While Britain always said that the crew was on a routine mission, Sky News reported that Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air had said in an interview three weeks ago that the crew was gathering intelligence on Iran during their patrols. Defense Ministry officials denied the sailors and marines had an intelligence role, but said they routinely spoke to commanders of vessels using the Persian Gulf and Shatt Al-Arab waterway to determine who is using shipping routes. http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/04/05/ap/international/d8oamndo1.txt Now that they are home the truth.... It has emerged that one of the 15 - Royal Marine Captain Chris Air - admitted Britain was gathering intelligence on Iran in the Gulf, which the Ministry of Defence said was "all part of modern operations". http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1313236.0.0.php
"The operation was mainly to investigate arms smuggling and terrorism but Captain Air said it was also to gain intelligence on Iranian activity." ... The UK Defence Secretary Des Browne told Sky News it was important to gather intelligence to "keep our people safe". He said: "Modern military operations all have an element of gathering intelligence. "We need to understand as much as we can about the environment we operate in and intelligence gathering is an every day part of that." He added: "The UN mandate would clearly empower the military taskforce to gather information about the environment in which they were working." http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1259413,00.html Do you not understand that you don't need to cross Iranian border to gather intelligence and that gathering intelligence on Iran in Iranian territorial waters is not any better than gathering the same intelligence from the Iraqi side of the border.
This isnt even a story, of course they gather "intelligence" on whos using a waterway. Their sailors, its their JOB to know whats going on. What a worthless spin. Your not talking about a bug in an embassy, (not that they all dont do that at every opportunity), they "speak to captains", this information is effectively public domain.
Reading comprehension alert, reading comprehension alert: Defense Ministry officials denied the sailors and marines had an intelligence role. ...followed by today's announcement: "Royal Marine Captain Chris Air - admitted Britain was gathering intelligence on Iran in the Gulf." Seriously, you should work for Fox News as one of their spinning heads.... <img src=http://www.byers.com/spatialage/newsandevents/newsletter/Feb03/man_head_spinning.gif>
It's the same thing as a spy getting caught and then denying he or she is spying. No story here. Just lefty excrement.