American Citizens Held Hostage! WTF?
 

WTF is wrong with this country that such a thing is allowed to happen?

This is NOT any kind of "political" thread but rather about AMERICAN citizens being held HOSTAGE by a country run by a mad man!

Theodore Roosevelt is rolling in his grave!

This once great nation has become a country of pussies!

http://i1006.photobucket.com/albums/...6_Layer163.jpg

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=T2

"Iran cancels planned release of American hiker

By the CNN Wire Staff

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- The release of American hiker Sarah Shourd has been "canceled" because the judicial process has not been completed, a prosecutor said Friday, according to the semiofficial Iranian Labour News Agency.

Iranian officials had said Thursday that Shourd, one of three American hikers held in Iran for more than a year, would be released Saturday.

"The news [of the impending release] is not approved by the judiciary and, naturally, any decision regarding the defendants is contingent upon the completion of the due process," said Abas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran's public and revolutionary prosecutor, according to ILNA.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, an official agency of the Iranian government, cited the deputy director of the president's office of communications as saying that Shourd's release had only been "postponed."

"He said more details will be given later," it added.

Shourd, 32, along with Shane Bauer, 28, and Josh Fattal, 28, were detained July 31, 2009, after they allegedly strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Tehran has said the three hikers were spies, and Iran's intelligence minister has hinted the country may consider releasing them in exchange for the release of Iranian prisoners, according to state news outlets.

Masoud Shafii, the Iranian lawyer who represents the hikers, said he has put in a formal request for the trio's release within the past two weeks. Shafii said he told prosecutors that a year had passed since their arrests and the government had not shown any just cause for their imprisonment, and that Shourd has a medical condition that requires proper care.

A spokeswoman for the families told CNN that Shourd told her mother during their sole visit, over two days in May, that she had found a lump in her breast.

The hikers' families' website, freethehikers.org, said Shourd has been in solitary confinement, able to meet for only two 30-minute periods per day with Bauer, who is her fiance, and Fattal. The two men share a cell.

The three Americans -- all of them graduates of the University of California, Berkeley -- have not been charged, the website says. They are in Evin Prison in Tehran, have been able to telephone their families only once, on March 9, and have been denied access to their lawyer, the website adds.

"Shane, Sarah and Josh care greatly about our world and have a documented record as advocates for social and environmental justice," it says. "They admire and respect different cultures and religions and share a love of travel that has taken them to many countries. That is why they went to Kurdistan, not because they wanted to enter Iran.

"Their protracted detention without due process is illegal according to international and Iranian law and must end immediately. It is widely acknowledged that they are being held for political purposes that have nothing to do with the facts of their case. Their detention is arbitrary and inhumane and we call on the Iranian authorities to release them without further delay."

CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Mary Snow in New York contributed to this story."

Sally sez:

I think Iran should let these people go or learn a lot about Cruise Missiles.

What say you?

Sally.

I agree, we should send in the military to rescue them. While we are at it, we can turn Iran into a fucking parking lot.

they knew the risks involved with the area they were fucking around in. nobody is going to war over them.

They all went to UC Berkeley. They probably think the Iranian government are the good guys and the US are just racists that don't understand.

hey , lets go hiking in the Iranian mountains today .

http://i52.tinypic.com/2cr25xz.jpg

Don't want to get snatched by wild ragheads? Don't go stomping through their back yard. Same goes for great white sharks, grizzly bears, and rattlesnakes...

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh Exactly what I was thinking. Even Iran is going "no one's that stupid; they must be spies!"

I'm sure I could think of some secret stuff she needs to work on getting me to tell her.

You yanks think you're hot shit, lets not forget:
Korea
Bay of the pigs
Vietnam
Somalia
Afghanistan
Iraq
:winkwink:

just bomb them

If it wasn't for Churchhills' dick sucking abilities, you would be speaking German right now.

You are welcome

Not really a good place to hiking and it could be a whole lot worse...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._detainees.jpg

What you are seeing in the photo is a form of torture. You deprive the prisoner of all their senses. It makes them hallucinate and destroys their mental capacity. It also can cause insanity. I am sure these hikers in Iran are getting far better treatment.

Yes, some of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are bad guys, but a significant percentage are absolutely innocent and were just in the wrong place at the wrong time...

bingo :thumbsup

india
falklands
america
normandy
etc..
:winkwink:

who goes for a hike in iraq ? and who goes for a hike knowing you are on the border with iran ? Isn't that like juggling chainsaws blindfolded ?

Does anyone have any info on why these people really were there ?

