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  • Shane Bauer's ingratitude

    September 22nd, 2011
    05:17 PM ET
    Shane Bauer's ingratitude – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
    Shane Bauer's ingratitude

    Editor's Note: Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, from which this piece is reprinted. You can read Abrams' blog Pressure Points here.

    By Elliott Abrams, CFR.org

    In the last year I have written several blog posts about the American hikers imprisoned in Iran, hoping to help keep attention focused on getting them freed. Like every American I was delighted to see them out, finally, yesterday.

    But like many Americans, I was not delighted by the statement made immediately by one of the two, Shane Bauer. After thanking the Sultan of Oman for helping get them out, he said this:

    Two years in prison is too long and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran.

    Who exactly are the “political prisoners” in America?

    Can we have some names? Who exactly are the “unjustly imprisoned people” in America, and how precisely does Mr. Bauer know them to be “unjustly imprisoned” rather than convicted according to due process of law?

    Given that Mr. Bauer has just suffered two years imprisonment by Iran for the crime of hiking and mistakenly crossing a border, is he entirely comfortable with his comparison of the two countries in the statement just quoted? So it would appear. Thinking of the immense diplomatic activity this country undertook to free him and the enthusiasm with which his liberation was greeted yesterday, that statement of his leaves a very bad taste.
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Freed hikers: Iran held us because we're American
    APBy VERENA DOBNIK - Associated Press | AP – 59 mins ago

    NEW YORK (AP) — Declaring that they were detained because of their nationality, not their actions, two Americans held for more than two years in an Iranian prison came home Sunday, ending a diplomatic and personal ordeal with a sharp rebuke of the country that had imprisoned them after they hiked over the border from Iraq.

    Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, both 29, were freed last week under a $1 million bail deal and arrived Wednesday in Oman, greeted by relatives and fellow hiker Sarah Shourd, who was released last year.

    Their saga began in July 2009 with what they called a wrong turn into the wrong country. The three were hiking together in Iraq's relatively peaceful Kurdish region along the Iran-Iraq border when Iranian guards detained them. They always maintained their innocence, saying they might have accidentally wandered into Iran.

    The two men were convicted of spying last month. Shourd, whom Bauer proposed marriage to while they were imprisoned, was charged but freed before any trial.

    The men took turns reading statements at a news conference Sunday in New York, surrounded by relatives and with Shourd at their side. They didn't take questions from reporters.

    Fattal said he wanted to make clear that while he and Bauer "applaud Iranian authorities for finally making the right decision, they "do not deserve undue credit for ending what they had no right and no justification to start in the first place."

    "From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American," he said, adding that "Iran has always tied our case to its political disputes with the U.S."

    The two countries severed diplomatic ties three decades ago during the hostage crisis. Since then, both have tried to limit the other's influence in the Middle East, and the United States and other Western nations see Iran as the greatest nuclear threat in the region.

    The detention of the hikers, Bauer said, was "never about crossing the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq. We were held because of our nationality."

    He said they don't know whether they had crossed the border. "We will probably never know."

    The irony of it all, he said, "is that Sarah, Josh and I oppose U.S. policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility."

    The two also told of difficult prison conditions, where they were held in near isolation.

    "Many times, too many times, we heard the screams of other prisoners being beaten and there was nothing we could do to help them," said Fattal. "How can we forgive the Iranian government when it continues to imprison so many other innocent people and prisoners of conscience?"

    They said their phone calls with family members amounted to a total of 15 minutes in two years, and they had to go on repeated hunger strikes to receive letters. Eventually, they were told — falsely — that their families had stopped writing them letters.

    "We lived in a world of lies and false hope," Fattal said.

    Fattal called their release a total surprise.

    On Wednesday, he said, they had just finished their brief daily open-air exercise and expected, as on other days, to be blindfolded and led back to their 8- by 13-foot cell.

    Instead, the prison guards took them downstairs, fingerprinted them and gave them civilian clothes. They weren't told where they were going.

