U.S. Decides Against Freeing 5 Iranian Agents

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041301282.html?nav=rss_email/components

U.S. Decides Against Freeing 5 Iranian Agents
Administration Resists Tehran's Pressure, State Department Recommendation

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007; Page A12

After intense internal debate, the Bush administration has decided to hold on to five Iranian Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents captured in Iraq, overruling a State Department recommendation to release them, according to U.S. officials.

At a meeting of the president's foreign policy team Tuesday, the administration decided the five Iranians will remain in custody and go through a periodic six-month review used for the 250 other foreign detainees held in Iraq, U.S. officials said. The next review is not expected until July, officials say.

The five Iranians were seized in January at Iran's liaison office in Irbil, Iraq. The question of what to do with the detainees split the Bush administration.
The five Iranians were seized in January at Iran's liaison office in Irbil, Iraq. The question of what to do with the detainees split the Bush administration. (By Yahya Ahmed -- Associated Press)

The five, seized in a Jan. 11 raid by U.S. forces in the Kurdish city of Irbil, are at the center of increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The decision is certain to further irritate Tehran, which has ratcheted up pressure on the United States and on its allies and even its friends in the Iraqi government to win freedom for the Irbil five.

The decision came as Iraq's government spokesman, on a White House visit Friday, urged better ties. "We feel that the improvement and the better relations between the United States and Iran could minimize -- could make the interference less," Ali Dabbagh said in a news briefing with White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Differences over the five Iranians reflect an emerging divide on how to deal with Iran. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went into the meeting Tuesday advising that the men be freed because they are no longer useful, but after a review of options she went along with the consensus, U.S. officials say. Vice President Cheney's office made the firmest case for keeping them. Their capture signals that Iran's actions are monitored and that Iranian operatives face seizure.

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[Parisle]

1. The nazi junta is doing everything it can to provoke Iran...

--- The sons of bitches in the White House will not be satisfied until they have another war.