I have sympathy for them if they are indeed "not spies", although i am sure the american government doesn't have quite the same "sympathy" when mexicans "stray" across the border. I wonder what would happen to an iranian who strayed across the american border ?

holly fuck, no matter how anyone spins it - this picture shows torture..nothing less...

LOL, you are so funny. More like, if it wasn't for Britian paying for amercian mercenarys then we would ALL be speaking jerry now.

Can't we just trade her for some more weapons? It worked once before.

Iran is next on our list.

why would anyone in a right state of mind go hiking in iran lol

You got to give her credit... she did get a thread on GFY talking about her ;-)

Some of you should try READING the post before you let your lack of info overload your keyboard. These people did NOT intend to enter Iran!

"Shourd, 32, along with Shane Bauer, 28, and Josh Fattal, 28, were detained July 31, 2009, after they allegedly strayed across an UNMARKED BORDER into Iran while hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region."

Having been in the area myself, I assure you that there are no well marked borders and it is very easy to move from one country into another without being aware of it. I am quite certain that these people did just that and are now being held as political pawns by Iran.

Sally.

They were spies, not just hikers.

http://freethehikers.org/about-the-h...-sarah-shourd/

"Sarah Shourd, 32, has been living with Shane in Damascus, where she teaches English and is learning Arabic. She previously taught as part of the Iraqi Student Project, a program which gives Iraqi students living in Damascus the skills to continue their education in US schools. She was on a break from her teaching responsibilities for a week, and she and Shane decided to take a hiking trip with their friends Josh and Shon. Sarah has written articles on travel and social issues reflecting her time in Syria, Ethiopia, Yemen and Mexico. Sarah, who has an older brother and sister, was born in Oak Park, Illinois and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She attended UC Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lived after graduating until moving to Damascus with Shane."

Thank me for doing your homework for you.

Sally.

Damn man, I thought that was a Slipknot gig :GFYBand

What would Reagan do?

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

You scared them into releasing her, Sally Rand! Good job!

Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans held in Iran for more than a year on suspicion of spying, left the country on Tuesday after she was released on bail, and arrived in Oman a few hours later where she and her mother were reunited.

Yeah, damn right!

LOL!

Sally.

nice she was too cute to sit in jail

Perhaps you should too. None of that changes anything anyone posted. So what, they "strayed" into Iran. Boo fucking hoo, wah wah wah. Cry me a river. They knew the consequences and dangers of what they were doing. And they paid those consequences.

End of fucking story.

And had YOU "strayed" across an invisible border wtihout knowing it, I'm sure you would feel as you do now. Remember that when Ötzi The Iceman was found near a mountain top on the Italian/Austiran border, those in charge had to run GPS to figure out what country he was actually in! Turned out to be Italy but they had to use modern technology to prove it.

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/archa...he_iceman.html

"International complications came into play as, although the body was discovered in a place where waters as they drained from this part of the Alps flowed towards Austria, its actual resting-place was confirmed, by a subsequent border survey of early October, to have been some 93 metres inside the Italian border. Agreements were reached between the relevant authorities allowing for the continued responsibility for the investigation of the corpse to lie with the Forensic Institute at Innsbruck.

A dispute about "ownership" of Ötzi the Iceman, as the remains became known in an emerging world-wide fascination with this "cold case" of an ice mummy found on the Austrian-Italian frontier, continued for six years until, early in 1998, under armed guard, (because some Austrians had shown dis-satisfaction to see this relocation), Otzi and his belongings were transported from the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Innsbruck over the Brenner Pass to a new and purpose-built refrigerated resting place in a converted former bank building selected for its favourable location in the historical center of Bolzano - of an important town within Italy that was reasonably close to the actual discovery site: the conversion cost some ?8,800,000 then roughly equivalent to $10,000,000."

93 metres is roughly 300 feet.

Sally.

The truth of the matter is when an American citizen enters another country, they are at the mercy of their laws and there is nothing the US can do about it. There is one American in a South American country that has been in jail for years now, claiming she is a terrorist.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about this earlier. How many illegals do we arrest daily and return to their home country. Go figure.

Can I come? Should be fun, the weather is nice! :helpme

That is a real nice cover ... CIA is getting better ....

As for detaining, the USA has no lessons to give... :2 cents:

the border is much like your border, it is marked in many areas , and others it may not be. But just as your border , everyone who is near it knows very well they are near it. And just like your border , you will be arrested if you stray past it , regardless of how it is marked. just like every border on earth.

Where is your thread about the THOUSANDS of mexicans held "hostage" by the usa ?
Where is your thread about the thousands of muslims held hostage by israel ?

p.s. before you assure us that israel and iraq have "no well marked borders" perhaps you should remember others have been there too :Oh crap

well said.