This is problematic:

Five Iranian officials held in Iraq for more than two years by U.S. forces returned home Sunday after the U.S. released them under pressure from the Iraqi government.

American officials said a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement required that they hand the men over, but said they fear the Iranians — held on suspicion of aiding Shiite militants — pose a threat to U.S. troops in Iraq.

[. . .]

The release of the five has been portrayed in Iran as a victory for the Islamic Republic at a time when the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under domestic and international criticism following the disputed June 12 presidential election and the ensuing government crackdown on protests.

These men, known as the “Irbil Five,” were members of the elite Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Their release was required by the U.S.-Iraq security agreement signed last December, whereby all detainees have to be handed over to the Iraqi government.

When the Irbil Five were captured in 2007, the event signaled a new seriousness about the Bush administration’s decision to crack down on Iranian saboteurs in Iraq. There was a fight between the U.S. military and the State Department about the utility of keeping the men detained. The Pentagon thought they were too dangerous to have at large, while State thought holding them would unnecessarily provoke Tehran into escalating attacks on American troops. Hindsight’s most important lesson here is that the latter view was proven wrong. The way to fight Iranian meddling was to fight it.

Here we are, sending these dangerous saboteurs out into the world at last. There should have been provisions in our security agreement with Iraq that dealt with special cases such as this one. Failing that, the Obama administration should have leaned on the Maliki government in order to prevent the Irbil Five from returning to Iran — especially in light of June 12, which dampened the urgency of engagement with Tehran. Let’s just hope the Pentagon and intelligence community keep an eagle eye on the Irbil Five and the administration doesn’t quibble about blow-back when faced with the inevitable once again.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 2:19 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.