This is really a two edge sword, the GITMO detainees, Rocket.
If the US begins to think that Saberi was arrested in Iran because of the AlQeada GITMO detainees. Would that not indicate a strong relationship between the present government of Iran and AlQeada?
Let us face it, after Afghanistan fell, 500 Taliban and AlQeada fled to Iran. 3 of bin Laden's sons either took residence or attempted to go to Iran. There is lot of evidence that Iran supported AlQeada of Iraq. There is some Intell that Iran had a meeting with AlQeada prior to 9/11.
And if the US begins to to think that Saberi and these other 30 journalists are being arrested in Iran for picking up leads on bin Laden location stories inside Iran......
You got to be little careful, Rocket. We have a very inexperience Commander in Chief....right now he has all the NATO, Afghan and US forces facing to the east (Packistan). He is sending Predators into Pakistan on the bin Laden hunt.
You give the US and him the crazy idea that bin Laden is in Iran....he just might order a 'about face'....have those Predators flying over the Iranian border and have those forces looking inside Iran.
I am not sure that is where you want to take this...:-)
Rocket. You are smart and politically astute. Case by case, yes?
More pieces of this.
The Iranians rejected her press pass in 2006. Then gave her a 'verbal agreement' that she could stay and report on 'small stories'. To work on her book. They waited 2 years to make a arrest.
So? Seems to me that they wanted her to stay in Iran. If they said your credential are bad and no more work, she is gone. But no, hang around awhile as we build a case against you. Could this be entrapment? It would be interesting to know if they took her passport in 2006.
I had a feeling that this was put together over a couple years time. Big gov't (like Iran's) don't decide such matters quickly.
But to my last motives.
I don't think that it mattered which US canidate won in Nov. For either McCain or Obama, this was going to be a test of diplomacy and resolve to protect Americans in the middle east.
The US and Iran as UN parties have access to the Hague. All Iran had to do.....tell the Swiss (the US REP in Tehran) a American was being charged with spying. That it would take the case to the Hague. Iran taking the US to the Hague on spying charges would have gained it just as much media as this. But the Iranians choose to play on home field advantage. They had reasons for that.
Iran chooses first this civil court and then the appeal process of Cleric courts. This was Iran's choice these venue sites. To make both Saberi and the United Government to appear in clerics courts.
But that is not the first problem. The United States cannot appear there. The US does not have diplomatic relations with Iran. For the United State to appear here, it has to first have a state status agreement with Iran.
That places a lot of pressure on the Obama administration to sign a diplomatic accord with Iran. And do to it soon. The longer Saberi bounces in the cleric court system, the worse this gets.
It also means that the United States by appearance, recognizes these Iranian cleric courts of law. We are back to Cleric courts and Pan Islam legal recognition by the United States, something the US does not want to do.
See the traps? Fast diplomatic recognition for Iran and appearance in a Cleric court to legitimizes them. Pretty good motives for the arrest, yes?
I think that Iran wanted another political card to play with the US talks coming up.
Many ways Iran can play that political card. Offers of release, offers of sentence reduction, offers to keep the death penalty from the table. Each time the United States rejects, such offers to aid Saberi, for concessions on the talk issues ...what happens? A lot of bad US media in Al-Jezzera. "Iran offers to release Saberi, if the US signs off and allows Iran to have 7000 certrifuges. But the US said no."
About GITMO and the present US legal process. I tried to think of of a time something like this was done. 1880s. Oklahoma Territories. Cattle men would take their herds near the town run by Judge Roy Beam. Often the cowboys would go to town for a night of partying.
Leave the bar and go to the rail to find a horse. Often they would find the wrong horse. Ride out of town. The next day the owner of horse tells the sheriff. My horse is stolen. They track out of town to find a cowboy sleeping off a drunk under a tree. They arrest him.
Bring him to Judge Roy Beam's court. Judge Beam with Bible in front. He would ask the owner...was your horse stolen...the answer, Yep. He would ask the sheriff if the man arrested had the horse...the answer, Yep. He would ask the man if he took the horse, the cowboy would answer...yep, but I..
