U.S. Opts Not to Release Iranians Detained in Iraq Raid

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007; 3:00 PM

The United States will not release five Iranians detained in a U.S. military raid in northern Iraq until at least October, despite entreaties from the Iraqi government and growing behind-the-scenes pressure from Iran, according to U.S. officials. The delay is as much due to miscommunication within the U.S. government as a policy decision, they said.

During his Washington visit Monday and Tuesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari appealed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to free the five Iranians, who were arrested in the Kurdish city of Irbil in January, U.S. and Arab officials said.

Zebari told U.S. officials that the release would promote progress in the new U.S.-Iran dialogue on Iraq, which brought diplomats from the two nations together last month in Baghdad at their first public meeting in almost three decades. Iran has become pivotal to U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq, since Tehran now has greater influence in Iraq with a wider cross section of parties than any other country. It has also armed, funded and trained many of the militant groups.

Zebari warned that Tehran either might not attend a second session or not be cooperative unless the five Iranians are released, according to the sources.

The U.S. raid on Iran's northern liaison office Jan. 11 was designed to detain two senior Iranian officials, including the deputy national security adviser, who were visiting Iraq, U.S. officials said. The two escaped arrest, but U.S. commandos did detain five mid-level operatives working with Iran's elite Quds Force, which is the foreign operations wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and is tied to arming, training and funding militants in Iraq.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/20/AR2007062001456.html

[youngdem]

1. Our next POW will pay for this

Good going Chimp. You sure are tough when it's not your nuts in the vice, you chickenhawk motherfucker.

[seriousstan]

3. What, will they be beheaded twice?

[kenny blankenship]

2. They can't let them go, not after torturing them

It's the torturer's conundrum: the man I tortured may have known nothing, but now he knows too much about me.