U.S. hikers detained in Iran are like 'three Rachel Corries', says friend

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

U.S. hikers detained in Iran are like 'three Rachel Corries', says friend

Shon Meckfessel says he and his friends have spent their life fighting injustice in the Middle East.
By Danna Harman

If Sarah Shourd, 31, could have, she would have set sail on the recent flotilla to Gaza. Same for her boyfriend Shane Bauer, 28 and their friend Josh Fattal, 28. And they would probably be out there right now, demonstrating against Israel's reaction, the blockade in general, and well, Israel in general.

That's the kind of thing they believe in. Those are the sorts of activities they do. "These are like three Rachel Corries," says their friend Shon Meckfessel, comparing them to the activist killed in Gaza who has become something of a symbol of the pro-Palestinian movement, "...we have spent out whole adult lives contesting injustices in the Middle East."
Detained U.S. hikers in Iran    

Detained American Sarah Shourd (R), Shane Bauer (L) and Joshua Fattal smile as they wait to meet their mothers in Tehran May 21, 2010.
Photo by: Reuters

Except for now, none of those three young Americans is doing much of anything. On Saturday, it will be a year since they were taken into captivity in Iran, where they remain, in Evin prison, with almost no contact with the outside world.

Meckfessel, who was traveling with them when they were taken captive, is frustrated that so little is being done to get them released. "It just does not feel like a priority for the U.S. administration," he complains. Is it because they are Americans who were critical of U.S. and Israeli actions? "I definitely wonder about that," he says.

Swiss diplomats, who represent the U.S. in Tehran have managed only three visits with the captives. An Iranian lawyer has had no access. And Shourd, in solitary confinement, is said to be increasingly depressed.

The three are accused of being spies who entered the country to gather information and incite resistance to the regime - but no official charges have been made, and there is no trial date scheduled. All of which leaves the "American hikers" as they are called, in total limbo.

A year ago, the four friends had set out from Syria, where they were living and teaching in a Palestinian refugee camp, on a hiking trip to Kurdistan, in Northern Iraq, recounts Meckfessel. Staying in picturesque Suleymania, the plan was to go hiking and camping in the Zagros Mountains.

On the morning of the proposed trip, Meckfessel felt unwell and stayed behind, telling the other to go on without him – he would catch up the next day. That evening, he spoke on the mobile with the group twice, and they told him about a beautiful waterfall they visited near the village of Ahmed Awa. The group had maps, insists Meckfessel, but they were not detailed.

The last time Meckfessel heard from them was the next day, July 31, 2009, at 1:13 P.M., when Bauer called him, whispering down the line that they were being held by Iranians - and that he should immediately contact the U.S. embassy.

It seems the three either crossed the border into the Islamic Republic, or wandered close enough to it to be picked up by Iranian soldiers. "It was the last thing I expected," says Meckfessel. "The breath went out of my chest I was so shocked. We had no interest in Iran. We did not even know we were that close."

He admits there has been a lot of negative reaction to this story. "A lot of people really think they are spies, or, if not, then some idiots, going on an extreme silly adventure. But no, we have a deep involvement in the region. The irony is we were even doing work on some of the issues that Iran speaks about."

Just weeks before the three were taken captive, for example, he says, they were in Israel to visit another friend, Tristan Anderson, who was hospitalized for a year after being shot with a teargas canister in the head - by the IDF - while taking photos during a demonstration against the wall in Ni'lin.

"Often, when checking the Iranian press to see if there is any news about my friends I have seen coverage of Tristan's situation, which is, of course, very sympathetic...They keep calling him a hero for standing up to Israeli and U.S. aggressions," says Meckfessel. "The irony is they are celebrating Tristan as a hero, but holding his like-minded friends as spies."

Anderson's parents themselves have written to the Iranian authorities, imploring them to release the Americans. "With Tristan, they share common principles, projects and community," they wrote. "They are not instruments of their government, but independent thinkers."

At the time he was abducted, Bauer, a freelance journalist, was almost finished with an expose article on the IDF's use of purportedly non-lethal weapons against protesters like Anderson. "He would have published it long ago if he had not been arrested...You would say the Iranians are standing in the way," says Meckfessel. "How ironic is that?"

http://www.haaretz.com/news/internation ... d-1.304974

[Negentropic]

