fearing execution, and coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.
The video clips, which were briefly aired on Iran's state-run Arabic satellite channel Al-Alam, showed several of the sailors and marines dressed in track suits playing chess and table tennis, laughing and chatting.
Other short clips showed them watching football on television and eating at a long dining table that had vases filled with flowers on it.
The newscaster said the video proved "the sailors had complete liberty during their detention, which contradicts what the sailors declared after they arrived in Britain".
Yes, the video proves that the Brits are lying.
Right.
...Lieutenant Felix Carman, one of the crew members captured on March 23, said they were rarely allowed to socialise and when they were, it was for the benefit of the Iranian media.
"We were kept in isolation until the last few nights, when we were allowed to get together for a few hours, in the full glare of the Iranian media," Carman said at a news conference on Friday.
"But that was very much a setup, very much a stunt for Iranian propaganda."
In the video broadcast on Sunday, Carman could be seen wearing a business suit and smiling at the camera.
It's too bad the Iranians didn't capture any video images of Faye Turney being measured for her coffin.
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The only woman among 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran said in an interview published on Monday she had been asked how she felt about dying for her country and feared she was being measured for a coffin.
Faye Turney told Britain's top-selling Sun tabloid in her first interview since the 15 were released by Iran on Thursday after 13 days in detention that she was threatened with years in prison as a spy unless she did what her captors wanted.
Turney said one morning she heard wood being sawn and nails hammered near her cell and a woman measured her with a tape. "I was convinced they were making my coffin," she told The Sun.
The 25-year-old sailor, a mother with a 3-year-old daughter, said she was kept in isolation for five days and was asked by an Iranian official how she felt about dying for her country. When captured, she feared she could be raped, The Sun said.
What was that? Iran's "coffin measurement" game?
I think it's interesting that Iran felt the need to fire back in response to the comments the former hostages have been making.
Iranian officials obviously weren't comfortable with the discrepancies in the stories of what really happened.
It also could be that they don't want anything at all to distract from Iran's national nuclear day.
2 comments:
It could have been worse: they could have been locked up without a trial for three years and been subjected to waterboarding.
Your point is convenient ammunition to bash the U.S. and the Bush administration, but it doesn't apply.
Nevermind that the Brits weren't trespassing in Iranian waters, right?
Were the Brits making war against Iran? Were they plotting to kill Iranians?
You're right that it could have been worse.
The Brits could have been held in captivity for 444 days by the Iranians, just like the Americans were held during the disastrous Carter presidency.
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