Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican, criticized Kerry for attending the State of the Union before the sailors were released.
“The secretary of state should not say, ’It’s gonna be soon, real soon,’” Rogers said on CNN on Jan, 12th. “We need to have the secretary of state engaged in this issue right now. In fact, I’m not sure I would have him at this speech.”
Roger also dismissed the idea, put out by the administration that the transfer of the sailors could not happen at night because it would be too dangerous.
“This notion that it happens at night and can’t be done safely is absolute hooey, absolute hooey,” Rogers said. “This should be done, it should be done immediately, and I think every level of our government should be applied to this, including our secretary of state.”
Farsi Island is an area where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps — which the semi-official Fars News agency said detained the service members — tends to operate, and they are much more aggressive than the Iranian Navy.