Theodore's World

National parks’ pot farms blamed on cartels
Mexican drug lords find it easier to grow in state than import
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, November 18, 2005 …note the date and how long this has been going on
Article from here
This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
11-18) 04:00 PDT Washington
Hikers in national parks such as Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon are encountering a danger more hazardous than bears: illegal marijuana farms run by Mexican drug cartels and protected by booby traps and guards carrying AK-47s.
National Park Service officials testified in Congress on Thursday that illegal drug production in national parks, forests and other federal lands had grown into a multibillion-dollar business in recent years — mostly concentrated in California.

“These activities threaten our employees, visitors and our mission of protecting some of the nation’s most prized natural and cultural resources,” Karen Taylor-Goodrich, the National Park Service’s associate director for visitor and resource protection, told the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks.

Last year, National Park Service officers seized about 60,000 marijuana plants, with an estimated street value of $240 million, from parks in California. About 44,000 pot plants were removed from Sequoia National Park near California’s Central Valley. Another 10,000 plants were seized in Yosemite National Park.
The Park Service also has found pot farms and other drug trafficking activities in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in Shasta County as well as two Bay Area parks: the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore.

The increasing use of national parks and other public lands for illegal pot farming is part of a major shift in the marijuana trade. Ten years ago, almost all of the state’s pot was grown in the “Emerald Triangle,” an area encompassing Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties in Northern California, law enforcement officials said.

But Mexican drug cartels now are seizing on the state’s mild climate and vast stretches of remote lands to set up pot farms across California. Tightened security on the U.S.-Mexico border has also convinced many drug gangs it is easier to grow marijuana in the state than to smuggle it into the country.
Park service officials said the drug cartels took extreme measures to protect their plants, which can be worth $4,000 each. Growers have been known to set up booby traps with shotguns. Guards armed with knives and military-style weapons have chased away hikers at gunpoint. In 2002, a visitor to Sequoia was briefly detained by a drug grower, who threatened to harm him if he told authorities the pot farm’s secret location.
During a raid of an illegal pot farm in Santa Clara County in June, a California Fish and Game officer was wounded and a suspect shot and killed.

“In prior years, guards used to flee from Park Service law enforcement but now stand their ground with leveled guns using intimidation tactics,” Laura Whitehouse, the Central Valley program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, told the committee.

The illicit pot farms can also cause environmental damage. Growers often cut trees, dig ditches, create crude dams on streams, and haul in plastic hoses and other equipment to irrigate the plants. Fertilizers and other chemicals used by growers pollute watersheds and kill native species. Last year, the Park Service spent $50,000 to clean up tons of litter, debris and human waste at pot farms that were discovered or abandoned.
Congress approved a slight increase in funding for Park Service law enforcement for next year, $3.6 million, $746,000 of it for drug eradication efforts in California parks. But federal and state officials say they still lack the money and personnel to patrol vast areas in and around the state’s parks.

“It’s a $2 billion or a $4 billion problem, and we’re throwing $1 million at it,” said Supervisor Allen Ishida of Tulare County, whose deputies seized 157,000 pot plants on public and private lands and made 28 arrests this year.

Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., the chairman of the national parks subcommittee, said it would be tough to find more money in the federal budget as Congress deals with rising deficits and is considering cutting many programs. He urged the Park Service to put more officers on drug eradication instead of “writing parking tickets.”
Donald Coelho, the Park Service’s chief of law enforcement, agreed that more money was not the only solution. He said a coordinated strategy by state, federal and local law enforcement officials ultimately could put a dent in the Mexican cartels’ operations.

“Sometimes it takes time to work your way through an organization,” Coelho said.

State narcotics officers and the Drug Enforcement Administration seized a record 1.1 million pot plants on public and private lands in California this year, up from 621,000 plants last year, through an aggressive campaign called CAMP, or Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. The street value of those drugs is estimated at $4.5 billion.
But state and federal officials said drug growers were adapting quickly — for example, planting smaller pot farms that are tougher to spot from surveillance planes and helicopters. Some growers have responded to drug raids in Sequoia and other parks by moving their farms to nearby Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management lands.

Without a more comprehensive plan, “we are just shifting the problem from one jurisdiction to another,” Ishida said.

Wild Thing’s comment………
Ramos and Compean are being used as a lesson to other border patrolmen. A lesson that shouts – don’t use force of any kind to do your job – just let ’em go. This whole thing is unforgivable what those in power have done to these Border Agents. This is just one story of what is going on, there are tons of stories out there loaded with information on how bad it is.
Then add in all the murder and all the other horrible crimes that these illegals are guilty of in our country and most of them are not even caught.
And look at this about tuberculosis coming back.

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi hands out canvas shopping bags, Tuesday, March 27, 2007, in San Francisco. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is to consider passing an ordinance that would require large supermarkets and pharmacies in the city to replace non-biodegradable plastic bags with reusable or recyclable bags, a move that would make San Francisco the first city in the U.S. to introduce such a ban. Mirkarimi, who sponsored the original version of the ordinance, said the proposal has the support of most supervisors, the city’s garbage disposal contractor, and even many smaller retailers, who won’t have to comply with the ban. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – City leaders approved a ban on plastic grocery bags after weeks of lobbying on both sides from environmentalists and a supermarket trade group. If Mayor Gavin Newsom signs the ban as expected, San Francisco would be the first U.S. city to adopt such a rule.
The law, passed by a 10-1 vote, requires large markets and drug stores to give customers only a choice among bags made of paper that can be recycled, plastic that breaks down easily enough to be made into compost, or reusable cloth.
San Francisco supervisors and supporters said that by banning the petroleum-based sacks, blamed for littering streets and choking marine life, the measure would go a long way toward helping the city earn its green stripes.
“Hopefully, other cities and states will follow suit,” said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who crafted the ban after trying to get a 15-cent per bag tax passed in 2005.
The 50 grocery stores that would be most affected by the law argued that the ban was not reasonable because plastic bags made of corn byproducts are a relatively new, expensive and untested product. Some said they might offer only paper bags at checkout.
“I think what grocers will do now that this has passed is, they will review all their options and decide what they think works best for them economically,” said David Heylen, a spokesman for the California Grocers Association.
Newsom supported the measure. The switch is scheduled to take effect in six months for grocery stores and in one year for pharmacies.
Craig Noble, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it would be disappointing if grocers rejected the biodegradable plastic bag option, since more trees would have to be cut down if paper bag use increases.
The new breed of bags “offers consumers a way out of a false choice, a way out of the paper or plastic dilemma,” Noble said.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Wasn’t the reason why we have plastic grocery bags is because of the envirowackos didn’t want us to cut down trees by using paper bags ? Time for a I LOVE GLOBAL WARMING bag give away in San Francisco.
So, paper or plastic was too much freedom of choice for these fascists? They’re not happy unless they’re telling you what kind of car to drive, where you can smoke, whether you can have a gun, what words are permissable to say.
Every time I was in Europe I would see them use bags kind of like the one in the photo above. They were fine if only buying a few items. But I never saw people shopping like we do with a whole cart full of groceries. How the heck will a person get all those groceries in one of those bags. Or even several bags like that. hahahaha

Yankeemom has informed me that I have won a Thinking Blogger Award. Thank you Yankeemom!
Yankeemom is a dear friend and also has a wonderful blog. Yankeemom is the mother of a soldier, it is also the journey of her fight against the left in her northern California town.
I feel so blessed, I also got tagged for Thinking Blog by another dear friend Beth at Blue Star Chronicles.
Beth is an awesome blogger like Yankeemom has a loved one serving now. Thank you for your friendship.
It all originated with ilker yoldas at The Thinking Blog, who picked 5 blogs that made him think rather than just answer a simple meme about what his favorite color is.
Since the idea is to list only 5 blogs that make you think, this is hard for me, as most of the blogs I read serve that purpose. I am listing people who I think will “play” and haven’t already been tagged and also have made me think and I have learned a lot from.
Congratulations, you have won a Thinking Blogger!

