From This Can’t Be Happening
By Dave Lindorff

If people would calm down for a minute, they’d realize that neither Iran nor the British sailors did anything wrong during the crisis that followed their capture by Iranian troops.

The sailors taken prisoner by Iranian Revolutionary Guards were not, technically speaking, prisoners of war for the simple fact that there is–so far–no state of war between Britain and Iran. Not even an undeclared conflict. They were, therefore, simply common criminals who had, according to Iran, violated an Iranian border. They might also have been classified as spies, but were not. Either way, they were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Convention, which relates to prisoners of war and combatants.

Had they been prisoners of war, Iran would have been required to treat them according to international law, asking only their name, rank, and serial numbers, and treating them with dignity and respect.

You know. The way the U.S. and Britain treat the people they capture in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…

Oh, wait. We don’t give a rat’s ass about the Geneva Conventions. We hood our captives routinely, beat them, and subject them to tortures of all kinds.

Anyhow, since Iran was dealing with people who it considered to be common criminals, it felt free to question the captives, to blindfold them, to separate them, etc. At least Iranian prison guards were not told to treat them as America treats its captives.

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