Before he could say more, Judge Beam raises gavil, pounds it down. Says, "Son, I sentence you to be hanged by your neck until dead, horse stealing in the Oklahoma Territories is a hanging offense." Judge Roy Beam, the Hangin Judge.
Justice 1880 American west style. Iran's system is only 130 years behind today's American justice system.
you still dont get my point tom..............injustices happen throughout the world, citizens are pawned and sold out, through-out history..... some iraqi's say saddam didnt get a fair trial.......
do you see what i mean now?????????????
ps:of course obama's not going to admit if she was a spy.
I have you know that I setup a sting operation on a American officer that him sent to prison for stealing Iraqi artifacts. After the first gulf war aided a Kuwaiti that been a interpretator for US and then got separated from US unit, get his back pay. And investigated the murder of south American military official. So this is not my first rodeo in this kind of stuff, Rocket. Justice does occur, when people stand for it.
Injustice is injustice. You either stand up and say it is. Or you sit down and rationalize it.
Are you saying....OH.....she is an American....OH.....she deserves a unfair trial? No, you are not saying that. I hear what you are saying.
What you are saying is that injustice happens across the world, including the US. This then is just a bit of bad Karma that fell on this woman....OH unlucky she.
And I giving motive to say it was not luck, it was not Karma, it was not simple injustice......but was purely a political decision of the Iranian gov't.
If President Obama admitted she was a spy. She and the American gov't would be in the position to ask for compassion....that these further appeal trials need not occur. That the stiffest penalty she would get is the 8 years.
The word on the street is she is considering a hunger strike to protest her captivity. Maybe she thinks she is innocent. Opps my bad...my research of the day, just said she began her hunger strike. Can anyone for saying forced feeding is a torture tech?
There is windstorm of words being raised in DC over Saberi and Iran...by PI (private investigators) and (principle investigators) and analysis. By the way, I am a principle investigator, been doing it since 1989. The conclusions of most of them.....will likely be along mine. I considered doing this as a investigation, decided not to. I knew that there would be slew of PIs on it.
DEM and REP in Congress will have sent their PIs to investigate. Those reports come back to the Congressmen...they then meet across the aisleway....a consensus will be reached... they will then send a bi partisan group to President Obama....backing his decision on Iran and Saberi to fullest.
My bet the Congressional group will give him a very wide range of options to use against Iran....from military operation within and outside the country.....to stiffer sanctions.....to breaking off the talks. His call to make after that.
What ever it is, he will then have REP backing on it. REP will not play the international calling card like Polosi and Carter did with GWB. REP know how to back a President.
One of the things, I want to show is that there is a decision making process occurring within the US regarding this. Is it open? No. All behind the scenes investigation and discussions. Is there a Congressional vote on it? Likely not...just a general consesus is being reached. But the ultimate end could see US mil ops in Iran.
On another note....in another one of those countries (North Korea) that GWB labeled a long time ago with a term, we can no longer use.....2 other American journalists earlier arrested, will soon to face court there.
To crimes unknown at this time. The word is they strayed into a North Korean security zone along the Chinese border. I wonder if you can get the death penalty for being lost.
Maybe it is habit forming..Iran does have some 30 other journalists detained (gee no political oppression there)...or maybe it is just whole bunch of bad karma going around.
Roxana Saberi (excuse my typos of her names earlier) is a very unique woman. She has done media coverage of issues from the steps of the US Congress, grew up in the democracy in the United States and was for a time a FOXX reporter.
In this light, she is in very position to report both in written word and video tape on the coming Iranian Presidential Election.
The hardliners of Iran, those that took the 52 American hostage, are today in their late 40 and 50s, the Islamic cleric of Iran are even older. The reformers of Iran, are in their 20s and 30s. Like every where there is a age gap. As in all politics, one looks at the demographics to see where his voters (supporters) are. Where would President A find his supporter base?
He would not find them in younger 20 and 30 age reformers, that grow in numbers. While his older supporter base decreases in numbers.
Roxana Saberi is 31 year old. She was going report this coming Presidential election from the aspect of the youthful reformers. That does not means to say her reporting would be biased. Rather that she would be able to give clear voice to the reform positions and canidates.
