Hikers' Families Hopeful About Release

The families of three American hikers detained in Iran say they're encouraged that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has indicated he supports leniency for their loved ones.

Ahmadinejad said in an Associated Press interview Tuesday that he would ask the country's judiciary to expedite the process and to "look at the case with maximum leniency."

Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal have been held in Iran for 53 days after apparently straying into Iran while hiking in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region in July.

Their families released a joint statement Wednesday calling Ahmadinejad's remarks an "expression of compassion" and saying they hope it means Iranian authorities will allow them to speak to their loved ones "without delay."

Meanwhile, third parties in America are trying to intercede on behalf of the hikers, reports CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson tells CBS News that the mother of one of hikers has asked him and said the hikers were "pawns in a big political game."

A group from the Council on American-Islamic Relations also plans to meet Ahmadinejad tomorrow to ask for the hikers' release as a "humanitarian gesture."

The U.S. government has no diplomatic relations with Iran and has been working with the Swiss government to try to obtain more information on the hikers..

U.S. officials and authorities in Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region say the backpackers crossed the poorly marked border by mistake while visiting a scenic part of Iraq on July 31. Iran's state television has said they were arrested after disregarding border guards' warnings.

Bauer, 27, a freelance journalist, spent his first 14 years in Onamia, Minn. before moving to San Leandro, Calif. to live with his father.

Cindy Hickey, Bauer's mother, said her son expressed an interest in the wider world even as a young child, and as he grew older became particularly interested in the Middle East. He spoke fluent Arabic, and for the last year had been living in Damascus, Syria with Shourd, 31, his girlfriend of several years.

Fattal, 27, went to visit Bauer and Shourd, who teaches English, after traveling overseas on a teaching fellowship with the International Honors Program. All three are graduates of the University of California, Berkeley.

Hickey, 49, said she never worried much about her son as he traveled in the Mideast and other global hot spots. "He's a seasoned traveler, and he's always very careful," said Hickey, who lives with her husband on a farm with 19 Alaskan huskies.

She spent time with her son in Yemen a few years ago and had planned to visit him in Damascus later this year. When they last spoke, about a week before he went to hike in Kurdistan, he even raised the possibility that mother and son might return to the scenic wilderness area.

The families have stressed that the three were merely hiking in Kurdistan, and Hickey said her son was not there as a journalist. Hickey said she's had many sleepless nights and has been frustrated by her lack of options. On her dining room table, next several pictures of her son, she set up cups for drinking tea - a habit she shares with her son. She won't use them until the day he comes home.

"Because I believe in what he does, I would not try to control what he does in the future," Hickey said. "But I want him home for a few days."