Retired Navy Admiral and Senate hopeful Joe Sestak was asked recently at the Pennsylvania Press Club Luncheon about the recent catpure of 10 U.S. Navy sailors by the government of Iran.
The question came from John Baer with the Philadelphia Daily News.
JOHN BAER: Earlier this month, the Iranian Navy seized 10 U.S. sailors, photographed them surrendering, filmed the U.S. commander apologizing, and forced a female U.S. sailor to remove — to cover her head in Islamic modesty. Is this consistent with the Geneva Convention?
Secretary of State John Kerry has said the footage and the treatment made him “angry.” Sestak took a different tack:
JOE SESTAK: You know, if a North Korean vessel came into our waters here, waters we own, like those waters. Were an Iranian warship, like our riverine craft, went into our waters, I wouldn’t let my men or women board that vessel [sic], and we would board it, because they’re in our territory. What mischief are they up to? And I would have the crew go to the end of the boat and hold their hands up. I actually did it. I walked in the shoes of my sailors every day out there. I would go out with them on that same riverine craft, and I scaled 40, 50 foot rope ladders to go up the hull of a merchant ship, with a helicopter with a gun down facing the merchant men and women on that, who we hustled to the back, so we would be safe climbing up, and then with guns, they held it up as we looked for contraband on this neutral merchant ship that might be going into Iraq or Iran. That’s tough land out there — water. There’s hundreds of boats that go back and forth every day at night. And often one would come towards me because they’re cigarette smuggling boats from UAE to Oman. And we would actually take a helicopter and start to wash them away and even if necessary, put bullets in the water. Our vessel went into their land — territory. Did they take propaganda advantage of it? You betcha. But think of this. I would argue that if we had not done the communications with Iran to stop their nuclear weapons program, we could not have picked up a hotline. When I was an Admiral out there as I end this question, I put out, after I talked with that 3rd Fleet Commander, because it was so hard out there with hundreds of vessels going back and forth that our Navy needed an Incident at Sea Agreement, an INCSEA agreement we had with the Soviet Union, to where when something happened with the Soviet Union, and we had when people were picked up a hotline and we resolved it. Because remember this, when the British sailors were captured in 2007, 13 of them, it took 15 days before they were released. We picked up the phone and resolved it. Because people can be tough back here at home, talking, be out there where we are. And we want to resolve things. Not having to go into conflagration. Thank you.
You can watch a clip below:
