After two years of detention in Iranian prison, UC Berkeley alumni Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal spoke Sunday for the first time since landing on American soil.
Bauer and Fattal, who were released Wednesday on a $1 million bail after two years of imprisonment for allegedly crossing the Iran-Iraq border while hiking, criticized American foreign policy and described their experiences in Iran at a press conference Sunday in New York.
“This was never about crossing the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq,” Bauer said. “We were held because of our nationality.”
Bauer blamed “32 years of mutual hostility” between the United States and Iran for the way they were treated.
Last month, Bauer and Fattal were convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison. The two men each received five years imprisonment for espionage and three additional years for allegedly entering the country illegally. The conviction was widely condemned by world leaders as unnecessarily harsh.
“We were convicted of espionage because we were American,” Bauer said.
Bauer and Fattal were captured along with UC Berkeley alumna and Bauer’s fiancee Sarah Shourd, who, after being imprisoned with them, was released last September on $500,000 bail.
“We vowed to each other that none of us would be free entirely till all of us were free,” Bauer said. “That moment has now thankfully come.”
Bauer said the three of them are now ready to begin their lives and leave prison behind them, “with a new appreciation for the sweet taste of freedom.”
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“none of us would be free entirely till all of us were free”
Presumably all three are now bail-jumpers and fugitives.
While domiciled in Syria, Shourd and Bauer never had the integrity to condemn the tyranny of the Assad regime, yet castigated Israel for oppressing the Syrians. How’s that for idiocy!
Moreover, if you read Deborah Saunder’s column in the Sunday SF Chronicle’s “Insight” section, she excoriated Shourd for praising Yemin’s treatment of women, as Sourd wrote how safe Yemeni women were encassed by burkhas. A number of authoritative news services have called Yemin, where men can not be prosecuted for raping their wives and rape itself is rarely prosecuted, one of the most misogynistic societies on the planet.
Finally, there appears to be no end to the ranting of Shourd and Bauer against democratic Israel as they championed the Islamofascist Palestinians. Unfortunately, these ignorant ideologues appear to have learned nothing during their incarceration under another Muslim fundamentalist regime whose judicial system they have the gall to compare the the US, their home country which did everything possible to free them. What gratitude! What unmitigated stupidity!
It seems the Peace and Conflict Studies major has quite a history of churning out these ignorant ideologues. Witness the longtime champion of Palestinian Islamofascism, Michael Taylor, who also majored in that ridiculous area of concentration. Talk about the waste of an education…
“men can not be prosecuted for raping their wives”
I think the presumption is that a woman who consents to marriage has given blanket consent to sex. If you say she can withdraw consent, then presumably her husband also couldn’t be sued for non-support.
That’s a false presumption, though. All things being equal, a man has a reasonable right to expect that his wife will have sex with him–but if she will not, then the remedy is divorce, not rape.
I was implying that prosecution for “rape” would be impossible because consent was given. Unwanted sex would be a domestic dispute, not rape.
Spoiled little brats. So the U.S. government bails pays a million to bail your dumb asses out and you still have the balls to publicly criticize our foreign policy. Nice. Maybe you should have considered our relations with Iran BEFORE hiking on its border.
Unjust imprisonment and murder is the daily life of many thousands of Palestinians. Why is it shocking when it happens to Americans, but OK when it happens to Palestinians?
There is a 30-year crippling boycott against Iran.
Would you panic if there were also a boycott against Israel?
* Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbnT1hmdD-w
(The video shows the great imperative of boycotting Israel, which is treating thousands of Palestinians far worse than the American hikers were treated.)
If they are so opposed to US foreign policy, then they ought to reimburse the US government for the ransom money that was paid to free them.
Bauer said the three of them are now ready to begin their lives and leave prison behind them, “with a new appreciation for the sweet taste of freedom.”
The irony of it all, he said, “is that Sarah, Josh and I oppose U.S. policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility.”
Paul Cappitelli Send this ungrateful punk Shane Bauer back to Iran. Millions of US taxpayer dollars went into attempting to secure your freedom for two years just so you could slam the US at the first opportunity. Next time you tempt Darwinism with such a stupid act like hiking in a war zone, I hope this great country let’s your dumb ass rot.
Wow Bam-Bam,
If only you knew anything about anything b4 spouting off.
If you don’t like what Bauer has to say, then don’t listen to him.
The guy exercises his right to free speech and you throw a hissy-fit, demanding that the US send him back to the Theocrats’ dungeon.
You’re behavior is positively un-American.
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/19/world/iran-contra-report-arms-hostages-contras-secret-foreign-policy-unraveled.html
Mr. McFarlane briefs Mr. Reagan on the Israeli proposal to sale American anti-tank missiles to Iran through Israel. There is dispute on whether
the President approved this sale. August: The President approves the
shipment of arms by Israel to Iran, according to his initial statement
to the Tower Commission. Later he says ”I don’t remember” when asked
about approving the shipment. Aug. 20: Israel sends 96 TOW anti-tank
missiles to Iran. Sept. 14: Israel sends 408 more TOW missiles to Iran.
Mr. Weir is released the same day.
The USA, where we can’t learn to stop giving money, training and arms to criminals and religious whack jobs who do not share our interests. Every time the policymakers maintain the fiction that there is not obvious danger in doing this.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/09/25/enemies/index.html
I wonder if they are still leftists?
Troll,
What has that to do with anything?
Get a life, idiot.
uh, it has everything to do with this. leftists incessantly whine about US foreign policy, and support any disgusting anti-democratic dictatorship as long as it is “not America”.
It’s an interesting question if two years in prison in said disgusting anti-democratic dictatorship changes their opinion.