Here are my five, gosh this is hard there are so many I truly love. Because it is hard to pick only 5 I have picked 5 that are my personal heroes for variouis reasons. I am not going to pick just a blog because I know they will respond to listing 5 blogs of theirs, I know that is how it is done. But sometimes a blog I truly admire is not the kind of blog that will be up for this. Too much pressure in a world we need less pressure in. I also picked blogs that are some of the ones like it states….that make me think.
My personal Heroes and blogs that make me think……..
1. Something….and Half of Something, Linda is a wonderful friend, my Blog Mom and much more then that. Linda’s blog is full of information about Israel, politics and supporting the troops with some wonderful humor as well along the way.
2. And Rightly So, Raven is also a friend and like I stated above a personal hero of mine. Her blog is informative about politics and supporting the troops. She adds in her marvelous sense of humor.
3. Knowledge is Power , SondraK is also an awesome person and a friend. Her blog is unique like non others. Knowledge truly IS power and her blog is full of information and fun at the same time. She discussus politics and is also a suppporter of our awesome troops.
4. Conservative Insurgent, Jack is a friend and I have learned a lot from him. His blog is very informative and his knowledge of the things he discusses shows as he gives not only information but a lot of personal experience along the way. He also discuses politics and is a supporter of our troops.
5. My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Beth is a friend and was one of the first blogs I ever read. I have learned a lot at her blog, even when she says she is not going to blog anymore she still comes back with powerful, informative posts loaded with information.
6. Daisy Cutter, DC is awesome and a friend. I love how he gives information along with a commentary that he writes. I always learn from him, and his comments cause me to think of all the things that I might miss when my passion on a topic takes over and my mind cannot put things into words.
7. The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Emperor Misha is someone I have learned so much from. I love his passion and his fearless attacks as he comments on things happening. His blog is also about politics and he supports our troops as all of my choices do without fail. His posts are so complete as he gives tons of information which helps a lot in the thinking dept. of learning about something.
OK yes I went beyond the 5, but I just could not help it. heh heh Just be glad I stopped at 7 instead of 20 or 30 that I can think of that I go to every day. giggle

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.
The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.
Well I hope you managed to get to the end of the post, be safe and have a great day.

UN Watch exposes the monumental hypocrisies, terrible lies and moral inversions of the new and supposedly reformed UN Human Rights Council. Millions of victims and 191 countries ignored. Darfur atrocities outright denied.

Speech before UN Human Rights Council 4th Session
23 March 2007
Delivered by Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch

For those that cannot open YouTube here is the transcript:
Mr. President,
Six decades ago, in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, Réné Cassin and other eminent figures gathered here, on the banks of Lake Geneva, to reaffirm the principle of human dignity. They created the Commission on Human Rights. Today, we ask: What has become of their noble dream?
In this session we see the answer. Faced with compelling reports from around the world of torture, persecution, and violence against women, what has the Council pronounced, and what has it decided?
Nothing. Its response has been silence. Its response has been indifference. Its response has been criminal.
One might say, in Harry Truman’s words, that this has become a Do-Nothing, Good-for-Nothing Council.
But that would be inaccurate. This Council has, after all, done something.
It has enacted one resolution after another condemning one single state: Israel. In eight pronouncements—and there will be three more this session—Hamas and Hezbollah have been granted impunity. The entire rest of the world—millions upon millions of victims, in 191 countries—continue to go ignored.
So yes, this Council is doing something. And the Middle East dictators who orchestrate this campaign will tell you it is a very good thing. That they seek to protect human rights, Palestinian rights.
So too, the racist murderers and rapists of Darfur women tell us they care about the rights of Palestinian women; the occupiers of Tibet care about the occupied; and the butchers of Muslims in Chechnya care about Muslims.
But do these self-proclaimed defenders truly care about Palestinian rights?
Let us consider the past few months. More than 130 Palestinians were killed by Palestinian forces. This is three times the combined total that were the pretext for calling special sessions in July and November. Yet the champions of Palestinian rights—Ahmadinejad, Assad, Khaddafi, John Dugard—they say nothing. Little 3-year-old boy Salam Balousha and his two brothers were murdered in their car by Prime Minister Haniyeh’s troops. Why has this Council chosen silence?
Because Israel could not be blamed. Because, in truth, the dictators who run this Council couldn’t care less about Palestinians, or about any human rights.
They seek to demonize Israeli democracy, to delegitimize the Jewish state, to scapegoat the Jewish people. They also seek something else: to distort and pervert the very language and idea of human rights.
You ask: What has become of the founders’ dream? With terrible lies, it is being turned into a nightmare.
Thank you, Mr. President.

Self-proclaimed defenders of Palestinian rights — Assad, Ahamadinejad, Khaddafi and UN expert John Dugard — care only about scapegoating Israel. Council President Luis de Alba of Mexico responds with unprecedented announcement that he rejects the speech as “inadmissible” — and issues a ban on any speech that similarly criticizes the council or its member states. NGO community is shocked at denial of free speech and open debate.

