These Iranians Clearly Are a Very Uncivilised Bunch

March 31, 2007, 2007
The Guardian
Call that humiliation?

No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch

by Terry Jones
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 Guant㌻amo Bay. . . .
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Julian Borger, "U.S. Military in Torture Scandal," Guardian, April 30, 2004
John Pilger, "Iran: The War Begins," New Statesman, February 5, 2007
Uzi Mahnaimi, Michael Smith and David Cracknell, "Iran 'to try Britons for espionage'," Sunday Times, March 25, 2007
[The actual border, based on the thalweg principle - the line of fastest flow in the river - was finally agreed in 1975 following a treaty signed in Algiers by the Shah of Persia and Saddam Hussein but it was abrogated when war broke out between the nations five years later.--Trevor Royle, "Stormy past of waterway that separates old enemies," Sunday Herald, March 25, 2007]
Patrick Cockburn, "American raid and arrests set scene for capture of marines," Independent, March 26, 2007
Ronan Bennett, "The treatment of Faye Turney is wrong - but not in the same league as British and US abuses," Guardian, March 30, 2007
[Both Iran and the United Kingdom are contracting parties to the 1899 Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes.
Title III of the 1899 Convention created a procedure for the formation of international commissions of inquiry to investigate, ascertain and report on international differences involving neither honor nor vital interests, and arising from disputed points of fact that could not be settled by means of diplomacy (article 9).--Francis A Boyle, "For Iran and the UK: Invoke the Hague Convention for Pacific Settlement now!," transnational.org, March 30, 2007]
[This is the same President Bush who often mocks the very idea that international law should apply to him . . . The major U.S. news media predictably follows alongRobert Parry, "Bush, Iran & Selective Outrage," consortiumnews.com, April 2, 2007]
[The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials.
The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which they met the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, and later saw Massoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) . . .
Security sources in Iraqi Kurdistan have long said that the US is backing Iranian Kurdish guerrillas in Iran. The US is also reportedly backing Sunni Arab dissidents in Khuzestan in southern Iran who are opposed to the government in Tehran.--Patrick Cockburn, "The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis," Independent, April 3, 2007]
[Iran's most senior diplomat, Ali Larijani, called for a "delegation" to rule on whether a British naval patrol entered Iranian waters--Julian Borger and Ian Black, "Iran outlines conditions for release of UK sailors," Guardian, April 3, 2007]
"Sudden release of Iranian diplomat raises hope for end to British standoff," Associated Press, April 3, 2007
[Britain's delicate diplomatic efforts were set back by U.S. President George W. Bush, who made a statement Saturday in which he characterized the imprisoned sailors as "hostages" - a phrase that Britain has been carefully avoiding to prevent the crisis from becoming a broader political or military conflict.--Doug Saunders, "Washington hurting British bid to free crew," Globe and Mail, April 4, 2007]
Angus McDowall and Colin Brown, "Both sides claim victory as Iran frees hostages," Independent, April 5, 2007
[Ronald Reagan campaign officials promised arms and money to Iran to delay release of 52 American hostages until after the Nov. 4, 1980 presidential election.--Richard H. Curtiss updated by Chip Tatum, "Reprise of the October Surprise: How Israel Gained Control of the Reagan & Bush Administrations," veteranstoday.com, February 19, 2014]