How Iran treated their British hostages....

Now that they are safely in Britain, the 15 British hostages taken by Iran have been more forthcoming about how they were really treated while in captivity by the Islamic Republic.

The 15 British marines and sailors who were released by Iran on Thursday said today that they were threatened and subjected to psychological pressure.

Five of the fifteen British military personnel freed by Iranian authorities on Thursday spoke today at a news conference at the Royal Marines Barracks in Chivenor, England.

They said that they knew they were in Iraqi waters when they were seized, and that they had no choice but to surrender quickly when surrounded by the Iranian patrol boats.

According to Captain Chris Air of the Royal Marines, on the day they were captured two Iranian boats blocked them in and rammed their RIBS boats, and the Iranian crews were aggressive and hostile. Another six boats quickly closed in. Captain Air said he could not calm the Iranians down, and judged that if his crew tried to resist they would both lose the fight and cause a major international incident.

“They had come with a clear purpose, and they were never going to leave without us,” Captain Air said.

In detention, the hostages said, they were stripped and blindfolded, isolated from one another and interrogated. On one occasion, they were blindfolded and lined up facing a wall, and could hear guns being cocked behind them.

“Some of us feared the worst,” said Captain Air.

The captives were kept separately in small stone cells where they slept on piles of blankets, they said. Iranian interrogators told then that if they confessed to being in Iranian waters, they would be returned to Britain - or if they didn't, they would spend the next 7 years in captivity.

Lt. Felix Carman of the Royal Navy said that when the group was first captured on March 23, they were interrogated aggressively through the night. “The handling was rough, but no worse than that,” he said.

Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman among the detainees, was held separately from the men and was told that the men had all been released, Captain Air said today. “For four days, she thought she was the only one there,” he said.

One can only imagine what other threats were used against her.

The hostages spent most of their 13 days in captivity in solitary, and were not allowed to see or speak to each another until nearly the end of their captivity, when they were paraded before Iranian State TV...and only then while being closely watched by Iranian security and specially picked journalists.

On Wednesday, the day before they were released, the hostages were lined up for a photo-op with President Ahmadinejad. Afterwards, they were blindfolded and taken to a hotel, where they were kept under guard until their departure.

I have a feeling that the dinosaur media is not going to use one tenth of the vitriol on the fascist regime in Iran that they have on the pampered guests of Club Gitmo.