Call that humiliation?
An interesting article in the Guardian by Terry Jones I found via Hoder's blog. I'll paste it here for you to enjoy. Meanwhile I'm hoping that this issue will be resolved quickly and our relations will get back to normal. Peace and Prosperity for everyone.
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.
It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn't be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head - but at least they wouldn't be humiliated.
And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantanamo Bay.
The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantanamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!
What's more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting "stress positions", which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It's all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.
And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is "unhappy and stressed".
What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her "unhappy and stressed". She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.
As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer - whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq.
Who let George Bush open his mouth and add another stupid comment to his already vast collection of idiotic quotes? Thank you Georgy but we don't need your support.
(at April 1, 2007 05:45 PM)
The Guardian prove himself once again as a far-leftist anti-western journal.
They've added a lot of things which has nothing to do with the subjects and used sarcasm, which is not an argument but the resource of a weak mind trying to justify its postions.
On the veiled woman prisoner subject, it's pretty offensive the fact that the Iranians forced her to wear that headscarf. Has she asked to wear it? If no, why they're enforcing this on her? English women are not Iranian religious women who believe they have to wear such things to not offend "God". Putting a bag over her head is a simbolic sign of imposition - as the Iranian regime dreams to impose the Islamic religion all over the world.
I find funny the fact that the opinionist is trying to avoid the argument of the capture of the British sailors talking of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. He's meddling situations which are not similar - the people who are detained in these prisons are mainly fighters which have planned to kill and/or killed Americans - both civilians and soldiers - captured during military actions; the British sailors have been taken while they were doing counter oil-smuggling operations in Iraqi waters, seized to gunpoint by a paramilitary force and humiliated in such way in front of the cameras.
I wonder if the guardian wants the official excusations of GB to Iran, as asked by Ahmadinejad. The Iranians under the Ayatollah everyday by thirty years chant "Death to Amerika, Israel and Great Britain.." since childhood and they pretend even official excuses!!! (I don't wanna know how many times even the owners of this blog now in England have chanted that!) I presume Guardian will be satisfied only when Blair will give his ass to ahmadinejad!
(at April 2, 2007 04:58 PM)
Looks like the crisis is cooling down and there is good chance that the sailors will be freed very soon. sigh...
(at April 2, 2007 08:54 PM)
Such trivial sarcastic words you espouse. Too bad you don't truly focus on the most important things in the world such as getting the truth. Get it from all sides, not just the side you prefer college boy, and then you'll be able to see the full truth. Nothing like an educated perspective, something that apparently eludes you and your written rubbish.
What a pity you live in a free country such as Britain and sarcastically depose a system which gives you the right to do so, unlike your Iranian government which still makes people disappear, or worse, hangs them, or enforces religious persecution and laws many don't want.
Your comment on the British sailor being forced to wear a headress was simply stupid. Your poor uneducated attempt to compare and interject your perspective of the free world's treatment of captured terrorists who are cowardly killers and the Iranians treatment of an innocent sailor was laughable. But....then so are you.
Seems like you are headed towards having a bag over your head....but if you know one thing. You'l l be treated humanely, and not decapitated. Your family won't disappear like millions have in your part of the world under many a murderous "religious" goverment.
(at April 7, 2007 06:08 PM)
Listening to news makes me sick these days. We have ourselves to blame, for sending our innocent young generation to the frontline of a battle most Britain rejected. Soldiers killed in Bazra yesterday were between 19 and 23 years of age. Shame!
(at April 8, 2007 01:09 PM)
Not all americans approve of george bush , but Israel controls bush and most of USA. And since Israel controls most of the banks and Money they control America. Be sure that while young poor americans are dying in the battle, the rich jewish children are playing.
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