Washington – Senator McCain Says Could Subpoena U.S. Sailors Held By Iran

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    Iranian students re-enact a scene from the arrest of American sailors by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, during a ceremony marking the 37th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi/TIMA Washington – U.S. Republican Senator John McCain said on Sunday he would subpoena 10 U.S. sailors to testify about their brief detention by Iran if the Obama administration does not provide the findings of an investigation into the incident by March 1.

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    “It’s an option that I do not want to exercise,” McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters as he was returning to the United States from an international security conference in Germany.

    The sailors were detained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after their two patrol boats strayed into Iranian waters on Jan. 12. U.S. officials later blamed a navigational problem. 

    The Americans were freed the next day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry intervened with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, averting a diplomatic crisis just days before implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran.

    Iranian media broadcast videos of the detainees, including scenes in which Revolutionary Guards personnel trained weapons on the sailors as they kneeled.

    The Obama administration has said the sailors’ speedy release showed the power of diplomacy and the promise of its new engagement with Iran.

    Republicans have been critical of the deal with Iran, and some say the detainment of the sailors showed how little regard Iran had for the United States.

    McCain said he had been told the sailors were still being debriefed, but added that he assumed that administration members were “dragging their feet” in completing an investigation into the incident, which he accused Iran of exploiting for propaganda purposes.

    “I guarantee you, if they don’t have a debrief by the first of March like they said, we’ll have a hearing and we’ll subpoena. We’re not going to wait any longer,” McCain said. “We will subpoena the individuals if we have to.”

    McCain said he raised the case in a meeting on Saturday with Kerry on the sidelines of the security conference in Munich.‎


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    4 Comments
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    ALLAN
    ALLAN
    8 years ago

    Too many things are not right about this incident. There are opinions from it being staged to it being real but The White House refusing to let them resist capture.

    8 years ago

    ilTo #1 - Are you insane, or what? The sailors were surrounded by several Iranian gunboats, each armed with heavy machine guns. They were outnumbered and outgunned. If they had resisted in the least, they would have all been killed. Outside of briefly being forced to pose for that propaganda photo, there was no evidence of the sailors being physically abused. In fact, they were given food by the Iranians. The sailors were treated much better than the North Koreans treated our sailors in 1968, when they captured the USS Pueblo and beat, tortured, and imprisoned our sailors for nearly a year. Also, there was the incident in 1967, involving the USS Liberty, when trigger happy IAF pilots and naval personnel, rocketed, machine gunned and torpedoed the Liberty, killing thirty five sailors, and wounding another seventy. The latter incident also took place in international waters. I guarantee everyone, that if it was the US Navy which did the same thing to an Israeli naval ship, in international waters, people on this site, would be screaming for their heads.

    8 years ago

    To #3-I don’t know if you ever served in the armed forces of the USA, or not (as I did). I can tell you conclusively that the “low fly by’s”, which you suggested, would not have accomplished anything. The sailors would have still been captured by the Iranians. Secondly, those fighter aircraft would never have been authorized. Regarding the 1967 incident, many Israelis were shocked and shamed, (and still are), regarding the unprovoked attack on the USS Liberty. Somehow, the excuse that they thought that “it was an Egyptian ship”, doesn’t hold water. Incidentally, the Commander of the Liberty did exactly what you suggested, and requested assistance from U.S. fighter aircraft from the 6th fleet. They were in fact dispatched to rescue them. Unfortunately, because of politics, they were recalled, and the Liberty and its crew were doomed. Regarding your remark about “my affiliation”, or “bias” (which is bubba meises), I am a proud American Jew. I have the right to criticize the government of Israel, whether it involved the attack on the Liberty, or the police raid on the Toldos Aharon Shul, in Jerusalem, on Shabbos, in 1981.