[NYTr] Another Lie Shot Down: US Releases 9 Iranians in Iraq

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The New York Times - dated Nov 10, posted Nov 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/world/middleeast/10iraq.html

U.S. Releases 9 Iranians in Iraq

By CARA BUCKLEY

BAGHDAD, Nov. 9 — Nine Iranians held on suspicion of aiding insurgents
were released from American custody in Baghdad early today, according
to the United States military.

Two of the freed men were among five Iranians arrested in January
during a raid on an Iranian government office in the northern city of
Erbil, which further strained the increasingly tense relations between
the United States and Iran.

In an interview today, the Iranian ambassador here, Hassan Kazemi Qumi,
said two of the men arrested in the January raid were Iranian
government employees, and all of the other seven who were released
today were civilians. He denounced their detentions as illegal and said
another 25 Iranians remained in American custody, including six
government employees.

“The Iraqi side is optimistic, so, God willing, they will be released,”
Mr. Qumi said.

But the American military put the number of Iranians in its custody at
11, and gave no hint as to if or when they would be released. It also
said one of the freed men had been held since November 2004, when the
American military said he was spotted in Falluja, fleeing the scene of
a mortar attack. Another, it said, had been captured in 2005, in a raid
in Ramadi.

The Iranian government office in Erbil, in Iraq’s Kurdish region, was
shuttered after the January raid but reopened this week as an Iranian
consulate.

In a news release, the American military said that after careful
reviews, the nine men were no longer considered security threats and
had no further intelligence value. The release said they were expected
to be returned to Iran late Friday.

On Thursday, the Americans released about 500 Iraqi prisoners from
overcrowded detention centers. Since troop levels were heightened in
February, the number of detainees swelled form 16,000 to 25, 800
according to military figures.