WASHINGTON _ On a trip to Iran a decade ago, former Rep. Jim Slattery exchanged a "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" cheer with an Iranian official who had attended the University of Kansas and remembered Slattery's time as a Democratic congressman from the state.
Slattery struck up a friendship with Majid Takht-Ravanchi, now Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, based on their Kansas ties.
This relationship _ and others Slattery has built with Iranian officials in the years since he left Congress _ played a role in brokering an international prisoner swap this month between the U.S. and Iran after decades of hostility.
