Posted on 01/19/2007 6:12:31 AM PST by nuconvert
U.S. Deadlocked on Whether To Free Iranian Terror Suspects
ELI LAKE
January 19, 2007
WASHINGTON — The American government is deadlocked on the issue of whether to allow five Iranians captured last Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil to return home, according to three administration officials.
While the five individuals picked up in last week's raid have been determined not to have diplomatic immunity, as Iran's Foreign Ministry has insisted, it is still unclear whether Tehran might prevail in the standoff. The military has said those detained were members of Iran's elite al-Quds force, a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that is in charge of anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorism.
On one side of the bureaucratic debate are the CIA and the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Bureau. According to one administration official familiar with the debate, they argue that the prolonged detention of the suspected Quds force operatives will provoke a further escalation with Iran and scuttle the Iraqi government's plan to help secure Baghdad with American soldiers. On the other side of the debate are the Pentagon's special operations office, the Marines, and the Army — which have pleaded that the captured Iranians are too great a danger to American forces to return to Iran.
A group of suspected Quds force operatives carrying diplomatic credentials, who were captured in a December 21 raid at the compound of Iranian Shiite political leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, were allowed to return home earlier this year.
The outcome of the bureaucratic debate will be a good measure of the seriousness of the president's new war strategy for Iraq. Last Wednesday, Mr. Bush pledged to interrupt terrorist supply lines originating in Iran and Syria, to disrupt attacks from terrorists supported by both countries, and to "seek out and destroy the networks
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
This news story should never have been reported. Instead they should have buried it out in the Iraqi desert.
I have an idea to get us out of deadlock...
It's why we have Gitmo.
At some point we need to remember that international law provides for combattants not fighting in their country's uniform to be summarily shot as spies.
Do I get a vote, because I'll break that deadlock!
NO!
To me what is really funny about this is that 50-60 years ago...
We would have had zero issues about how to deal with them...The opposition at the time would not have had a problem on how to deal with us...
Funny how we have changed, and the opposition has not...
I predicted last week (in another thread on this same topic) that Bush will let these guys go free. And it will be Bush that will end up making the call on this. Bush will display weakness, as per State Dept. protocol.
The only thing these Iranians need to worry about is what to wear at their victory parade back in Tehran.
And still there is nothing in the MSM.
This is insane!
So what is there to ponder. We got'em, we keep 'em. Suck them dry of intelligence. If we send them back they will come back to make us rue the day we released them.
This war will never be won unless Bush continually breaks the ties in favor of Side #2.
Side #1 still lives in September 10, 2001 Land - along with the rest of their Liberal buddies.
I don't trust any deals with these people anymore. They always come back to bite us anyway, why give them what they want?
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