Video of sailors illuminates British propaganda effort to demonize Iran toward a scripted war agenda

Edited by David Stein

	Faye Turney, 26, right, the only woman amongst the British navy personnel seized by Iran, in footage broadcast by Al-Alam, an Arabic-language, Iranian state-run television station, in Tehran, Wednesday March 28, 2007.(Xinhua Photo)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian television broadcast video footage on Sunday, 8 April 2007, showing a British navy crew playing chess and watching television during their nearly two-week captivity in Iran, saying the footage refutes the sailors' and marines' claims that they were mistreated.

Crew members told reporters two days ago after returning to Britain that they had been blindfolded, held in isolation, frightened and coerced into falsely saying that they had entered Iranian waters before they were seized.

Six of the fifteen British military personnel freed by Iranian authorities Thursday, are seen during a news conference at the Royal Marines Barracks in Chivenor, Devon, southwest England, Friday April 6, 2007. From left to right, Royal Marine Joe Tindell, 21, Arthur Batchelor, 20, Royal Marine Captain Chris Air, 25, Lieutenant Felix Carman, Royal Marine Adam Sperry, 22, and Simon Massey. The 15 British sailors and marines returned home Thursday after 13 days in captivity.

Some of the video clips, briefly aired on Iran's state-run Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Alam, showed several of the eight sailors and seven marines dressed in track suits and playing chess and table tennis. Other clips showed crew members watching soccer on television and eating at a long table decorated with flowers. Crew members could be heard laughing and chatting.

A newscaster who spoke over the beginning of the footage said the video proved "the sailors had complete liberty during their detention, which contradicts what the sailors declared after they arrived in Britain."

British government neo-colonial propaganda?

Photo from Iranian television video of British sailors leisurely eating.

The propaganda and the staged show can not cover up the British military's violation of the Islamic Republic of Iran sea border and their repeated illegal entry," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

The personnel alleged at the conference how they were "stripped, blindfolded and handcuffed as part of psychological intimidation during their detention", which now conflicts with video evidence.

A day after their return to Britain, the group said they "feared for their lives," while in Irainian custody.

Royal Navy Lieutenant Felix Carman made further allegations about "the mind games he said were used by their captors to get information and confessions."

"It was mainly psychological, emotional," he said.

"The isolation was a major part of this, a complete suffocation in terms of information from the outside world," he added, describing questioning as "aggressive" and handling as "a bit rough".

The sailors also alleged ex-post facto, back in Britain that, "When we first went to prison we were put up against the wall, hands bound, blindfolded and people were cocking weapons in the background, which as you can imagine is extremely nerve wracking occasion."

Lieutenant Carman also alleged that "Throughout our ordeal we faced constant psychological pressure."

"Later we were stripped and then dressed in pyjamas.

"The next few nights were spent in stone cells, approximately eight feet by six feet, sleeping on piles of blankets.

"All of us were kept in isolation."

The eight sailors and seven Royal Marines were captured in the northern Gulf on March 23 while carrying out what they also alleged "was a routine anti-smuggling operations," which obfuscates from reports from well established reliable sources of a substantive build-up which experts like University of Ottawa Professor Michel Chossudovsky suggests is in preparation for the launching pre-emptive nuclear war against Iran by a "coalition" under the U.S. and British axis powers.

The pursuit of a provocations toward a military expansionist agenda

Larry Chin in an article entitled "Is UK-Iran marine incident part of larger war provocation plan?" published by Globalresearch.ca which is editorially supervised by Professor Chossudovsky testified that, "The American and British military-intelligence buildup towards a spring 2007 attack is a known fact. Wall Street is anticipating war. The Iran-Iraq region has been brimming with increasing Western intelligence agency activity for well over a year."

Mr. Chin, who has written extensively on U.S. foreign policy and the neo-con military agenda, further says, "George W. Bush personally ordered provocative covert operations several months ago, aimed specifically at baiting Iran into a war and a nuclear confrontation. The illegal raid of the Iranian liason office in Irbil, Iraq, has been used as part of a larger case of cooked and false intelligence against Tehran. A number of Iranians, including high-ranking Iran Revolutionary Guard officials, have been captured by Western forces. A top Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated by the Mossad. Bush also gave a "shoot to kill" order to hunt down and kill Iranians in Iraq. Iran's intelligence minister, Gholam Hossein Ejeli, claims that Iran has uncovered a network of 100 CIA and Mossad agents."

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