Since Iran announced its verdict last week for the pair of American hikers caught in 2009 along the Iran-Iraq border, the American media's Iran bashing has slid into its comfort zone. And once again a human rights issue has been transformed into a tool for prejudice.
Instead of helping with the case of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the last two years have been used as an opportunity for the United States government and the mainstream media, over which it has such immense influence, to attack Iran.
The ongoing characterization of Iran as an evil-doer also stokes the fires of prejudice against Iranians and Iranian-Americans.
In addition, it ignores the serious concerns that Iran has about foreigners destabilizing the country from within. Many Americans don't know that the area of the Iran-Iraq border where these young men were found is a particularly sensitive one due to heightened British and American efforts in recent years to sow the seeds of secession amongst Kurds in the region.
U.S. Holds Iranian Political Prisoners
Dismissing Iran's sovereignty and using the young hikers' case to position a negative image of Iran among Americans is not conducive to the release of these two men and is a useful distraction to the fact that the U.S. government itself is in possession of a number of Iranian political prisoners, some held in the United States and others held in Iraq.
It was not long ago that the U.S. government valued journalist Roxana Saberi enough to get her out of that same Iranian prison in five months. These young men have clearly not been given the priority that Saberi received. Bauer and Fattal have been imprisoned in Iran's Evin prison for two years now.
The treatment of their case raises the question whether they are being used as part of an Iran strategy that depends on sustaining American public opinion against Iran.
At the height of their recent trial, which ended in an eight-year sentence (the exact sentence Saberi was given not long before it was reduced and she was released), a State Department report was officially released stating that of all the countries in the world, "the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010" was Iran -- and it "had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace."
That ill-timed comment appeared as the United States is actively involved in wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Libya.
U.S. Policy on Border Crossers
The anti-Iran strategy is even more curious when one considers that the U.S. government doesn't exactly have the ethical legs to stand on when it comes to the treatment of political prisoners and people crossing borders without visas.
Imagine what would happen if an Iranian and his buddies were caught hiking on the U.S. side of the Texas border without a visa. They might be treated with -- let's call it "concern."
If you -- U.S. citizen you, or U.S. visa-holder you -- have ever been randomly checked by the TSA in an American airport -- been insulted, violated and groped -- magnify that for a moment. Your experience might give you some idea of what happens behind closed doors to visa-less, undocumented people, who find themselves on the wrong side of the U.S. border.
In the United States, detention centers are, for many immigrants, a dead zone, where they lose a grip on their families and their futures. Some await official word for months or years. Contact with their families is -- for many -- nonexistent. Almost all of them suffer in anonymity, usually without a lawyer and any knowledge of their rights and means of recourse.
None of them have actually committed a crime by being undocumented: Immigration violation itself is not a crime but a civil issue that is meant to ignite a formal immigration process.
Remember Gitmo?
And then there is the sad, illegal and inhumane state of affairs known as Gitmo.
In Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. government is incarcerating individuals (including journalists), who have had nary a lawyer, a trial or contact with their families for years -- and in some cases nearly a decade. For these prisoners there have been numerous reports of abuses. And in their case, most were not on the wrong side of the U.S. border, but on the wrong side of the borders of U.S. government interests.
This practice of grabbing foreign nationals and charging them with high crimes like espionage and terrorism with little to no evidence needs to come to an end --- no matter if it is being done in Guantanamo Bay or Evin prison.
May he who is without hypocrisy cast the first stone. Otherwise, may he who claims to be more democratic set an example for the rest of the world to follow.
It might actually do Bauer and Fattal some good.
Follow Shirin Sadeghi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ShirinSadeghi
2) Iran does have human rights issues.
Both of these are true, but so many people argue as if point 2 contradicts point 1 or vise versa.
I don't even know if I can respond, as your logic is so twisted and convoluted and you don't actually discuss any of the merits of the case and instead try to create some bizarre false equivalencies.
Of course not! Not like the U$ is maintaining an illegal occupation on it's neighbor.... oh the Chutzpah!
I understand WHY relations are the way that they are with Iran.
My problem with this article is that it blames the US solely for the poor relationship (blatantly untrue - Iranian and US leaders have both acted like children for years). It then blames the US solely for the situation of the hikers (also blatantly untrue, as there's a lot of mystery surrounding their arrest and charges). It then goes on to make false equivalencies with US immigration policies (and why call out the TSA - off topic and unnecessary).
I could go on but I feel this will suffice for now. So no, I'm not ignorant as I've so clearly proven time and time again. However, you are still just a stooge for this Iranian regime.
Iran treats its women like 2nd class citizens.
Iran ki//ed hundreds brutally putting down the protests in 2009.
Iran uses torture against its own citizens.
Iran supports ter.rorst organizations throughout the region.
Iran arrests and imprisons people for speaking out against the government and its policies.
Iran's treatment of the Kurds is only second in brutality to the Kurds' treatment at the hands of the Turks.
The Iranian people do not have anything near the freedom of countries in the West, especially the US.
As for the TSA groupings, thank your Mus.lim bretheren for that.
As for the "None of them have actually committed a crime by being undocumented: Immigration violation itself is not a crime but a civil issue that is meant to ignite a formal immigration process."
Tell that to the US hikers who just got 8 years in prison form your "oh so enlightened Iranian government."
Shirin, you need a reality check before you print another article like this. Comparing Iran to the US is like comparing you to a real journalist. Apples and oranges.
I have little time for the Iranian regime but if you want to critise them for this and other practices then you can't really do it while condoning the same done by other governments.
What points does she make, that what ever the Iranians do its America's fault, or no mater what Iran does, America is worse? I am tired of the countries in the Middle East constantly blaming everybody for their actions. Blame the US, blame Europe, blame Israel. They should try taking responsibility for their actions.
With Iran's record on human rights, they are the last country anyone should be defending. They are still supporting the Syrian government as they slau.ghters their own citizens. Maybe thats America's fault as well?
Her logic is lucid -- and ridiculous.
So tell me, based on all experience with Iran over the past 30 years, did you think that they were going to respond possitively to insults and pressure?
Argue with the points, if you have the brains to do so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93PJAK_conflict
I realize you are a hardcore Isr. thirster, but your comment is going beyond the ridiculous.
The inquiring minds what to see this operative and to know more about him and his alliances. Some one said "MOSAD". This will make a good 007 move.
Get real.
Yes, plotting the next Iranian revolution courtesy of the Mossad.
RIDICULOUS!!
Of course they were in Iran, and if from the start US said, sorry, they were stu.pid kids, please let them go, they would have been home by now. But NOOOOO ... let's use them as political football instead. Guess what, you can say what you want and that's just going to help these kids stay as guests of Iranian authorities longer. Hope that makes you happy.
But keep believing that all the US had to do was apologize and all would be right with Iranian-American relations. How naive.
The border there is not well defined, so they may or may not have been in Iran. Either way, I doubt they were spying for anyone. Just 3 very foolish people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hopefully the US will fully return to its constitutional obligations (which are far from meaningless as the Supreme Court has shown in Hamdan v Rumsfeld, Rasul v Bush, and Al-Odah v United States, among others)