The "Rat" Is Out of the Bag - One of the Released Iranian Qods Forces Was A Top Commander

First off, I blogged about this nightmare of a release to begin with but now, the word has leaked out that the whole release of the five Iranian Qods Force personnel from Iraq back to Iran earlier this month was a slight of hand, with an extremely high level Qods Force commander as part of the deal. From the article at The Long War Journal, look at this hair raising excerpt:

Reports initially indicated that five Iranians who were captured by the US in Irbil in northern Iraq in January 2007 were released from custody. But US military intelligence officials told The Long War Journal that Farhadi was disguised as one of the Irbil Five to soften the blow of the release.

Get that? This was literally a deception so that one of the most wanted men that was in custody could be returned to Iran to appease the mullahs. Look at the set up part of this from the article:

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.
Mahmud Farhadi, the leader of the Zafr Command, one of three units subordinate to the Qods Force's Ramazan Corps, was among five Iranians turned over to the Iraqi government and then subsequently turned over to the Iranians.

I just do not understand this, folks. We have an officer of the Qods Force INSIDE of Iraq directing lethal attacks on American troops during the Iraq War and this piece of shit is released back to Iran and I hear no one, NO ONE screaming about this. Well ....I'M SCREAMING ABOUT IT! This sack of shit should have been in a water boarding room instead of back home in Iran being the center of parades. Somebody tell me what we, the U.S., got out of this release? What was the bargaining? This scumbag was released 3 weeks ago and in the meantime, Iranian made rockets were used to kill three Minnesota National Guard troops in Basra....the time to document Iranian-aided deaths of American troops is over...it's a fact, it's out there for all to see. I've said it again, instead of releasing these Qods Force infiltrators back to Iran, there should have been a mission INTO Iran to have taken out several of the Qods Force units as well as more commanders over there.

Here's the message to Iran: "Send your Qods Forces into a war that the U.S. is involved in, kill American troops and you will still get back your forces if they are captured." And we expect them to stop making nuclear weapons?

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.
Mahmud Farhadi, the leader of the Zafr Command, one of three units subordinate to the Qods Force's Ramazan Corps, was among five Iranians turned over to the Iraqi government and then subsequently turned over to the Iranians.
A spokesman from the Iranian foreign ministry identified Farhadi as one of the five men released on July 9, according to a report on Iranian state-run television.
Reports initially indicated that five Iranians who were captured by the US in Irbil in northern Iraq in January 2007 were released from custody. But US military intelligence officials told The Long War Journal that Farhadi was disguised as one of the Irbil Five to soften the blow of the release.
The US had previously released two members of the Irbil Five in November 2007, according to The Associated Press, but the report received little attention. This "left room for Farhadi to be pawned off as one of the Irbil Five and snuck out the back door," one official told The Long War Journal.
The US captured Farhadi during a raid in the northern Kurdish province of Sulimaniyah on Sept. 20, 2007 [see LWJ report, Captured Iranian Qods Force officer a regional commander in Iraq].
Farhadi's detention caused a row between Iran and Iraq. Iran closed the border after claiming Farhadi was an Iranian trade delegation representative named Agha Farhadi who was visiting Iraq on a sanctioned business trip.
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 backed the various uprising 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.
US handover of Iranian agents to continue
The US military is slowly and quietly turning over some of the most dangerous Iranian operatives and officers as it draws down in Iraq. The release of Farhadi and the other four Iran operatives was preceded by the release last month of Laith Qazali, the brother of Qais Qazali.
Qais Qazali was the commander of the Qazali network, which is better known as the Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous. Qais' network was behind the January 2007 attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, as well as other high-profile terror attacks in Iraq. Five US soldiers were killed during the Karbala attack and subsequent kidnapping attempt. After US and Iraqi security forces closed in on the assault team, the terrorists executed the five US soldiers.
Laith was released as part of negotiations to free five British contractors taken captive by Qais' group. The Brits were kidnapped in early 2007 shortly after Qais was detained by US forces.
The League of the Righteous responded to Laith's release by turning over the bodies of two of the hostages and demanding the return of all of the group's leadership before releasing any other captives. The two hostages were murdered months before their bodies were turned over to the British.
US intelligence officials who directly deal with the Iranian threat in Iraq are dismayed by the release of the Qods Force agents, who they believe will quickly return to initiate attacks on US and Iraqi forces.
The US will continue to release more of these dangerous Iranian agents as time goes by, intelligence officials say.
"If you didn't like the release of Laith and the Irbil Five, you'd better get used to it," one official told The Long War Journal on July 11.