If you believe the Professor, then yes. Gates was “Crowleyed”, arrested and released. The Iranian terrorists were only arrested and released. Advantage Iranian terrorists.
Blackfive points us to a Long War Journal report by Bill Roggio,
US released senior Iranian Qods Force commander
A senior Qods Force officer who led one of the three commands in Iraq assigned to attack US and Iraqi forces was one of five Iranians released by the US military on July 9.
…Farhadi is considered one of the three most dangerous Iranian operatives to have been captured in Iraqi since the US began targeting the Iranian-backed Shia terror networks. His role as one of the three theater commanders in the Ramazan Corps means he is directly responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing attacks against US forces.
The Ramazan Corps is responsible for the death of hundreds of US soldiers in Iraq, and the corps backed the various uprisings by Shia extremist groups. Ten percent of US deaths in Iraq are estimated to have been caused by the Iranian-supplied, armor-piercing explosively-formed projectiles, or EFPs.
Blackfive’s James Hanson, aka Uncle Jimbo, a retired Special Operations Master Sergeant, adds his perspective,
Make sure to read the entire piece as it contains the usual deep background on the extent of Iranian actions in Iraq and the fact that they were directly responsible for the deaths of far too many US servicemembers and Iraqi civilians. Iranian actions such as these exposes their operatives to detention as terrorists. The fact that we are now releasing them is shocking and needs to be discussed far more vigorously. Some of this is driven by our security agreements with Iraq, but it seems likely that some is to push negotiations with Iran on multiple issues. They have been complaining that we hold and must release their operatives and it seems we are putting the desire for talks with Iran above the safety of our troops and Iraqi civilians.
It doesn’t make sense to me and I’m sure there is some complicated, nuanced, multi-pronged reason. I’d like to hear it. This seems to me like an area where an enterprising journalist might want to start asking questions. Paging Pamela Hess, paging David Martin, Jim Miklaszeswki. Hello, anybody there? So far, a short AP article is all I’ve seen.
Bill Roggio, by the way, is someone you should be reading and following @billroggio for your Twitterers.
An Army veteran himself, Bill has embedded with the Marines, US Army, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police in Iraq in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, and with the Canadian Army in Afghanistan in 2006. According to his bio, Bill has been published in The Washington Times, The New York Post, The National Review, The Toronto Times, and Die Weltwoche. His photographs have been published in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He also presents regularly at the US Air Force’s Contemporary Counterinsurgency Warfare School on the media and embedded reporting.
In other words, he’s the best the blogosphere has to offer, a subject matter expert who take deep dives in their areas of expertise and share it with the world. In Bill’s case, it is reporting from the world’s most dangerous places. He has helped build Long War Journal into an indespensible resource for those interested in Obama era Overseas Contingency Operations. Like Michael Yon, Long War Journal is supported by its readers. If you value this type of citizen journalism, please consideer making a donation. In addition to being a new media pioneer, citizen journalist, Bill is a great guy and a family man.
I’ve interviewed Bill from Iraq and Afghanistan and had the pleasure of meeting him in May 2007, when we talked about the Long War Journal and the Anbar awakening in Iraq,