Archive for January 2016

Humor| Navy Downgraded To ‘Regional Force For Good’

January 14, 2016

Navy Downgraded To ‘Regional Force For Good’ Duffel Blog, January 13, 2016

sailors-iran-1000x600

PERSIAN GULF — Following the recent capture and release of two US Navy riverine war vessels by Iran on Tuesday, the Navy has officially rebranded itself as a “Regional Force for Good,” sources report. The Navy backed off from its previous “Global Force For Good” branding earlier this year, replacing it with a series of giant red blobs meant to emphasize “presence.”

“Let’s be honest,” Adm. John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations said. “The F-35 has sucked our budget dry like one of those Twilight vampires giving a horny teenager an undeath-hickey.”

“We can’t afford to be in more than a couple places at a time, and once we get there, we usually have to fire the skipper and come right home.”

Though the new brand had been under consideration for some time, he contentious “catch and release” of 10 Navy sailors in Iranian waters prompted a rapid decision on it. The Navy has not announced how these sailors let their boats drift into Iranian territory, although some are blaming the Naval Academy’s Celestial Navigation training.

The sailors were released without harm, but Navy officials are scrambling to manage the negative optics of the situation.

“We thought about playing it off as a stunt raising awareness for the ‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’ initiative,” a Navy public affairs official admitted, “but ultimately we decided to just pull a Blackwater and re-brand instead.”

“We’ve really been a regional force since Clinton anyway,” Richardson added. “‘Global’ set the bar too high, and between scary Chinese island-building and sequestration, we’re just not living up to our advertisements. Regional is definitely more in our comfort zone.”

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus revealed another spin during a press conference, remarking that “this historic event with Iran proves that women can be prisoners of war just as well as men can. I look to the Marine Corps to emulate this shining example.”

 

Iran Captures and Releases US Sailors: the Back Story

January 14, 2016

Iran Captures and Releases US Sailors: the Back Story, Clarion Project, Meira Svirsky, January 14, 2016

Iran-Captures-US-Sailors-HPIranian footage of the capture of the 10 American sailors.

Although the government and news media seem to be adopting Shakespeare’s famous maxim, “All’s well that end’s well,” the back story behind the seizure and eventual release of 10 American sailors by Iran is not so simple.

Vice-President Joe Biden insisted “the Iranians picked up both boats — as we have picked up Iranian boats that needed to be rescued .. [they] realized they were there in distress and said they would release them, and released them — like ordinary nations would do.”

Yet Iran can hardly be called an “ordinary nation.” The Islamic Republic leveraged the incident to humiliate the U.S., forcing the sailors to apologize and acknowledge their “fantastic” treatment by Iran. Not just a typical “rescue.”

Iranian brinkmanship, an art unto itself, was played to perfection. Footage aired on Iranian Press TV in English (see below) showed uncomfortable U.S. sailors sitting on Persian carpets laden with food, the lone female sitting in a corner sequestered behind her male compatriots with a hijab covering her hair.

Films of their “surrender” — on their knees with their hands behind their heads –featured prominently in the Iranian press coverage as did all the weapons contained on the ship.

Still Biden insisted it was all in a normal day’s work. “When you have a problem with the boat, (do) you apologize the boat had a problem? No,” Biden said. “And there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.”

Others were more blunt. “This incident in the Persian Gulf, which probably will not be the American forces’ last mistake in the region, should be a lesson to troublemakers in the U.S. Congress,” said Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, head of Iran’s armed forces.

One wonders what the lesson might have been if Iran had already been granted the billions of dollars in sanctions relief instead of being just days away receiving it.

Watch Iranian TV coverage of the capture and apology (voices begin after three minutes):

Clare Lopez Exposes Benghazi – Obama Disaster 1 of 3

January 14, 2016

Clare Lopez Exposes Benghazi – Obama Disaster, United West via You Tube, January 12, 2016

Hillary’s Emails: Hating Israel

January 14, 2016

Hillary’s Emails: Hating Israel Released emails reveal just how deeply Clinton and her advisers despise the Jewish State.

January 14, 2016 Ari Lieberman

Source: Hillary’s Emails: Hating Israel | Frontpage Mag

There are many reasons to dislike Hillary Clinton. For one, she’s an unrepentant liar, fabricating everything from her Brian Williamesque brush with death in Bosnia to her parent’s pedigree to her claim that she believed a video caused the deaths of four heroes in Benghazi.

