RELEASE MS. ESFANDIARI AND THE FIVE IRANIANS

Robin Wright in today's Washington Post reports on Iran's detention of the Iranian-American scholar 67-year old Haleh Esfandiari. I have previously posted comments about this unfortunate situation. See my post on May 11, 2007, and my post on May 12, 2007.

My point was and is that it should come as no surprise that Iran is retaliating against the United States for holding and detaining five Iranian "diplomats" seized in Iraq this past January. Especially after recent news reports that Vice President Cheney won out in his argument that the U.S. should hold these Iranians for at least another six months and not release them even though there is no real evidence against them for spying or aiding Iraqi insurgents.

But the linkage of the five Iranians with the case of Ms. Esfandiari seems non-existent to supporters of the Bush regime, for example, Condoleeza Rice. Robin Wright reports:

"In Moscow, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for Esfandiari's release. Her arrest and detention revealed "the nature of the Iranian regime," Rice told reporters. "She ought to be released and she ought to be released immediately.""

How must the detention of the five Iranians appear to people in Iran? Does it reveal "the nature of the [Bush] regime?"

Yes, Ms. Esfandiari ought to be released and she ought to be released immediately. But so should the five Iranians locked up by Cheney till at least July.