WHEN THEY HOLD OURS, IT'S A CAUSUS BELLI...:

US holds Iranians as bargaining chips (Gareth Porter, 5/05/07, Asia Times)

When the administration of US President George W Bush announced in January that it was targeting Iranian officials in Iraq, it justified the policy as necessary because of the Iranians' alleged involvement in attacks on US forces.

But recent developments have underlined the reality that those Iranian officials are serving as bargaining chips in the Bush administration's effort to get Iran to use its influence with Iraqi Shi'ites to help stabilize the situation in Iraq.

The administration's decision to hold on to five Iranians seized by US troops in the Kurdish city of Irbil in January, rather than release them to reciprocate Iran's unconditional release early last month of 15 British sailors and marines captured in the Persian Gulf in March, raises the question of what calculations administration officials have been making in regard to their Iranian prisoners.

...when we hold theirs, it's just savvy bargaining.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 4, 2007 8:34 AM