Blair's Last Gamble by Matthias Chang
Barrister, Inner Temple

The issues surrounding the lawful detention of 15 British soldiers by
the Iranian Government should be analysed from two aspects – the
Legal & Technical aspects and the Political aspects.

It is a measure of Tony Blair, a Barrister, who instead of
approaching the issues objectively and dispassionately has resorted
to hype, threats and bully logic in an attempt to compel the Iranian
government to release the said soldiers without first establishing
conclusively a case against the Iranian Government. In the like
manner of his conduct prior to the illegal invasion of Iraq, Tony
Blair seems to think that he could, through threats and falsehoods
establish the casus belli for an illegal war against Iran.

It is therefore of the utmost importance that the peace loving
peoples of the world should be exposed to this insidious attempt by
Tony Blair to create the necessary propaganda to demonise Iran and
the public opinion for a war against Iran.

First Thing First

We need to ask the question, "What are these British soldiers doing
in this part of the world so far from home?"

These soldiers are part of the British contingent of the Combined
Task Force 158 (CTF158) comprising of 12 units of naval and marine
forces from the U.S., UK, Australian and the Iraqi navies. It was
only very recently that Commodore Nick Lambert RN of HMS Cornwall was
assigned the role of Commander of the Task Force, taking over from
Rear Admiral Garry Hall, US Navy.

He has been quoted as saying, "I am proud to have the opportunity to
be involved. This is my fourth tour in the Gulf and HMS Cornwall and
my team have received extensive training to fulfil this vital role."
Therefore Commodore Nick Lambert is very familiar with the situation
and the geographical scope of his duties and responsibilities. It is
also important to note that 8 out of the 15 soldiers detained were
also detained in very similar circumstances few years ago and who had
admitted on the previous occasion that they were rightly interdicted
and detained in Iranian territorial waters. Therefore, these eight
soldiers were not inexperience recruits but seasoned military
personnel trained extensively as admitted by their commander in the
above cited interview.

HMS Cornwall besides being the Command Ship of the said Task Force
(CTF 158), is also one of a number of ships providing direct 24 hours-
a-day protection to Iraq's two oil terminals just off its coast. The
following taken from the official websites of the U.S. Naval Forces
Central Command and the Royal Navy provide interesting reading and I
would like to quote in extenso:

"Combined Task Force (CTF) 158 operates in the North Arabian Gulf
(NAG) and oversees U.S. and coalition ships involved in Maritime
Security Operations (MSO)…."

"Task Force 158 is the maritime contribution to Operation Iraqi
Freedom (OIF) and is executed by Coalition Forces of the United
States, Australia and the United Kingdom working alongside elements
of the Iraqi Navy (IqN) and the Iraqi Marines (IqM)….."

The next quotation is most revealing.

"CTF has responsibilities for international water/air space north of
29ºN below 2,500 ft and Iraqi TTW to buoy 36 in the Khor Abd Allah
(KAA) and to the South of the Shatt al Arab (SAA). Additional CTF 158
battle space includes international waters west of 29º00'N 049º30'E &
28º25'N 049º30'E…."

To avoid any misunderstanding, I am not saying here that I accept
that the occupiers and invaders of Iraq are entitled under
International Law to exercise jurisdiction over the said defined
geographical area. What I am saying is that the CTF having demarcated
their alleged area of operations, they cannot have "strayed
accidentally" into Iranian territorial waters. It is therefore
abundantly clear that the CTF knows exactly the limits of the
military operations which as admitted were part of the illegal
Operation Iraqi Freedom. CTF has the latest technologies and
equipment and it cannot be said that their forces can be mistaken as
to the areas of operations. Finally it should also be noted that at
the material time of the detention of the British soldiers in Iranian
territorial waters, the Commander of CTF, Commodore Nick Lambert was
quoted as saying and as reported by the BBC as follows:

"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. We may well find
that this is a simple misunderstanding at the tactical level…."

