New Example of Oxymoron: "Iranian Diplomat"

Everyone is familiar with the oxymoron, "giant shrimp". Today we are being asked to swallow, but not digest, a new oxymoron, "Iranian diplomat".

Recent news items have cursorily reported the release of five Iranian "diplomats" by U.S forces. The "diplomats", captured in 2007 in northern Iraq, were being held for "aiding" Shiite "militants". The U.S. refused to provide the rationale for their release, and they were treated to a hero's welcome upon their return to Tehran.

Let there be no mistake: these were the same kind of Iranian "diplomats" who undertook the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 87 innocent people and wounded more than 100. In Iraq, however, the mission of these particular "diplomats" was different: to train terrorists in the use of explosively formed penetrators ("EFPs"), which have killed and maimed numerous U.S. soldiers traveling in armored vehicles.

Needless to say, the timing of their release is puzzling, inasmuch as it is being credited to Ahmadinejad when the blood on Tehran's streets has yet to dry after post-election unrest. Has the Obama administration, which remained mute during the student protests, tacitly accepted the Ahmadinejad victory?

One can only hope and pray that the U.S. received in return something of concrete and substantial value, in addition to the release of Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi.