This is how the Iranians got their British hostages to be compliant, one might add “too compliant” for a soldier taken captive by a hostile force. I won’t be the one to pass judgement on the Britons’ actions that –while sitting in a Tehran cell at the mercies of their fanatical captors–appeared to offer some very appeasing statements of condemnation against their own government.
Much of what they said were heavily edited, with the hostages themselves being treated in ways that didn’t conform to the Geneva Conventions. What is one to expect from a rogue state whose president was in on the hostage taking of 55 American embassy personnel after the fall of the Shah of Iran during the Carter administration?
But the following morning they were flown to Tehran where the “atmosphere changed completely”, he said.
“We were blindfolded, our hands were bound and we were forced up against a wall.” All 15 prisoners, including young mother Faye Turney, heard the Revolutionary Guard cock their guns.
One of the hostages screamed out: “Lads, lads, we’re going to be executed – do something.” Another was physically sick, said 21-year-old Royal Marine Joe Tindell, who believed he was hearing the sound of a colleague having his throat cut.
“I assumed we were all going to be executed. We were all standing there waiting for it to happen. “I just thought that was the end of it. It was the only time in my life I really felt scared.
“From there we were rushed into a room and then stuffed into a cell and didn’t see another human being for six days.”
What was Europe’s response to this outrage? Get the Americans to release an Iranian caught inside Iraq in a “quid pro quo” exchange of prisoners. When push comes to shove, both the EU and UN are two highly untrustworthy bodies, and the Iranians know that, and so, I’m not surprised that they chose to target the Brits, for the Americans would like nothing better than to sink more of Teheran’s fleet. More here. *L* KGS
