Iran Increases Pressure

I am not sure why the British sailors and marines captured by Iran inside Iraqi waters appear to be caving in to Iranian pressure very, very quickly. When they get released, Iran will have some explaining to do. But they have paraded yet another of the people they kidnapped, a marine this time, "apologizing" for having trespassed in Iran's waters. The crisis continues to escalate as a result of this behavior on Iran's part.

TEHRAN, Iran - One of the 15 British service members held captive in Iran appeared Friday on the government's Arabic-language TV and apologized for entering Iranian waters "without permission." The Iranians meanwhile released a third letter allegedly by captured sailor Faye Turney, in which she said she has been "sacrificed" to the policies of the British and U.S. governments.

The Iranian Embassy in London criticized both Britain and the U.N. Security Council on Friday for becoming involved in the crisis.

Prior to the release of the third letter, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government has insisted that its navy personnel were captured in Iraqi waters, immediately denounced the broadcast and said it would only lead to further isolation for Iran. The standoff has added to tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions and over allegations that Iran is arming Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq.

"I don't know why the Iranian regime keeps doing this, all it does it heightens people's sense of disgust. Captured personel being paraded and manipulated in this way, it doesn't fool anyone," he said in a brief statement. "And what the Iranians have to realize is that if they continue in this way they will face continued isolation."

In the video Friday, Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers was shown sitting with another male serviceman and the female British sailor Faye Turney against a pink floral curtain. Both men wore camouflage fatigues with a label saying "Royal Navy" on their chests and a small British flag stitched to their left sleeves. Turney wore a blue jumpsuit and a black headscarf.

"Again I deeply apologize for entering your waters," Summers said in the clip broadcast on Al-Alam television. "We trespassed without permission."

The latest letter, addressed to the British people, said that Turney had been treated well, unlike the prisoners held by the at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "I'm writing to you as a British serviceperson who has been sent to Iraq, sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair government," the letter said.

Interestingly, even the reliably left-leaning Guardian newspaper in Britain is not real happy with Iran right now. But these are the direct dividends of Western weakness and lack of resolution when dealing with the rogue mullahs and their psychotic president, Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was rumored to have been one of the people involved in the taking of American hostages in Tehran in 1979. It really isn't surprising that he is attempting to relive his "glory days". I really hope that Iran has overplayed its hand this time and will generate world wide revulsion. But I am also waiting for the apologists to start kicking in.