After an inordinately long wait to hand down a verdict concerning Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the remaining two hikers held in Iran on charges of illegal entry and espionage, they have been given a guilty verdict and sentenced to eight years in prison: three years for illegal entry, five for espionage (the evidence for which has still yet to be presented). They've already been in detention for two years, but it's doubtful that there's any credit being given for time served.
There is no official comment as of yet from the families, but one can imagine their reaction.
The movement dedicated to their release, Free The Hikers, has no intention of giving up. According to a Facebook post by organizer Brendan McShane Creamer, "We're getting them home & it's not going to be in 8 years." They are currently brainstorming ideas on just how to make that happen. If you have any- any respectful ones, that is- you're encouraged to Like the Free the Hikers Facebook page and chime in.
Obviously, this is not over yet.
Showing posts with label iran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iran. Show all posts
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
So... It's Been Two Years Now.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. You know them better as "the hikers". Still in Iran after two years.
What the movement for their release is currently trying to do right now is call the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran- that's in Washington- en masse and kindly- KINDLY- ask for their release. The hope is that the sheer volume of calls on their behalf might be able to force a bit of progress.
If you do call, you're requested to be nice. That can't be stressed enough. Don't go yelling at them. Yelling may only make matters worse.
The number is (202) 965-4990. That number specifically. The requested details to hit upon in the call are here. They may ask for you to follow up with an e-mail; the address for that is requests@daftar.org. If they tell you they're not a political office- and they may- just tell them to pass the message along to one.
What the movement for their release is currently trying to do right now is call the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran- that's in Washington- en masse and kindly- KINDLY- ask for their release. The hope is that the sheer volume of calls on their behalf might be able to force a bit of progress.
If you do call, you're requested to be nice. That can't be stressed enough. Don't go yelling at them. Yelling may only make matters worse.
The number is (202) 965-4990. That number specifically. The requested details to hit upon in the call are here. They may ask for you to follow up with an e-mail; the address for that is requests@daftar.org. If they tell you they're not a political office- and they may- just tell them to pass the message along to one.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
So... There Are Still Two Hikers, Amazingly.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal are still being held in Iran. It's about 21 months now they've been held. Their lawyer got word of them going on a 17-day hunger strike. He has merely 'heard of' it because he hasn't been permitted to meet with them for a trial on charges that don't even really matter anymore because the trial has been postponed and cancelled and delayed several times now for seemingly no good reason, including any trial dates we may have mentioned here in the past. This would be at least the fourth one; the third hiker, Sarah Shourd (who has since been released), told of three separate occasions that they had all gone on hunger strikes during her time of detention.
In solidarity, friends and family of Shane and Josh have begun what they're calling a 'rolling' hunger strike- that is, one or more of them hunger-strikes for at least a day, then they hand off to someone else. They've said that will go on until Shane and Josh are released.
Meanwhile, Muhummad Ali has joined in the effort. No word on whether he'll be joining in the rolling hunger strike, but he's lent his support.
If you're so inclined to join in, they'd undoubtedly appreciate it. Be sure to make it known you're doing it, though; otherwise it doesn't really do much good.
In solidarity, friends and family of Shane and Josh have begun what they're calling a 'rolling' hunger strike- that is, one or more of them hunger-strikes for at least a day, then they hand off to someone else. They've said that will go on until Shane and Josh are released.
Meanwhile, Muhummad Ali has joined in the effort. No word on whether he'll be joining in the rolling hunger strike, but he's lent his support.
If you're so inclined to join in, they'd undoubtedly appreciate it. Be sure to make it known you're doing it, though; otherwise it doesn't really do much good.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Wiki Walk
You know what we haven't done in a long time? Pore through some Wikileaks diplomatic cables. Since everyone's kind of gotten bored with going through them every day and going 'hey, look at this' to every single thing, we're going to have to go to Wikileaks itself for the cables, which means the links that follow are not safe for military types.
The news organizations that don't have the entire stack of cables notwithstanding, so far 11,218 of the 251,287 cables have been released. That's 4.46% of the total.
That said, let's go browsing. Again, we're linking directly to the cables, so click with care.
First, let's just note the oldest cable in the group (for now), coming out of 1966. It comes out of Argentina, dealing with national jurisdictions in coastal waters. Argentine legislation under consideration at the time would claim territory six miles offshore, and 200 miles as "preferential". The Argentine navy claimed that it would soon be standard throughout the Western Hemisphere. (The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea set a maximum of 12 miles where a country can exert total control, a further 12 miles for more limited control, and an exclusive economic zone of 200 miles, which gives a country the rights to resources but doesn't let them restrict access. So Argentina wasn't too far off.)
The second-oldest is from February 1972, dealing with the sale of F-4E fighter jets to Iran. Ah, Cold War. How morally ambiguous you made us.
A psychological profile of Iranians in general made in 1979, written by one Victor Tomseth, isn't overly flattering. As you'd think back then. It was leaked way back in November, but it's the first you've likely heard of it. The first sentence of the profile is "PERHAPS THE SINGLE DOMINANT ASPECT OF THE PERSIAN PSYCHE IS AN OVERRIDING EGOISM." It goes on like this.
