Iran Releases U.S. Hikers

U.S. hikers Shane Bauer, right, and Josh Fattal, sat in Tehran's Mehrabad airport before leaving for Oman. (Photo courtesy Reuters)

By Ralph E. Stone

September 22, 2011

On July 2009, Shane Bower, Josh Fattal, and Sarah Shourd, three American hikers, were seized near the poorly marked Iraq-Iran border. In September 2010, Shourd was released after $500,000 was paid. Bower and Fattal were convicted of illegally entering Iran and spying for the United States. We only have the word of the Iranian border guards that these hikers actually entered into Iran, and the world has yet to see the evidence supporting a spying conviction. On September 21, Bauer and Fattal were freed after $1 million was paid. Their release after cash was paid smacks of kidnapping for ransom, rather than an example of Islamic mercy.

Ralph E. Stone

I was born in Massachusetts; graduated from Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School; served as an officer in the Vietnam war; retired from the Federal Trade Commission (consumer and antitrust law); travel extensively with my wife Judi; and since retirement involved in domestic violence prevention and consumer issues.

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