She is also unethical, having accepted large sums of money to the Clinton Foundation from countries and entities working on behalf of foreign governments impacted by her decisions as secretary of state. There is some circumstantial evidence suggesting that she may have been influenced by these rather large contributions. In one well publicized case, Russia was able to acquire 20% of the United States’ uranium reserves in an energy deal that required State Department approval. A paper trail from that transaction reveals that the Clintons’ and their foundation benefited from substantial donations issued by entities with vested interests in ensuring the Russian acquisition of America’s strategic assets. Clinton was required to publicly disclose these contributions but never did. The FBI has now expanded its Emailgate probe of Clinton to include whether the possible “intersection” of Clinton Foundation work and State Department business violated public corruption laws.

Hillary Clinton, who fancies herself as the champion of human rights and women’s rights, is also a serial hypocrite. Records show that the Clinton Foundation accepted funds from countries with abysmal human rights records where misogyny is regularly practiced and the principles of due process are routinely trampled upon.

She gives new meaning to the term flip-flopper, changing her views on various issues on multiple occasions. On everything from gay marriage to NAFTA to the Keystone Pipeline, Hillary is all over the map. Depending on the prevailing winds and the target audience, she’s either for it or against it. With Hillary, it’s all about expediency while principle plays little if any role. When asked by Chris Matthews about the difference between a Socialist and a Democrat, Hillary, ever the professional panderer, sidestepped the issue and predictably, a pliant Matthews from the uber-left MSNBC, let the matter pass without protest. As an aside, there is no longer any difference. Both parties believe in big, intrusive government and “redistribution” of wealth.

She is more than likely a felon having committed numerous transgressions in connection with her usage of private, unsecured servers to send classified State Department emails which likely fell into the hands of the Russians, Chinese and God knows who else.

In fact, Hillary’s crimes are likely far greater in scope and scale than those committed by General David Petraeus. At least with Petraeus, the damage was limited and contained. Not so with Clinton’s malfeasance. We may never know the extent of the damage caused by her deliberate circumvention of law and government protocol but it is a virtual certainty that government secrets were compromised and national security was placed at risk.

Bob Woodward compared Hillary’s server scandal to that of Watergate, which brought down the Nixon administration. Woodward is not some far-right tea-bagger but an accomplished and well-respected Washington insider and investigative journalist who brought down an American president.

These examples by themselves should give pause for thought before one entertains the notion of pulling the lever for an unprincipled liar and possible, nay probable felon but unfortunately, there’s more, a lot more.

If you hate Israel and wish to see nothing but misfortune for the Jewish State, stop reading because Hillary is your candidate. If you care about Israel and its relationship with the United States, read on.

Hillary’s email scandal has unleashed a treasure trove of information pertaining to the former secretary of state’s views on Israel as well as those of her closest advisors, Sidney Blumenthal, Anne Marie Slaughter and Thomas Pickering. The latest email exposé involves Thomas Pickering.

Pickering has never been known to be friendly toward Israel but what he suggested to Hillary in a 2011 email is frankly shocking, even by anti-Israel standards.  He hatched a scheme to foment unrest in Israel through mass Arab demonstrations to pressure the Israeli government and arm-twist it into making damaging concessions. The nefarious plan, Pickering advised, would require the assistance of third parties and NGOs so that the U.S. could not be linked to it in any way. Apparently, even Pickering, the author of this malevolence, understood its negative implications for the U.S.-Israel alliance should the U.S. role in it ever come to light.

One would think that Hillary would have dismissed such an outrageous suggestion outright but instead, she ordered an aide to print the email providing keen insight into the extent of Clinton’s disdain for the Jewish State. It only gets worse from there.

One of Clinton’s closest advisers was Anne Marie Slaughter. She served as Clinton’s director of policy planning at Foggy Bottom from 2009 until 2011. In 2010, she sent an email to senior Clinton staffers hatching a ludicrous plan involving a pro-Palestinian fundraising initiative that would have had the net effect of “shaming” Israel into submission.

Another miscreant and perhaps the most troubling on the list of shady anti-Israel characters advising Clinton is Sidney Blumenthal, father and defender of the notorious anti-Semite, Max Blumenthal. Max has never met a Hamas or Hezbollah terrorist he didn’t like and subscribes to every single anti-Israel calumny and conspiracy theory winding its way through the blogosphere. So extreme are his views that even the German Communist party washed its hands of him.

