[spoonman]

When I first seen that headline, I didn't pay attention to the owner of the twitter account, and assumed that it must be a link to The Onion. Seems not.

[Boiler]

Well, it seems Iran shot down that Ukrainian plane by accident.

[spoonman]

Without wanting to give them any credit in doing so, at least the Iranians fessed up pretty quickly to say "we fucked up here". If such an incident happened in say the UK or USA from military action etc. then you'd be waiting decades at least to ever find out that the government/authorities were responsible.

[Kreuzberger]

With regards to the passenger yet; it would be so much easier and forgivable (wrong word perhaps?) if Iran just held their hands up and said "Yes, it was an absolutely awful mistake and we're genuinely terrible sorry. We were having missiles fired at us by US drones at the time and our anti-air defences were a bit trigger happy".

Probably no where near as simplistic as I'm making out but they surely aren't helping themselves by outright denying it if they were responsible.

It's good to see that wiser heads in Tehran have prevailed and that they have taken stock of the Mailwatch position before making matters any worse than they already are.

[The Weeping Angel]

Unfortunately John Pilger didn't get the message.

[Bones McCoy]

Unfortunately John Pilger didn't get the message.

<Hipster> I preferred his earlier work. </Hipster>

[Boiler]

My nephew bought me a mug with that on - it says "Labour: I preferred..."

[MisterMuncher]

Without wanting to give them any credit in doing so, at least the Iranians fessed up pretty quickly to say "we fucked up here". If such an incident happened in say the UK or USA from military action etc. then you'd be waiting decades at least to ever find out that the government/authorities were responsible.

Iran Air Flight 665.

[Safe_Timber_Man]

Iranian elite turns on the regime: Singer and film director back protesters while two state TV hosts quit after Tehran admits it lied over plane crash and DID shoot down jet
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... plane.html


Iranian elites bravely standing up to the regime.

NOT luvvies sticking their noses into politics.

[Watchman]

I have had the Middle East explained, my understanding is as follows;-

We support the Iraqi government in the fight against Islamic State. We don't like IS, but IS is supported by Saudi Arabia whom we do like
We don't like President Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but not IS, which is also fighting against him.
We don't like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government against IS. So some of our friends support our enemies and some of our enemies are our friends, and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies, whom we want to lose, but we don't want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win
If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they might be replaced by people we like even less. And all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who weren't actually there until we went in to drive them out.

I think I've got it

[bluebellnutter]

It's almost like it's actually an incredibly difficult geopolitical zone and not something that can be easily split into "goodies" and "baddies", isn't it?

[Samanfur]

It wouldn't surprise me if this woman died in jail, one way or another. The only question is how soon:

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to stand trial on fresh charges in Iran next week

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years imprisonment in Iran in 2016, has been told she will stand trial on fresh charges next Monday.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was released to house arrest in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, was also told she would be returned to Evin prison after the hearing.

The move comes a day after it emerged that a UK court hearing on a debt owed to Iran had been postponed for six months. It was due to start on 3 November.

Both countries formally deny there is any connection between the debt case and the retention of British-Iranian dual nationals in Tehran jails, but officials privately acknowledge that the two issues have been linked. British sources said the postponement was sought by the Iranian legal team, but that has not been confirmed.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been told she will face Abolqasem Salavati, a hardline judge who has been subjected to sanctions by the EU and the US.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s five-year sentence is due to expire next spring, but the fresh charges open the possibility of years more in jail.

[Catkins]

I often wonder if the British government would have done more if she *had* been a spy, rather than some random project manager. But nah, they wouldn't would they?

[Andy McDandy]

There were a few British "assets" who were cut loose in the middle east during the 80s and 90s. I remember reading a thing by Norman Lamont saying that the main focus of government efforts was to make them as deniable as possible.

A "spy" is simply someone who can feed you information. If they can do so without sneaking around, so much the better. But they're almost always expendable.

[davidjay]

There were a few British "assets" who were cut loose in the middle east during the 80s and 90s. I remember reading a thing by Norman Lamont saying that the main focus of government efforts was to make them as deniable as possible.

A "spy" is simply someone who can feed you information. If they can do so without sneaking around, so much the better. But they're almost always expendable.

ITV4 were showing the Sweeney episode today about a communist German terrorist joining some good old British villains in a (failed) wages snatch. One of the miscreants was an undercover intelligence officer who was caught by the rozzers then escaped from prison. When asked what would have happened if he hadn't managed to get away, his boss said that he'd probably have ended up on trial at the Old Bailey "and have some cock and bull story about working undercover. But who is going to believe a discredited ex-police officer".

i can well imagine that happening a few times over the years.