Iran to make U.S. "regret" detention of Iranians-FM

TEHRAN, June 12 (Reuters) - Iran will make the United States "regret" its detention of five Iranians in Iraq since early this year, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday.
Iran says the five Iranians detained by U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil in January are diplomats and has demanded their release. U.S. officials say they were involved in supporting militants inside Iraq.

"We will make the Americans regret their ugly and illegal action against the Islamic Republic of Iran's consulate in Arbil, Iraq, and the abduction of the five Iranian diplomats," Mottaki said, according to the state broadcaster's Web site.

Is this the price for Haleh Esfandiari's and the rest of hostages' freedom?

Iran Says Judge to Decide Next Week on U.S.-Iranians

TEHRAN -- An Iranian judge will next week decide whether to indict or free three American-Iranians accused of acting against national security, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday. Alireza Jamshidi said preliminary investigations would be finalized in two or three days. "Next week the judge will decide whether to free them or to indict them," he added. Jamshidi denied that one of the detainees, academic Haleh Esfandiari, had been prevented from gaining access to her lawyer, Iranian Nobel Peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi. "She (Ebadi) can come right now and take on the case," the judiciary spokesman told a news conference, after being asked to comment on Ebadi's statement on Monday that her client was unable to contact her.

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4 Americans Held Hostage in Iran!

Ali Shakeri


Bob Levinson



1. Dr. Haleh Esfandiari

2. Bob Levinson, ( Father of Seven Children who miss him terribly. Please visit http://helpboblevinson.spaces.live.com/)

3. Ali Shakeri (from The Center for Citizen Peace Building)

4. Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh

update 1: Amnesty International: The Iranian government is holding Iranian-Americans as pawns in its crackdown on local Iranian civil society. Intelligence agents are trying to force these detainees to make false confessions to incriminate the broader community of Iranian activists and scholars. --Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

update 2: Roxie asks if the Media can be trusted in this regard:

The story continues: Tuesday May 1, 2007, "Usually reliable Iranian sources say that detained American, Robert Levinson, was turned over to American officials in the last 24-hours.The Iranian source said that “He is no longer here. But because he was never ‘officially detained’ here, no one will say on the record that he has been released. I have again been told to be quiet and that he is definitely in the hands of his countrymen."

Press TV (the first international Iran-based news network to broadcast in English) reported May 3, 2007, “A former FBI agent the US government claimed had gone missing in the Iranian island of Kish has returned to his country amid news black out.”QUESTION: Since it is clear that Mr. Levinson was released the first of May, and since this is 24th of May, why have their been no stories about Mr. Levinson in the news concerning his time while “missing” in Iran? Is it as Iranian news states, "a news black out?" Does the lack of follow-up by both the Government and the news media leave American citizens wondering if they are being told the truth about world events?

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