Sidney Blumenthal is a passionate defender of his son’s unscholarly, anti-Semitic dung and has passed much of it along via email to a very receptive Hillary. Among the articles forwarded was a lengthy conspiracy piece written by Max for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar. Rather than rejecting it outright, Clinton responded, “interesting reading.” Shmuley Boteach provides brilliant insight and analysis on the pernicious Sidney Blumenthal-Max Blumenthal-Hillary Clinton axis and its ramifications on the U.S.-Israel alliance should Clinton be elected.

Perhaps Clinton’s closest adviser is Huma Abedin. She has wisely kept her views on Israel close to her chest but her past flirtations with the fascist Muslim Brotherhood are undeniable as noted by FPM’s Joseph Klein. Abedin and her Saudi-connected parents have held high-level positions with various Muslim affiliated organizations that have openly adopted extremely hostile views toward the Jewish State. While Abedin is not on record making anti-Israel remarks, it is safe to assume that given her past affiliations and those of her closest relatives, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The Obama administration is in its twilight year and Israel has endured and survived eight torturous years of open hostility from a virulent Israel-hater. The next president will determine the trajectory of the U.S. Israel alliance. David Petraeus has insightfully noted that despite some differences and disagreements that may arise between Israel and the U.S. from time to time, we would be wise to focus on the big picture. He states:

The simple reality is that Israel and the United States are long-standing friends and allies in an increasingly dangerous world – and we ought to treat each other as such. From an American perspective, Israel has proven itself to be an exceptionally capable, resourceful and valuable ally to the United States in a very important and treacherous region. We share many fundamental interests, and we face enemies that wish to do both countries harm. Just as importantly, we share core values and we therefore wrestle with many of the same questions – about how to keep our people safe from the forces of terrorism that seek our destruction while preserving our respective democratic freedoms, rule of law, and respect for fundamental and eternal human rights, which define who we are.

Should Clinton become president, it is safe to assume that she will disregard Petraeus’ advice and employ the same destructive policies championed by her predecessor, placing the final nail in the coffin of an alliance that has endured for 68 years and causing tremendous harm to the interests of two great democracies. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Media Ignoring Massive Muslim Rape Attack in Germany?!?

January 14, 2016

Media Ignoring Massive Muslim Rape Attack in Germany?!? PJTV via You Tube, January 13, 2016

 

You Can Count on Governments to Conceal the Truth about Islamic Crimes

January 13, 2016

You Can Count on Governments to Conceal the Truth about Islamic Crimes, National Review, David French, January 12,2016

The truth disrupts the elite’s preferred multicultural narrative, which places all faiths and cultures on equal footing — except for our despised Western civilization. The truth must therefore be suppressed. But the lies are starting to backfire. Victims can’t be ignored indefinitely, and it’s hard to hide mass-scale public assaults. Since 9/11, Western governments and mainstream media have relentlessly pounded their people with deception and wishful thinking about Islam, jihad, and the Middle East. The lies are now being exposed by the light of day. Will enough people care?

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At this point, it’s a sad joke — a form of gallows humor shared in times of trouble. When there’s a shooting, and the hours tick by without any identification of the suspect, one can presume that it’s a jihadist. When there’s a riot in Europe, and the perpetrators are described as “youths,” one can presume it’s Muslim men. When an Islamist goes on a shooting spree or stabbing spree or beheads a coworker, authorities will latch onto any explanation but the obvious.

But now even gallows humor is inappropriate. Western denial of Islamic crimes is so common, so systematic, that we can no longer have any confidence that we understand the true dimensions of the jihadist threat. Consider the following:

In Germany, police actively “tried to obfuscate” what happened on New Year’s Eve, when thousands of Muslim men systematically sexually assaulted hundreds of German women — an act that my colleague Andrew McCarthy has aptly termed a “rape jihad.”

The New York Times reported yesterday that Swedish authorities now stand accused of covering up a wave of sexual assaults at a concert last summer. A Swedish newspaper wrote today that national media refused at the time to report factual accounts from the concert assaults, claiming they were nothing but far-right “propaganda.”