It would be this clear voice, that because of the internet and the satellite TVs within Iran, that the Iranian gov't could not stop from reaching the reform supporters. Even if they imposed news blocks out on her or deported her, this voice was going to be heard within Iran as the election drew near.
She was in a very unique position to honestly compare Iranian democracy to the democracy of the United States. To the process intergrity that the Iranians are going to use in this coming Presidential election.
We have heard, in the past, the process problems that Iran has with the reform canidates and parties. Canidates get striken from the ballot for various reasons. Her reporting on this election, was going to have great weight with the Obama administration and others in the west....to how fair and to how openly democratic Iran has become....or failed to become.
Pres A. wants the west and the United States especially to see his country in a positive light. Roxana Saberi was in a position to darken that light. She was in a position to get out the reform vote against him. She was in position to show voting process irregularities of this coming Presidential election. She was a threat to his reelection. One way to silence such a threat, arrest the threat.
It was not just the United States that cut the relationship with Iran, but also hardliners within Iran have desired this severance. Roxana Saberi's other work, a researched book on the Iranian culture and society was also a threat here.
Really what she was doing was a very noble thing. Like B. Bhutto and her book "Reconciliations". Using the written word to knock down sterotyping walls of people and cultures. Like Nelson Mandela when he was arrested for writing and distributing pamlets on black life in South Africa.
She was only explaining to the west what Iranian life is about. But in doing that, she was also opening doors and paths for more west and Iranian contact. Contact that some hardliners in Iran don't want.
Sadly, what is likely to happen. Is that the research and manuscript of this unfinished book will be used in the coming cleric court cases, by the prosecution. They will read thru the computer entries of research and the unfinished work, find areas that are questionable to Islam theology. They will then use Roxana Saberi's own words to impeach her Muslim faith. To further convict her of spying against the Islamic nation of Iran.
So two more motives for Iran to arrest and convict her of spying.....to silence her reporting on the coming Presidential election and her book on Iranian life that would open doors between the west and Iran.
If you think about it, the US has a few A-Teams in nearby Iraq and Afghanistan already. And even Jimmy Carter tried to get the 52 embassy hostages out.
Then my advice is to supply his name to a Holland law agency. In other word to "tip". Tipping is what began to occur in both Iraq and Afganistan in a large scale. Often by Moslem women that wanted the fighting to end. Tipping and spying are very close to the same. Both are sharing intelligence or classified information to foreign government agencies.
In Iraq, it was Iraqi tipping that began to win the day, for the US in the last few years. Location, names, weapon caches, and operations were 'tipped' to the US Forces and Iraqi IDF.
If the Iraqi had taken AlQeada bait when it offered to make one their cities, Najaf, the new Capitol of Pan Islam? It meant that Iraqi tipping would have been subject the same kind of legal actions that Roxana Baberi is today. They would have faced a Iraqi Cleric courts on spying charges.
That can happen to any Moslem in world where its government signs into the Pan Islam pact....that if they tip or spy on any of the Pan Islam countries ...is arrest and spy charges can be brought. Pretty good way for Iran to silent tipsters, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Gaza....any place where its Revolutionary Islam has taken a hold.
Interesting note at this point. That about the time Roxana Baberi was being arrested in Iran. The Taliban was executing 6 Afghans for spying in the Pakistan NW tribal area. Not the first time such executions have occurred either.
Is spying going on in this conflict of east and west? Yes. No doubt about it. But legal question that Iran still needs to answer and prove is Roxana Baberi part of it? If you are not satisfied with first trial. According to her mother, she could not even spy against her worse enemy.
Consider for a moment. That as the foreign fighters left Iraq, enrout to Afghanistan....much earlier in 2008....they passed thru Iran and were 'debriefed' by the Iranians. When asked 'why' they had to leave Iraq....the answer was....the Iraqi were 'tipping' our operations, locations, persons, weapons to the US and IDF.
Iran's Gov't. realized it had to stop tipping to be successful in exporting revolutionary Islam. To continue a fight in Afghansitan. To some day return the fight to Iraq. It had to stop tipping on a big scale. In big way. Enter into this Pan Islam, Cleric Courts, and one Roxana Baberi.
