The shameful episode of the 15 Navy personnel refuses to go away. They can now sell their stories to the press. I wonder if any of their number would be so honourable as to turn down the offer, but I doubt it. Faye Turney is reported to have agreed a tabloid deal and an interview with ITV.
I wonder what form her tabloid interview will take. Going by past interviews, they will probably expect her to pose in her underwear, or better still, scantily clad in some of her uniform. Maybe she will have a gun slung over one shoulder as she pouts for the cameras: ‘Faye takes no hostages!’. The pictures may or may not appear on page 3. All this should make her story more salacious, and therefore more interesting than it currently is: female sailor captured by Iran, freed after several days.
What do you mean, she wouldn’t stoop that low? The way I see it, she may as well. It doesn’t matter what form the interview takes. Clad or not, the Faye Turney interview marks another low point in this dreadful saga.
Not to single her out, though. Most of the other ex-hostages are reported to have seized upon this money-making opportunity with both hands, not stopping to consider their profession, their uniform (what uniform?), or the effect of their decision on the morale of other serving comrades.
This is the same sorry group of captives who [edit: some of whom], despite being humiliatingly stripped of their uniforms, saw nothing wrong in rejoicing on Iranian television like drunken footballers returning victorious from an away game. Having lowered themselves in that way, they have probably calculated that they have nothing more to lose, and may as well gain something from their debased status.
EDIT. As to the final paragraph above, Verity has rightly pointed out that not all of the ex-captives participated in what I may call the ‘Farewell to Ahmadinejad Extravaganza’. The pictures showed about three dignified looking men maintaining their composure, whilst all around them, their colleagues comported themselves like reality TV stars. Verity is right, it is not fair to lump these dignified men together with their less inhibited brethren, so I have edited the post to reflect that.
April 8th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I agree with every word, Bel - except your last paragraph in which you lump all the captives together. Many, many people have pointed to the dignified behaviour of the three men who are always pictured together, standing apart, with grave faces, with the clear intent of distancing themselves from their captors and the other captives. These three behaved as we expect members of the armed forces to behave, and they are to be congratulated for not being tempted to join in the general hilarity and good will. The others were absolutely gross.
As someone has written elsewhere, the others were behaving like winners on reality TV. As for their explanations of how threatened they felt - if your knees knock when you face a challenge, the armed forces may not be a good career choice.
A mistake of Blair’s government was allowing the hostages off the flight home carrying their party gift bags, by the way. Although it is nicely insulting to Iran that they’re all selling their vases on eBay. (But they should have been filmed dumping their party bags in rubbish bins at the airport.)
I wasn’t there, so I’m not saying they shouldn’t have surrendered when they realised they were grossly outnumbered and that their attackers were getting overly excited.
I agree with your prediction that Faye will agree to be photographed however the paper thinks it will best sell copies. Do we know which tabloid has bought her story? If it was The Sun, certainly, that will be in a thong, wearing the jacket of her uniform open down to her naval and - yes, of course! - a gun slung over her shoulder.
How must the families of the four British soldiers killed in Iraq, with Iranian weapons, that same day feel?
April 8th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Can we have a headline competition for the piece on Faye?
Pictured as above described, with her party bag:
“I will never sell my goodies!” declares a saucy Faye.
Faye describes how she and her colleagues were “Left up the Shatta creek without a paddle” by the MoD.
I am confident that others can do better …
April 8th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Sorry to be so grabby with space, this morning, but I see on the Beeb that one of the men, who obviously was one of those who kept himself apart and didn’t smile once during his ordeal, Lieutenant Felix Carman, has said he is not interested in selling his story. An honourable man.
April 8th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I agree with every word, Bel - except your last paragraph in which you lump all the captives together. Many, many people have pointed to the dignified behaviour of the three men who are always pictured together, standing apart, with grave faces, with the clear intent of distancing themselves from their captors and the other captives. These three behaved as we expect members of the armed forces to behave, and they are to be congratulated for not being tempted to join in the general hilarity and good will. The others were absolutely gross.
Well said, Verity, and I should have made clear that not all of that group were so eager to behave in an unseemly fashion. I will make a visible edit to the post to make your point clear.
