Hostage situation at Hillary Clinton's NH Office: UPDATE - Crisis Over, No one Injured

(Thread was moved here because of technical difficulties on other thread.)

[Update] Crisis is over, no one hurt.

Man had told his family earlier to watch the television today, so this was preplanned.

The mans name is Leeland Eisenberg. [End Update]

Hillary Clinton is not at that office but reports are saying a man walked into Hillary's NH office with what looks like a bomb strapped to his chest. That information came from a witness that called it in.

Authorities are standing by trying to deal with it and at the moment there are no injuries reported.

Bear in mind, just because it looked like a bomb to the witness doesn't mean it is real.

Hillary's campaign has no other details they say.

Fox is reporting.

A Clinton spokesman said that no one has been hurt.

It was unclear how many people were being held at the Main Street facility in Rochester.

Clinton was scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Committee fall meeting later Friday in Northern Virginia.

WMUR is also reporting on this:

"A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,'" witness Lettie Tzizik said.

There are several police officers positioned across the street from the office, crouched down behind cruisers with guns drawn, according to a reported at the scene.

"I walked out and I immediately started running, and I saw that the road was blocked off. They told me run and keep going," said Cassandra Hamilton, who works in an office adjacent to the building.

Nearby businesses have been evacuated, and the St. Elizabeth Seaton School has been locked down.

Television reports say there are sharp shooters on the roofs nearby.

Two campaign workers are being held hostage.

A Newt One is all over this also.

Latest... The man allowed a woman and her child to leave, there is also a hostage negotiator there and the mans stated reason is that he wants to speak with Hillary... fat chance of that.

More from WCVB here and here.

Police said a man in his 40s, with salt-and-pepper hair, is in the building and has what appears to be an explosive device strapped to his body, TV station WMUR reported.

MSNBC is also reporting.

More from the New Hampshire Union Leader and Rapid Report.

Malkin is also discussing this.

[Update] Witnesses were reporting that the assailant had flares, not a bomb, strapped to his body.

Fox tells us about previous situations at political campaign offices in the years past:

In March 1980, intruders claiming to be with the Puerto Rican separatist organization Armed Forces of National Liberation (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional, or FALN) stormed the campaign offices of Jimmy Carter in Chicago and George H.W. Bush in New York.

They bound and gagged campaign workers in both offices, but left without injuring anyone after spray-painting nationalist slogans on the walls.

There have also been several non-fatal explosions at the campaign offices of other politicians, none of whom were running for president.

In June 2003, a pipe bomb filled with roofing nails exploded outside Calif. Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s campaign office in Santa Ana. Garden Grove resident Hai Duc Le, who was severely scarred in the incident, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for the blast. No one else was hurt, and authorities said at the time that the congresswoman was not a target.

In 1998, a soda-bottle bomb blew up outside Jesse Ventura’s gubernatorial campaign office in Minneapolis. Again police said they didn’t think the bombings were politically motivated, and no one was hurt.

And in 1994, then-Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson’s campaign office was also struck by a pipe bomb, but no one was wounded.

News is announcing another hostage has been released.

Seems the man has surrendered also, approximately 6 hrs after beginning, no injuries and no fatalities.



[Update] Another hostage released for a total of 5 all together being released.
Developing story....

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Taliban Releases 12 South Korean Hostages

(South Korean hostages are seen walking after being released by Taliban militants in Ghazni province, 29 Aug 2007)

Last night the Taliban handed over three of the 19 South Korean hostages they have held captive for nearly six weeks, after reaching a deal with South Korean officials.

The Taliban has begun releasing 19 South Korean Christian volunteers, after holding them in Afghanistan for nearly six weeks. The militants have freed 12 hostages so far a day after South Korea made a series of concessions to end the hostage crisis. VOA Correspondent Benjamin Sand reports from Islamabad.

The Taliban freed four women and one man hours after releasing a first group of three women. The hostages were handed over to tribal chiefs in southern Gazni province Wednesday and then to Red Cross officials.

Taliban officials said the rest would be freed shortly.

Provincial Governor Merajuddin Pattan told VOA he was confident the crisis was now over.

"Within three days the whole number will be released," he said.

In exchange, South Korea has agreed to end its military presence in Afghanistan by the end of this year, a move Seoul announced several months ago.

According to Channel 4, there have been rumors that ransom money rather than diplomacy secured the release of the hostages.

The rest of the hostages should be released by Thursday.

A total of 23 South Koreans were captured as they travelled by bus on the main highway between Kandahar and Kabul.

Two were killed and another two were released before a deal was reached to end the standoff.

More as it comes out....




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New Iran Hostage Crisis

Enough!

Let me start by saying that I’m so furious I don’t know what to say TO start.

Are we a nation of cowards? Are we a nation that would rather sit on our collective ass and “talk about it” while we’re being picked off one at a time on foreign shores? Are we so naive that we think we can trust a foreign government whose leadership has called for our destruction? Can we trust this government to release our people without harm unless we threaten to roll INTO Tehran?

I was going to do a piece today on how that we are at war against an enemy that is multinational, an enemy that belongs to a mindset that extends across national borders and boundaries. I was going to do a piece on how the media and certain members of Congress and the Senate (and yes, I mean the Democratic party and a few turncoat Republicans) are trying desperately to convince you, the American public, that our war in Iraq was unjust and “illegal.” If you can walk away from reading this without fully grasping that WE ARE AT WAR WITH A SECT OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS who pay NO REGARD TO INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES that were imposed upon them during the occupation of the Middle East by Europeans during the last two centuries then you are beyond any hope of redemption in regards to allowing your eyes to be opened to the truth.

Our enemy is not any particular nation.

Our enemy is Radical Extremist Fascist Islam.

Iraq is, has been, but ONE FRONT in this war. Afghanistan is another one. Make NO mistake in thinking that there will not be others as time progresses and our enemies regroup themselves. WE CAN NOT ALLOW THEM TO HAVE ONE MOMENT TO CATCH THEIR BREATH AND ATTACK US ON OUR OWN SHORES AGAIN. By their own admissions, by their own words, THAT IS THEIR INTENTION.

