TIT FOR TAT, Hostage takers play the old game.

Iranian News Agency Reports Release of Iranian Diplomat Who Was Seized in Iraq in February
April 03, 2007. The Associated Press FOX News
TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian diplomat in Iraq who was kidnapped in mysterious circumstances two months ago has been released, the Iranian authorities reported Tuesday. Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, will return to Tehran later Tuesday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing "informed sources." The report gave no indication of why or how Sharafi had been freed. In Baghdad, an official at the Iranian embassy confirmed Sharafi's release, but said he did not know who was responsible for freeing him. "He was kidnapped and I don't have further details," said the official, who added Sharafi had already left the country. "He was released yesterday [Monday]," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for not being authorized to speak to the media. Sharafi was seized on Feb. 4 when his car was intercepted by vehicles carrying armed men in the Karradah district of Baghdad. The gunmen, who wore Iraqi uniforms, forced him into one of their vehicles and sped away. Iran said he had been taken by an Iraqi military unit commanded by the U.S. forces, and said it was holding the Americans responsible for his safety. The U.S. authorities denied any role in his disappearance. The Iraqi government said it did not know who had abducted Sharafi, but Shiite lawmakers said he had been taken by an Iraqi commando unit that reports to the U.S. command — an allegation strongly denied by U.S. spokesmen. The abduction took place as tension mounted between Iran and the United States over alleged Iranian support of Shiite extremists in Iraq and U.S. efforts to force Tehran to stop enriching uranium — a process that can produce material for nuclear reactors or bombs. It also occurred nearly a month after U.S. troops detained five Iranians in northern Iraq and accused them of having links to a network backing armed Shiite groups.
Former FBI Agent on Private Business in Iran Missing
April 02, 2007 The Washington Post Robin Wright
A former FBI agent has been missing in Iran since March 8, according to U.S. officials. The unnamed former agent was on private business, but the United States is now sufficiently concerned about his welfare that the State Department today sent a formal message to Iran through Swiss intermediaries asking about his whereabouts and his situation. The Swiss Embassy represents U.S. interests in Iran. The American was visiting Kish Island, an Iranian resort and "free zone" off the southwest coast that does not require an Iranian visa to visit. He had traveled to Iran from the United Arab Emirates, U.S. officials say. "We don't know where he is. We have no reliable information on him," a senior official said. "I would not characterize him as a hostage." U.S. officials stress that the missing American was not working in any capacity for the U.S. government or any agency. His specialty at the FBI was not Iran, officials add. The State Department said the missing American, a middle-aged man who had retired from the FBI, was going to meet someone to set up an interview or interviews for a project involving a book and a documentary by a third party from Canada. He was effectively doing legwork for what a senior U.S. official described as an "innocuous" project. The case is unrelated to the 15 British sailors and marines seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf on March 23, U.S. officials insist.

Blair Warns Iran Tough Decisions Loom Over Captive Crisis
April 03, 2007 Agence France Presse Yahoo News!
Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran on Tuesday that his government would have to take increasingly tough decisions if 15 captive sailors are not quickly released. Blair also said the next 48 hours could be crucial in the 12 day old crisis, which Iran's Vice President Parviz Davoudi said could be resolved if Britain admitted the naval personnel had illegally entered Iranian waters. The prime minister said Britain has had "two very clear tracks" throughout the 12-day crisis, which has further strained relations between Iran and the West. "One is to try and settle this by way of peaceful, calm negotiation, get our people back as quickly as possible ... The other is to make it clear that if that's not possible, then we have to take increasingly tougher decisions." In Tehran, senior officials appeared to be taking a more conciliatory tone over the 14 men and one woman who were seized in the northern Gulf on March 23 accused of trespassing into Iranian waters. "London has changed its attitude for several days now and is acting on the basis of negotiations," Vice President Davoudi told reporters in the southern city of Bushehr where he was opening a new installation at Iran's first nuclear power station. "London must give guarantees and say that there was a violation and there will be no other errors in the future. I think that the problem heading in this direction and God willing will be resolved soon." Iran's top national security official Ali Larijani also said new talks had started with Britain for resolving the crisis, which he described as the first step towards finding a solution. "The British government has started diplomatic discussions with the foreign ministry to resolve the issue of the British military personnel," Larijani told state television's central news agency. "It is at the beginning of the path. If they continue on this path then logically conditions can change and we can go towards ending this issue." Larijani also gave a rare interview to British television in an apparent attempt to cool the boiling controversy over the capture of the 15 marines and sailors. He told Britain's Channel Four television there was "no need" to put the group on trial, describing the stand-off as "quite resolvable." "I've read the transcripts of the interview (Larijani) gave and that seems to offer some prospect but the most important thing is to get these people back," Blair responded. Britain, which unlike its ally the United States has diplomatic relations with Iran, has kept up bilateral contacts throughout the crisis and ambassador Geoffrey Adams was to meet foreign ministry officials later Tuesday. London maintains the group was carrying out routine anti-smuggling operations in Iraqi waters. Iran says that their Global Positioning System (GPS) devices show they intruded into its waters. Britain says their GPS information shows the crew were in Iraqi waters. The crisis has come at a perilous time for Iran's relations with the West, with the United States refusing to rule out military action over the Iranian nuclear programme and the United Nations imposing tough new sanctions. The atmosphere had also been soured by Iran's broadcast of televised "confessions" of the sailors admitting that they crossed into Iranian waters which have infuriated London. However, in a possible sign of rapprochement, Iran refrained from broadcasting the sound on more images of the sailors that were shown on state television on Monday. State television said all 15 sailors had given "frank confessions," and admitted to illegally entering its waters. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been scheduled to give a keenly anticipated news conference on Tuesday but this has been postponed "at the request of journalists," an official said. In one of the first press comments on the crisis after the Iranian New Year, the reformist Etemad Melli daily accused Britain of deliberately intruding on Iranian waters. "London's insistence on repeating such violations shows this country was prepared to pay the price -- which is the detention of its forces -- for carrying out this pre-meditated scenario."

