Hostages of Diplomacy?

Could there be a correlation between high level US/Iranian talks yesterday and the news today that three Iranian Americans have been formally charged with espionage against Iran?

In briefings to reporters afterward, the chief negotiators -- U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker and Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi -- said the talks focused solely on Iraq and did not stray into the contentious areas of Iran's nuclear program or the recent detentions of four Iranian American citizens by Tehran. (Emphasis mine)

For all the assurances that discussion would be kept merely to topics regarding Iraq, and that the nuclear issue and taking of political prisoners would not be "on the table," I can't help but wonder if the Iranians aren't raising the stakes to gain the release of five Iranians detained by US forces in Iraq in January. The US government originally claimed the five were agents of Iran's Revolutionary Guard detained on grounds of plotting against the US; Iran says they are merely diplomats and pose no threat. Sound familiar?

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.