27 May 2007

Detained in Iran: Where is the Responisble Reporting?

I'm not sure any media outlet can responsibly report the upcoming talks between the U.S. and Iran without mentioning that the government of Iran is currently holding no less than three Iranian American scholars and an Iranian American journalist. Haleh Esfandiari, Kian Tajbakhsh, and Ali Shakeri, along with Parnaz Azima, were all detained on recent visits to Iran. Human Rights Watch reports on the four here. Their Iranian and U.S. passports were seized, they've been subject to repeated interrogations, and, it appears, the government is preparing its case that these are American spies working to foment a "velvet revolution" within Iran.

The reason it is so important to report this fact when reporting on the upcoming talks is because you can bet that, as long as the mainstream media isn't talking about these detained U.S. citizens, neither will the U.S. envoys when it comes time to meet their Iranian counterparts.