And until we secure our borders and stop this nonsensical debate over illegal immigration, BUILD the fence on our southern border to inhibit the free flowing of illegals crossing into our country from Mexico, and start rounding up, as Eisenhower did, those who are here illegally, we are leaving ourselves WIDE OPEN to more attacks within the United States. EVEN FRANCE has come to realize this danger to their own country and has started sending THEIR illegals back home.

ENOUGH!

(Continued after the advertisement)





Hat tips to Power Line and Blue Crab Boulevard for their commentaries on columnist Mark Steyn’s article Look who's holding hostages again.

Mark Steyn: Look who's holding hostages again

How do you feel about the American hostages in Iran?

No, not the guys back in the Seventies, the ones being held right now.

What? You haven't heard about them?

Odd that, isn't it? But they're there. For example, for two months now, Haleh Esfandiari has been detained in Evin prison in Tehran. Esfandiari is a U.S. citizen and had traveled to Iran to visit her sick mother. She is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, which is the kind of gig that would impress your fellow guests at a Washington dinner party. Unfortunately, the mullahs say it's an obvious cover for a Bush spy.

Among the other Zionist-neocon agents currently held in Iranian jails are an American journalist, an American sociologist for a George Soros-funded leftie group, and an American peace activist from Irvine, Ali Shakeri, whose capture became known shortly after the United States and Iran held their first direct talks since the original hostage crisis.

Two months in an Iranian jail is no fun. Four years ago, a Montreal photo-journalist, Zahra Kazemi, was arrested by police in Tehran, taken to Evin prison, and wound up getting questioned to death. Upon her capture, the Canadian government had done as the State Department is apparently doing – kept things discreet, low-key, cards close to the chest, quiet word in the right ears. By the time Zahra Kazemi's son, frustrated by his government's ineffable equanimity, got the story out, it was too late for his mother.

Still, upon hearing of her death, then-Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham expressed his "sadness" and "regret," which are pretty strong words. But then, as Reuters put it, this sad regrettable incident had "marred previously harmonious relations between Iran and Canada." In his public pronouncements, Graham tended to give the impression that what he chiefly regretted and was sad about was that one of his compatriots had had the poor taste to get tortured and murdered onto the front pages of the newspapers.

With an apparently straight face, Graham passed on to reporters the official Iranian line that her death in jail was merely an "accident." The following year, Shahram Azam, a physician who'd examined Kazemi's body, fled Iran and said that she had broken fingers, a broken nose, a crushed toe, a skull fracture, severe abdominal bruising, and internal damage consistent with various forms of rape. Quite an accident.

The longer American prisoners are held in Evin, the more likely it is they'll meet with a similar accident. It would be nice to think the press has ignored these hostages out of concerns that they might inflame the situation. (To date, only National Review, Bill Bennett on his radio show and various doughty Internet wallahs have made any fuss.) Or maybe the media figure that showing American prisoners on TV will only drive Bush's ratings back up from the grave to the rude health of intensive care. Or maybe they just don't care about U.S. hostages, not compared to real news like Senate sleepovers to block unblocking a motion to vote for voting against a cloture motion on the best way to surrender in Iraq.

But I'll bet the mullahs wouldn't really care if everyone put Haleh Esfandiari on the front pages 24/7. It's only a few months since they seized a bunch of Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines in international waters (an illegal act) and paraded them all over Iranian TV (in breach of the Geneva Conventions) and dressed up the female sailor in Islamic garb (another breach).

And the U.N. and the EU and all the other transnational arbiters of global order sent a strong message: "Whoa, you guys really need to tamp things down, de-escalate, defuse the confrontation." But, for some reason, they sent the strong message to the British government, not the Iranians. And, with the sailors' humiliation all over the media, the British public was inclined to agree. Almost to a man, they rose up and told Tony Blair: "This is all your fault for getting us into Iraq."

But outrage at Iran? There was none.

The ayatollahs figure that's how it usually goes with a plump, complacent Western world that just wants to be left alone and wishes these crazies would stop trying to catch its eye. Officially, Iran is "negotiating" with the European Union over its nuclear program. If this were a real negotiation, instead of a transnational pseudo-negotiation, the Iranians would be concerned to stop any complicating factors coming into play. Instead, every week they gaily toss new provocations into their EU chums' laps: In recent days, they've stoned to death various fellows for adultery and homosexuality, two activities to which Europeans are generally very partial.

But why let a few stonings throw your negotiations off track? And, if the Americans are so eager to get a seat at the negotiating table, why not remind them of the rules of the game? Last week, the Iranians paraded their U.S. hostages all over TV as they confessed to engaging in espionage, along the way fingering the Woodrow Wilson Center and George Soros as key elements in the plot to overthrow the ayatollahs. If only.

The week before, Iran captured 14 spies near the Iraqi border who it claimed were agents of American and British intelligence equipped with surveillance devices. The "spies" in question were squirrels – as in small furry animals very protective of their nuts (much like the Democratic Party regarding Mr. Soros). I'm prepared to believe that a crack team of rodents from NUTS (the Ninja Undercover Team of Squirrels) abseiled into key installations in Iran and garroted the Revolutionary Guards, but not that the U.S. and British governments had anything to do with it. If they have any CIA or MI6 training at all, they must be rogue squirrels from the Cold War days who've been laid off and gone feral.

In America, public opinion is in no mood for war with Iran. In Washington, Congress is focused on finding the most politically advantageous way to lose in Iraq. In Europe, they've already psychologically accepted the Iranian nuclear umbrella. In the Western world, where talks are not the means to the end but an end in themselves, we find it hard despite the evidence of 30 years to accept that Iran talks the talk and walks the walk. Once it goes nuclear, do you think there will be fewer fatwas on writers, stonings of homosexuals, kidnappings in international waters, forced confessions of American hostages and bankrolling of terror groups worldwide? These latest hostages are part of a decades-old pattern of behavior. The longer it goes without being stopped, the worse it will be.

That’s not enough? How about that they’ve put these new hostages on IRANIAN TELEVISION?

Detained American-Iranian speaks on Iranian TV

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian-American detained in Iran said on state television on Thursday she had concluded that a network of research centers and universities she had helped create had aims which would weaken the Iranian government.