The Botched US Raid that Led to the Hostage Crisis
April 03, 2007 Independent Online Patrick Cockburn
A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines. Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds. In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective, The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment. Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in Arbil - and the angry Iranian response to it - should have led Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable Navy search parties in the Gulf. The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials. The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which they met the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, and later saw Massoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), at his mountain headquarters overlooking Arbil. "They were after Jafari," Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Massoud Barzani, told The Independent. He confirmed that the Iranian office had been established in Arbil for a long time and was often visited by Kurds obtaining documents to visit Iran. "The Americans thought he [Jafari] was there," said Mr Hussein. Mr Jafari was accompanied by a second, high-ranking Iranian official. "His name was General Minojahar Frouzanda, the head of intelligence of the Pasdaran [Iranian Revolutionary Guard]," said Sadi Ahmed Pire, now head of the Diwan (office) of President Talabani in Baghdad. Mr Pire previously lived in Arbil, where he headed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Mr Talabani's political party. The attempt by the US to seize the two high-ranking Iranian security officers openly meeting with Iraqi leaders is somewhat as if Iran had tried to kidnap the heads of the CIA and MI6 while they were on an official visit to a country neighbouring Iran, such as Pakistan or Afghanistan. There is no doubt that Iran believes that Mr Jafari and Mr Frouzanda were targeted by the Americans. Mr Jafari confirmed to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, that he was in Arbil at the time of the raid. In a little-noticed remark, Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian Foreign Minister, told IRNA: "The objective of the Americans was to arrest Iranian security officials who had gone to Iraq to develop co-operation in the area of bilateral security." US officials in Washington subsequently claimed that the five Iranian officials they did seize, who have not been seen since, were "suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraq and coalition forces". This explanation never made much sense. No member of the US-led coalition has been killed in Arbil and there were no Sunni-Arab insurgents or Shia militiamen there. The raid on Arbil took place within hours of President George Bush making an address to the nation on 10 January in which he claimed: "Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops." He identified Iran and Syria as America's main enemies in Iraq though the four-year-old guerrilla war against US-led forces is being conducted by the strongly anti-Iranian Sunni-Arab community. Mr Jafari himself later complained about US allegations. "So far has there been a single Iranian among suicide bombers in the war-battered country?" he asked. "Almost all who involved in the suicide attacks are from Arab countries." It seemed strange at the time that the US would so openly flout the authority of the Iraqi President and the head of the KRG simply to raid an Iranian liaison office that was being upgraded to a consulate, though this had not yet happened on 11 January. US officials, who must have been privy to the White House's new anti-Iranian stance, may have thought that bruised Kurdish pride was a small price to pay if the US could grab such senior Iranian officials. For more than a year the US and its allies have been trying to put pressure on Iran. Security sources in Iraqi Kurdistan have long said that the US is backing Iranian Kurdish guerrillas in Iran. The US is also reportedly backing Sunni Arab dissidents in Khuzestan in southern Iran who are opposed to the government in Tehran. On 4 February soldiers from the Iraqi army 36th Commando battalion in Baghdad, considered to be under American control, seized Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat. The raid in Arbil was a far more serious and aggressive act. It was not carried out by proxies but by US forces directly. The abortive Arbil raid provoked a dangerous escalation in the confrontation between the US and Iran which ultimately led to the capture of the 15 British sailors and Marines - apparently considered a more vulnerable coalition target than their American comrades. The targeted generals * MOHAMMED JAFARI Powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, responsible for internal security. He has accused the United States of seeking to "hold Iran responsible for insecurity in Iraq... and [US] failure in the country." * GENERAL MINOJAHAR FROUZANDA Chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military unit which maintains its own intelligence service separate from the state, as well as a parallel army, navy and air force