Just like the Taliban in Pakistan, they placed someone to the threat of death to cause fear in the western media. The Western media that would publich Baberi stories on the Iranian reformers that are in opposition to Pres. A.
Consider also as the Taliban move to Paksitani captiol. The locals of the province, refuse to give their names in western media interviews. The Taliban have caused fear in the local Pakistani to keep tipping from occurring.
The Iranians are just trying to cause fear in western media to keep reporting on hard line Islamic stories condemning Pan Islam and Revolution Islam.
Another motive.....cause fear in western media as the election comes.
The first court trial last a total of 15 minutes in time, Rocket. That according to her father.
Ever try to exam and cross exam three witnesses in 15 minutes time? No way can it be done.
So if a principle tentant of Islamic justice is 3 witness? Why in this first trial did Iran break the tentant?
Don't get me wrong, those witnesses are there in Iran. The arresting office, the investigating office, the officer that filed the arrest warrent at the beginning. They will come into the picture later in the Cleric run courts that are in the appeal process.
But if the first trial, her attroney did not get a chance to cross exam them......means the goal of the first court was simply to convict her. No cross examination, no way to create doubt in the judge's minds.
I also think that it very disingenious on President A part to say....."I will make sure she gets a fair and full defense". If that is so, why did he not provide the Iranian officers involved for cross examination? He too wanted a conviction here.
It is Pres. A's agencies (law enforcement, National security, Iranian Secret Service) that did the investigation and arresting of her. He is on the prosecution side of the court room. He likely had a file that either he or someone in his Administration signed off on to have the arrest warrant drawn.
Yet, he wants to be over on her side of the court room as well...providing that 'full defense'. A novel concept for you explore in western jurisprudence.... is the idea of 'a zealous defense.' One its principles is...the prosecution does not get both side of the court room.
You and kid have said that I am the one making her into a political pawn. Not so. I saw she was not getting a zealous defense and when I first posted the thread....Washington was being pretty quiet as well. A very good question to ask now....why is the American Muslim Community...mainly its organization like MACLC and MAS being so very quiet???....could it be they understand the power and threat of Pan Islam?
Surely, you would think that these Muslim organizations that spoke inside the US to such grievous issues as foot baths in colleges and Muslim Charities being investigated...would give at least a press release on Roxana Baberi's situation in Iran? When her life and liberty is on the line. Ask why are they quiet?
Eventually one place where I am going to take this, Rocket and Kid....is into something called Pan Islam...study up....
That does have a great to do with the entire Iranian court system. Pan Islam is supported by Pres. A and by one Osama bin Laden. It is a common political goal to them both.
Why?
Because under Pan Islam justice, Roxana Baberi would not even have to be inside Iran to face these charges. Just anyplace in the world where Pan Islam is recognized.
A zealous defense allows one to explore the motives of the prosecution..........
PS. When President Obama said she is not a spy. I believe him.
Please Robbie, don't give away all of our secrets. The executive office needs a few to give away.......
As for the Boy Scouts....Indiana Jones started out that way. Looks where it took him. Advisor on a multi million dollar movie set with Harrison Ford to smooze with and a starring lady to giggle with.
Is one person's life more or less valueable than another, Kid? This woman is only 31.....maybe as a American Muslim woman (a journalist) she could be the next B. Bhutto in the Islamic world. You want to limit a person's status andimpact in the world....place them in jail for 8 years.....does a pretty good job.
Thomas Jefferson is a past example of how a earlier President handle a similar case in out history....when American women were taken captive by Islamic pirates.
And Solami pirates.....why? because there is little difference between state sponsored terrorism (a illegal arrest, facing a death sentence and trial to conviction) and holding someone at gun point for 4 days (illegal seizure/kidnapping and threat of death).
Kid....prior to 9/11, bin Laden had a 'court like' meeting with his staff regarding the US presence (sending agents) to Saudi...made a verdict on America....then formed the plan for 9/11 as a punishment. Was the US represented at this court? No
In the Iranian court....she was accused of acting as a agent for the United States.....there was a verdict against two defendants here. The American Muslim woman the and the United States.....was the US represent at the court? No
Social Security is in pretty good shape for baby boomers. As a matter of fact, we're the problem. We're getting ready to retire -- just so happens I turn 62 in 2008, which is a convenient age.
Just follow the next post of the reasons/motives Iran has for doing this, Rocket. I am not using her as a pawn. I did not do anything to her. The Iranian made her a pawn in this with the arrest and conviction. I just connected some of the dots on it out some. I don't have all the answers.
By the way since you brought it up. How are the Saudi using her? I have not seen anything on them in this matter.
Venere the short answer. It will keep me from provoking people here.:-)
Every war is a decision of a man or small group of them to make war. GWB felt....maybe a better word is 'decided' this war was to be fought. After that....gaining approval from Congress and the UN by any means possible (e.g. the WMDs issue) was easy to do.
Once 'the decision' is made, you don't stop. Look at what I said about Washington. He got beat three times in western Indian land fights.....he finally went back divided the Indian Nations and signed treatises with them. He did not quit because he lost a battle or even a war.
Rather he changed tactics and came from a different direction to succeed.
Had GWB not invaded Iraq. He would have gone after Sadam in a different way. Most Presidents are 'driven people ' with a high expectation to succeed. Once GWB made the decision to take down Sadam.....one way or another it was going to happen.
here is why. George Washington was also a true gentleman by every sense of the word. He had seen men's strengths and weakness up close and perosnal. He would have looked on GWB'd tangled and foul up in the Iraqi WMD mess.....and said to him.....it is mess. Make it better if you can.
He would look at Obama's inexpereince and say...I was there once. The first time I fought in a Indian war, I was 19. By your age of 41, I have invaded the western Indian lands two time....and got beat bad both of them.
Washington knew that leaders fail. He also knew that if you did not give up, you could not totally fail.
Am reading a book on George Washington presently ...on his leadership style.
President Washington was often heard to say with cannon and rifle all around him. this to his revolutionary troops....Steady My Fellows, Steady.
The average age of a US soldier in the army then was just under 20 years. They were fighting the most powerful army of all time. They had much to be afraid of. He gave them confidence and bravery. Washington was a great encourager of men that were facing danger. Often he was at the front line at the most critical point of the battle. They often asked him to step back to safety.
Consider this quote....
"Men will kill and risk death must feel a bond with the man that leads them."
Washington was there when men died for this country. He was there when a 1000 were taken captive and he cried. He was there when a brawl between two regiments occurred....and he dismounted his horse....walked to the middle of the fight....took two of them by the collar and held them apart at arms length till the entire brawl stopped...he was 58 then...sorting out a fight of men less than a 1/2 his age.....even at 58 he was physically very strong.
When at the end of the war, the officers went on a revolt because they had not been paid for three years.....he met with them... reminded them of their joint service...told them they had choice to either do the right thing or the wrong thing for country.....but he was assured they would always do the prefect thing for the country. The officers left the meeting and waited for their pay to come without complaint.
Obama is a great orator. Washington (like GWB) had difficulty in making speeches.....but Washington was a great leader of men. And speeches don't lead men. Great leaders do. Don't underestimate what GWB did these 8 years. He led a army of American soldiers into one of the world hardest regions of the world to fight....Afghanistan. He assembled and led an Army that within 21 days was walking thru the streets of Baghdad.
The legacy that President Obama will leave will not likely be one of great military consequence. He simply does not have the knowledge and skill set for such military leadership. His legacy still may be one of great country and world importance. His skill set in diplomacy and in relationship building used well there.
I am not saying the GWB is a George Washington either. He is not. But like Washington, he saw military conflicts that he felt needed to be fought. And he stood there and fought them for his country. His skill set for being a military leader, was not that great either. He was only a AF Captain. But he learned, led and ordered major ground force deployments, spec ops in foreign lands, Navy operations and homeland security in those 8 years.
I think that when one tries to compare a President Obama to a President Bush....one is simply mixing apples and oranges. Two different people with different skills sets and different world views. Best to let history judge each individually....though your condemning words of George W Bush are well known here in CS...I don't see you writing many history books.