Haleh Esfandiari, 67-year-old director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, was arrested in May when visiting Iran from the United States.

She told a documentary TV program on Thursday "Now, after nearly five months ... I have reached the conclusion that we had created a chain of research centers, foundations and universities ... the aim of such networks was to create very fundamental changes inside the Iranian regime ... which means really weakening the system."

Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned of a U.S.-backed "velvet revolution" using intellectuals and others to bring about "regime change."

Kian Tajbakhsh, another Iranian-American, was also arrested while visiting Iran in May.

A consultant with the Open Society Institute, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, he told the same program: "The Soros centre's job in eastern Europe is nearly finished. Its main focus now is the Islamic world, Arab countries, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc."

State television's promotional clips of the program on Monday outraged Washington, which warned that any confessions which were broadcast would have no legitimacy. The first episode of the program was aired on Wednesday.

The Woodrow Wilson Centre's president, Lee Hamilton, said on Tuesday Esfandiari has been held in solitary confinement, adding that "any statements she may make without having had access to her lawyer would be coerced and have no legitimacy or standing."

Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday the statements made by Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh on television carried no legal weight.

BUSH SPEECHES

Their comments were broadcast in a documentary "In the Name of Democracy," which used parts of speeches by U.S. President George W. Bush about spreading democracy and images of popular uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine apparently to imply that Washington had similar plans for Iran.

The documentary also showed Ramin Jahanbeglou, an Iranian-Canadian writer detained for four months last year for endangering state security. "I am sorry for what I have done and I regret it," he said.

State television has in the past broadcast what it said were confessions by dissidents serving jail sentences for alleged attempts to undermine the Islamic Republic. Some have remained in jail even after the "confessions" were aired.

Many Iranian intellectuals say such measures are aimed at deterring any academic debate about the clerical establishment.

Rights groups and Western diplomats say Iranian authorities have increased pressure on dissidents, intellectuals and critical journalists, possibly in response to mounting international pressure over its atomic program.

The documentary made no mention of two other American-Iranians arrested this year on security-related charges, one of whom has been freed on bail.

Long-time foe Washington is leading efforts to isolate Iran over what it says are its plans to build nuclear arms. U.S. forces have detained five Iranians in Iraq on charges of backing militants there. Iran denies the charges.

The two countries will hold fresh talks in Iraq soon, following a landmark meeting in Baghdad in May.

Need more?

Iran TV shows detained American-Iranian academics

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's state television aired on Wednesday a program featuring two detained American-Iranian academics accused of endangering national security in the Islamic state.

Iranian officials have suggested Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh may have been involved in a U.S.-backed plot to stage a "velvet revolution" in Iran. Rights groups and U.S. officials had deplored Iran's plans to put the pair on television.

But in the first part of a documentary entitled "In the Name of Democracy" the two dual nationals, arrested separately in May while visiting Iran, did not make explicit confessions of conspiring to topple Tehran's clerical establishment.

"My job was to identify lecturers through contacting Iranians in America or contacting Iranian intellectuals when visiting Iran," said Esfandiari, an academic at the U.S.-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.

"A network of these contacted speech-makers was created ... The main aim was to identify key figures ... and to connect them to the network," said Esfandiari, who wore a black headscarf.

Tajbakhsh, a consultant with the Open Society Institute, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, said: "My job was to give social, political and cultural advice to the centre about Iran."

"The fact that America's Congress financed (the) Soros (centre), shows the American government and the centre share the same views on Iran," he added, referring to a sheaf of notes.

Their comments were interspersed with images from popular uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine to imply that the United States had similar plans for Iran. The second part of the documentary will be shown on Thursday night.

Although they are being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, the interviews with them were conducted in comfortably furnished rooms and both appeared relaxed and healthy.

State television's promotional clips of the program on Monday outraged Washington which warned that any confessions which were broadcast would have no legitimacy.

Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday the statements made by Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh on television carried no legal weight.

PRESSURE MOUNTS

Rights groups and Western diplomats say Iranian authorities have increased pressure on dissidents, intellectuals and critical journalists, adding this may in part be a response to mounting international pressure over its atomic program.

The documentary made no mention of two other American-Iranians arrested this year on security-related charges, one of whom has been freed on bail.

The Woodrow Wilson Centre's president, Lee Hamilton, said on Tuesday Esfandiari has been held in solitary confinement, adding that "any statements she may make without having had access to her lawyer would be coerced and have no legitimacy or standing."

Iran and the United States are at odds over a range of issues, including Tehran's refusal to give up sensitive nuclear enrichment work, which it says will be used solely for power generation and not, as Washington believes, to make bombs.

Washington also accuses Tehran of backing militants in Iraq, a charge it denies, and U.S. forces have been holding five Iranians in Iraq since January.

Nevertheless, the two countries have said they expect to sit down for fresh talks about Iraq soon, following a landmark meeting in Baghdad in May.

When is our government, when are the American people, going to learn that you CAN NOT TRUST the Iranian government to keep their word about anything? How much more is it going to take before we realize, each and every one of us, that we are at war with a coalition of people from several “countries” in the Middle East, not with any particular individual nation there?

Just when I think that I can’t get any MORE disgusted, something like this finds it’s way to the light of day.

ENOUGH!

Mr. President, SECURE OUR DAMNED BORDERS! And to ALL of our governmental officials, STOP PUSSY FOOTING AROUND WITH TERRORISTS! To the main stream media, STOP LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND STOP HIDING THE TRUTH FROM THEM.

WE don't NEED this bullshit.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Having the intestinal fortitude to call it like it is...

If you've ever followed Fred Thompson at all through the years, you know he's not a man with any qualms about speaking his mind, and calling things as he sees them.

The past three weeks, the world watched anxiously as events unfolded in the Iranian capture of fifteen British sailors and marines. Mr. Thompson has some very, very apt words to say at RedState about that situation, which while seemingly resolved now, leaves the world with the question of, regarding Iran, "what will they do now?"

The Pirates of Tehran

Oil prices fell. The stock market rose. Video images of smiling British soldiers with Iranian President Ahmadinejad were everywhere. So were pictures of the 15 freed hostages embracing family members back home. The relief over the return of the Brits was so tremendous; you could almost hear birds singing.

