Iran Sentences US Journalist To 8 Years
By Wyatt Earp | April 18, 2009
The charges? Who the Hell knows. The journalist was originally told she was being charged with “buying a bottle of wine.” Okay, I can see that, because she should really be buying the entire box.
Soon thereafter, the Iranians told her she was being charged with espionage. Lovely.
TEHRAN, Iran — A U.S. journalist in Iran was sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage, her father, lawyer and news reports said Saturday — a sentence that prompted denunciation from the United States.
Reports in Iranian media, including an Iranian judiciary source quoted Saturday by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency, confirmed the sentence of Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old Iranian-American from North Dakota.
I am shocked. Really. I thought they would just rape her, stone her, and cut off her hands for that. /snark.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was “deeply disappointed” by the news. “We are working closely with the Swiss Protecting Presence to obtain details about the court’s decision, and to ensure her well-being,” Clinton said in a statement.
The United States will “continue to vigorously raise our concerns to the Iranian government,” Clinton said. “Ms. Saberi was born and raised in the United States, yet chose to travel to the Islamic Republic of Iran due to her desire to learn more about her cultural heritage. Our thoughts are with her parents and family during this difficult time.” (H/T – CNN)
Wow, that oughta show them. Give ‘em Hell, Hillary! Idiot.
How long will it take this administration to realize that Iran does not respond well to empty verbal threats? Not that that will stop them from trying, however. This entire story is a disgrace, and while we obviously cannot invade Iran to free Saberi, we should bee doing a helluva lot more than attacking them with empty rhetoric.
But by all means, let’s have our president and our ambassadors meet with these animals without preconditions.
Topics: Politics | 5 Comments »
April 18th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Nice to know your country has your back, eh? Didn’t we secure (or at least try to) the release of a Princeton professor (also female) from Iran a year or two ago?
You’d think something could be done.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
RT – There isn’t a lot the U.S. can do in this case. That being said, weak-kneed threats and/or conciliatory tones to the leadership there will almost certainly make matters worse.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Funny how she had to fly all the way to Terror-Ran to learn about her “cultural heritage”, when all she had to do was read, watch or listen to something other than her idiot professors, NPR or the Lamestream Midiots. She’s gaining “in-depth & deep-probing” insights into the loving “culture” of Pisslam.
I have no sympathy for morons who put themselves, deliberately, into harm’s way, believing that their journaljizm credentials will be some kind of fucking magic cloak of invincibility and protect them from tyrants and Pisslamic assholes.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
She might as well have been Bruce Willis in Harlem in Die Hard 3.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
When you go to a foreign country, you play by their rules. In Islamic countries the local rules are that women are objects and can be treated or mistreated in any way the locals choose. I don’t like that (classic British understatement) but that’s the way it is.
The sooner people wake up and take that as reality, the fewer people will end up in serious trouble.
(The corollary is that people who come to Western countries for greed [economic migrants] should be required to abide by OUR customs. If they don’t like them, they don’t have to upset themselves by coming. I suspect that most of those who come as genuine assylum seekers already do.)