Just bare with me. I will start to make ties in the next couple of post. No agenda here, Kid. Just one American seeing another American being played as a political pawn.
Read the articles....they convicted her....all she has now is an appeal.
Let me explain something to you about spying cases. In the early 1950s, the US arrested and tried two Russian spies...the Ginsbergs. A married couple that stolen and then given USA secrets on how to make atomic weapons to the Russian. They were in a 30 day trial with media watching every detail. They were found quilty and executed.
During the 30 days of trial, the prosecution laid all the details to how they got the secrets, how they were passed to the Russians, what the compromises to US national security were. Their defense team then had an equal amount of time to defend them.
How much do you feel was discovered by the court in a one day trail?
Would you personally be able to decide a life and death sentence from only 1 day of testimony and evidence? Or even a 8 year sentence?
If this woman so compromised Iranian security....why was she not executed? They leave her alive to smuggle these precious secrets out from the prison she will be in for 8 years?
Please don't say they were being compassionate in this.
Iran had several chances to be compassionate if it was only a credentials issue. And if was more, then lay it out for the world to see or at least the international press or human right NGOs. How hard....would it have been to deport her? or to give her 30 days to get them changed to meet Iranian approvals? Both are more compassionate than to place her in jail facing the death sentence.
No, Iran denied this woman a fair trial. And there are reasons for that.....which I will address shortly
That leader of the free world, a long time ago decided that Islamic piracy on the high seas was a offense for military actions. Thomas Jefferson the writer of our Constitution, when President was faced with Islamic piracy made that policy.
He held off in making it a military issue until some American women were taken captive by these pirates. Then he ordered the US Marines to battle.....and today we have them remembered in words of their hymm..."from the shores of Tripoli".
The reason I bring this up. Is that few know but there are women and children, both as officers families and as paying passenger, are on some merchant vessels that the Solami pirates can attack. The day the Solami pirates take hostage a merchant vessel with Western women and children on board, is the day when many here want will strong military operations in the country.
You ask what connection between this Iranian situation and Solami piracy is there? Just that a state sponsored act of terrorism is no better than the terrorist act of a group. The woman has already faced for several months a death sentence if convicted of the spying charges. She now face 8 years in a Iranian prison.
If the arrest and conviction ARE MERELY Iranian gov't interplays for positioning on the Obama talks. Then what she has faced is approximate to what Captain Bowlen faced as captive of the Solami pirates. The Iranian acts are nothing more than state sponsored terrorism for political purpose, where as the Solami pirate is terrorism for monetary purpose.
Instead of being done by AK-47 and a group of armed men, it was done by an arresting armed Iranian police officers and a Iranian Islamic court. What is the difference? It is still hostage taking. It is still fear causing to the hostage taken.
I respect the Solami pirate more than I do the Iranian government. At least the Somali pirates risk their own lives to go sea in small open boats to take their hostages. The Iranian gov't waits for 6 years to press charges and take hostage a woman for bad press credentials.
What does that mean 'bad press credentials'? A typo on her press pass? But with the evidence that Iran shows, one can think exactly that. Also she was well known as a journalist. I have seen now exerts of major TV pieces she had done around the world. Clearly she did news reporting.
Just like Bensair Bhutto was made into a mrytar for Islamic women around the world. The Irainian government is making this American Muslim woman a mrytar. Her unjust conviction is just as offensive as the treatment of Mrs. Bhutto in Pakistan. With a house arrest after she was attacked the first time.
Wise Muslim women will note the Iranian treatment of Bareri. This government that export radical Islam from Indonesia to Morroco. Many a Islamic husband will be asked if he supports such acts on Muslim women. Few will be able to give a fair answer that a wife can appreciate, that is line with the doctrinal line of what Iran advocates.
Iran paints itself with the Solami priate. Iran feels empowered enough to take American women as hostage....a kind of legal hostage if you will....place them to the death sentence and then have a one day trial? And Iran leadership wants the United States and world to see it as a 'just country' that can be trusted. Trusted with nuclear materials? This is almost laughable, if a woman's life was not at stake.
