Yesterday I noted the raid on the Iranian “consulate” in northern Iraqw. In today’s New York Sun, Eli Lake reports that the building raided was not a consulate. Better yet:
An American intelligence official yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the five Iranians and another individual picked up in the raid in Irbil as “high value terrorists.” This official said that the individuals were believed to be behind attacks on American soldiers and random Iraqis. He said details would become clearer as American military intelligence officers finished combing through the office’s hard drives and documents and as the suspects underwent interrogation. Another administration source yesterday said the White House and State Department do not consider the Iranians arrested yesterday to have diplomatic immunity because the building that was raided was not a consulate. This means that unlike senior Iranian officials arrested last month, those detained yesterday will likely not be returned to Iran.
Lake’s story may be overoptimistic. At the New York Sun’s blog It Shines For All, Daniel Freedman notes that the Kurdish authorities are protesting the raid and that one of the apprehended Iranians already been been freed.
Over the weekend, I noted Mac Owens’s Weekly Standard review of Triumph Forsaken. In today’s Christian Science Monitor, Mac invokes Triumph Forsaken in arguing that “Bush’s war plan can work.”
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