April 8th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Verity, I may be wrong, but I think Felix Carman was one of the ’smilers’. He was certainly smiling when he gave that geography lesson to the Iranian public, complete with maps etc, as to how they came to be captured.
Still it’s good he is not selling his story, and I agree that it was an honourable thing to do.
April 8th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Oh yes, the caption for Faye’s interview.
Probably some lousy word like ‘Fayetastic’, and she will DEFINITELY have a pair of handcuffs about her person somewhere, maybe just holding them. Maybe she could be wearing them, but I think even the tabloids would not go that far.
April 8th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I hadn’t realised that, Iran for My Holidays. Have the three who kept themselves apart and never cracked a subservient smile been identified?
April 8th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
According to the papers, one of the men demanded £70,000 ‘as I was one of the two people who didn’t crack’ under interrogation. Foolish man, doesn’t he know how it works? The more you foul up, the more money you get. So he didn’t crack and he wants payment for that? Wonderful. He’d better consult the New Britain handbook, in print since 1997.
Next he’d be wanting a medal for bravery.
April 8th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I agree that it doesn’t show our society in the best light, but at least it demonstrates that we still have some freedoms left, and freedom isn’t freedom unless it allows one to abuse the priviledge.
On a more pragmatic note, upsetting the Iranians again won’t bode well for the next group of hostages, so maybe we should review our terms of engagement rules, perhaps ratcheting them up a bit from “Surrender as soon as you come face to face with a foreign military force.”
April 8th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Speaking of grovelling, hands up all those who knew that the BBC has a reporter, David Loyn, “embedded” in the Taleban. This from Little Green Footballs:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=25058_BBC_Reporter_Embeds_with_Taliban_As_They_Kill_Brits#comments
If I had stayed in England after Blair got elected, I would have probably exploded by now.
April 8th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
What?
I am speechless.
So the BBC does not see anything wrong with this??? Why are we being taxed to fund this distasteful institution? All I can say is, should the treacherous Taliban turn against the BBC and kidnap, or even kill, their sympathetic journalists, I hope the BBC won’t look to the public for understanding.
Last week, there was complaint about the lack of public awareness and vocal support for the BBC cameraman in Gaza who was kidnapped by the BBC’s cuddly Palestinian friends. My view? These are your bedfellows, BBC, sort it out and don’t disturb us.
April 8th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Bel - No this fellow is embedded and is mightily taken with these brave folks. Full of admiration, in fact. They are so brave! You can read part of one of his reports on Little Green Footballs.
On the other hand, the Beeb has cancelled the showing of the life of (can’t remember his first name) Beharry, VC because it is “too positive”.
Personally, I have said before that there are two organisations that not only have to be destroyed, but are so irredeemably evil that the buildings that house them have to be razed to the ground so the evil won’t be trapped in corridors, lifts and offices, but will evaporate once all the rubble is removed.
1. The BBC
2. The UN.
Once they’ve been razed to the ground, the ground should be sprayed with poison. My personal choice: They should be imploded on a normal working day, when they are infested with all their employees.
April 8th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Odds on faye doing celeb big brother next?
I’m less dismayed at the government allowing the selling of stories as i am with the selection and training that produced men and women of such “quality”.
April 8th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
True. You read about a man like Sgt Beharry who executed an act of incredible bravery, got severely wounded in his head in doing so, and yet went back in again, risking his life a second time and while badly wounded, to rescue his other mates. The incredible strength of will that must have required is mind-boggling.
Then you look at this mare’s nest of people joking matily with their captors, accepting gifts (OK, they may have been beaten or something if they hadn’t accepted them, but they should have flung them on the runway before they boarded their plane home.) Instead, they were filmed carrying their party bags - WHILE WEARING THEIR UNIFORMS - when they got off the plane at Heathrow, as though they were carrying duty-free. And this on the same day as four Britons were killed in Iraq, probably with the use of weapons from Iran.
It’s too much to ask, but I just wish the tabloid editors would say, “Sorry, we’ve changed our minds. We don’t think our readers want to read about British cowards over their breakfast.”
April 8th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Sorry about hogging this thread, but “PR agent Max Clifford has confirmed some of the group had already approached him for advice”.
I have nothing but contempt. And for sure the Americans will have nothing but contempt for us. Our military reputation, reading American blogs, has been hit by a wrecking ball. The good news is, that includes the reputation of one Tony Blair.