So yes,jbibizia hold the United States to your higher standard. But don't place Iran as a country that can be trusted when they act in such a manner. Though one of the oldest countries in the world, Iran is not ready for such status yet.
I would first want the Iranian spy to have a fair trial...with a open process. That way my countries justice is best done. What the Iranians have done here is to place their justice behind locked doors. To hide it in some mystical manner.
This leads one to think that Mullahs and Clerics of Iran, control to even minor matters as court cases. Can Iran be said to be a free country, when even the courts of Iran act like religious servants?
I think that you have to go case by case, jbibza. The GITMO military courts have lot more open due process than this. We got nere daily reports here in Florida to what was happening inside them. We got chalk images of the defendants. When they made public court confessions it was placed into the news.
I don't know about all these 'so many others' that you mention. We gave a complete list of the GITMO detainees to the Red Cross, allowed them to visit (periodicially) the complex and to do their own count and reports. Those Red Cross reports.....said it was to military standards.
No one is calling this woman stupid. She is a news reporter for the BBC and National Radio. But just maybe the Iranians selected her because of her status as a reporter and beauty queen?
I just saying be open minded on this one. There is more to this than what the Iranian are saying. Maybe even more to this that what the US saying.
But let us take it from that position. If she was CIA and now caught and convicted. Why would not the Obama Administration come out and say.....hey she was a plant agent from the GWB days? One of our mistakes.
Vinny...he is going public with our torture techniques on GITMO prisoners. Surely he would go public with a bad GWB intell operation in Iran.
If he does that, then her attroney, the DEM Senator and human rights groups are in a position to ask the Iran gov't for compassion. Yet for the last couple of months since the charges were made, nothing.
Or he could go to all of our intell agencies. Because he is new in office. Make inquiry to if she was a agent of any. If they all come back, no. Now he is in the position to say to the Iranians....hey she is not associated with the US government. She might have been spying, but not for us. He could say like I am....show us your proof to her connection to the US and its intel agencies.
Maybe he is doing the latter. I know if I was in his position, I would. I would make it a public issue before these talks.
Were is the CIA in this? This is all Iran and Iranian Secret Service. If they had a pound (or even an ounce) of evidence that the woman was from the CIA.....they would show it. It would be on al-Jazzera and ever Islamic net site that has a server.
Vinny were is the evidence? Oh yes, in the that locked door court room. The one that the Iranian gov't appointed attroney can visit in and prep a court case in one days time.....but then when he gets outside cannot say more than she was convicted and is facing 8 years of prison and he will appeal the case.
Odds that a appeal being approved?
My local horse track has better odds on the horse that sprained a ankle last week and is running with a over weight of 25 pounds.
Vinny no, this woman had been in Iran for 6 years. She had done shows for BBC and National Radio Broadcast from there. If her credentials were bad.....would they have not seen it earlier? Those credentials are checked every time a foreign journalist does a major piece in a country like Iran.
Vinny note one other thing. Her parents. They came from the USA to be with her. But then were either forced out of the country or had to return to the States. Now the Iranians do her trial. Why?
With them out of the country, they cannot ask to be inside the court room, see the court process and view the evidence. They are less a PR risk to the Iranian gov't.
She was initially arrested for having bad press credentials. OK...like some kind of cover had been made for her to get into Iran.
But...follow this.....she is a beauty queen...does one make a cover for a well photo and known person? The CIA does make mistakes, but when they make a cover for someone.....it is about solid as it gets.
I bet she entered Iran under her own US passport and name. I bet the BBC and National Radio employed her under her own name.
It will not take much digging to find that out.
Last little piece of the pile. Remember when President Obama first did the US apology thingee? A couple of months ago, yes? Know went the Iranian changed the charges to spying? A couple of months ago.
I would have to dig a little find the time sequence.
But my instinct is saying Iran made her into a political pawn. They knew her status as a US beauty queen....and decided to use it.
ttom500 Forum Posts (10,523)
Iran Sentence American Journalist to 8 Year for Spying
I have not seen a hanging here in my lifetime. Capitol executions of drugs injections and electricity, yes. But a real hanging? No.