Iran Questions 3 Wayward U.S. Hikers

(CBS/AP)  Iranian state television said Tuesday that issue of the Americans who strayed into Iran is being used as propaganda against the Islamic republic.

The Arabic language Al-Alam television quoted the deputy governor of Iranian Kurdistan province as saying the three American hikers were being held on the outskirts of Marivan district and an investigation is underway.

Reuters news agency reported that, according to Iran's state media, authorities were interrogating the three travelers.

A breaking news announcement on the English language Iranian Press TV also said Tuesday that the Americans had been arrested for illegal entry at the Malakh-Khor on the border.

The three Americans were believed to have been hiking along the mountainous border area between Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish areas when they inadvertently crossed the frontier and were detained.

Little has been learned about the fate of the three, despite efforts by Swiss diplomats to obtain details from the Iranian Foreign Minister.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also has appealed to Iran for information about freelance journalist Shane Bauer, who had planned to cover the elections in northern Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region, and two others.

Friends and family say Bauer, his girlfriend, Sarah Shourd, and a third companion, Joshua Fattal, were adventuresome travelers who accidentally stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time.

Pacific News Service Executive Director Sandy Close, who hired Bauer to cover the elections in Kurdistan, said she does not believe the freelance journalist ever intended to go to neighboring Iran.

In an e-mail, Bauer told Close he wanted to "feel out the situation (in Kurdistan) and get some ideas for deeper stories."

"Kurdistan is the big story in Iraq now," Bauer wrote in the e-mail provided to The Associated Press. "I'm off to Kurdistan ... "

Close said Bauer sent her e-mails on Monday and Wednesday, then went backpacking with Shourd in a popular tourist area renowned for its scenery. It was unclear how the two met up with Fattal.

A fourth member of the group, Shon Meckfessel, was to have gone on the hike but did not because he felt sick.

Close said Bauer wouldn't have deliberately tried to enter Iran.

"He did not express any interest in going to Iran. He did not speak Farsi, his passion was Arabic," she said.

Bauer has traveled to the Middle East and North Africa and was most recently based in Damascus where he is working on a film about Darfur.

Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey of Pine City, Minnesota, and Shourd's mother, Nora Shourd, said they are concerned for the safety and welfare of the group and hope they return safely.

Fattal's father, Jacob, who runs a tech magazine outside Philadelphia, also told reporters: "All we care about is the well-being of Josh and his two hiker friends," he said.

A Kurdish official in Iraq has said the three contacted a colleague to say they had entered Iran by mistake on Friday and were surrounded by troops. Iran's state television later said the Americans were arrested after they did not heed warnings from Iranian border guards.

Bauer and Shourd, both graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, had been living in the San Francisco Bay area. Close described Bauer as "an artist whose first love is photography. He's also linguistically gifted and just wanted to immerse himself in the Middle East."

Shourd has written for a number of online publications, including Brave New Traveler. She has also has taught English.

Ross Borden, founder of an online travel magazine that includes Brave New Traveler, described Shourd as "very professional. She wrote a great story for us."

"She's obviously a professional traveler, as you can see by her latest adventure, going hiking in Iraq," he said. "Not many people go hiking in Iraq."

Fattal spent three years recently living with a group dedicated to sustainable farming near Cottage Grove, Oregon. He lived with about nine others and worked as the group's intern coordinator before leaving about eight months ago, according to Jason Brown, who now holds Fattal's job.

From January to June, Fattal traveled overseas as a teaching assistant with the International Honors Program, visiting Switzerland, India, South Africa and China on a global ecology program. Fattal had been a student in the program during college, president Joan Tiffany said.

"He's a very thoughtful, caring person, soft-spoken, smart, bright. Has lots of travel experience, and is someone that I would expect to be an experienced camper," Tiffany said.

[babooph]

The US propaganda system is amazing-hikers on the Iraq Iran border-I guess their are enough FULLY brainwashed fools who will accept this trash.

[tswhitewater]

Lets stop granting Visas to Iranians and start deporting all those who are here on Visas. In hindsight we should have taken this action years ago, when it was first recommended !!!!

[hower4]

Why? What problems have Iranians in the USA caused?

[mjlewis6]

If the Iranian border is so tight, then any Iranian manufacture of weapons that have been killing our GI's in Baghdad must have been sold or given for FREE to any Iraqi faction or Al Qaeda in Iraq reps with the Iranians...