Maybe it's because military action won't be needed or maybe it's just because the ordeal won't drag on and on, but the world is breathing easier now. A lot of folks are happy. The problem, as I see it, is that Ahmadinejad seems to be the happiest.

And why shouldn't he be? He has shown the world that his forces can kidnap British citizens, subject them to brutal psychological tactics to coerce phony confessions, finagle the release of a high-ranking Iranian terror coordinator in Iraq, utterly trash the Geneva conventions and suffer absolutely no consequences.

The UN Security Council summoned its vaunted multilateral greatness to issue a swift statement of sincere uneasiness. The EU, which has pressured Britain to rely on Europeans for mutual defense instead of the US, wouldn't even discuss economic sanctions that might disrupt their holidays. Even NATO was AWOL.

Please do keep reading . . .

Tony Blair doesn't appear to be in much of a mood for celebrating. I don't know how he could be, given the troubling spectacle of British soldiers shake the hand of their kidnapper as a condition of release. In the old days, they would have kissed his ring -- but wearing Iranian suits and carrying swag more appropriate to a Hollywood awards ceremony may have been as embarrassing. Ironically, Blair's options are fewer by the day as his own party moves to mothball the British fleet, once the fear of pirates and tyrants the world over.

Some in the West seem part of Iran's propaganda war; claiming that the release of the hostages was a victory that proves the Iranian dictatorship can be reasoned with. To misrepresent unpunished piracy as a victory is as Orwellian as the congressional mandate banning use of the term "the global war on terror." What are we — Reuters?

Ahmadinejad must be particularly pleased to see "deep thinking" journalists making the case that American actions in Iraq were the true cause of the kidnappings. To believe this, all you have to do is ignore the history of the Iranian Revolution, which has been in the extortion business ever since it took power. Between the 1979 American embassy crisis in Tehran and the seizure of Israeli soldiers last year by Iran's Hezbollah proxies, there have been more than a hundred other examples.

If you include the imprisonment of pro-Democracy dissidents and non-Shi'a Muslim minorities within Iran, the number reaches easily into the tens of thousands. The dwindling and persecuted Christian population of Iran, I suspect, found little joy in Ahmadinejad's explanation that he was freeing his victims as an "Easter gift."

It is critical that we see this incident as part of a long pattern of behavior -- that will continue as long as the current leadership is in power. More importantly, it will escalate unimaginably if Iran achieves nuclear status, and with it the ability to hold millions rather than individuals hostage.

I have no idea if Ahmadinejad and those who put him in power really believe the Shi'a Twelver doctrine that they can spur the messiah to return by triggering Armageddon. You have to admit, though, that the possibility that they look forward to entering paradise as martyrs would make them a whole lot scarier as a nuclear power than the USSR ever was.

There is hope, though. The Iranian people are not an anti-Western horde. They're an educated and freedom-loving people for the most part, and reformers there have been begging us for support and sanctions that would weaken the ruling theocracy. Instead, they've just seen the Iranian dictatorship successfully bully the West into impotent submission. This is not a good thing.

We need to understand this and use every means at our disposal, starting with serious and painful international sanctions, to prevent Iran's rulers from becoming the nuclear-armed blackmailers they want to be. Unfortunately, we are hearing demands that we abandon the people of the Middle East who have stood up to Islamo-fascism because they believed us when we said we would support them.

If we retreat precipitously, the price for that betrayal will be paid first in blood and freedom by the Iranian people, the Kurds, the Afghanis, the secular Lebanese, the moderates in Pakistan and the Iraqis themselves. And America's word may never be trusted again.

Right now, the pirate Ahmadinejad is clearly more confident about the outcome of the Global War on Terror than we are. That ought to give us pause.

Damned right it should. The Iranians have already announced that they have every intention of doing it again when they have the chance.

Buoyant Teheran warns of further kidnappings
By Gethin Chamberlain, Philip Sherwell and Tim Shipman, Sunday Telegraph

Hardliners in the Iranian regime have warned that the seizure of British naval personnel demonstrates that they can make trouble for the West whenever they want to and do so with impunity.

The bullish reaction from Teheran will reinforce the fears of western diplomats and military officials that more kidnap attempts may be planned.

The British handling of the crisis has been regarded with some concern in Washington, and a Pentagon defence official told The Sunday Telegraph: "The fear now is that this could be the first of many. If the Brits don't change their rules of engagement, the Iranians could take more hostages almost at will.

"Iran has come out of this looking reasonable. If I were the Iranians, I would keep playing the same game. They have very successfully muddied the waters and bought themselves some more time. And in parts of the Middle East they will be seen as the good guys. They could do it time and again if they wanted to."

Americans also expressed dismay that the British had suspended boarding operations in the Gulf while its tactics are reassessed.

Yeah, the Iranians really learned a hard lesson from all of this, didn't they?

WAKE UP, AMERICA! And WAKE UP, GREAT BRITAIN as well. NATO, take a stand, dammit, that's what you were created for.

I know it's easy to armchair quarterback things, but when people who STUDY politics and political strategies are saying this, and when the Iranians themselves are saying that they're going to continue, I think that's a pretty damned clear indication that THE IRANIANS ARE GOING TO CONTINUE unless they're stopped. We have to stop pussy-footing around with them and hold them accountable for their criminal activity. Enough is enough.

Mr. Thompson, your country needs you. Right now the blogsite is not taking an official stand in supporting a candidate, but my support, especially as a fellow Tennessean, is for Fred Thompson for President of the United States.

Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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British Sailors' Statement

Via the Telegraph is a very touching statement from a British sailor about their trying ordeal. It is three pages and it is SOOOOO worth the read.

For those of us who have wondered how this was allowed to happen, he also explains this, and after reading it, they did what what right and at any given moment they did not know if they would ever see their families again

Lt Carman went on: "Some have questioned why HMS Cornwall did not provide greater protection for the team. HMS Cornwall is there to guard the vital oil platforms and command the coalition forces. She is also the platform by where boarding teams can launch from and patrol out.

"Not only should she not have been closer to us but she physically could not have been, the water is simply too shallow. We are all immensely proud to be members of her crew and look forward to rejoining her.

