Sarah Shourd and her friends Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were not "idiots who didn't have a map and just wandered over the border into Iran" on a sunny day's hike. The family and friends (of which I am one) suspected it all along, but because they were held in Iran's prison without ANY communication with family, lawyers or friends, we didn't have a way to prove it.
Now, thanks to the excellent research journalism which The Nation has just published, after 5 months of interviews and research, we know they didn't cross the border at all, but were kidnapped in Iraq by a rogue Revolutionary Guard who now is in prison himself with his confederates, the self-same Evin Prison where the three have been held for nearly a year.
http://www.thenation.com/article/36562/us-hikers-were-seized-iraq?page=0,1
if you want to read it yourself.
Why the Iranian government has not released them, since their captor was arrested and tried shortly after they were seized, is anyone's guess. Wanting to save face? A desire to hang onto a perceived commodity however illegally obtained? A desire to barter for Iranian prisoners held by the US? Possibly.
I wish all those people out there who superficially read the news and judge Sarah, Shane and Josh by those superficial facts, condemn them as stupid or ignorant or naive or whatever would wise up. Would they say the same about Daniel Pearl, who, like these three, were in the Middle East in order to promote understanding by learning about and reporting about that region's peoples and conditions, and was victimized by people with bad intent. Would these same people chastise and ridicule victims of crime elsewhere? Would they have all reporters and others stay within their own borders and rely entirely on "official" reports of conditions and peoples elsewhere, especially in the Middle East? I admire and appreciate the independent voices of journalists, NGO and other activists, and even tourists who go everywhere, and report on their experiences, and the people who live there.
If you want to know more about Sarah, Shane and Josh, please visit:
http://blog.freethehikers.org/1953/yes-they-are-still-there/
http://www.asafeworldforwomen.org/safeworldfilm.html
Sarah's mom Nora and I are going to England for 2 weeks to speak out for the three. If anyone has press contacts or wants Nora to speak to her group, please contact us. aleenstein@gmail.com
Posts