Yet for sheer scale, nothing touches the infamous scandal in Rotherham, England, where gangs of Pakistani men brutalized an estimated 1,400 women and girls. Over at least 16 years, from 1997 to 2013, girls and women were trafficked, tortured, and raped while authorities turned a blind eye to the abuse. According to the Rotherham Borough Council’s belated report on the mass abuse, authorities were concerned that they might give “oxygen” to racism claims. Up to 160 British police officers now face investigation for systematically ignoring abuse complaints.

Here at home, willful blindness seems to be a deliberate strategy. The Obama administration for years called Nidal Hasan’s deadly terror attack at Fort Hood “workplace violence,” and in November, the FBI said that it may never release a report into the motivations of the Muslim man who attacked two Chattanooga recruiting stations, killing five. FBI director James Comey said that the Bureau didn’t want to “smear people.” Finally, in December — five months after the event — Comey unequivocally declared the Chattanooga shooting a “terror attack.”

But for sheer brazenness, it’s hard to top Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney. Immediately after police apprehended Edward Archer for attempting to assassinate a Philadelphia police officer, Archer started telling anyone who would listen that he did it “in the name of Islam.” But don’t tell Kenney. He broke land-speed records to get in front of the cameras and declare that the attack “has nothing to do with being a Muslim or following the Islamic faith.”

The consequences of the lies, cover-ups, and evasions are serious. American and European elites hector their respective publics over accepting increasing numbers of migrants. They belittle the public’s concerns over the terrorist threat and instead praise Islam to the heavens for its tolerance — often with full knowledge of systematic criminal acts. Even now — after Cologne and after Rotterham — those of us outside the halls of power can’t have any confidence that we know the truth about the impact of mass Muslim immigration on Europe, or that we know the true dimensions of the domestic terror threat in the United States.

When, for instance, a Muslim man beheaded his coworker in Oklahoma and attempted to behead another, was his attack “merely” the enraged action of a disgruntled worker? Or was it an act of “lone wolf” jihadist? After all, on social media, he’d made the popular hand sign of ISIS fighters, posted pictures of jihadists (including ISIS fighters and Osama bin Laden), and appeared to call for Jihad.

What about the recent stabbing spree at the University of California, Merced? Authorities say it was over a study-group dispute, but the young Muslim attacker reportedly carried an image of an ISIS flag and a handwritten manifesto that “included instructions to behead a student.”

How many Americans are aware of these incidents? How many Americans are aware that New York City police are now looking at a Muslim terror suspect as a “person of interest” in the stabbing of a nine-year-old boy? To learn that, you might have to read a British newspaper that reported on a student named Fareed Mumuni who allegedly stabbed the child in a “botched audition to join ISIS.” His long-term goal was reportedly the bombing of Times Square.

The truth disrupts the elite’s preferred multicultural narrative, which places all faiths and cultures on equal footing — except for our despised Western civilization. The truth must therefore be suppressed. But the lies are starting to backfire. Victims can’t be ignored indefinitely, and it’s hard to hide mass-scale public assaults. Since 9/11, Western governments and mainstream media have relentlessly pounded their people with deception and wishful thinking about Islam, jihad, and the Middle East. The lies are now being exposed by the light of day. Will enough people care?

Cartoon of the Day

January 13, 2016

H/t Hope n’ Change

Strait of the Union 2

Iran: Attack on US Boats is Warning to Congress on Sanctions

January 13, 2016

Iran: Attack on US Boats is Warning to Congress on Sanctions, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, January 13, 2016

(Here’s an analysis of the Iranian actions:

— Oh well. — DM)

 

obama_tv

The official media narrative is that Obama’s great relationship with Iran enabled the release of the American sailors captured at gunpoint by Iran’s terrorist IRGC. The media is full of praise for Obama for letting ten American sailors be taken hostage… and then released.

That’s how low the bar is set.

Meanwhile Iran is making it clear that it’s sending a very different kind of message.

Iran’s army chief said on Wednesday the seizure of two US navy boats and their 10 sailors should be a lesson to members the US Congress trying to impose new sanctions on Tehran.

“This incident in the Persian Gulf, which probably will not be the American forces’ last mistake in the region, should be a lesson to troublemakers in the US Congress,” Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, head of Iran’s armed forces, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

Iran isn’t even bothering to threaten Obama. It just slaps him around. Instead it uses his weakness to threaten Congress which it now considers stronger than Obama.