"I would just like to stress three points at this stage:

"When taken by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard we were well inside Iraqi territorial waters.

"The detention was clearly illegal and not a pleasant experience.

"We as a group held out for as long as we though appropriate. We then complied up to a point with our captors.

"We remain immensely proud of our team. Their courage and dignity throughout their illegal detention was in line with the best tradition of the service.

That is from page three but to find out all they endured and details of their home coming, please go read all of it.

I am so glad they have been returned to their families.

Go on...read it. I promise you, you will not regret the few minutes it takes to hear these brave men and womens story.

Then head on over to Daily Mail for more on this and reactions can be found over at memeorandum.

After all that, check out THIS.

No commentary on the latest link until more news comes out about whether Iran was beind it or not.

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Quick Update on British Hostages

CNN, MSNBC, AP, Sky News, Wapo, Pajamas Media, and Fox News are announcing that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming he is going to free the British hostages.

If this turns out to be true and he actually does release the hostages, than this is wonderful news.

I am not rushing into drinking champagne yet because he also promised to release the female hostage last week and then went back on his word as he has done in the past in different situations.

Now CLICK HERE and go participate in my first blog poll dammit!!!!!!

Second Wake up America Poll is right below.

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[UPDATE] Looks like reports are true and Daily Mail is reporting the British soldiers will be home in time for Easter. No matter what Ahmadinejad's reasoning is, the reasons can be debated at a later date, it is GOOD NEWS that the Brits appear unharmed and will be going home.

Reports elsewhere are all over the map on this, some say it is some sort of exchange, others believe t was ordered by the Supreme Leader and still other accounts say that Blair not buckling and freezing all ties with Iran as well as going to the UN had an effect and even one I read somewhere thinks all our hardware in the Gulf helped tip the odds.

All of the above combined could have attributed to this development, or none of them or any combination.... that is a discussion for another day.

For today, I am happy for the Brits being released and their families and Godspeed to them. [End Update]


Tracked back by:
Iran To Free British Hostages from The Sandbox...

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Hostage Crisis Update

No real time to cover it at the moment, but you can find my thoughts on this affair in my previous posts, found here.

This is just a quick update on the hostage situation from todays news.

Daily Mail shows us "Iran releases hostage marine's 'anti-war' letter."

Sky News shows us 'Grave Concern' Over Iran'

AP says Britain will not negotiate.

AP also headlines with "Britain takes case against Iran to U.N. " (OH YEAH, that'll help)

Times of London says "How Britons were conned by Iranian gunboat trick"

Sky News again.

Reactions to all of these updates, from both sides of the aisle, can be found at memeorandum.

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Britains Hostage Crisis Updated

[More Updates below]

Updating on my previous three pieces on Iran found here, here and here, things are moving along pretty fast now it seems.

The UK is revealing the evidence, from satellite data, that the Navy personnel and Marines that were kidnapped by Iran were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraq waters at the time of their capture. (Via BBC)




The UK forces were based on the HMS Cornwall and as you can see from the map it was well within Iraq waters, thus disproving Irans false claims that they had entered Iranian waters.

At a briefing in London, the Ministry of Defence said it "unambiguously contested" Iran's claims that the Royal Navy personnel had strayed into Iranian waters.

Speaking later, Mr Blair told MPs it was time to increase pressure on Iran "in order to make sure the Iranian government understands their total isolation on this issue".

The seizure of the personnel was "unacceptable, wrong and illegal" and the UK was now in talks with all its key allies and partners, he said.

America, being one of those key allies and partners is also showing that we stand with the UK on this issue and according to Wapo, we have "flexed" our muscles in the Persian Gulf.

ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS -- American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.

[...]

"These maneuvers demonstrate our flexibility and capability to respond to threats to maritime security," said Navy Lt. John Perkins, 32, of Louisville, Ky., as the Stennis cruised about 80 miles off the United Arab Emirates after entering the Persian Gulf overnight.

"They're showing we can keep the maritime environment safe and the vital link to the global economy open."

Britain has also stepped up pressure on Iran by freezing all ties with Tehran until the British hostages are released.

After five days of discreet but fruitless diplomacy, the offensive began with a press conference at the MoD at which Vice-Admiral Charles Style published satellite coordinates proving that seven Royal Marines and eight sailors were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were "ambushed".

He was backed up by the Prime Minister and by Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, who told MPs that Britain was immediately freezing all bilateral ties with Iran - except for contacts directly concerning the seized personnel.

"They should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which is unjustified and wrong," Mrs Beckett said.

Message delivered.

In apparent response, Iran said that Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only female detainee, would soon be released. "Today or tomorrow, the lady will be released," Manouchehr Mottaki, the Foreign Minister, said on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Riyadh.

Message received.

Vice-Admiral Style, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, displayed nautical charts showing the position of the group when they were seized. Vice-Admiral Style said that their coordinates had been confirmed by the skipper of an Indian-registered merchant vessel that the sailors had just inspected when they were seized.

The Navy chief said that the group were engaged in routine anti-smuggling patrols under a UN Security Council mandate at the time, operating with the authorisation of Baghdad.

He also accused the Iranians of having changed their story over the weekend after being told that the coordinates Tehran initially gave for the incident showed that the patrol boats were in Iraqi waters.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," he said. "In any case, we unambiguously contest both coordinates given by the Iranians."

[...]

Their exact postition - 29' 50.36" N, 048' 43.08"E - was confirmed by a Global Positioning System (GPS) on one of the small patrol boats that was displayed on the Cornwall. It had also been confirmed on a subsequent fly-past of the site.

In a statement to the Commons, Mrs Beckett said that the Government had tried to deal with the crisis through "private, but robust diplomacy". When the Iranians' mistake over the coordinates had been established, she had suggested to her Iranian counterpart that the situation "could be easily resolved" by releasing the detained Britons.

But it was now clear that a change of tack was needed. Accordingly, Britain was mobilising diplomatic support to show Iran how isolated it was over the issue. The Foreign Secretary said that she had spoken to various world leaders, including the US Secretary of State, the Turkish Prime Minister and the foreign ministers of both Iraq and Iran.

Mrs Beckett said that the Government had "no doubts about the facts or the legitimacy of our requirements" - that Tehran state where the detainees are being held, grant Britain consular access to them and give details of their release.