    The guards led them to another part of the prison, where they met a diplomatic envoy from Oman.

    His first words to them? "Let's go home."

    Hours later, the gates of Tehran's Evin prison opened and the Americans were driven to the airport, then flown to Oman.

    The days following their sudden release, Fattal said, made for "the most incredible experience of our lives."

    Shourd was with the families to greet the two on the tarmac at a royal airfield near the airport in Oman's capital, Muscat. At about 20 minutes before midnight Wednesday, Fattal and Bauer, wearing jeans and casual shirts, bounded down the steps from the blue-and-white plane. The men appeared very thin and pale, but in good health.

    The first hint of change in the case came last week when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Fattal and Bauer could be released within days. But wrangling from within the country's leadership delayed efforts. Finally, Iranian defense attorney Masoud Shafiei secured the necessary judicial approval Wednesday for the bail — $500,000 for each man.

    Iran's Foreign Ministry called their release a gesture of Islamic mercy.

    Until their release, the last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010, when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran, which Iranian officials used for high-profile propaganda.

    Since her release, Shourd has lived in Oakland, Calif. Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from Elkins Park, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb.
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

    Comment


    • #3
      If those jackass's (all of them) had one ounce of common sense they would have never gone there in the first place. Iraq is still a war zone and whomever permitted their entrace should have their head examined. Its not like this is the first time this has happened with Iran. And they were just innocently hiking?

      I would like to know though who footed the bill for their release and transit. Thats 1.5 million dollars to get the three back. Where did that money come from?

      Now consider the delegations bill that helped free them:
      The American delegation included Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, the Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, and Interim Dean of Washington National Cathedral, and former North Carolina State Sen. Larry Shaw,

      Who paid for this?


      Sorry, but this assnine adventure stinks of "make me rich when I sell my book publicity" and its pure out pathetic IMO. And they should be made to repay the money in full for their actions.

      I would have left them there for their ****ING stupidity!
      Last edited by Dreadnought; 26 Sep 11,, 01:21.
      Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

      Comment


      • #4
        Stockholm syndrome?
        Those who know don't speak
        He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

        Comment


        • #5
          The irony of it all, Bauer said, "is that Sarah, Josh and I oppose U.S. policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility."

          Shane Bauer And Josh Fattal, 2 U.S. Hikers Held In Iran For 2 Years, Return Home

          This just about says it all particularly after Dinnerjackets statements about 911 at the UN which caused several delegates to walk out.

          Assholes, You cry when you got locked up for being absolutely irresponsible and stupid and then slap those that saved your dumb asses in the face. Proof exists you can have a college degree and still be a complete disrespectful moronic degenerate asshole! They should have let you rot in that jail and no doubt you should be forced to repay the "ransome" and all of those whose time and travel was paid by US taxpayers.

          If you dont like your governments policy over Iran and their many UNSC violations as well as Human Rights violations and insults then why not move there?

          One can only hope that nobody is stupid enough to put money in your pocket for an interview or book deal when its pretty obvious it was in mind since the beginning of all of this.

          Sleep well under that blanket of Freedom your government provides for you morons!
          Last edited by Dreadnought; 26 Sep 11,, 04:27.
          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Dreadnought View Post

            I would have left them there for their ****ING stupidity!
            me too :wors:
            J'ai en marre.

            Comment


            • #7
              It does seem to be the height of ingratitude to make comments such as that straight after your own government spent over a million dollars getting you released from a Middle Eastern prison. Have they even publicly thanked the US government for getting them out?

              Comment


              • #8
                just shows even time in an iranian prison can't cure a terminal case of stupidity.
                There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                Comment


                • #9
                  Here's something I'll bet you didn't know:

                  Captive American hiker's Jewish roots
                  Joshua Fattal, 29, one of two American hikers released from Iranian jail after two years, is son of an Israeli citizen. US, Israeli media kept silent so as to not endanger his life

                  Joshua Fattal, 29, one of the two American hikers released from an Iranian prison last week, is the son of an Israeli citizen and has visited the country many times over the years.

