Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Iran says snatched diplomat freed in Iraq [unconfirmed]
www.breitbart.com ^ | april 3 2007 | breitbart.com

Posted on 04/03/2007 6:56:06 AM PDT by KOZ.

The Iranian embassy in Baghdad said on Tuesday that its second secretary, Jalal Sharafi, who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital in February had been released.

The announcement confirmed a report on state television in Tehran, which said Sharafi would return to Iran later Tuesday.

"Yes, he was released yesterday," an official at the embassy told AFP but provided no further details.

Sharafi, 40, was abducted in Karrada, a predominantly Shiite southeastern district of Baghdad, on February 4 by gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms outside a branch of the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli.

His abduction came amid increasing tension between Iran and the United States, which arrested five Iranians on January 11 in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on suspicion of aiding and abetting the Iraqi insurgency.

But on Tuesday the US military expressed ignorance of Sharafi's release.

"We were not holding him, so we do not know about his release," said spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver.

Iran's foreign ministry had claimed that the United States supervises Iraq's defence ministry and was thus at least complicit in the abduction, which it blamed on a group linked to the Iraqi defence department.


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iran
uh-oh.
1 posted on 04/03/2007 6:56:07 AM PDT by KOZ.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: KOZ.
Looks like a hostage exchange to me.
The only up-side would be that once the Brits are released we could bomb the crap out of them - probably just wishful thinking....
2 posted on 04/03/2007 6:58:51 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KOZ.
More details....

Iranian news agency reports release of Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Iraq in February

Check out the first paragraph in particular.

3 posted on 04/03/2007 6:59:19 AM PDT by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KOZ.

Prisoner release in exchange for hostages... Never a good precedent.


4 posted on 04/03/2007 7:01:31 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner ("Si vis pacem para bellum")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Virginia Ridgerunner

seriously, iran goes to iraq, and we take them. then they take hostages on iraqi land, and we cave in. this is bad.


5 posted on 04/03/2007 7:06:10 AM PDT by KOZ.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: KOZ.
You are confusing the people.

This guy was NOT one of the ‘diplomats’ from the queds force or whatever we took when we raided their little compound that Iran wanted back.

This is some other random guy that the Iraqi’s took and were holding.

6 posted on 04/03/2007 7:08:07 AM PDT by FreedomNeocon (Success is not final; Failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts -- Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mewzilla

Hmmm did they kidnap a former US FBI Agent??

New York Times
April 3, 2007

U.S. Asks Iran About Missing Man

WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) — The United States is asking Iran to provide information about an American citizen believed to have vanished several weeks ago in Iran while on private business, the State Department said Monday.

The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that the family and employer of the man had reported him missing, and that the department was sending an official inquiry to Iran on Monday via Swiss diplomats, who act as a go-between with Iran because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.

The man is believed to have disappeared from Kish Island south of Iran. He was not identified. State Department officials said he retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation some years ago and no longer worked for the government.


7 posted on 04/03/2007 7:14:30 AM PDT by RDTF (They should have put down Barbarella instead of Barbaro)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: KOZ.
President Bush should have made a big deal announcing that, wouldn't’t you know it, we had completed our questioning of the ‘diplomats’ that had been arrested in Iraq and were in the process of returning them to Iran, but NOW with the hostage thing they pulled off it will be impossible for us to release there people without it looking like an exchange. Then add, maybe, just maybe, if the Brits were returned, along with an Iranian apology for mistakingly thinking they had been in Iranian waters, that the release of the five Iranians could take place.

We are just SO bad at this PR thing.

8 posted on 04/03/2007 7:34:40 AM PDT by jwparkerjr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RDTF

9 posted on 04/03/2007 7:44:56 AM PDT by GalaxieFiveHundred
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Psalm 73

Definitely wishful thinking, I suspect. The wussification of the West is nearly complete, and I doubt there will be any bombing—except from Iran.


10 posted on 04/03/2007 7:56:21 AM PDT by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Psalm 73

probably just wishful thinking.


probably


11 posted on 04/03/2007 7:57:23 AM PDT by TucsonDevilBlues
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: KOZ.; nuconvert; jeffers; Cap Huff; Dog

Boundary experts say Britain, Iran can agree deal

by Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - Shifting sands and a poorly defined maritime border could give Britain and Iran enough room to save face in their 12-day stand-off over a group of detained British sailors and marines, border experts say.

Because the maritime boundaries off the Shatt al-Arab waterway, drawn up in 1975 but not updated since, are open to a certain degree of interpretation, Britain and Iran could “agree to disagree” over exactly who crossed into whose territory.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0373002420070403?src=040307_1126_DOUBLEFEATURE_top_news


12 posted on 04/03/2007 8:47:21 AM PDT by AdmSmith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith

How ‘diplomatic’ of Mr Pratt to write this up in a way that makes it sound as though this wasn’t an intentional planned act by the Iranian regime (complete with video cameras) and that it’s some disputed boundary problem.


13 posted on 04/03/2007 9:07:48 AM PDT by nuconvert ([there are bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: FreedomNeocon

Well the others may be next. This is from an article I read this morning:

“A senior Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday that the government was “intensively” seeking release of five Iranians detained by the U.S. military more than two months ago in northern Iraq.

“We are intensively seeking the release of the five Iranians,” the senior official said.

“This will be a factor that will help in the release of the British sailors and marines” held by Iran since March 25.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/03/iraq.iranians.ap/index.html


14 posted on 04/03/2007 9:18:36 AM PDT by conservativegranny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson