British Marines Enjoying So-Called Captivity

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran's First Vice-President Parviz Dawoodi warned that if London continues making hue and cry, the problem of the British sailors will not be solved in the near future.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the back up systems of Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday, Dawoodi said in response to the question if any particular date has been specified for the solution of the British marines' problems that the issue would be solved once Britain changes its present attitude.

"It (solution of the case) depends on Britain's attitude. If they accept that they have trespassed on our borders and guarantee that they will not repeat such aggressions, the issue will be solved through a logical trend. But if Britain continues making hue and cry, the issue will not be solved in the near future," he stressed.

Dawoodi further dismissed some recent allegations that Tehran intends to swap the British marines with the Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Iraq, and stated, "A country has violated our laws and it must account for its actions. These issues should be solved within their separate frameworks."

Asked about a former FBI agent alleged to have gone missing in Iran, the official declined to comment on the issue, but said that he should verify the case prior to the statement of any views in this regard.

Elsewhere, he pointed to the recent statements made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about Washington's preparedness to attend direct talks with Iran, and said, "We have some clear red lines. We are ready to attend prerequisite-free talks within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rules and agreements."

"The point is that we do not accept any preconditions for attending talks," he underlined, reminding that Iran is insistent on its stated stances.

"As regards our nuclear issue, history has shown that the government has acted upon its official stances and continued the process of nuclear fuel production. And now we are announcing very transparently that this process is going on and we will celebrate our nuclearization on April 9, 2007," the first vice-president reiterated.

To conclude his words, he mentioned that international movements are now developing in favor of Iran and that the United States will eventually go recluse due to its hegemonic nature and attitude.

http://www.farsnews.com/English/newstext.php?nn=8601140431

Let's say Iran has indeed tricked the British sailors into appearing on camera and apologising for entering Iranian waters.

But what if it is revealed later, when they are finally released, that the Iranians have actually treated them very well and have not used violence or torture to force them to say these things?

A likely scenario, I think, is that the Iranian interrogators have been feeding disinformation to the British sailors and have managed to make them believe not only that they were in Iranian waters when caught but that the British government has also admitted this and apologised for it, and that now they have realised their mistake, a genuine apology would best serve their own and their country's interest.

The Iranian intelligence service has used this technique before on some Iranian dissidents and the results were satisfactory. In one case they had even produced a bogus version of a well-known newspaper to persuade them.

In this way, without even touching the detainees or doing anything that could legally be considered as torture, either physical or psychological, they may have managed to get the words they want from the detainees.

That's why the interrogators don't allow the detainees to have any contact with the outside world, so that the detainees can only be fed with disinformation that could naturally and logically lead them into willingly doing or saying exactly what the interrogators want.

I'm not a lawyer to have an opinion on the legality of this behaviour, but there is no doubt this is morally wrong.

Isn't this exactly what the American and British governments have been doing to their own people through their supposedly free media? Isn't this similar to the way Bush and Blair paved their way to invade Iraq by manipulating information about WMDs in Iraq, Saddam's link to al-Qaida, and Iraqi people's demand to be freed by the Americans?

There the UK and US governments fed the media with disinformation and the media in turn manipulated the people into doing what the government wanted: approving and supporting the invasion of Iraq.

Here, the Iranian Intelligence service has fed the detained sailors with a different type of disinformation to have them do or say what Iran wants: admitting the border violation and apologising for it, and then it has used the media to spread these statements.

What Iran is doing now by using the combination of disinformation and global media has long been used by the UK and US governments. Iran has just learned its lesson very well.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/hossein_derakhshan/2007/04/hossein_derakhshan_1.html