But even if the British sailors had strayed into international waters - which they had not - she said that under international law, Iran would not have had the right to detain them. It could at most have asked them to leave those waters immediately.

A CNN article:

Iran insists the ship was inside its territorial waters and, according to Style, provided a map with coordinates on Saturday in attempts to prove the point.

Blair said those coordinates actually "turned out to confirm they were in Iraqi waters" and Iraq has supported that position.

Upon pointing that out Sunday through diplomatic contacts, Style said Iran then "provided a second set of coordinates" on Monday that were "in Iranian waters over two nautical miles" from the position shown by the HMS Cornwall and confirmed by the merchant vessel the British personnel boarded.

The "change of coordinates," Style said "is hard to legitimate."

There are the updates and they will continue throughout the day or week, however long it takes to resolve this issue.

Commentary:

I see that Jimmy Carter is offering his "expert" help with this crisis which is, at best, the joke of the year.

It took Jimmy Carter MONTHS to attempt a rescue during the Iran Hostage Crisis from 1979 to 1981.

Even that was a dismal failure and his handling of the affair, it is believed, was one of the major reasons he lost his next election.

Partly to counter the criticisms against him, as well as to free the hostages, President Carter ordered a military rescue mission code-named "Operation Eagle Claw." This mission was a total and complete failure resulting in the deaths of eight U.S. military personnel.

On April 24, 1980, units of the rescue force landed in the Iranian desert to refuel their aircraft before heading to Tehran. A confusing series of events took place at this refueling point, including failed equipment, and desert sandstorms which reduced visibility. As a result of these problems, the rescue was called off. During the retreat, one of the helicopters collided with a transport airplane, causing an explosion which killed eight members of the rescue mission. Several of the burned American bodies were later part of grisly street demonstrations protesting the abortive U.S. "invasion" of Iran.

A second rescue attempt was planned but never implemented, largely due to equipment failure.

On January 20, 1981, the hostages were formally released into U.S. custody after spending 444 days in captivity. The release took place just minutes after Ronald Reagan was officially sworn in as president.

The Bristish would do well to remember history and say "Thanks, but NO THANKS Mr. Carter."

Appeasement doesn't work when dealing with madmen.

This is something that some simply do not understand, you cannot make a deal when you are the only one that will honor that deal. You cannot negotiate with someone whose only requirement is your destruction. You cannot reason with someone who has no reasoning abilities and has but one goal, armegeddon.

Appeasement:

As history should have taught us, appeasement does not work.

One example here was Bill Clinton and North Korea's Kim Jong-il, which was yet another failed policy in which Jimmy Carter once again failed dismally, back in 1998.

President Clinton elected to rely on former President Jimmy Carter and decided to appease the Marxist-Stalinist dictatorship.

Carter met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang and returned to America waving a piece of paper and declaring peace in our time. Kim, according to Carter, had agreed to stop his nuclear weapons development.

The Clinton appeasement program for North Korea included hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, food, oil and even a nuclear reactor. However, the agreement was flawed and lacked even the most informal means of verification.

In return, Kim elected to starve his people while using the American aid to build uranium bombs. The lowest estimate is that Kim starved to death over 1 million of his own people, even with the U.S. aid program.

Now, let me point out here, that Clinton did what had to be tried. I am not defending his actions, I am just trying to be objective enough to state that a President cannot know a certain course of action will fail until he has at least tried it.

Clinton tried appeasement. It didn't work.

Hopefully the world learned a couple lessons from that failed attempt.

Iran needs to be given a timeframe. Britain needs to tell them "either release the hostages by XXX date or we and our allies will act".

They need to then act if that timeframe has not been followed.

Letting Iran dictate terms would simply embolden the lil thug more and this type of behavior will continue.

Act firmly now on this matter and perhaps the lunatic will think twice before pulling a stunt like this again.

Others discussing this:
Glittering Eye with a very interesting question:

As I read it this means that the British account of things has been verified by the Iraqi authorities, Iraqi citizens, and the captain of an Indian-flagged merchant ship. Has any source other than the Iranians themselves confirmed the Iranian story?

Hot Air with constant updates.

Captain's Quarters asks Carter or Thatcher?

So far, though, Blair has not exactly been Margaret Thatcher in his approach. When the Argentinians seized the Falkands in the early days of her government, Thatcher told Argentina that they had two choices: withdrawal or war. She made good her threat, despite widespread skepticism that the British Empire could still fight a colonial war -- and she beat the Argentianians in their own back yard.

Sister Toldjah has a great roundup of reactions and links.

Quote of the day comes from QandO Blog's analysis of the situation:

Yeow. Other than the fact that they can do it, you have to ask why? What is the purpose of ratcheting up tensions even more? Prior to that incident Iran could claim to be the victim of unwarranted international pressure. Now, as it holds 15 hostages which appear to have been taken in Iraqi waters, even that slim claim is gone. If Britain chooses to act militarily, Iran hasn't a leg to stand on and certainly will be considered by most to have brought the military action upon themselves.

EXACTLY MY POINT.

[UPDATE] 1:40pm- My interpretation of this Russian news story is that America is ready, willing and despite what the Democrats like to pretend, ABLE to back Britain up with whatever action they decide appropriate.

MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.

"The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.

He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran "that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost."

He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future.

A new U.S. carrier battle group has been dispatched to the Gulf.

The USS John C. Stennis, with a crew of 3,200 and around 80 fixed-wing aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers, eight support ships and four nuclear submarines are heading for the Gulf, where a similar group led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been deployed since December 2006.

The U.S. is also sending Patriot anti-missile systems to the region.

The Democrats may be willing to actively fight for our defeat and continue to bend over and take it up the ass forever, but BUSH won't. [End Update]


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How Long Will We "Bend over" and Take it?

[Update] Petition below [End Update]

The international community has allowed unanswered acts of aggression or to state it plainly and without political correctness, acts of war against us, from Iran, since 1979.

ACT OF WAR - any act occurring in the course of declared war; armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or armed conflict between military forces of any origin. 18 U.S.C.

On November 4, 1979: Iranian Islamic Students stormed the US embassy, taking 66 people, the majority Americans, as hostages. 14 were released before the end of November. In November: The republic's first Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan resigned.