One of today's leaks comes out of Colombia, where in December 2007, president Alvaro Uribe agreed to an "encounter zone" in which to retrieve hostages taken by the paramilitary group FARC that at the time included Ingrid Betancourt. More surprising is the $100 million (US) set aside in a fund as an incentive for FARC members to release hostages and leave the group. In another cable released today, Uribe, during the visit of an American delegation led by Harry Reid, Uribe compared the threat Hugo Chavez posed to Latin America to the threat Hitler posed to Europe.
In a cable from April 2004, Panama's Supreme Court voted 8-1 that it lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Israeli arms smuggler Shimon Yalin Yelinek in the transfer of arms from Nicaragua to Colombia, despite the fact that he was living in Panama, that he was alleged with falsifying Panamanian National Police documents, and that they had used a boat registered to Panama. The cable notes charges that all eight majority judges received bribes to vote the way they did. At the time of the cable, Yelinek was also under investigation by America's DEA on money-laundering accusations. (Yelinek is at large to this day, supplying support to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico's drug war.)
In a cable from June 2006, Ban Ki-Moon, in his days prior to becoming Secretary-General of the United Nations, offered congratulations for the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That's about all there is to that cable, but that's all one really needs to wonder if that's something becoming of a guy who'd go on to be put in charge of an organization dedicated to world peace.
A cable from January 2003 shows that supposed illegal immigrants from Pakistan within the United States, persecuted by anti-Arab attitudes in a post-9/11 America, and fearful of deportation back to Pakistan if they made themselves known in any way to the INS, re-defected to Canada to seek political asylum. The cable makes no mention of how those requests turned out.
And let's finish out with a February 2008 cable from the consulate in Kolkata, India, mentioning that in 2007, it rejected about 60% of applications for religious worker visas. Why? The applicants weren't actually religious workers. In some cases, the problem was as simple as being a maintenance guy who wasn't partaking in any actual religious duties at their place of worship, or not living within the consulate's jurisdiction. In other cases, though, people went so far as to make up a place of worship so they could claim it to the consulate. Not only didn't it work, but they'll likely have some interesting questions to answer once they meet whoever's in charge of them metaphysically.
The news organizations that don't have the entire stack of cables notwithstanding, so far 11,218 of the 251,287 cables have been released. That's 4.46% of the total.
That said, let's go browsing. Again, we're linking directly to the cables, so click with care.
First, let's just note the oldest cable in the group (for now), coming out of 1966. It comes out of Argentina, dealing with national jurisdictions in coastal waters. Argentine legislation under consideration at the time would claim territory six miles offshore, and 200 miles as "preferential". The Argentine navy claimed that it would soon be standard throughout the Western Hemisphere. (The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea set a maximum of 12 miles where a country can exert total control, a further 12 miles for more limited control, and an exclusive economic zone of 200 miles, which gives a country the rights to resources but doesn't let them restrict access. So Argentina wasn't too far off.)
The second-oldest is from February 1972, dealing with the sale of F-4E fighter jets to Iran. Ah, Cold War. How morally ambiguous you made us.
A psychological profile of Iranians in general made in 1979, written by one Victor Tomseth, isn't overly flattering. As you'd think back then. It was leaked way back in November, but it's the first you've likely heard of it. The first sentence of the profile is "PERHAPS THE SINGLE DOMINANT ASPECT OF THE PERSIAN PSYCHE IS AN OVERRIDING EGOISM." It goes on like this.
One of today's leaks comes out of Colombia, where in December 2007, president Alvaro Uribe agreed to an "encounter zone" in which to retrieve hostages taken by the paramilitary group FARC that at the time included Ingrid Betancourt. More surprising is the $100 million (US) set aside in a fund as an incentive for FARC members to release hostages and leave the group. In another cable released today, Uribe, during the visit of an American delegation led by Harry Reid, Uribe compared the threat Hugo Chavez posed to Latin America to the threat Hitler posed to Europe.
In a cable from April 2004, Panama's Supreme Court voted 8-1 that it lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Israeli arms smuggler Shimon Yalin Yelinek in the transfer of arms from Nicaragua to Colombia, despite the fact that he was living in Panama, that he was alleged with falsifying Panamanian National Police documents, and that they had used a boat registered to Panama. The cable notes charges that all eight majority judges received bribes to vote the way they did. At the time of the cable, Yelinek was also under investigation by America's DEA on money-laundering accusations. (Yelinek is at large to this day, supplying support to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico's drug war.)
In a cable from June 2006, Ban Ki-Moon, in his days prior to becoming Secretary-General of the United Nations, offered congratulations for the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That's about all there is to that cable, but that's all one really needs to wonder if that's something becoming of a guy who'd go on to be put in charge of an organization dedicated to world peace.
A cable from January 2003 shows that supposed illegal immigrants from Pakistan within the United States, persecuted by anti-Arab attitudes in a post-9/11 America, and fearful of deportation back to Pakistan if they made themselves known in any way to the INS, re-defected to Canada to seek political asylum. The cable makes no mention of how those requests turned out.
