Iran to charge 3 American hikers with espionage, says prosecutor

[maddezmom]

Source: CNN

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran will charge three American hikers who strayed into the country with espionage, a Tehran prosecutor said Monday.

The announcement comes only days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met privately with the families Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, who were detained along the Iran-Iraq border at the end of July.

Tehran's prosecutor for the Public and Revolution Court, Dr. Abbas Ja'afari Dolatabadi, announced the charges in an interview with the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

The Americans entered northern Iraq from Turkey on July 28 during a planned five-day hike. Bauer and Shourd had been living in Damascus, Syria; Fattal was visiting. They set out to hike in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region.



Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/11/09/iran.hikers/

[zonkers]

1. I don't think Big Dog can finesse this one with a few photo ops and brunch.

[tekisui]

2. Uh-oh.

That isn't good.

[geek tragedy]

3. Hiking in Iraq? Real smart. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Don't you have to be a little bit, like,

OUTTA YOUR FUCKIN GOURD to be hiking in that part of the world in the first pace?

[geek tragedy]

6. Apparently these are really brave and dedicated peace

activists. They've been places like Darfur and Golan Heights.

This is a severe provocation by the Iranians.

[BOG PERSON]

16. "peace activists"

:eyes:

[Robb]

5. Some background:

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/03_hikers.shtml

[Karenina]

15. The 4th hiker, Shon Meckfessel, interviewed by Amy Goodman

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/2/exclusive_friend_of_american_hikers_detained

[pitohui]

17. unfortunately they don't sound like the innocents they've been portrayed in the press

journalism has been a cover for espionage for years and these don't sound like innocent kids out stumbling around

they sound like people who have been in the area for years learning the language, situation, etc.

bauer in particularly seems to be a knowledgeable speaker in arabic and to know the issues of the region -- an awful big investment in education and background and language just to take a hike

if he is not a spy, this is a terrible injustice but it seems to me, let's be honest, if i were the cia or whoever, i'd sure have some contact w. this guy and a list of questions it might be nice if he could answer or get photographs of whilst out on an innocent "hike"

when i hike in other people's countries i do not get involved in politics, even on the side of angels

it looks to me this person was a doer not an innocent

me i'm a simple person i went hiking in turkey without speaking even a word of arabic or turkish or knowing fuck-all abt politics and somehow i found it easy to avoid trouble -- you know, the middle east is a big place, turkey alone is a big place w. plenty of mountains

but they chose these

as for the 4th hiker who got a "cold," yeah he got cold feet, you ever stand down from a hike because of a cold?

[WriteDown]

7. These 3 sound like typical CIA goons.....

They probably deserve a quick execution. :eyes:

Just posting this before someone else does, but actually means it.

[junior college]

8. A person's true feelings are often expressed in jest

[TexasObserver]

9. Their story does seem dubious.

Either they are very, very stupid, or they're lying.

Whichever it is, I don't want foreign policy altered to deal with them. They went somewhere they shouldn't, and that makes them subject to the laws of others.

[WriteDown]

10. Hmm, say that on one of the illegal immigration threads...

and brace yourself for the acrimony.

[provocateur]

11. option 1

They are Berkeley grads. I gotta go with "very, very stupid"

[gaspee]

12. Whatsamatter

couldn't get in?

:LOL:

[Arctic Dave]

13. Well they do have that scumbag Yoo teaching there. So stupid is possible

[boppers]

32. Welcome to DU!

Way to start the sizzle!

(If you haven't even been to Berkeley, all the crazy stories are true, *and* less crazy than the actual place)

[The Croquist]

30. We don't know the truth and may never but if they are not spies

they are idiots. It's all fine and dandy to want peace and love and to get to know the Iranian people but these people either accidentally or intentionally are responsible for an international incident that neither the US or Iran needs.

If they are spies they were working for the US and the US government should do what they can to free them. If they are innocent we shouldn't give up anything at the negotiating table to help them. They got themselves into this fix and they can get themselves out.

By the way I consider spying on other countries a perfectly legitimate function of government.

[TexasObserver]

34. If it is spying, I expect the captives to deal with it, and the US to try to help.

Spies know they are at risk, and they know that they are expendable.

The US knows that it has a duty to spies, but that duty is limited to the needs of the country. Maybe a deal is made to get them back, or maybe they're left dangling.

If they are not spies, but just dumb asses, the US should do what it can to get them back, within reason.

[The Croquist]

35. Its that "within reason" that is the problem

What you, I or the hikers families consider "within reason" can greatly differ.

[TexasObserver]

36. That's the nature of the term "within reason."

[JNelson6563]

14. Special kind of stupid.

[NickB79]

18. I love all the comments of how stupid these three hikers must be

Like that in some way excuses the fact that the Iranians are going to try them on bullshit espionage charges and likely lock them up for years in a pit of a prison.

When this story came out I thought they were idiots as well for hiking in Iraq. But that doesn't allow us to wash our hands of them as they are subjected to God-knows-what kinds of punishment on made-up charges.

Some people here need to grow up.

[pitohui]

19. they are not stupid but nor do i think the charges made up

did you read the link to their background?

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/03_hikers.shtml

they are political and highly educated, pretending they're stupid is a gambit to try to get them out

i don't think their crime deserves execution but nor do i think they're stupid, at least one of them was to my mind almost certainly a spy, there was a HUGE investment in education, language studies, etc. here

there is no shortage of hikes and mountains in the region if they were just seeking a nice hike

[NickB79]

20. Which one do you think was a spy, and how did you come to that conclusion? nt

[pitohui]

24. i would suggest you read their list of qualifications at the link and make up your own mind

i for one don't spend years learning languages and getting advanced degrees to go hiking in a foreign country, silly me, i spend a couple three weeks breaking in my boots and getting the weight down on my pack and i'm good to go

they were simply "over qualified" to be hikers, my friend

[Posteritatis]

28. By that logic my arch friends doing digs in Peru and Greece are Canadian spies. (nt)

[Robb]

21. Put another way,

...if one of them wasn't a spy, someone at Langley dropped the ball.

[pitohui]

23. i'm afraid so, robb, at least one of them was certainly well qualified to be a spy

at some point if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a bit perverse to refuse to consider the idea that it might just be a duck

[Posteritatis]

22. Yep, them thar edumacated peoples jus' gotta be enemy agents! (nt)

[pitohui]

26. they wouldn't be our enemy, they'd be our assets

do you really think that a young, energetic person never takes any risk if he thinks it will help his country?

maybe most people are cowards...but not all

[Posteritatis]

27. Some truly staggering conclusion-jumping here. (nt)

[Robb]

29. It's no more unbelievable

...that they were merely hiking. :shrug:

[ozone_man]

33. One thing to check is CIA recruitment of colleges.

Language specialty colleges in particular tend to have cozy relationships with the CIA, for obvious reasons. But it is not necessary to be attending one to be recruited. Berkeley is a fine, very diverse school, whether they get much recruitment there, I don't know.

[The Croquist]

31. There are many highly educated people who do stupid things.

Shane Bauer, age 27, speaks Arabic
Sarah Emily Shourd, age 30
Joshua Felix Fattal, age 27

They're not quite kids at those ages but that doesn't make them spies. Persian is the most common language spoken in Iran not Arabic. Maybe one of them speaks Persian too, maybe Persian and Arabic are close enough to work especially in that region or maybe they really wanted to be in Iraq.

[proud patriot]

25. crap

x(