The history since 1979 is there for anyone to find by doing a simple search...my question today is:

How long will this continue before we react?

I showed you yesterday that Iranians have directly attacked American forces in Iraq...once again, the act went unanswered.

According to a U.S. Army report out of Iraq obtained by U.S. News, American troops, acting as advisers for Iraqi border guards, were recently surrounded and attacked by a larger unit of Iranian soldiers, well within the border of Iraq.

Today I wake up to the news titled "Iran ‘to try Britons for espionage’".

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

Quick note before I go on with that story is this article showing that there was a witness stating plainly that the Britain's were taken from IRAQ WATERS.

BASRA, Iraq, March 24 (Reuters) - An Iraqi fisherman who said he saw Iranian forces detain British sailors and marines on Friday in a waterway between Iraq and Iran said on Saturday the ship British forces were searching was anchored in Iraqi waters.

Iran has condemned what it called the illegal entry of 15 British naval personnel into Iranian waters as a "suspicious act", the official IRNA news agency said on Saturday.

Britain says they were detained in Iraqi waters on a routine search operation and has demanded their immediate return.

The fisherman, the same one who told Reuters he witnessed the sailors being detained several hours before it was confirmed by the British government, said the line between Iranian and Iraqi waters was not marked by buoys but was well known.

"We've been working in this job for many years and because of our experience we can distinguish which is the Iraqi and which is Iranian side," he said, adding that Iraqi boats never venture across because of tight security by Iranian coastguards.

A friend of Wake up America's, in Britain tells us:

Apparently we and the US have threatened to reveal the GPS data which will show them up as liars, and could be used to get a declaration from the UN, which would basically be tantamount to a blessing for kicking 7 shades out of them

Back to the Times Online article we get to the actual reason for this blatant act of aggression:

The penalty for espionage in Iran is death. However, similar accusations of spying were made when eight British servicemen were detained in the same area in 2004. They were paraded blindfolded on television but did not appear in court and were freed after three nights in detention.

Iranian student groups called yesterday for the 15 detainees to be held until US forces released five Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq earlier this year.

We also know that British intelligence was aware of a threat of reprisal back in January:

British Intelligence chiefs were warned in January to expect reprisal attacks from Iran after America detained five suspected Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq.

Although the CIA alert led to the United States raising its official security threat level throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, Britain did not follow suit.

The warning came after the US received credible information that Iranian-backed extremists were plotting attacks on Western targets.

American intelligence analysts told their British counterparts that the arrest of the five Iranians would have a direct impact on southern Iraq. Crucially, they warned that there was evidence that Iran intended to step up attacks in the border area and around Basra, where British forces are based.

A security source said: "The intelligence was passed to the UK and was generally disseminated. The intelligence that led to the arrests showed that Iran was financing and facilitating operations on the border and in the South.

"But there was no raising of comparative threat levels by the British, even though the majority of casualties from Iranian weaponry have been the British, not the Americans. Perhaps we should have been more on alert."

So, the threat was known and the act of war has been carried out once again.

Remember that all of this is happening, as the UN Security Council voted to slap new sanctions on Iran over their nuclear program.

Pajamas Media has an exclusive showing that since General Petraeus has assumed command, over 300 Iranians have been seized INSIDE Iraq and it has been reported on consistently that the deadliest weapons/bombs used in Iraq against coalition forces have been manufactured in Iran.

The question, we, the Brits and the international community must now ask ourselves is, how long are we expeected to bend over and take it before we react?

The Scotsman reports that Blair has convened the Cobra team as crisis in Iran escalates.

THE official notification, delivered in secure calls yesterday morning to senior Whitehall figures, was the latest dramatic behind-the-scenes move to get to grips with a crisis that is now engulfing the government.

After a day of shadow-boxing with a notoriously slippery regime, Tony Blair is set to up the ante: the plight of the Shatt al-Arab 15 is officially a crisis and he will need the Cobra team to handle it.

Time after time after time again we hear from the left how President Bush and VP Cheney are "warmongers", yet they continue to try the diplomatic channels with Iran.....hmmmmm, sounds really warmongering huh?

Given the provacation over the last years, I think they have shown incredible patience with Iran, but when does patience end and common sense prevail?

How long will Blair, Bush and the international community allow this to continue?

The European Union has also showed solidarity with the UK over the unlawful seizure of the 15 British soldiers.

Statement by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier:

In the name of the EU, we want to make clear that we expect Iran to release them without delay,'' Steinmeier said today before an EU summit meeting in Berlin. Germany currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

When is enough, enough?

Captain's Quarters asks:

The Iranians cannot try the men for espionage if they captured the sailors in uniform. Article 46 of the Geneva Convention states this clearly:

2. A member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict who, on behalf of that Party and in territory controlled by an adverse Party, gathers or attempts to gather information shall not be considered as engaging in espionage if, while so acting, he is in the uniform of his armed forces.

The indictment of British sailors in uniform as spies will violate the GC. Can we expect the same level of outrage over this explicit violation as the supposed violations of the US government?

My answer to Captain Ed is to point to Greenwald with the stupidity from the left blaming Bush for this also... who else can write such trash as Greenwald?

The ongoing presence of 150,000 troops in the middle of Iraq, under the direction of this administration, entails grave risk of escalation beyond Iraq, whether deliberately or unintentionally—a fact that is almost completely ignored in our “debate” over whether to withdraw troops. The seizure this week of 15 British sailors by Iran illustrates how grave those risks are.

As expected, the British immediately claimed that its ship was in Iraqi waters, while the Iranians claimed it had entered Iranian waters. One of the great tragedies of the last several years is how little credibility the U.S. and its most loyal foreign government have in light of their conduct concerning Iraq. While no rational person would believe Iranian claims without corroborating evidence, no rational person would simply assume the British were telling the truth either.

That answer you Captain Ed?

The men in white coats will be there to pick dear Glenn up shortly, I am sure...heh. (Remember to bring that cute lil white jacket and make sure the walls in the room he is held are rubber)

After all, Greenwald and company are the people that do not even understand the Geneva Convention and the whole, fighting for a nation with a uniform or badge thing and believe the Geneva Convention applies to terrorists that have no uniform or badge and are not fighting for a nation or country, so to even dream of them applying any "logic" to this situation is just that....a dream.