If and it is a big if, Commodore Lambert was absolutely sure of his
facts why was there a need to concede that it could be
a "misunderstanding at the tactical level." Reviewing the above facts
derived from official military sources of the United States and the
United Kingdom, the position taken by the war criminal Tony Blair
cannot be sustained. The only point which I am willing to concede to
the British is that her soldiers were more matured than Tony Blair in
that they had the wisdom and common sense when caught red handed
operating in Iranian territorial waters did not engaged in any
foolhardy military action. This may very well have prevented a war
between the military forces of Iran and the CTF. The pretext or
trigger which Tony Blair was hoping to get from this provocation was
foiled by his very own soldiers.

But this has not stopped the war criminal Tony Blair from pursuing a
reckless policy of further provocations against the Iranian
government and people by demanding that the matter be referred to the
UN Security Council. If Tony Blair was in fact sincere in resolving
this matter peacefully and through diplomacy, and has the interest of
his soldiers, he would have pursue other legitimate avenues to
address the matter, as both Britain and Iran are contracting parties
to the 1899 Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of
International Disputes. I am not, in stating this, expressing
confidence in the mechanism of the Hague Convention but merely to
expose the hypocrisy of the Blair regime and its double standards.
Being a war monger and a war criminal, Tony Blair has no interest in
resolving such disputes peacefully.

Blair criticises the Iranian government for displaying the captured
soldiers on Television in good health and condition. But condones and
sanctions the blind folding and the brutal treatment of captured
Iraqi civilians contrary to the Geneva Conventions. This war
criminal is beyond redemption!

The Political Scenario

The present political situation is very favourable to peace loving
peoples of the world. They now know that the leaders of the sole
superpower, the United States and its principal ally, the United
Kingdom lied and engaged in forgery to justify their invasion of
Iraq. To that extent, it has become much harder for the war mongers
and the war parties in the US, UK and Israel to create conditions for
another war in the Middle East. Both Bush and Blair are lame ducks
but they still thirst for blood and chaos to achieve their evil ends.

The US is very isolated and knows that without the UK military
involvement in the next reckless adventure in the Middle East, the
Zionist agenda for regional hegemony would not be achieved. Contrary
to conventional wisdom and political pundits - that the US will be
the one who will trigger a false flag operation – I am of the view
that such a gambit has to come from the Zionist Money Centre in the
UK. This is because there is no support for war against Iran in the
UK. Therefore the British war party must create a casus belli for an
initial military operation against Iran so that the twin objectives
of:

(i) Committing UK as an ally to the US and Israel

(ii) Establishing the "legitimacy" for the military operation

The second phase in the "long war" (the first being the invasion of
Afghanistan and Iraq) – a more devastating war against Iran could
then be launched with a subdued British opposition. The propaganda
has already started. Observe the use of the word, "kidnapped" by Tony
Blair and the British mass media to described the lawful capture of
the British soldiers. This is the same propaganda tactic adopted by
Israel to justify the barbaric invasion of Lebanon last year. The
concept that soldiers trained in warfare and conducting military
operations in a defined "battle space" have been "kidnapped" as
opposed to being "captured" reveals to what extent, ordinary people
can be manipulated by brainwashing methods to accept such a state of
affairs.

We must therefore expose that the incursion into Iranian territorial
waters was a deliberate military operation sanction by Tony Blair to
provide the casus belli for an illegal war against Iran. But for the
common sense and survival instinct of the soldiers who were
intelligent enough to surrender (though against orders) another "Gulf
of Tonkin" incident (which sparked off the Vietnam War) was prevented.

Iran must make every effort to inform the British people the slimy
tricks of Tony Blair to bring Britain to another war in the Middle
East, not for any national interest of Britain but that of Israel and
the United States. And as a gesture of good will to the British
people, Iran should invite the parents of these soldiers to come to
Iran and visit their sons and daughter. Tony Blair must be exposed
for having no interest at all for the wellbeing of the soldiers but
hell bent to provoke a war.

Matthias Chang

Notes:

1.
www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/HmsCornwallA
rrivesInTheGulf .

2. www.cusnc.navy.mil/command/ctf158.html and www.royalnavy.mod.uk

Matthias Chang is author of FUTURE FASTFORWARD: The Zionist Anglo-
American War Cabal's Global Agenda (Thinker's Library 2005); and
BRAINWASHED FOR WAR; PROGRAMMED TO KILL (Thinker's Library 2005)

URL of this article:
http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/campaign_for_a_positive_f/2007/04/blairs
_last_gam.html#more

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