As soon as they run over their heads with a bulldozer and then back up and run over their heads again then declare it an accident they'll be Rachel Corries and not until then. If these people weren't Americans or foreigners and/or Jews, and suspected of being spies, Ahmedinejad and the Mullahs would have caned, lashed and probably already hanged them by now. It's just another mini-rehash of the tried-and-tested boogie-man-reinforcing 444 day hostage-crisis charade of 1979. The question to ask is why is Ahmedinajackass playing into this game at every turn, on cue as DBS has always said and Eustace Mullins also said. If the Iranians leaders weren't controlled opposition then it would be the easiest thing in the world to moderate their repressive sharia laws and not be considered barbarians anymore and not pursue a nuclear program and threfore leave nothing the media-whores of the West can lie about to erect the boogie-man. What would 1 nuclear weapon get them anyway? Not even as much radation damage as an easy-to-make cobalt 60 suitcase bomb would provide (google Tim Rifat Cobalt 60 on Jeff Rense Show for some of that info).  It's not like they have any possiblity of winning a war against the West or even Israel with its 500 nukes. Why have a holocaust-revisionist conference for useful idiot holocaust-revisionist to cheerfully attend from around the world and give the media-whores of the West the perfect opportunity to call you a new 'Hitler' and all the rest of that BS?  Iran and the Mullahs will fall like a domino piece, if and when they say it will fall because it has never been anything but controlled opposition.  In the process, both the Mullahs and the Western Elite scumbags will get to massacre the common people of Iran the same way they did with Iraq and Afghanistan and get their sadistic jollies, the same way the Mullahs and Saddam Hussein did in the 8 year Iran-Iraq war to the tune of 500,000 dead bodies.  How absurd it is to try to pick the lesser-evil when all the choices are mass-murderers.



[youtube:3k7gmd9m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug-qQ6fXevo[/youtube]3k7gmd9m]

[The Answer]

If these people weren't Americans or foreigners and/or Jews, and suspected of being spies, Ahmedinejad and the Mullahs would have caned, lashed and probably already hanged them by now.

what the hell are you talking about? Ur saying that if these three people weren't foreigners (meaning they were Iranian citizens) than they would have been hanged for hiking in the mountains? This type of propaganda is more vulgar than anything the pathological liar Yanks could come up with. Oh I forgot, you are a pathological lying Yank. Do you work for the US State Departments propaganda division? You should, they covet ppl like you.

It's just another mini-rehash of the tried-and-tested boogie-man-reinforcing 444 day hostage-crisis charade of 1979.

You have no evidence that the US-backed Khomeini. What is your evidence? After backing the Shah for 30+ years, why would they decide to get rid of him and install an anti-west Islamic fundamentalist? This is fucking retarded.

The question to ask is why is Ahmedinajackass playing into this game at every turn, on cue as DBS has always said and Eustace Mullins also said.

What do you mean he is playing "into this"? Into what? Ahmadinejad is anti-west and refuses to follow Washington's dictates. What more could you ask of him? If he wasn't as he is now, the only other option is to be a complete and total subservient slave to Washington. Would that make you happy?

If the Iranians leaders weren't controlled opposition then it would be the easiest thing in the world to moderate their repressive sharia laws and not be considered barbarians anymore and not pursue a nuclear program and threfore leave nothing the media-whores of the West can lie about to erect the boogie-man.

The US media portrays Hugo Chavez as a tyrant. Do you think Chavez cares? Do you honestly think Ahmadinejad cares what the US media is saying about him? They would be more concerned if the Western media was speaking fond of them becuz it would confirm they are complete slaves to the Yank bastards. The US can make a boogie-man out of anyone they want to becuz Yank citizens are morons who believe everything they see on tv. The Yank government doesn't need the consent of that person to make them into a boogie-man. They didn't ask bin laden if he was okay with being portrayed as the devil in the western media, they just did it. Ur arguments are flimsy conspiratard rhetoric.

Why have a holocaust-revisionist conference for useful idiot holocaust-revisionist to cheerfully attend from around the world and give the media-whores of the West the perfect opportunity to call you a new 'Hitler' and all the rest of that BS?

I cant believe ur actually critcizing the man for openly discussing holoco$t revisionism. Would you have him sit in his bedroom and drink tea and keep his mouth shut and say nothing that would embarrass the Yanks and the Yids like a good little Yank/Yid puppet boy would? Are you pro-US/pro-West? Ur not much different that a neo-con you know that?

Iran and the Mullahs will fall like a domino piece, if and when they say it will fall because it has never been anything but controlled opposition.

This makes no sense at all. If they are controlled opposition than why wouldn't the West want to keep them in there as long as possible? It's a contradiction that the US would be aggressively going after their own opposition like this. Plus, controlled oppositon would never say or expose anything the US wouldn't approve of. So then why has ahmadinejad openly stated that 9/11 was a big lie, and openly question the holoco$t? The answer: he's not controlled opposition.

The US cannot afford another war and will fall just like the Soviet Union fell when the Yanks induced them into Afghanistan. They aren't going to attack Iran, which is why they are resorting to other means such as psy-warfare propaganda, sponsoring proxy terrorist groups, economic sanctions, etc. Ur flimsy controlled opposition theory is laughable at best, and you've presented zero evidence to support it. Give us some evidence besides empty rhetoric and your convoluted "opinion".

[ahaze]

The question to ask is why is Ahmedinajackass playing into this game at every turn, on cue as DBS has always said and Eustace Mullins also said. If the Iranians leaders weren't controlled opposition then it would be the easiest thing in the world to moderate their repressive sharia laws and not be considered barbarians anymore and not pursue a nuclear program and threfore leave nothing the media-whores of the West can lie about to erect the boogie-man.