Give Women the Right to Defend Themselves

January 13, 2016

Give Women the Right to Defend Themselves

by Geert Wilders and Machiel de Graaf

January 13, 2016 at 10:30 am

Source: Give Women the Right to Defend Themselves

“Cultural enrichment” has brought us a new word: Taharrush. Remember it well, because we are going to have to deal with it a lot. Taharrush is the Arabic word for the phenomenon whereby women are encircled by groups of men and sexually harassed, assaulted, groped, raped. After the Cologne taharrush on New Year’s Eve, many German women bought pepper spray. Who can blame them?

A culture that has a specific word for sexual assaults of women by groups of men is a danger to all women. The existence of the word indicates that the phenomenon is widespread. Frau Merkel, Prime Minister Rutte and all the other open-door politicians could and should have known this.

The Islamic world is steeped in misogyny. The Koran explicitly states that a woman is worth only half a man (Suras 2: 228, 2: 282, 4:11), that women are unclean (5:6), and that a man can have sex with his wife whenever he wants (24:31). The Koran even says that men are allowed to have sex slaves (4:24), and that they have the right to rape women whom they have captured (24:31).

The hadiths, the descriptions of the life of Muhammad, the ideal human being whose example all the Islamic faithful must follow, confirm that women are sex objects, that they are inferior beings like dogs and donkeys, and that there is nothing wrong with sexual slavery and raping female prisoners.

Taharrush is quite common in Islamic countries. Women are frequently surrounded by men and subsequently abused. The Egyptian website Jadaliyya points out that it also happens to veiled women. Women are victims simply because they are women and not because they have provoked the men by their conduct or “provocative” clothing. It can happen in the streets, public transport, supermarkets, or during protest demonstrations.

In 2011, the American television journalist Lara Logan had her clothes ripped off and “was raped with the hands” by a group of 200 men on Tahrir Square in Cairo. Two years later, a young Dutch woman became a taharrush victim at the same square. Now, along with the flow of migrants from the Islamic world, the phenomenon also reached Europe. The elite tried to keep it hidden from the people, but they cannot do so anymore.

Geert Wilders: “Taharrush is the Arabic word for the phenomenon whereby women are encircled by groups of men and sexually harassed, assaulted, groped, raped. A culture that has a specific word for sexual assaults of women by groups of men is a danger to all women.” Pictured at right: This month has seen public protests in Germany, in response to mass sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve in Cologne and other cities.

Cartoonists in the West already experienced Islamic killers coming to their front door if they dare to draw Muhammad. Now, thousands of women in Cologne and dozens of cities in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, such as Zurich, Stockholm, Malmo and Vienna, experienced rapists standing behind the door if they dare take to the streets.

Islam means submission. And there is a good reason for it. The arrival of Islam has led to the curtailment of Western freedoms under the threat of violence. And this threat will only increase. It is an insidious process until the whole West submits to Islam.

Last week, the Mayor of Cologne advised her female citizens to keep strange men at an arm’s length. In Vienna, the head of the police said that in future women better not walk the streets alone. It seems that Austria will soon resemble Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed alone in the streets. Earlier, in the Netherlands, women from families hosting asylum seekers had already been advised to wear “appropriate” clothes (even indoors), “so no prom dress or bare shoulders,” and to ensure that they are never alone in the room with male asylum seekers.

But the behavior of women has nothing to do with it. Moreover, it is a disgrace that our women are advised to modify their behavior because the government has invited thousands of dangerous men into our country. When one imports Islam in the Netherlands, one also imports the misogynistic culture of Cairo, Damascus, Riyadh into our cities. Next to headscarves, burkas, mosques, honor killings, and terrorism, we now have taharrush.

The solution is not that our women keep an arm’s length from the male barbarians, but that the government keeps these men thousands of kilometers away from us. Until that happens, other measures are needed. It is irresponsible to turn our country into a jungle and subsequently send women unarmed into the jungle. They must at least have the right to defend themselves. Contrary to countries such as Germany and France, in our country it is illegal to carry pepper spray. With the Netherlands now being overrun by men who see women as inferior sex tools, it is time to legalize pepper spray in the Netherlands as a weapon against taharrush.

Geert Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV). Machiel de Graaf is a parliamentarian for the PVV.

