Iran Weighs Spy Charges for U.S. Hikers

Iran has arrested three Americans who strayed across the border from Iraq for illegally entering the country and a lawmaker says authorities are deciding whether they will be accused of spying.

Officials in northern Iraq's Kurdish region said Sunday that the three - Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal - were tourists who had mistakenly crossed into Iran on July 31 while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan. Friends and family say the three were adventurous travelers who accidentally stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lawmaker Mohammad Karim Abedi said on state-run Arabic television Al-Alam that he believed the three came as spies but authorities are still deciding whether there is proof to bring legal action against them.

Earlier Tuesday, Iranian state television said the issue of the Americans 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.

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.

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.