I buy the controlled opposition hypothesis about Ahmedinajammin'wit'you and his nitwits, and I remember skeptically viewing the lame-stream PR push about the hikers back in May where they had all the Mom's of the hikers on the gab shows talking about the distress of the captivity.  I remember thinking "gee those don't look like spies' Moms", and then trying to figure out how the spook agencies could've cast such perfect decoy Moms, but then when those same Moms did the photo-op with their kids it was pretty obvious my suspicions were misplaced.  So then I got to wondering what that Meckfessel fellow had to say about the whole matter after learning he fell behind, and this article answered that question.  I find the details about their activism and familiarity with the region and its politics very illuminating and it makes me think their bonifide better awareness makes them perfect candidates for the interests controlling the opposition to seize and create a political crisis with.

[The Answer]

The question to ask is why is Ahmedinajackass playing into this game at every turn, on cue as DBS has always said and Eustace Mullins also said. If the Iranians leaders weren't controlled opposition then it would be the easiest thing in the world to moderate their repressive sharia laws and not be considered barbarians anymore and not pursue a nuclear program and threfore leave nothing the media-whores of the West can lie about to erect the boogie-man.

I buy the controlled opposition hypothesis about Ahmedinajammin'wit'you and his nitwits, and I remember skeptically viewing the lame-stream PR push about the hikers back in May where they had all the Mom's of the hikers on the gab shows talking about the distress of the captivity.  I remember thinking "gee those don't look like spies' Moms", and then trying to figure out how the spook agencies could've cast such perfect decoy Moms, but then when those same Moms did the photo-op with their kids it was pretty obvious my suspicions were misplaced.  So then I got to wondering what that Meckfessel fellow had to say about the whole matter after learning he fell behind, and this article answered that question.  I find the details about their activism and familiarity with the region and its politics very illuminating and it makes me think their bonifide better awareness makes them perfect candidates for the interests controlling the opposition to seize and create a political crisis with.

Neither of you offer any proof, just empty rhetoric. If you can't offer any proof than ur just a bunch of rambling conspiratards. The Western media portrays Ahmadinejad as a devil, this means he is most likely good. 'Good' in the sense that he is not an imperialist-supporting, capitalist-appeasing sell out to his country and people.

[Travis]

Two Iranian yanks get imprisoned in Iran and it becomes a major issue across the western media. Thousands of Arabs get arrested, held without a court hearing, imprisoned, and many are sent to other countries to be tortured; this occurs in the US and across Europe but no one cares, I wonder why?

[ahaze]

Neither of you offer any proof, just empty rhetoric. If you can't offer any proof than ur just a bunch of rambling conspiratards. The Western media portrays Ahmadinejad as a devil, this means he is most likely good. 'Good' in the sense that he is not an imperialist-supporting, capitalist-appeasing sell out to his country and people.

OK, so as I read the alternative hypothesis I think I understand the somewhat obscurely stated argument asserts 'Ahmadinejad stands straight and true with the Iranian majority and in so doing strongly represents the consensus of Iranians who support detaining the captured hikers'.  Fair?  I'll try to work with that and ponder what could possibly compel the majority of Iranians to endorse incarcerating the hikers.

Given Zionist aggression and over exertion of lethal weaponry in the region, I imagine the Iranians are pretty fed up with xenophobic attacks on their people and figure if they don't take a stand on an issue so crucial as boundary, then they afford further transgression.  In fact if I was a Muslim in Iran having watched the murderous exploitation of my people, I'm pretty sure I'd be jacked on adrenaline wanting payback in any form I could get it.  So, maybe there's a chance Ahmadinejad is doing the best he can to prop up the defiant fist by holding the hikers.

I find such a perspective bets on stupidity.  Associating the hikers with over aggressive Zionists misconstrues guilt and denies the virtues of the cause the people caught in the middle have taken a stand for.  Given the fact that Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Joshua Fattal sympathized with IDF victim Tristan Anderson in Israel who is considered "a hero for standing up to Israeli and U.S. aggressions", it seems to me the Iranian people would be very supportive of collaborating with these hikers to actually help get word out about all the 'war by deception' being conducted.

But rather than capitalizing on Americans trying to better world understanding in favor of dissolving pointless overexertion of military technology (which Iran does lack in the face of its opposition) instead Ahmadinejad and crew decide its best they clutch the hikers in a death grip further inflaming tensions.  That would seem to indicate Ahmadinejackass juggles conflicting priorities and/or wields a completely psychopathic capacity for reason.  Maybe some Iranians don't realize it, but I think this whole situation demonstrates he is a "sell out to his country and people."

[§N9sh2bj]

I don't think any 'activists' worth a penny would compare themselves or their friends to rachel.

As a previous poster points out, they are not rachel.

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

I agree with §N9sh2bj,

This whole episode smells like a "Sayanim"-Jew intel act of some sort in Iran. Reminds me of the Intel ops in that country during the last election.
 These "hikers" are trying to play the sympathy card at this point to get out -- and they are simply making Propaganda with Rachel Corrie's name.  

I'm actually surprised the Haaretz would use the name Rachel Corrie in the story's title, but they have no fear of the Goyim for the murders of Americans by Israelis.