GRABBED AT THE BORDER

SINCE THE END OF THE GULF WAR IN 1991, VARIOUS American journalists, businessmen, even a bomb-disposal expert have found themselves in Iraqi jails after wandering across the border with Kuwait. In most cases they were held for a few days or weeks and then quietly released. But last week when two civilian defense contractors were detained after straying into southern Iraq, State Department officials were worried that this time they might not be so fortunate.

Choking in the grip of the U.N.'s economic sanctions, Saddam Hussein had in recent months tried a charm offensive, designed to persuade the U.S. to ease up--much to the disgust of at least one hard-liner close to him. Last week Saddam's eldest son Udai publicly condemned the conciliatory efforts as a failure and urged his father to take a harder line. On the very day that the U.S. succeeded once again in blocking efforts by France, Russia and China to loosen the sanctions, the two Americans were seized after they entered Iraq. "They're certainly in the mood to make this an incident," says Rend Francke, executive director of the Washington-based Iraq Foundation, a pro-democracy think tank.

On Monday evening, U.N. officials say, the two Americans had gone to the border area to visit friends in a Danish engineering unit. Border guards apparently mistook their white jeep for a U.N. vehicle and waved them through several checkpoints. After Bangladeshi soldiers at a U.N. position turned them back, the men tried to retreat but were stopped by Iraqi police just 25 yards from the border.

When they heard of the Americans' plight Tuesday morning, State Department officials began quietly negotiating for their release, hoping to avoid turning them into hostages to Saddam's agenda. White House officials declined to identify the two men or say what they had been doing in the region. "It was a mistake, a blunder on their part," said Defense Secretary William Perry, who was visiting Saudi Arabia last week.

--By Nancy Gibbs