And that is what the Council president, Luis Alfonso de Alba, said in reply to the speech given in the video:

“For the first time in this session I will not express thanks for that statement. I shall point out to the distinguished representative of the organization that just spoke, the distinguished representative of United Nations Watch, if you’d kindly listen to me. I am sorry that I’m not in a position to thank you for your statement. I should mention that I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council. The way in which members of this Council were referred to, and indeed the way in which the council itself was referred to, all of this is inadmissible.
In the memory of the persons that you referred to, founders of the Human Rights Commission, and for the good of human rights, I would urge you in any future statements to observe some minimum proper conduct and language. Otherwise, any statement you make in similar tones to those used today will be taken out of the records. “

Wild Thing’s comment……..
The Palestinians’ and terrorists’ buddies at the UN didn’t like this at all.

Thanks to LGF for the heads up about the video.

U.S. Can’t Account for 600,000 Fugitives
Breitbart.com..for complete article
WASHINGTON (AP) – Teams assigned to make sure foreigners ordered out of the United States actually leave have a backlog of more than 600,000 cases and can’t accurately account for the fugitives’ whereabouts, the government reported Monday.
The report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that the effectiveness of teams assigned to find the fugitives was hampered by “insufficient detention capacity, limitations of an immigration database and inadequate working space.”
Even though more than $204 million was allocated for 52 fugitive operations teams since 2003, a backlog of 623,292 cases existed as of August of 2006, the report said.
The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been estimated at between 11.5 million and 12 million. About 5.4 percent of them are believed to be “fugitive aliens,” those who have failed to leave the country after being ordered out.
The inspector general found there is not enough bed space available to detain such fugitives and that agents are hampered by an inaccurate database. Other factors that limit the teams’ effectiveness are insufficient staffing, the report said.
Until the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, attempts to catch such fugitives were mostly carried out by teams not exclusively devoted to the task. After the attacks, an Absconder Apprehension Initiative was created within the Justice Department to find, apprehend and deport such immigrants. When the Homeland Security Department was created in March 2003, it assumed responsibility.

Wild Thing’s comment………
By the crime reports across our country they all here! Rapes, murders, car jacking, abductions, kidnapping for random… the list goes on.
But then our government gives them the OK, and puts the Border Agents in jail and drug dealer illegals are rewarded. sheesh!

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith
becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of
creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming
in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…
There can be NO divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an
American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all.
We have room for but ONE flag, the American flag…
We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…
and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Blair convenes Cobra team as crisis in Iran escalates
news.scotsman.com
Sunday March 25, 2007
The official notification, delivered in secure calls yesterday morning to senior Whitehall figures, was the latest dramatic behind-the-scenes move to get to grips with a crisis that is now engulfing the government.
After a day of shadow-boxing with a notoriously slippery regime, Tony Blair is set to up the ante: the plight of the Shatt al-Arab 15 is officially a crisis and he will need the Cobra team to handle it.
The clutch of VIPs will gather in an operations room several floors below Downing Street as early as this afternoon to plot an escape from a military spat that now threatens to become an international incident.
The decision came just 24 hours after the crew of HMS Cornwall had been caught in the confusion of direct confrontation with Iranian vessels in the searing heat of the Gulf.
As the crew members were surrounded in their two rubber dinghies, the Cornwall’s commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, frantically radioed back to his own top brass for instructions.
The response to the inquiry, which had been immediately patched through to Ministry of Defence headquarters in Whitehall, was to hold fire.
The order to show restraint has been observed throughout the forces and the British government in the 48 hours since, but it is unclear how long both sides will be able to maintain control.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett’s first response to the gathering crisis on Friday was to keep to diplomatic conventions. After a hurried phone call to Blair, she immediately summoned Iran’s ambassador, Rasoul Movahedian, to her office to explain their behaviour.

After a meeting described by officials as “brisk but polite”, Beckett emerged to stress that she was “extremely disturbed” by events.

It was an understated description of the deep concern now gripping the government. Not only was Blair’s administration alarmed at the risk to the 15 military personnel, which included at least one woman, but it was in no doubt over Tehran’s ability to use their plight to make a wider point.
During a flurry of diplomatic activity in the hours after the snatch, the Iranians’ rhetoric repeatedly elevated their action, and the alleged motives of the British, to a multinational affair. It was the eve of a second UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions over Iran’s refusal to halt its programme to enrich uranium. The Shatt al-Arab 15 were, from the start, pawns in a perilous international game.

