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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123341,00.html

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

<img src="http://www.foxnews.com/images/129016/3_23_062204_iran.jpg" border=0>
TEHRAN, Iran — British Navy sailors serving in Iraq will be prosecuted on charges of entering Iran's territorial waters, Iran's state-run television said Tuesday.

The eight were detained in the Shatt-al-Arab (search) waterway on Monday as they were delivering a patrol boat for the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. The waterway runs along the border between Iran and Iraq.

"They will be prosecuted for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters," the Arabic language Al-Alam television said Tuesday.

"The vessels were 1,000 meters inside Iranian territorial waters. The crew have also confessed to having entered Iranian waters," the broadcast said.

The British Foreign Office (search) said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw (search) has spoken to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi about the incident.

The waterway, Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf that divides Iran and Iraq, has long been a source of tension between the neighbors. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war broke out after then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed the entire waterway.

Monday's incident follows a strain in Iranian-British relations after London helped draft a resolution rebuking Iran for past nuclear cover-ups at last week's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (search) board of governors.

Iran says its program is aimed only at producing energy, while the United States accuses Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran accused Britain, which it had seen as a partner in the investigation into its nuclear activities, of caving in to U.S. pressure on the resolution.

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Monday that Iranian naval guards, "acting upon their legal duty," seized the boats and detained the occupants when they entered Iran's territorial waters, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Al-Alam television reported that the crew members were carrying maps and weapons.

The British Defense Ministry said the personnel were from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq. They were delivering a boat from Umm Qasr to Basra, Iraq.

"The boats are unarmed but the crews were carrying their personal weapons," a statement said

"The power to Destroy the planet, is insignifigant to the power of the Air Force----Mudd Vader

Would be no surprise if they slapped the boaters' wrists and then kept the boats. As an act of good faith, of course.

"Live every day like it's the last, 'cause one day you're gonna be right!" Ray Charles (6/10/04 was the day)

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

This is getting ridiculous.

Who captured these guys?

Weren't they in an ARMED patrol boat?

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"

Ronald Reagan

Vette take a pill for gods sake

"USS Pueblo". The Brits wernt there by accident.

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us". George Orwell

Fighting For Justice With Brains Of Steel !
<img src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/atengun2X.GIF" border=0>

_________________
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

seeee, you shoulda just took the pill.

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us". George Orwell

Fighting For Justice With Brains Of Steel !
<img src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/atengun2X.GIF" border=0>

_________________
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

Eight guys in four small boats ? In territorial waters / They aint no ordinary sailors..............they be SBS for sure.

By this time tomorrow I shall have gained either a pearage or Westminster Abbey........Nelson

_________________
YGBSM !

SBS troops would never surrender without a fight.

A very intense and violent fight.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"

Ronald Reagan

Even if they were just making an innocent delivery, knowing they'd be <i>close</i> to Iranian waters, wth didn't they have some air cover in the vicinity?

"Live every day like it's the last, 'cause one day you're gonna be right!" Ray Charles (6/10/04 was the day)

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

Snipe I thought about that. I personally think the SAS ans SBS are the best forces period. However I still cant see normal sailors in small fast patrol boats within Iranian waters. That just sounds way to fishy.

By this time tomorrow I shall have gained either a pearage or Westminster Abbey........Nelson

_________________
YGBSM !

They were probably lost.

I'm sure you can imagine regular sailors being lost.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"

Ronald Reagan

no GPS? hmmmmmm.

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us". George Orwell

Fighting For Justice With Brains Of Steel !
<img src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/atengun2X.GIF" border=0>

_________________
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

Having advanced navigation equipment won't help you or your unit if the leader is a moron.

That might not be the case here, but it might also be...who knows.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"

Ronald Reagan

The best thing to do here is just ride this out through diplomatic channels...The Iranians are not about to do something stupid, this whole incident smacks of a desperate regime wanting attention...(North Korea, China)...Remember, in the minds of these people we just gutted a country that shares a huge frontier with them, and we are about to set up a pro western shop in its place. Its probably making them a little nervous at this point. Watch, this will work itself out...In todays current world attitude of free market economys, the only trump card struggling communist or theocratical regimes posses is either the threat of producing nukes, or finding a political "pot of gold" in either an EP-3, or a patrol boat....Its symbolic more than anything. Maybe we should just "accidently" shoot down another Iranian Airbus for retribution, or accidently drop a LGB on an embassey somwhere to make a subtle point...

Let's see...LGB, JDAM, ah, here it is! Tomahawk!

"Live every day like it's the last, 'cause one day you're gonna be right!" Ray Charles (6/10/04 was the day)

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

lol a few of the Tommies already ended up in Iran during the "shock and awe" portion of the recent festivities from what I hear lol

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us". George Orwell

Fighting For Justice With Brains Of Steel !
<img src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/atengun2X.GIF" border=0>

_________________
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

Iraq/Iran, it all looks the same!

"Live every day like it's the last, 'cause one day you're gonna be right!" Ray Charles (6/10/04 was the day)

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

oh, that's the problem you carto guys just been cutting and pasting eh? lol

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us". George Orwell

Fighting For Justice With Brains Of Steel !
<img src="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/atengun2X.GIF" border=0>

_________________
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.