And let's finish out with a February 2008 cable from the consulate in Kolkata, India, mentioning that in 2007, it rejected about 60% of applications for religious worker visas. Why? The applicants weren't actually religious workers. In some cases, the problem was as simple as being a maintenance guy who wasn't partaking in any actual religious duties at their place of worship, or not living within the consulate's jurisdiction. In other cases, though, people went so far as to make up a place of worship so they could claim it to the consulate. Not only didn't it work, but they'll likely have some interesting questions to answer once they meet whoever's in charge of them metaphysically.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
So... The Two Hikers Go On Trial Today.
It's Super Bowl Sunday. Yes. And if the Packers win, I'm sure I'll be in here after the game whooping and hollering because I am a Wisconsinite and it is a law of physics.
Meanwhile in Iran, though, you have far higher stakes, as the hikers still there, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, go on trial for "spying" today when they allegedly crossed the border into Iran while hiking in Kurdistan. 'Allegedly' is important here, as one of the Wikileaks cables shows US military officials as not believing they had ever actually set foot on Iranian soil (as well as some speculation as to their intent).
Sarah Shourd, the third hiker, is also being tried, albeit in absentia, as she was released earlier on medical grounds. No sane person expects her to actually show up.
So keep them in your thoughts today; hope for the best. You don't have to agree with what they were doing there in the first place. Nobody's asking you to. Just lend some support for their release is all.
Meanwhile in Iran, though, you have far higher stakes, as the hikers still there, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, go on trial for "spying" today when they allegedly crossed the border into Iran while hiking in Kurdistan. 'Allegedly' is important here, as one of the Wikileaks cables shows US military officials as not believing they had ever actually set foot on Iranian soil (as well as some speculation as to their intent).
Sarah Shourd, the third hiker, is also being tried, albeit in absentia, as she was released earlier on medical grounds. No sane person expects her to actually show up.
So keep them in your thoughts today; hope for the best. You don't have to agree with what they were doing there in the first place. Nobody's asking you to. Just lend some support for their release is all.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
So... There's Still Two Hikers.
One of the three hikers detained in Iran since last July will, according to reports, be released on Saturday. No word on which one, or why.
In any case, that still leaves two.
EDIT: It's Sarah Shourd that's to be released.
In any case, that still leaves two.
EDIT: It's Sarah Shourd that's to be released.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Golden Iranian Nugget
Twitter? No problem. The Ahmadinejad government- I hesitate to say 'regime' out of a probably-misplaced sense of impartiality- can shut that down without all that much trouble.
Green Revolution? No problem. They had some significant difficulties handling that, but the Ahmadinejad government has beaten them down considerably over time.
Non-governmental, purely economic-related protests and strikes in the Tehran bazaar? (And all for around ten bucks?) PROBLEEEEEEEEEEEEM!
Green Revolution? No problem. They had some significant difficulties handling that, but the Ahmadinejad government has beaten them down considerably over time.
Non-governmental, purely economic-related protests and strikes in the Tehran bazaar? (And all for around ten bucks?) PROBLEEEEEEEEEEEEM!
Friday, July 9, 2010
So... There's Still These Hikers.
Back in April, I mentioned here three hikers being held in Iran- Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal.
It is now July, and they are still over there; it's been 343 days now. They could still, obviously, use any support they could get- spread the word, sign their petition, donate some money to help pay for various things, whatever. (If you're so inclined to do something more advanced, like host a vigil or fundraiser, there's a guy on Facebook running things named Brendan McShane Creamer. He knows what he's doing; he was a sizable part of the successful effort to retrieve Laura Ling and Euna Lee last year. You'll want to go talk to him.)
It is now July, and they are still over there; it's been 343 days now. They could still, obviously, use any support they could get- spread the word, sign their petition, donate some money to help pay for various things, whatever. (If you're so inclined to do something more advanced, like host a vigil or fundraiser, there's a guy on Facebook running things named Brendan McShane Creamer. He knows what he's doing; he was a sizable part of the successful effort to retrieve Laura Ling and Euna Lee last year. You'll want to go talk to him.)
Monday, April 19, 2010
So... There's These Hikers.
While I prep the next feature-lengther, turn your browsers yonder this way. Quoting from the main page:
As of this post, they've been in captivity for 262 days, give or take a few hours. Head on over to the Free the Hikers site and any way you could help out would be much appreciated, even if it's just signing the petition.
Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal have been detained in Iran since July 31, 2009, when news reports say they accidentally crossed an unmarked border during a hiking trip in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. They were in a peaceful region of Iraq that is increasingly popular with Western tourists.
The three young Americans, all graduates of the University of California at Berkeley, are being held in Evin Prison in Tehran. No charge against them has been presented in a court of law and they have only be able to contact their families once.
Shane, Josh and Sarah care greatly about the world in which we live. 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.
We hope the Iranian authorities understand that if Shane, Sarah and Josh were in Iranian territory there is just one reason: because they made a regrettable mistake and got lost. Please let them return home as soon as possible.
As of this post, they've been in captivity for 262 days, give or take a few hours. Head on over to the Free the Hikers site and any way you could help out would be much appreciated, even if it's just signing the petition.
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