“It looks like too much of a coincidence,” a senior Foreign Office insider confirmed.

The response was a no- nonsense demand for Iran to relent – and Britain freely used the international community to back up its case. Beckett dispatched the UK chargé d’affaires, Kate Smith, to confront the government in Tehran, armed with the insistence that the British sailors had been in Iraqi waters.
In the meantime, Blair made a personal call to European allies, including EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, to secure a public denunciation of the Iranians’ actions.

“It was impressed on everyone how important it was to raise the diplomatic temperature, rather than keep a low profile and let them make a song and dance of the situation,” one defence official said.

“There is nothing to be gained in provoking a confrontation, because that would be playing into their hands. But neither should we let them have it all their way. We tried that before and we’re still trying to get our kit back.”

The smaller-scale precedent, the taking of six British marines and two sailors on the same waterway in June 2004, was a painful lesson. The personnel were only returned after they had been paraded blindfold on Iranian television and admitted entering Iranian waters illegally. Three years on, the government is still pressing Iran for the return of its boats and kit, including valuable radar equipment.
The degree of concern felt across Whitehall was demonstrated yesterday, when Movahedian was called back to the Foreign Office, this time to see Beckett’s minister, Lord Triesman. The British were clearly attempting to warn off Tehran before it could begin to use the servicemen and women as a significant propaganda tool.
It was, however, a race against time – and through it all, the diplomats and the politicians were acutely aware that Tehran has built a foreign policy on disregarding diplomatic niceties.
Top level COBRA is an acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, where its meetings are held.
Tony Blair, senior ministers, police and security chiefs all take part. It is called after events such as 9/11, 7/7 and can evoke emergency powers such as suspending Parliament or restricting movement.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
I only can pray that these sailors will be safe and unharmed and not killed.
Anyone feel like the worm is about to turn and the Iranians arent going to like the direction it takes?
Blair while in Berlin said:

“Tony Blair has called the seizure of British sailors by Iran “unjustified and wrong,” and rejects the claim that they strayed into Iranian waters.
Speaking to journalists in Berlin, the Prime Minister said he hoped the Iranian Government understood the “fundamental” nature of the issue.
“There is no doubt at all that these people were taken from a boat in Iraqi waters.
“It is simply not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters, and I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us.
“We have certainly sent the message back to them very clearly indeed. They should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which is unjustified and wrong.”

Top general in Afghanistan expels Marines
WASHINGTON
The top American general in Afghanistan has expelled a U.S. Marine special operations company for the way the men responded to an ambush March 4, Marine sources said.
Maj. Cliff Gilmore, a spokesman for Marine Special Operations Command, confirmed to The Examiner that the company of 120 Marines is redeploying.
He said the decision followed an ambush on the company’s convoy by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. A second Marine source said the Marines retaliated and some civilians were killed.
The action brought an abrupt end to what promised to be a historic deployment. The unit sailed in January from Camp Lejeune, N.C., as the first Marine Corps special operations company sent overseas. The Corps joined U.S. Special Operations Command a year ago.
The company is now redeploying to Kuwait after just a few weeks in Afghanistan in what was supposed to be a six-month tour.
A Marine officer assigned to special operations said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander, took the extraordinary step of expelling the unit after he consulted with Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.
A spokesman for Eikenberry could not be reached today.

