They are hostages. And the faces of the two men in the image above speak volumes; there is likely far more to come out about their treatment when they are out of custody.
As was the case with Sara Shourd, they may well have sit for some photo ops and sing the praises of the Iranian regime all the way to the end of Iranian airspace.
An update on this story. "Lawyer: Iran Sets Bail for 2 Jailed Americans," by Nasser Karimi for the Associated Press, September 13:
An Iranian court Tuesday set bail of $500,000 each for two American men arrested more than two years ago and convicted on spy-related charges, clearing the way for their release a year after a similar bail-for-freedom arrangement for the third member of the group, their defense attorney said.Another recent report has backpedaled slightly from the bail figure, but still quotes an Iranian official as saying the two would be released on terms similar to those for Shourd.
Lawyer Masoud Shafiei said the court would begin the process to free Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal after payment of the bail, which must be arranged through third parties because of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. But the timing of the court's decision is similar to last year's bail deal mediated by the Gulf state of Oman that freed a third American, Sarah Shourd.
"They accepted to set bail to release," Shafiei told The Associated Press after leaving the court. "The amount is the same for Sarah."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an interview aired on NBC's "Today" show, predicted the Americans could be freed "in a couple of days." He described the bail offer as a "humanitarian gesture" and repeated complaints about attention for Iranians held in U.S. prisons.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States was "encouraged" by Ahmadinejad's comments.
"We obviously hope that we will see a positive outcome from what appears to be a decision by the government," Clinton told reporters at the State Department.
The Americans were arrested in July 2009 along the Iran-Iraq border and accused by Iran of espionage. The trio have denied the charges and say they may have mistakenly crossed into Iran when they stepped off a dirt road while hiking near a waterfall in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Last month, Bauer and Fattal, both 29, were sentenced to three years each for illegal entry into Iran and five years each for spying for the United States. They appealed the verdicts. Shourd's case remains open.
Shafiei said he has passed along details of the court's decision to the Swiss Embassy, which represent U.S. interests in Iran since there are no diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said officials were in touch with Swiss envoys "to get more details from the Iranian authorities."
Iran may have timed the court decision to coincide with Ahmadinejad's visit later this month to New York for the general assembly of the United Nations. Last year, Shourd was released on bail just as Ahmadinejad was heading for the annual gathering of world leaders.
But Ahmadinejad was not likely involved closely in any decisions on the case. Iran's judiciary is controlled by the country's ruling clerics, who have been waging relentless pressure on Ahmadinejad and his allies as part of an internal power struggle....
O/T but a British Hindu politician has claimed that Muslim parasites are breeding to get welfare benefits for their vast numbers of children: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14909062
LOL, let the lieberal retards rot in an Iranistan prison. Let it be their epiphany WRT islamonazism.
are these spoiled brats so bored that they wanted to hike in iraq! what the hell were they thinking? l say them pay back the money that will free them.. let their families pony up the dollars..!
Bail or ransom?
What were they spying on, in the middle of no where, off a dirt road? And the Iranians being in close proximity was what, a coincidence? Out of thousands of square miles, the Iranians, just happened to stumble over lost hiker spies? Hmmm, this sounds like some kind of set up, or maybe there is something around there to spy on that we are not told about...
Well regardless, I hope they are released, but I wouldn't count those chickens until the eggs are hatched...
These young men are either morons or US agents. I would favor the latter but we all know that cretins are living, breeding and settled amongst us. What is a million dollars when the debt is $14 trillion?
"And the faces of the two men in the image above speak volumes"
Right. Liberal "We're all the same" MoonBats no longer.
How much you want to bet that these two even after having their 'ransom' paid by the US
give a statement about how settling the palestinian problem will lead to reduced tensions, or some such. Oh icch.
This isn't bail.With bail the court has a reasonable expectation that you will return for some business you have with the court. Nobody expects these prisoners to return for any reason.This is the ransoming of prisoners and perfectly in keeping with mo's words and sharia law.
Like fun, there is no bail in islam.
This isn't bail.With bail the court has a reasonable expectation that you will return for some business you have with the court. Nobody expects these prisoners to return for any reason.This is the ransoming of prisoners and perfectly in keeping with mo's words and sharia law.
Like fun, there is no bail in islam.
Of course the Indian peer is right. Demography is Destiny.
Fine, Labour - keep letting the Mohammedans have a gazillion children, your country is well on the way to ruination already anyway. Basically too late to stem the tide.
You're being conquered by Demographic Jihad and you're permitting it to happen! Spineless jellyfish.
Update: [Not so fast:] Iran judiciary: bail for 2 Americans under study
Lan Astaslem
Baroness Flather is a secular Hindu. But as an 'Asian', she can tell the truth about Muslims without being accused of 'racism', namely that they are fast-breeding parasites on the rest of humanity.
"are these spoiled brats so bored that they wanted to hike in iraq!"
What's the matter with you?
"LOL, let the lieberal retards rot in an Iranistan prison. Let it be their epiphany WRT islamonazism."
Your posting is incomprehensible, which seems to be the best part of it.
"These young men are either morons or US agents."
I don't understand your mentality. There are some adventurous people who, when young, go to exotic places. Others, thoroughly dull, never leave the town in which they were born, and spend their lives resenting the people who were more adventurous than they.
"Of course the Indian peer is right. Demography is Destiny."
We had the same debate in the US years ago, about "Welfare Queens" and ghetto gangbangers having children with multiple girlfriends, with each new child resulting in an increase in welfare payments.
The issue has not been on the radar for many years. I don't know if it's because the welfare reforms of President Clinton removed a lot of incentives, or if the news media simply decided that the issue needed to be a dead zone.
We were treated to a fine example of the lock-step media in their blackout of any mention of Muslims or Islam during the coverage of the 9/11 ceremonies.
There was a very prescient local official, many years ago, who proposed that women on welfare who had children had to submit to sterilization in order to continue receiving welfare for their children. I think this proposal is worth reinstating.
Nothing's the matter with her.
What's the matter with you? Trolling much?
Why would someone make such a nasty remark about two hikers who are guilty, at worst, of getting too close to the Iranian criminal state?
Let me know why you think this is a normal statement to make.
Considering how much Islam hates "Infidels" I wouldn't go near an Islamic country. If they get you you're in for horror, that's if you survive the ordeal. These men above look like Holocaust victims to me - not that they're skeletal, it's the look in their eyes, haunted, deer-in-the-headlights, shocked, and terrified beyond belief.
Have you heard about the British couple vacationing at a deluxe beach resort in Kenya, 18 miles away from the Somalia border? Last week Muslim psychopath "pirates" landed their boat on the beach (previously unheard of), went into the couple's bungalow, shot the husband and kidnapped the poor 56-year-old wife, who hasn't been seen since. Google David/Judith Tebbutt. Her terror is unimaginable, as she's being taken away by a bunch of al-Shaboub nutcase psycho Muslims and knowing her husband has been murdered in front of her eyes. If she's still alive the poor lady is most probably enduring horrific things.
This occurred 18 miles from the Somalia border. I believe I've made my case.
"are these spoiled brats so bored that they wanted to hike in iraq!"
The hikers showed bad judgement getting so close to Iran. They seem to be typical young people.
This does not justify calling them spoiled brats. I don't understand this personal attack, and nothing you brought up in your posting justifies the personal attack in this statement.
If you call "spoiled brats" a personal attack, you haven't been on the'net very long. That ain't nuthin'. When I think of the vile, vicious and evil things I've seen people say on the 'net "spoiled brats" is a pleasant walk in the Luxembourg Gardens. With lunch.
Yes.
I consider calling someone a "spoiled brat" to be a personal attack, totally unjustified in this case.
