The Asian View with Bushra Irfan
Yes, it is quite a surprise when the people who you are attempting to show as being uncivilised and having no respect for your religion turn out to be the people who not only treat their prisoners in a more humane manner but offer a gesture of goodwill as a gift on a religious event. It certainly makes a change from the civilised West who deem it necessary to hang a leader on Eid and despite what the propagandas says, Saddam Hussain was a leader and was not given a fair trial.
When any day would have sufficed, I am convinced that Saddam Hussain had no plans of going anywhere in the near future, the hanging being done on Eid Day is an affront and extent of disrespect that could be shown to any religion or sector of the community.
The fact that the West was behind it is beyond question and no amount of convincing will convince the intelligent public that it was the Iraqis who carried out the hanging unless the express instructions of Bush and Blair were not behind it. Leaders will always have some people against them, even in a Democratic society, a person could be a leader and still have over 40% of the public against him. That certainly does not give another country the right to intervene and then hang a person without a fair trial.
The latest action by President Mahmoud of Iran is certainly a slap in the face for the so called civilised West.
Whilst we sympathise with the fifteen Naval officers who were arrested on Iranian Shores, we have to keep our sympathies in proportion. They were kept in custody for about 14 days and it was a nightmare for the families. Custody is itself a frightening experience, being blindfolded, as they claim, to and from cells, must be frightening. In comparison to the Iranian Embassy Staff and others who were detained by Americans- what information do we have of them and how they are being treated?
The Naval Officers did not look tortured or strained in the videos. They also gave confessions on video in which they did not look forced. Indeed, it does beg the question that if they had been tortured, it would be highly unlikely that the Iranian government could risk releasing them in this way. The confidence and gesture given by President Mahmoud indicates that the Naval Officers were comparatively well looked after their only perhaps complaint being isolated or in custody which could be argued as being an inevitable result of being arrested. He probably underestimated this government and their propaganda potential.
Certainly, it was not the news Blair had been hoping for who was wanting to use it as an excuse for fueling the argument for war against Iran..I think we can firmly accept that the Ministry of Defence, namely the Defence Secretary Des Browne would not have allowed the Royal Navy personnel to sell their stories due to what he called the ‘exceptional circumstances’ of the case unless this was a strategy authorised by Tony Blair. Unfortunately, the strategy feel flat on their faces and the Defence Secretary was forced to apologise for the decision and Tony Blair accepted that ‘in hindsight’ it had not been a good decision to take.
The fact that stories such as Seaman Fayes was given a six figure sum only adds to the stories losing credibility.
Lets face it, eight British Seamen were arrested for the same offence by the Iranians in 2004 and later released. Britain claimed then, as they do now that they had ‘mistakenly’ strayed over the border. Why do they keep making the same ‘mistake’. There seems to be a lot of ‘mistakes’ in this government, such as the Iraq War………
Incidentally, Tony, what would you have done if some Iranian officers were found ‘spying’ on your shores?
