09 April 2007

Selling out. Again.

Leading Seaman Faye Turney has told how she "felt like a traitor" when she was forced to write "confession" letters shown on Iranian television. The only woman among the 15-strong Royal Navy crew has also defended her decision to sell her story to ITV1's Trevor Macdonald and the Sun newspaper.
I'm guessing the £100,000 she's reportedly taking for her story, eases the sting somewhat. Who is going to be genuinely surprised if Ms. Turney is also invalided out of the Navy on grounds of some kind of pensionable disability? By doing this, "Topsy Turney" dishonours the memory of someone else's daughter.
Sally Veck, whose 19-year-old daughter Eleanor Dlugosz was killed in Iraq, criticised the MoD for letting the sailors and marines profit from their ordeal. She told the Times: "If you are a member of the military, it is your duty to serve your country. "You should do your duty and not expect to make money by selling stories."
RELATED:   The price of appeasement
-- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Taliban on Monday threatened to kill four Afghan medical personnel and their driver unless the government releases two Taliban commanders, seeking a deal similar to the prisoner swap that won an Italian journalist's freedom last month.
We're teaching them how to win. 

LAST WORD:   ICEBERG! DEAD AHEAD!!! 

Could this media spectacle possibly get any more embarrassing? The British Naval establishment was already being regarded as the "Romper Room" of international military forces...
Military personnel have been banned from selling their stories to the media amid a growing row over the returned captives from Iran. The government made the move after captured sailor Faye Turney and her fellow hostages were accused of "behaving like reality TV stars" after being given permission to cash in on their ordeal.