Lucrative after-dinner talks in the US? Among Republican groups, no. Among Democrats, iffy. Even the Dems support their military.
BTW, why didn’t Tony think of the obvious and ask for the services of unguided missile Nancy Pelosi?
April 8th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Iran has just released some videos of the captives laughing heartily, playing tennis, watching football, making faces at the cameras etc. Generally a picture of jollity. The only thing missing is a hammock, and maybe some cigars.
April 9th, 2007 at 12:08 am
…and perhaps a pitcherful of margaritas to drink in the hammock.
They don’t drink themselves, but unlike their thicker Arab co-religionists, they do allow other people to drink. Behind closed doors.
Actually, I thought when I first saw them on TV on release day that some of these individuals were pretty much high, as in a pub after the first couple of drinks. And what they had in their plastic glasses looked like whisky or bourbon.
If they had been given alcohol - which they would have imbibed of their own free wil - no one held their heads down - this would account for the laddishness and general hail-fellow-well-met meandering around for the cameras and gratitude for their shiny new suits and their goodie bags with dates, nuts and vases …
April 9th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Am struck that both the men and women had their uniforms and equipment removed - realistically thats common sense - you dont leave prisoners with their utility belts or lock picks etc - and then the men and women were seperated. The men were interogated and ‘threatened’ and tricked into thinking they would be shot. The woman was told she would not see her child again and measured by a woman.
So faye WAS treated differently than the men, she was treated better it seems. It would have been disrespectfull for the iranian men to treat a woman the same way they treated the men, even if they seem to have treated the men better than many school children are treated by school bullies.
April 9th, 2007 at 11:25 am
“they seem to have treated the men better than many school children are treated by school bullies” and “faye WAS treated differently than the men, she was treated better it seems”.
This about sums up the whole humiliating experience, made complete now by these monkeys cashing in on their new-found celebrity status.
It seems that if we enlisted Shipa Shetty in the navy and she was captured by the Iranians then Britain would come through it with a lot more dignity!
April 9th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I see in The Mirror - for yes, it is they - that one of the hostages has complained about the quality of the contents of the goodie bags they were given. He has also expressed dissatisfaction with the Hugo Boss shirts they were given because they’re fakes.
I mean, what kind of kidnappers are they anyway? They don’t even give neat going-away presents.
April 9th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Felix Carman is actually the most pathetic of the bunch. He was one of the two officers involved and his leadership consisted of ensuring that everyone was as co-operative and grateful to their Iranian captors as possible. He can be seen grinning like an idiot in pretty much all the footage released by the Iranians. From his remarks and demeanor since his return to UK soil, he seems completely oblivious to the damage this whole fiasco has caused and the shameful nature of his own actions. I am truly amazed that he is a Royal Navy officer.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Thanks for those enlightening words, Laura. I just read in a paper that he was refusing to sell his story and assumed that he had been one of the brave, selfless ones.
I’m amazed that any of the 12 who cooperated are in the RN at all, and cannot understand why they joined or how they got in. Arthur Bachelor seems to give equal weight to the fact that their craft was taken, they were kidnapped in international waters and held illegally and the fact that they stole his iPod, which had been a going away gift from his girlfriend and had his favourite song on it. The words “self-centered” and “immature” do not begin to sum this member of the Senior Service up.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Are you suggesting that one of them had his iPod with him while he was searching the iranian boat? Please tell me he wasnt listening to it at the time…
April 9th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
It was in the pocket of his overalls. They stole his lighter from his overalls too, the cads!
April 9th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Just checked http://www.ebay.ir but it doesnt seem to work. I had hoped for a moment to find said iPod.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
closest i got was http://tinyurl.com/ysoetk but i cannot find it listed yet, will keep my eyes open.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Why would an Iranian want to sell an iPod on eBay? Surely he’d want to keep it for himself?
What’s being sold on eBay, as far as I have read, are the lovely vases the sailors and marines were gifted with.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Very wise words from Janet Daley here:
April 9th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Yes, Janet Daley’s piece was very well delivered. I wrote in a comment, commending her, and I also added: “One thing that Janet didn’t mention, but that has had a huge impact on our society and our freedom of speech was the shutting down of discussion of the problem of islam in our midst. NuLabour, in its malicious, controlling way, dubbed anyone who wanted to explore this issue “racist”. Thus, adherents of a particular belief system mysteriously morphed into a ‘race’ in a NuLabour smoke and mirrors exercise.”
