Expeling the Iranians puts paid to the fiction that the operatives were "invited" into Iraq. Either they were invited, in which they were wrongly detained, or else they were not, in which case Iran has culpability.
One trusts that these operatives are being bugged and tracked. Must be some interesting conversations going on in the Tehran debriefing room today.
"U.S. defense officials familiar with the raids said the captured Iranians had detailed weapons lists, documents pertaining to shipments of weapons into Iraq, organizational charts, telephone records and maps, among other sensitive intelligence information. Officials were particularly concerned by the fact that the Iranians had information about importing modern, specially shaped explosive charges into Iraq, weapons that have been used in roadside bombs to target U.S. military armored vehicles."
""The evidence shows that they were exactly up to the things our suspicions indicated," said one U.S. defense official.
Adding to the political sensitivity of the situation, the two men were detained while inside the compound of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of the most powerful Shiite leaders in Iraq."