Month: April 2007

Amadinejad has stated that he will free the kidnapped British sailors — this comes after an Iranian “diplomat” was freed in Iraq, and after assurances from Britain that they would not sail in Iranian waters.

from Reuters:

In a dramatic announcement, Ahmadinejad said while he was “saddened” by Britain’s violation of Iran’s borders and felt the country was not “brave enough” to admit it made a mistake, he was willing to forgive.

“Under the influence of the Muslim Prophet (Iran) forgives these 15 people and gives their freedom to the British people as a gift,” Ahmadinejad said at the end of an hour-long news conference.

The announcement, made with a dramatic flourish by the Iranian president, sent oil prices down after a sharp rise during the 13-day crisis. U.S. stock futures and the dollar rose.

“I ask Mr. Blair not to punish the soldiers with the charge of accepting and telling the truth,” he said in reference to taped “confessions” from the sailors and marines saying they had entered Iranian waters.

The Iranian president said the captives — 14 men and a woman — would be released immediately after the news conference.

My read of all this: Britain has caved. By their promise not to enter Iranian waters, they have acknowledged that the disputed area is Iranian. The only method left to re-establish the boundary now is for US Ships and sailors to patrol the waterway in tandem with Iraqi ships in “show the flag” excercises. Thank you very much Mr. Blair.

Continue reading “Iran Frees British Sailors”

The battles in Wana continue as local tribes and Taliban comb the countryside to expel Al Qaida aligned Uzbeks and Chechens. The war drums have not sounded in five years due to Taliban edicts against them. More tribes, including some which were previously aligned with the Uzbeks have joined in. Alliances in Pakistan’s tribal regions are always fickle, and can change with one slight, imagined or real, one breath of wind.

Continue reading “War Drums Beat in Wana”

In Pakistan Ghazi remains defiant of the government, and warns the government not to consider a crackdown. This comes after he delivered an ultimatum to them just yesterday, and has kidnapped police, abducted citizens of Islamabad and their children, and threatened shop owners and passers-by all around his extremist madrassa in the Capital.

Continue reading “Jamia Hafsa Update”

In Wana the Tribal conflict has escalated once again with the local tribes declaring Jihad against the “foreign extremists” in Waziristan.

Continue reading “Tribal Council of War, Jihad Declared Against Al Qaida”

Yesterday this blog was 1 year old, so this morning I am looking back. That’s not normal for me, typically I look forward and do so farther than most so this unnatural retrospective might get painful and ugly – we’ll see. [Editor’s note: it’s especially ugly and painful when you hit “publish” button instead of “save” before a post is done, I will be editing this throughout the day. 🙂 ]

Continue reading “One Year of Blogging”

Associated Press reports: 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s state television aired new video Sunday showing two of the 15 captured British sailors pointing to a spot on a map of the Persian Gulf where they were seized and acknowledging it was in Iranian territorial waters.
Britain’s Foreign Office immediately denounced the video, saying it was “completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on TV.” The captives first appeared on appeared on the state-run Arabic- language TV channel Al-Alam in separate video clips looking relaxed in military fatigues and pointing at the same map of the Persian Gulf. They were talking to a camera but the channel did not air their voices. Two state-run Farsi-language TV stations later carried their voices along with the video.

This is an important point to Iran, by getting Britain, or British representatives to acknowledge those waters as Iranian, they extend their claim. Aggressive Islamist states and terrorist organizations base their actions almost always on ways to extend their territory. If it’s non-Islamic territory, as with Israel, then they are happy to do so, but really don’t mind taking from Islamic neighbors either. Disputes over the Shat-al-Arab waterway were one of the reasons leading to the original Iraq-Iran war.

What should the response be?

Full time martial patrol of the edge of the REAL border by US Naval forces, since the Brits are in a tough spot with their sailors held hostage. By patrolling and showing the flag, we actively display that the waters are not Iranian. It would be helpful to have Iraqi flagged vessels patrolling the border as well.

Continue reading “Tehran Airs New Video of Kidnapped Sailors”