KURDS "HUMILIATED" BY U.S. SEIZURE OF IRANIAN BUSINESSMAN

The United States still has not freed the Iranian businessman seized the other day in northern Kurdistan Iraq. Today the BBC reports that Iraqi president Jalal Talabani has called for his release and said his capture "humiliates" the Kurds who had invited him.

Writes the BBC:

"Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has called for the immediate release of an Iranian official detained by US forces in the semi-autonomous Kurdish north. Mr Talabani said the US had humiliated the Kurdish authorities by ignoring their laws and failing to consult them."

I wrote about this story on September 20, 2007, , in which I say that there is no evidence that the Iranian was connected with weapon smuggling, a charge that the U.S. military has made. Furthermore, I wrote that it appears the Iranian was just doing business in northern Iraq. And that the United States wants to arrest every Iranian found in Iraq, whether the evidence warrants or not, just to send a signal to Iran and to all Iranians to stay out of Iraq.

The BBC goes on to describe Talabani's reaction:

"In a angry statement, Mr Talabani - who is himself a Kurd - said the arrest was made without the knowledge or co-operation of the Kurdish regional government.

"This amounts to an insult and a violation of its rights and authority," said the statement, quoting from a letter Mr Talabani had sent the top US commander in Iraq Gen David Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker on the day of the arrest.

"The Iraqi president insisted that the man was part of a trade delegation - a guest of the Kurds - visiting to promote closer economic ties with Iran.

""I want to express to you our dismay over the arrest by American forces of this official civilian Iranian guest," he said.

"He said that Iran had threatened to close the border with the northern region if the Iranian official was not freed."

Instead of threatening Iranians, arresting Iranians, as in this case, or else planning to bomb Iran and Iranians, I want the United States to sit down and start talking, start practicing diplomacy, start easing tensions. Iran and Iranians are not the bogey men. The U.S. and George Bush should stop trying to demonize them, and, above all, should stop engaging in words and actions that presage an illegal attack.