 

 

Kerry thanks Iran for resolving sailor dispute ‘peacefully’

January 13, 2016

Kerry thanks Iran for resolving sailor dispute ‘peacefully’ White House says new lines of communication established during nuclear negotiations were key to quick release

By Agencies and Times of Israel staff

January 13, 2016, 4:52 pm

Source: Kerry thanks Iran for resolving sailor dispute ‘peacefully’ | The Times of Israel

US soldiers being detained by Iranian forces, in a video released on January 13, 2016 (screen capture: Twitter)

US soldiers being detained by Iranian forces, in a video released on January 13, 2016 (screen capture: Twitter)

S Secretary of State John Kerry thanked Iran Wednesday for resolving the dispute over 10 captured US sailors “peacefully and efficiently,” even as Vice President Joe Biden denied the US had apologized for the incident.

“I want to express my gratitude to the Iranian authorities for their cooperation ‎in swiftly resolving this matter,” Kerry said in a statement.

 All 10 US Navy sailors detained by Iran after drifting into its territorial waters a day earlier were freed, the US and Iran said Wednesday.

“That this issue was resolved peacefully and efficiently is a testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure, and strong,” Kerry added.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (right), speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as they walk in Geneva, Switzerland, ahead of nuclear discussions, January 14, 2015. (AP/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron, File)

US Secretary of State John Kerry (right), speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as they walk in Geneva, Switzerland, ahead of nuclear discussions, January 14, 2015. (AP/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron, File)

The nine American men and one woman were held in an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday.

The US military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.

The Navy said the American crew members had returned safely and there were no indications they had been harmed while in custody. The Navy added that it “will investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors’ presence in Iran.”
The White House said new lines of communication with Iran established during nuclear negotiations were key to the quick release of the sailors.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said he was hesitant to draw big lessons from the incident about the state of US-Iran relations, but said open lines established recently are “extraordinarily important” in resolving situations such as the one in the crowded Persian Gulf.

McDonough said Kerry’s relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif played a key role in this case.

Kerry, who forged a personal relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the three years of nuclear negotiations, called his Iranian counterpart immediately on learning of the incident, according to a senior US official.

Kerry “personally engaged” with Zarif on the issue, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Zarif “had a firm stance” during the telephone conversation with Kerry about the sailors’ presence in Iran’s territorial waters and “said they should not have come and should apologize.”

Writing on Twitter Wednesday, Zarif said the incident was resolved through “dialog and respect, not threats and impetuousness.”

“Let’s learn from this latest example,” he suggested.
The Revolutionary Guards’ official website published images of the detained US sailors before their release, showing them sitting on the floor of a room.

The sole woman had her hair covered by a brown cloth. The pictures also showed what appeared to be their two boats.

“After determining that their entry into Iran’s territorial waters was not intentional and their apology, the detained American sailors were released in international waters,” a statement posted online by the Guards said Wednesday.

US sailors released by Iran on January 13, 2016, after their ships entered Iranian territorial waters the day before. (screen capture/Twitter)

US sailors released by Iran on January 13, 2016, after their ships entered Iranian territorial waters the day before. (screen capture: Twitter)

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking later to “CBS This Morning,” denied that Americans had apologized for the incident.

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Biden said. “When you have a problem with the boat, you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.”

The incident underlined deep mistrust between the US and Iran developed over four decades of thorny relations, during which Washington and Tehran had no official ties, following the storming of the US Embassy and a 444-day standoff during which 60 American diplomatic officials were held hostage by the Islamic Republic.

But the quick end to the standoff underscored a thaw in recent years between the enemy countries forged amid negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, which resulted in a landmark deal slated to go into effect in the coming days, according to officials.

Gen. Ali Fadavi, the navy chief of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, was quoted earlier Wednesday by Iranian state TV as saying that the American boats had shown “unprofessional acts” for 40 minutes before being picked up by Iranian forces after entering the country’s territorial waters. He said Tehran did not consider the US Navy boats violating Iranian territorial waters as an “innocent passage.”

 

The sailors were nonetheless allowed to make contact with the US military, based on Iran’s “responsibilities and Islamic mercy” late Tuesday, he said.

The Guard’s 200,000-strong force is different from the regular Iranian military and is charged with protecting the ruling system. Its naval forces are heavily dependent on armed speedboats that can be used in teams to swarm much larger vessels.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he was pleased with the sailors’ release and he thanked Kerry for his diplomatic efforts.

“Around the world, the US Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved,” Carter said.