This programme of shutting down commentary on the islamics in Britain is deliberately destructive to our cohesiveness as a people. Blair has even, unbelievably for such a defender, along with his fat, greedy wife, of “human rights” promised the islamics not to introduce a law banning forced marriage. Even for someone as malicious as Blair, this is an outstanding landmark that ought to have been widely noted. To hell with young women. Their fathers and brothers vote for them anyway, so it’s the males caters to.
Anne Cryer, a Labour MP up in Bradford, is a voice crying in the wilderness trying to get a law introduced banning marriage of first cousins. Birth defects reported by the NHS run at 32% Pakistani. So they account for around 2% of the population (if you believe Blair) or 3% of the population (if you do your math) and they account for 32% of birth defects in the British population. Hmmm. The rest of the world figured out several thousand years ago that incest is seldom a good idea.
This is verboten discussion-wise. So people are being refused medication that is proven effective for Alzheimer’s, and medication that is proven effective for breast cancer, and “resources” are being spent treating defects which are a result of inbreeding, and no one in Britain is allowed to mention it.
Regarding “honour” killings, the Pakistanis are getting too fly to commit them at home very often any more. They send their daughter to Pakistan to get murdered instead. She never comes back. The neighbours and school are told she got married.
But Blair’s police victimise the indigenous British without hindrance. Viz the group of little boys who had chalked a hopscotch grid on the pavement and were playing on it, as children have done for centuries.
People used to say that Blair was incompetent and the cabinet was the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, but I always knew it was deliberate. Which is why I left.
April 9th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
There is now a ban on them selling their story.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/09/nhostages609.xml
April 10th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Iran has just released some videos of the captives laughing heartily, playing tennis, watching football, making faces at the cameras etc. Generally a picture of jollity. The only thing missing is a hammock, and maybe some cigars.
Yes. And how I’ll die laughing if the match they supposedly were watching took place yesterday!
April 10th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Think you got a valid point there, I think that she will be doing the Page 3 interview fairly soon.
Mind you she looks like she needs to lose a few pounds, thought that they were supposed to exercise in the armed forces? Or was it all that rich Persian food…
April 10th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Fido, given all we have learnt about the armed forces in recent days, I won’t be surprised to hear that physical exercise is no longer compulsory.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Can anyone be really surprised or shocked by the pusillanimous and money-grabbing behaviour of our “elite” marines and sailors?
The whole shabby episode is a spotlight on the demoralisation of our society.
April 10th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Thanks to Anthony L Blair who came in with a wrecking ball and laid about him 10 years ago, destroying everything that caught his Mayfly attention span.
April 10th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Dave won’t do it, but I’d like to see blair in the dock for treason. David Davis or William Hague would have the stones to do it.
April 10th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
verity - channel 5(?) did a nice fictional story of TB up for war crimes. was not far from the realms of possibility…
April 11th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Dodlbyn - Blair hasn’t committed any war crimes, except in the mind of the deranged communist left.
He has committed the crime of murdering Britain and robbing her citizenry of their country, their cohesiveness and their prejudice for a well-ordered life. And he’s probably guilty of selling peerages. And he’s guilty of bringing the office of prime minister into disrepute. And of bringing the great office of state of Foreign Secretary into disrepute with the appointment of the ridiculous Margaret Beckett. If any of the above were a capital crime, I would be in the front row with my knitting.
But he hasn’t committed any war crimes. Let’s not get confused.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
verity - did you see the tv play i mentioned? am not saying that he is guilty or otherwise, but the play was thought provoking and showed how perceptions can shift easily
April 12th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Dolbyn - No I didn’t see the programme. I don’t have cable.
It’s just that I think we shouldn’t be diverted. Blair, is wicked, wicked, destructive, hissing, vile, predatory, self-aggrandising, angry intertwining vipers of a twisted psycho. (I can’t say fairer than that.)
We should get him for what he is; not for what the left tries to divert us to get him for. I’m not a soldier in the lefty army. I will choose my own rules of engagement.