Clearly the 'journalists' were not armed to the teeth and were haphazardly walking in the mountains....and even if they were attempting to get into Iran, to report on the political turmoil there...hardly makes them spies..

I, for one, would be 'picking them off' the border guards as they do not guard the border traffic and have refused to enforce border restrictions on shipment of arms...Blow them back until Iran actually stops the arms flow.

Journalists seeking the truth in Iran have to speak the language. If these characters can't speak Farsi....then they really are hikers with no sense of direction.

[mjlewis6]

If the Iranian border is so tight, then any Iranian manufacture of weapons that have been killing our GI's in Baghdad must have been sold or given for FREE to any Iraqi faction or Al Qaeda in Iraq reps with the Iranians...

Clearly the 'journalists' were not armed to the teeth and were haphazardly walking in the mountains....and even if they were attempting to get into Iran, to report on the political turmoil there...hardly makes them spies..

I, for one, would be 'picking them off' the border guards as they do not guard the border traffic and have refused to enforce border restrictions on shipment of arms...Blow them back until Iran actually stops the arms flow.

Journalists seeking the truth in Iran have to speak the language. If these characters can't speak Farsi....then they really are hikers with no sense of direction.

[mjlewis6]

If the Iranian border is so tight, then any Iranian manufacture of weapons that have been killing our GI's in Baghdad must have been sold or given for FREE to any Iraqi faction or Al Qaeda in Iraq reps with the Iranians...

Clearly the 'journalists' were not armed to the teeth and were haphazardly walking in the mountains....and even if they were attempting to get into Iran, to report on the political turmoil there...hardly makes them spies..

I, for one, would be 'picking them off' the border guards as they do not guard the border traffic and have refused to enforce border restrictions on shipment of arms...Blow them back until Iran actually stops the arms flow.

Journalists seeking the truth in Iran have to speak the language. If these characters can't speak Farsi....then they really are hikers with no sense of direction.

[hower4]

Do the CIA really think they're going to get any information about Iran by sending people across the border pretending to be hikers? No wonder America didn't have a clue what was going on in Iraq before they invaded!

[scoobydob]

These dumbasses deserve anything and everything they might get in Iran. This isn't an adventure lark it is blatant disregard for everyone including themselves! They're serious reporters like I'm seriously the King of England! They're a group of putzes from Berkley and it's time they and those like them pay the price for this self indulgent idiocy that could endanger others besides themselves.

[novamba]

Recently, German Courts determined that one of its citizens was financially liable for the cost of the efforts of getting her out of Colombia after venturing into guerrilla held territory and subsequent kidnapping while backpacking. I believe that these three thrill seekers should repay every penny spent negotiating their return, and should be barred from traveling overseas by having their passports permanently revoked. The idiocy of their actions remind us that our media thinks it answers to noone (please see these 3 geniuses, and North Korea journalists). Invoice all these clowns for the cost of their stupidity, and fine the organizations that support them.

[prometheus21]

The three Americans were believed to have been hiking along the mountainous border area between Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish areas when they inadvertently crossed the frontier and were detained.

Who in THE HELL from America would be hiking along the border between IRAQ?! and IRAN?!

I had no idea that this was that kind of tourist trap. I mean it's kind of HOT and not very scenic in that area isn't it? Not to mention politically dangerous for most Americans, some of who not to long ago had their HEADs removed while Bush remained steadfast in his illegal war-crime invasion and occupation of Iraq. Truly a noble thing, the Decider chin held high, so that these American hostages were granted the greatest of honors through there willing sacrifice to uphold.

Perhaps, these tourists were on a religious sojourn to offer themselves up in honor of the Great One's defiance against international condemnation, in celebration of the former Decider's holiness and hope's for more antagonism of those who do not bow before the effigy of Bush and instead burn it to a crisp?

Do these people look for interantional notoriety by putting America in a position to negotiate their release, or are they truly the stupidest of spies and greatest of idiots, or both? Or is hiking in rugged highly dissected and HOT desert like terrain between Iraq and Iran just a good time?

[marbru-2009]

The middle east is a war zone for crying out loud! Common sense says you don't go hiking in a place where you could find yourself in the middle of an international incident! That's just asking for trouble.