Your argument is like saying if someone pushes you, you should not press charges because a serial killer might have done worse. A serial killer would have killed you slowly and dismembered you while alive. So, count your blessings because you only encountered a simple assault case.
Oh, please. You're making a mountain out of the proverbial mole hill.
Ronald B reacts like a typical liberal gay. His posts are designed to be nothing more than an incendiary provocation. You're not going to change his corrupt mind so just ignore him.
Okay, so they are adventurous morons who could adventure in other exotic places to see the world. You have made me even more certain that they are US Government agents up to no good in that part of the world. Otherwise they should pay for their adventure out of their own pockets and not rely on tax payers to help them out! Did the girl who was released pay her own $500,000 release money? I don't think so! Face reality .. they are US Government plants.
I choose not to respond to stupid attacks.
"You have made me even more certain that they are US Government agents up to no good in that part of the world."
You must be very insightful, since absolutely nothing I said reflected on whether they were US agents or not. I think you choose to read your own reality, regardless of actual facts.
I'm with RonaldB on this one.
They are American citizens. They are hostages. They are in deplorable physical and psychological conditions, unjustly detained by an enemy regime.
I see no place for schadenfreude at their predicament.
"they are US Government plants"
No they're not. They're Liberal MoonBats who chose to go hiking near the Iranian border. And now they're paying for that stupid decision. You can see in their defeated, miserable, faces that they're MoonBats no more. Can't even imagine what they've been through. Or perhaps I can - the 1978 movie "Midnight Express."
They look like they've been through the Holocaust.
I notice "RonaldB" (Ahmed Abdul Grabarse more like it) doesn't
have much to say about Iran's arrest of these two people -- except that these two fools are "adventurous". Maybe "Ronaldb"
should be more adventurous and move back to whatever islamonazi pigsty spawned him.
"I notice "RonaldB" (Ahmed Abdul Grabarse more like it) doesn't have much to say about Iran's arrest of these two people"
For some reason, this topic is attracting some people with marginal reading and thinking abilities.
Ronald - Don't talk about yourself that way. Have some self-esteem, man!
Courreges,
Some of your posts display very good sense and good reasoning.
However, you seem to be unable to tolerate any opinions different from your own, and you think that calling someone names is a good way of making a case. You are also unable to admit a mistake or to backtrack on anything you said, indicating a somewhat fragile ego. You are unable to feel sympathy for someone being persecuted on the grounds that they made a bad judgement by actually going to see how other people live, rather than staying in their own hamlet for the rest of their lives, as you seem to prefer.
And I, too, am with Marisol.
"They are American citizens. They are hostages. They are in deplorable physical and psychological conditions, unjustly detained by an enemy regime.
I see no place for schadenfreude at their predicament."
At this stage of the game, their personal politics, judgment or lack thereof, etc, are entirely irrelevant.
They were seized because they were Americans. They are being publicly humiliated because they are Americans.
They are being held to ransom, used as political bargaining chips, because they are Americans.
Irrespective of what one thinks of the personal character, etc, of these two particular people, the thing at stake is this: Mohammedans need to be taught that seizing non-Muslims - especially non-Muslims belonging to one of the world's most powerful states - and trying to hold them to ransom, is a *really bad idea**.
At the moment, nothing distinguishes the Islamic state of Iran, from a bunch of khat-chewing Somali Muslim pirates who have just seized a container ship and its crew?
NOTHING.
iran is trying to extort a million dollars' ransom from the USA.
Mohammedans like to grab infidels and hold them to ransom (if they figure that holding them to ransom is more beneficial for Islam - that is, for the power, prestige and profit of the Mohammedan Mob, or Ummah - than killing them).
The Islamic state of Iran needs to be seen for what it is, and treated in a manner fit for what it is: a bunch of pirates and gangsters, a criminal gang, a subset of the vast amorphous (and frequently fratricidal) criminal Organisation or Ueber-Gang that is the Ummah.