This was mentioned on another thread but since this story is buried so deep, I thought I'd give it a thread all its own. As I've said before, there are two sides to every story but so far the media is saying very little. I'd sure like to know more about what this is about. It seems odd that the Iraqi govt. has to petition the U.S. govt. for the release of Iranians when they were meeting with Iraqi officials in Iraqi territory.

"Iranian officials have said that the men are diplomats. Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister and a Kurd, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that although the men being held were not officially diplomats, they had nevertheless been acting as liaisons between Iraq and Iran.

"It was not a clandestine operation," he said. "They were known by us. They were under surveillance by regional security. They operated with the approval of the regional government and with the knowledge of the Iraqi government. We were in the process of formalizing that liaison office into a consulate. Then they would have diplomatic immunity."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/middleeast/05iraq.html