                  After spending 781 days behind bars in Iran, Fattal and his friend Shane Bauer returned to the United States on Sunday.

                  Fattal's father, Jacob, was born in Iraq and immigrated to Israel, only to move to the United States later on. His son has visited Israel numerous times over the years, including a short trip prior to his and Bauer's hiking trip.

                  The two were joined by another American, Sarah Shourd, and began their journey in Syria, traveling across to the Iranian-Iraqi border where they were arrested for suspected espionage.

                  Safe on US soil, the two hikers spoke for the first time in public about their ordeal. Bauer was himself beaten and Fattal forced down a flight of stairs, Shourd told reporters.

                  "Solitary confinement was the worst experience of all of our lives," Fattal said. "We lived in a world of lies and false hope.

                  "Many times, too many times, we heard the screams of other prisoners being beaten and there was nothing we could do to help them."

                  'Best New Year's Gift'
                  Shourd was released last year after paying $500,000 bail, but the two men were forced to spend more than two years at the hands of the Iranians. They eventually paid $1 million for their release.

                  "It's the best gift we could have received for the (Jewish) New Year," Fattal's father told Yedioth Ahronoth.

                  His aunt, who lives in Israel, said: "We've prayed for his safety for the past two years. We went crazy. We talked to him and were able to notice he was very thin. He promised to come visit Israel, but now he's going to undergo a rehabilitation process."

                  The ordeal also ended well as Bauer and Shourd announced they became engaged while still in prison.

                  According to the Jewish Exponent, a weekly newspaper in the US, US and Israeli media were aware of the Jewish aspect of the story but chose to keep it under wraps so at to not hinder release efforts.

                  The Associated Press contributed to the report
                  Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

                  Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    wow, another +1 for stupidity.

                    "let's see, i have an israeli father and am jewish...what shall i do today? why yes, yes i will hike along the iraq-iran border, NO PROBLEM THERE..."
                    There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Maybe just maybe they kept it under wraps because the US taxpayer would be pissed off that they are indeed paying for arrogance and sheer stupidity of this bunch.

                      I wonder if this bunch even considers how many people out of jobs and at poverty levels that this 1.5 million coupled to the delegations cost to get them out could actually help those that really need it. I truely doubt it.
                      Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        So the burning question on everybody's minds is ..

                        WTH were these people thinking & doing there ?

                        Maybe one day in some interview we will get to know. Maybe it will have persuasive elements in it. Or these people could just melt into the backgorund and this news item will be replaced by many others and be forgotten.

                        Initially thought there was some movie potential here, but this is no 'Midnight Express', these people could not escape and had to be helped out, for a price.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
                          So the burning question on everybody's minds is ..

                          WTH were these people thinking & doing there ?

                          Maybe one day in some interview we will get to know. Maybe it will have persuasive elements in it. Or these people could just melt into the backgorund and this news item will be replaced by many others and be forgotten.

                          Initially thought there was some movie potential here, but this is no 'Midnight Express', these people could not escape and had to be helped out, for a price.
                          With any luck they will just label them immature selfish assholes and be done with it, forget them and put no money in their pockets for interviews books or movies!

                          Why reward the idiots, it will just produce more of them. We dont have enough already?

                          Maybe the US should show some real balls and lock them up here in the US under the same conditions for the remainder of their sentence for being stupid and set an example. On top of that make them pay for it as well.
                          Last edited by Dreadnought; 28 Sep 11,, 19:35.
                          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            So why did your country bother in the first place then ?

                            Stupidity isn't adequate enough a pretext to not answer a distress call.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
                              So why did your country bother in the first place then ?

                              Stupidity isn't adequate enough a pretext to not answer a distress call.
                              Only because its Iran IMO. To many bleeding hearts and the need to protect the idiots no matter how stupid they may be during an election season. Need I say more?
                              Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                              Comment

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