Ex-president Bill Clinton was successful in his trip to North Korea to obtain the release of two American women that worked for Al Gore's TV station. The women were serving 12 year sentences in a North Korean jail.
What type of concessions were given to North Korea by Bill Clinton will probably not be known ever.Yjis is because the transparency promised by Obama pre-election, have never materialised! But I am glad these two women were freed!
But what about the three women who are held prisoner in Iran's jail as potential spies? Will this result in another "diplomatic" trip that Mr.Clinton takes in place of his Secretary of State wife?
The American hikers were detained by Iran after allegedly straying across the border, and now have been moved to Tehran, according to a report from ABC News. This may be a signal that their ordeal will continue if the USA does not intercede.
Kurdish officials in Iraq, said the three contacted a colleague to say they had entered Iran by mistake on Friday and were surrounded by troops. Iran's state television countered this claim later, saying the Americans were arrested after they did not heed warnings from Iranian border guards.
A newscaster on state television also cast doubt on whether they were hikers who had lost their way, saying Western media had also reported some of them were journalists.
And as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle; they are! Source:KRONTV.com
Sarah Shourd of Oakland and Shane Bauer who graduated from U.C. Berkeley are two of the three Americans being held after they accidentally crossed into Iran while hiking in Northern Iraq. Joshua Fattal from Oregon is the third U.S. detainee.
Shourd is a writer and teacher based in the Middle East. She's written for the Matador Pulse. Bauer, a fluent Arabic speaker, is a correspondent for New America Media. He's also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and other U.S. papers.
So far our State Department has only contacted the Swiss to "confirm" (the arrest) reports with Iranian authorities and, if true, to seek consular access" to the two men and one woman.
The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, and the Swiss represent U.S. interests there.
My suggestion is that since Obama has already extended his offer to meet with the "little tyrant" Ahmadinejad with no pre-conditions, he now negotiate the release of these three Americans.
The following story explains the present situation going on in Iran.
"Iraq has appealed to Iran for information about the detention of three Americans who crossed the border while hiking in the Kurdish north, the foreign minister said Saturday.
The request came as the three entered their second week in captivity facing the possibility of an investigation on spying charges despite the insistence of U.S. and Kurdish authorities that they accidentally went astray.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he raised the issue Thursday during a meeting with Iran's ambassador to Iraq.
"He did confirm that they have been arrested for entering the country without proper visas and they are now being interviewed to determine more details," Zebari told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, promised to pass the request for more information to his government, Zebari said.
Iranian lawmakers were scheduled to discuss the case Sunday during the weekly meeting of parliament's foreign policy committee, according to Press TV, the English language Iranian state television.
"We will discuss the additional information (handed to us) and the details of the case," said Hossein Sobhaninia, the deputy chair of the commission, in a report on the channel's Web site.
While these American citizens languish in a Tehran prison, there is a trial ongoing that is unlike any other trial in Iran's judicial history.
A young French academic and local employees of the British and French embassies appeared before an Iranian judge Saturday along with dozens of opposition figures accused of involvement in the country's postelection unrest that turned violent in the streets.
The extraordinary mass trial in Tehran's Revolutionary Court demonstrates the government's resolve to discredit Iran's pro-reform movement as a tool of foreign countries. Particularly Britain and the United States, who allegedly are trying to spark a revolution to topple Iran's Islamic system. It sounds to me like a good time for Obama to demonstrate if his silvery tongue works as well on our known enemies as it does on the people who put him in the Oval Office!