Right Truth says this will be a wait and see situation.

I say...the hell with it, if Ahmadinejad the lunatic wants armageddon, lets give it to him.

Disagree all you want, but you might be willing to continue to bend over and take it up the ass.... I am not.


[UPDATE] Hat Tip to The American Israeli Patriot for the link to sign the petition.

[VIDEO REMOVED AND CAN BE FOUND HERE ON MY NEXT POST. (One minute video... maybe two)When clicking on main page it was playing twice, so I removed it from this page and sorry for the inconvenience. The video shows what the petition is for, bottomline, it is a petition to Hague to try Ahmadinejad for Incitement to commit genocide.]

[End Update]


Others discussing this:
Jules Crittenden, Outside the Beltway, Protein Wisdom, Glittering Eye, Macsmind, Strata-Sphere and 186 k per second.



Tracked back by:
Right Truth Book Club from Right Truth...


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Iran is pushing their luck

The US News & World Report is reporting that Iranians had a showdown with US forces and as I said in the title, they are pushing their luck on a number of fronts.

As the British government demanded the immediate release of 15 of its sailors whose boats were seized by Iranian naval vessels in the Persian Gulf on Friday, U.S. News has learned that this is not the first showdown that coalition forces have had with the Iranian military.

According to a U.S. Army report out of Iraq obtained by U.S. News, American troops, acting as advisers for Iraqi border guards, were recently surrounded and attacked by a larger unit of Iranian soldiers, well within the border of Iraq.

I am going to stop right here for a second... is this NOT an act of war? Attacking American Troops?

ACT OF WAR - any act occurring in the course of declared war; armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or armed conflict between military forces of any origin. 18 U.S.C.

Damn straight it is.

Lets not forget back in February when the news came out that the deadliest bombs used in Iraq were made by, who???? You got it!!! IRAN.

From my post back then a few excerpts from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: (NYT)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran.

More from Gates:

Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide "pretty good" evidence that Iran is providing either weapons or technology for insurgents there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted yesterday.

To those that continue to insist that we should "talk" to Iran, I will simply repeat what I asked you back in February:

How do you deal with someone that wants armageddon? How do you "negotiate" with Hitler? I have compared that lunatic thug that runs Iran to Hitler before and I am sure I will again.

Talking to them is out of the question because you do not deal with terrorists when you have nothing to offer them except your own death.

That question and statement still stands as I stand by it.

Back to todays report from US News & World Report:

The report highlights the details: A platoon of Iranian soldiers on the Iraqi side of the border fired rocket-propelled grenades and used small arms against a joint patrol of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers east of Balad Ruz. Four Iraqi Army soldiers, one interpreter, and one Iraqi border policeman remain unaccounted for after the September incident in eastern Diyala, 75 miles east of Baghdad.

During a joint border patrol, both American and Iraqi soldiers saw two Iranian soldiers run from Iraq back across the Iranian border as they approached. The patrol then came upon a single Iranian soldier, on the Iraqi side of the border, who did not flee.

While the joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol was speaking with the soldier, according to the report, the patrol was "approached by a platoon-size element of Iranian soldiers." An Iranian border captain then told the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers that "if they tried to leave their location, the Iranians would fire upon them." During this conversation with the Iranian captain, Iranian forces began firing and continued when U.S. troops tried to withdraw.

The fact that acts such as these have been allowed to occur with NO RETALIATION is unacceptable.

American forces may soon be getting further insight into recent Iranian attacks. Earlier this month, a former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guards–and is thought to have considerable knowledge of Iran's national security network–left the country and is said to be cooperating with western intelligence agencies, sharing information on links between Iran and Hezbollah in south Lebanon, for example. Iranian officials said the official, Ali Rez Asgari, was kidnapped by western agents.

Shortly afterward, Iran threatened to retaliate in Europe for the supposed kidnapping, what it claims to be the most recent in a series of abductions in the past three months. According to the British Sunday Times, in the Revolutionary Guards' weekly newspaper this week, a columnist believed to have close ties to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote: "We've got the ability to capture a nice bunch of blue-eyed, blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks. Iran has enough people who can reach the heart of Europe and kidnap Americans and Israelis."

Now, they have kidnapped 15 British soldiers, in yet another Act of War.

Britain’s crisis with Iran deepened last night after Tehran justified seizing 15 British servicemen by claiming that they had strayed into Iranian territorial waters “illegally”.

The announcement appeared to rule out any hope that the incident was a simple mistake that could be quickly rectified.

Instead, there were growing fears that the 15 British sailors and Royal Marines were victims of a deliberate ambush on the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, perhaps seeking to use the captives as hostages in the increasingly tense stand-off between the West and Iran over its nuclear programme.

I have said it once and I will say it again and again until people start "getting it".

Ahmadinejad is a lunatic.

Is it any wonder the idiot has cancelled his UN appearance?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has canceled his trip to New York to address the U.N. Security Council before a vote on whether to impose further sanctions against his country for refusing to stop enriching uranium, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.

Mohammed Ali Hosseini, the spokesman, told Iranian state television that the trip was scrapped because of "America's obstruction in issuing visas" to the Iranian delegation that was to travel to New York.

I doubt every word of this but would be very, VERY happy if America HAD obstructed his ability to get a visa.... that would be the smartest thing we could do.

Did we? I doubt it. Personally I believe that Ahmadinejad is a coward and after this latest act of war, the one functioning brain cell left in his head kicked in and he decided he would be wise not to come into this country.

Why on earth would we issue him any visas at any time is beyond me.

I have done multiple posts on Iran and Iranian related issues as has many others and yet no one does anything about him.

We left another lunatic alone once and he created the conditions for World War II...some may know his name: ADOLPH HITLER.

People need to wake up and understand the threat Ahmadinejad poses and for god sake, do something about him.

The UN and the Security Council is incapable and incompetent to be able to handle this problem, so it will be left up to the individual countries to act now before this lunatic becomes a lunatic WITH nuclear capabilities.

Never Forget.

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