THREE IRANIAN AMERICANS IN IRAN VS. FIVE IRANIANS HELD BY U.S.

Today in The New York Times, (sorry for the absence of HTML links, I am still in NYC on a "foreign computer") Helene Cooper reports that Condoleeza Rice has rejected the observation that Iran has taken three American-Iranians into detention, including the 67-year old scholar Haleh Esfandiari, as tit-for-tat for the Americans taking five Iranian "diplomats" into custody in Iraq this past January.

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday rejected linking Iran’s charges against three Iranian-Americans in Tehran to the Bush administration’s capture of members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Iraq."

"Ms. Rice said that the five Iranian Revolutionary Guard members arrested by United States forces in Iraq on Jan. 11 were working to destabilize Iraq and were “endangering” American troops there. “The two are simply not linked,” she said.

"Iran maintains that the men are diplomats and should not have been detained."

I have written more than once about the possible motivation of Iran in seizing the three Americans all of whom were on visits to Iran when they were seized. Recall that within the last month, V.P. Cheney prevailed upon the inner Bush circle to keep the five Iranians detained for at least another six months, notwithstanding that there was no credible evidence against them that has been revealed. Their only crime was to have been found in Iraq. Iran claims they are "diplomats." Perhaps this is true.

What is galling to the Iranians is that the United States has arrested these five and there have been no charges or evidence presented. This is like the Iranian seizure of the U.S. embassy personnel in Tehran some 30 years ago. Recall how incensed Americans were as a result. We can only imagine how irate the man in the street in Tehran is now about the American detention of the five Iranians. This is just not an issue of a rogue Iran regime doing bad things to Americans, as Tom Friedman seems to suggest in his op-ed column today in The New York Times. This issue generates ill will towards the U.S. by the Iranian people.

I want Iran to release Ms. Esfandiari immediatedly together with the two other Iranian Americans. But I also want the United States to release the five Iranians. For Condoleeza Rice to say there is no parity is just propaganda for those who are not watching what is actually happening.