Wild Thing’s comment………
WTF! So our guys have to get a rule book out every time they are ambushed??? What about the fact that they have to fight combattants who wear no military uniforms. The war will NEVER be won as long as political correctness and stupid-ass liberalism replaces a sound, aggressive military strategy.
Marines are problem solvers! The citizens shouldn’t allow the bad guys in, they are part of the problem. They hide them in their homes, and sometimes yes from fear of them but I could care less. If these people want the insurgents to go away to die and stop causeing death then they , the citizens, need to take a stand too.
A Marine officer assigned to special operations said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander, took the extraordinary step of expelling the unit after he consulted with Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.
Another PC general!! The days of “Blood and Guts” Patton are long gone. And I want them back, screw PC! You cannot fight a war and go around arresting the troops for doing what they were trained to do.
It’s a devil’s deal, when you’re caught in an ambush like this.
Do you simply take your losses and run away? That’s the preferred Army doctrine. It avoids civilian casualties, but it also establishes a hunter/hunted relationship with the enemy in the hunter position. That’s a direct mental victory for them, and a loss for us. It also encourages them to use these tactics, for years on end.
Do you attempt to engage your attackers? Hard to do when you don’t know who they are, hiding as they do among civilians. They’re not afraid to die, and they’re not only willing to sacrifice civilians, they’re trying to get us to kill them on accident. Events like this and Haditha aren’t lucky coincidences for them. It’s doctrine. Captured training manuals state they are directed to try and engineer *atrocities* that our media will pick up on.
No matter what you do, that media is there, ready to announce your sins to the world, while the Inquisitors from JAG ready the gallows.
“Victory” has long ago been replaced by “don’t cause bad press”. That’s our policy now, and our side won’t hesitate to crucify you over it.
Again – when you try to fight a “PC” war, you are going to loose. Our formerly beloved POTUS, GWBush, who looked like a hero when the WOT began, now looks like another sniveling whimp.
I have had it – either FIGHT THE DANGED WAR, or bring ALL of our troops worldwide back home. We obviously are not REALLY going to fight anybody. Bring them home, put 100K troops on the southern border, and just ignore the rest of the world’s problems.
What the hell is the next step is for these Marines to be sued by CAIR?? And give the Taliban pay off money?

For some fun to watch. There are fun clips in it when he was on the Carson show also which are very funny.

Iran: British sailors ‘bargaining chips’
TEHERAN, Iran
An Iranian military official said Saturday afternoon that the 15 detained British sailors “confessed” to illegally entering Iranian waters.
The sailors, taken at gunpoint Friday by Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Al Quds soldiers were captured intentionally and are to be used as bargaining chips to be used for the release of five Iranians who were arrested at the Iranian consul in Irbil, Iraq by US troops, an Iranian official told the daily paper Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday.

Iran ‘to try Britons for espionage’
timesonline
FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.
A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.
The penalty for espionage in Iran is death. However, similar accusations of spying were made when eight British servicemen were detained in the same area in 2004. They were paraded blindfolded on television but did not appear in court and were freed after three nights in detention.
In addition, a senior Iranian military official said Saturday that the decision to capture the soldiers was made during a March 18 emergency meeting of the High Council for Security following a report by the Al-Quds contingent commander, Kassem Suleimani, to the Iranian chief of the armed forces, Maj.Gen. Hassan Firouz Abadi.
In the report, according to Asharq al-Awsat, Suleimani warned Abadi that Al Quds and Revolutionary Guards’ operations had become transparent to US and British intelligence following the arrest of a senior Al Quds officer and four of his deputies in Irbil.
According to the official, Iran was worried that its detained people would leak sensitive intelligence information.
Iran denounced a tightening of sanctions which the United Nations security council was expected to agree last night in protest at Tehran’s insistence on enriching uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
There’s a certain kind of person who pushes, and tests, just to see what they can get away with. I say slap them down early, and you have far fewer problems.
Please read below for list of SOME attacks by Muslim ( from my Terroists page at my website)………..

(more…)

UK sailors captured at gunpoint BBC news
Fifteen British navy personnel have been captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces, the Ministry of Defence says.
The men were seized at 1030 local time when they boarded a boat in the Gulf, off the coast of Iraq, which they suspected was smuggling cars.
The Royal Navy said the group was on a routine patrol in Iraqi waters and were understood to be unharmed.
But Iranian state television quoted the Iran foreign ministry as saying they had illegally entered Iranian waters.
The Associated Press news agency is quoting US Navy official, Commander Kevin Aandahl, as saying that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were responsible.
Mr Aandahl is also reported as saying the naval force had told them in a radio message that the British were not harmed.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has demanded the immediate and safe return of the HMS Cornwall servicemen.
She added that she had called for a “full explanation” from Iran and had left them in no doubt that she wanted the group and their equipment back immediately.
The task force’s commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said he was hoping there had been a “simple mistake” over territorial waters.

“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they [British personnel] were in Iraqi territorial waters. Equally, the Iranians may claim they were in Iranian territorial waters.

The incident comes at a time of renewed tensions with Iran over its nuclear programme and follows claims that most of the violence against UK forces in Basra is being engineered by Iranian elements.
British army Colonel Justin Maciejewski, who is based in Iraq, said Iran was providing “sophisticated weaponry” to insurgents and “Iranian agents” were paying local men to attack British troops.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
it were up to me I’d simply say, “At the end of two hours one of two things will have happened. Either the hostages will be returned, or you will have no Navy.”