SEPTEMBER 2009
NEWS VIDEOS FROM SEPTEMBER 2009
DETAINED HIKERS GET DULUTH SUPPORT
Sep 29th
REPRINTED FROM WDIO IN DELUTH:


Three American hikers, detained in Iran For nearly two months are gaining support in Duluth. One of those hikers, Shane Bauer, Is from Pine City. WDIO spoke with his family Sunday at a fundraising event.
Shane’s brother-in-law, Nate Lindstrom, was the planner behind the fundraiser at The Spiritual Deli, but he said it was definitely a community effort. Lindstrom said he hasn’t heard from his brother-in-law since he was captured July 31st.
Today’s fundraiser included food, live music and a silent auction. Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal Are the other two hikers detained. All proceeds will go to the three families and the costs of getting the hikers home.
AMERICANS HELD IN IRAN: CBS EARLY SHOW
Sep 29th
REPUBLISHED FROM CBS EARLY SHOW:
The families of American hikers held captive in Iran are speaking out in the hopes that it may expedite their release.
HIKERS’ FAMILY MEMBERS ON THE TODAY SHOW
Sep 29th
TODAY’s Meredith Vieira talks to family members of hikers Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, who were detained along with their friend Josh Fattal as they were hiking along the border of Iraq and Iran. Shane Bauer’s mother, Cindy Hickey, his sister, Nicole Bauer Lindstrom and Sarah Shourd’s cousin, Patrick Sandys speak out.
IRAN ALLOWS SWISS ACCESS TO AMERICANS
Sep 29th
Iran lets Swiss diplomats meet with three Americans who have been detained in Iran since being arrested for illegal entry in late July. MSNBC reports.


WASHINGTON – The State Department on Tuesday welcomed Iran’s decision to allow Swiss diplomats to meet with three Americans who have been detained in Iran since being accused of illegal entry in late July.The move could be seen as a conciliatory gesture on Iran’s part, coming two days before a high-profile meeting between Iran and five world powers seeking to persuade Iran to abandon any effort to build nuclear weapons.
“We welcome this step,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. Asked whether it likely is connected to the coming talks in Geneva on nuclear issues, he said: “Hard to say.”
The Swiss government, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran, offered few details of the visit.
“Swiss diplomats represent the interests of the United States, and as part of this provide consular protection for U.S. citizens,” Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Adrian Sollberger told The AP. “In this context, they had direct contact today with the three imprisoned American citizens.”
Sollberger said “direct contact” meant they were “personally visited” by Swiss diplomats. He provided no details.
The Swiss represent U.S. interests in Iran because the United States has no formal diplomatic relations with the Islamic republic.
Crowley said it was not clear whether Iran’s the decision to grant Swiss access made it more likely the Americans would be allowed to contact their families.
The three Americans are Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer, and Sarah Shourd.
Since the Americans’ arrest, their families have had no contact with them and no information other than the fact of their detention.
On Sept. 22, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New York City to speak to attend the United Nations General Assembly, said in an Associated Press interview that he would ask the country’s judiciary to expedite the process and to “look at the case with maximum leniency.”
His remark sparked hope among the hikers’ families that they might be released and allowed to return home.
TODAY SHOW INTERVIEW WITH AHMADINEJAD
Sep 18th
TODAY’s Ann Curry speaks exclusively with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


TEHRAN — Three Americans who have been detained in Iran for nearly seven weeks “trampled the law, and in accordance with the laws, they need to be punished,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC News.
In an interview Thursday at the Presidential Compound in Tehran, Ahmadinejad told NBC’s Ann Curry that he sympathized with the families of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, whose mothers asked Ahmadinejad to bring them with him when he arrives in New York next week to address the U.N. General Assembly.
The Iranian Mission to the United Nations did not publicly respond to the request, and Ahmadinejad indicated that he would entertain such entreaties only “under an equal condition” — the release of Iranians who are “in U.S. prisons right now with no good reason,” whom he did not identify.
“I’m not happy that they have been arrested,” Ahmadinejad said of the Americans. “But these individuals had violated our borders.”
Bauer, 27, Shourd, 31, and Fattal, 27, were detained July 31 after they entered northern Iraq. Relatives have said the three accidentally crossed a poorly marked border while on a hiking expedition in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.
Family: No consular access
Nicole Marie Lindstrom, Bauer’s sister, said Thursday that relatives were in the dark about the detainees’ condition and treatment.
“We have not been granted consular access, so no one has gotten to speak with them,” she said in an interview on NBC’s TODAY show.
Ahmadinejad compared the arrests to the detention of five Iranians by U.S. forces in Arbil, Iraq, in January 2007. The five men, who Iran said were diplomats, were released two months ago as part of a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.
“The U.S. government, did it ever apologize for its wrongful action in Iraq?” Ahmadinejad asked. “By doing so, it would have taken a humanitarian posture.”
Like the detained Americans, “these people have family members, too,” he said. “They have mothers. They have spouses. These are human beings, as well.
“We think that it’s only fair for us to look at all of these together,” he added.
The entire interview is scheduled to air Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV.
Ahmadinejad: ‘We don’t need’ nuclear weapons
Ahmadinejad gave the interview a week before he is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly and two weeks before multilateral talks get under way on Iran’s nuclear program, the first involving Iran since a 2008 session in Geneva foundered over its refusal to discuss its research on enriched uranium.
Ahmadinejad rebuffed repeated attempts to say whether he would explicitly rule out developing nuclear weapons, saying only that they were “not a part of our programs and plans” because “we don’t need such a weapon.”
But he was adamant that he would not yield to pressure from the United Nations, the United States and European governments to put an end to what he maintains are peaceful programs, which have aggravated tensions and led to three sets of Security Council sanctions.
“We have always believed in talking, in negotiating — that is our logic. Nothing has changed,” Ahmadinejad said.
But “if you are talking about the enrichment of uranium for peaceful purposes, this will never be closed down here in Iran,” he said.
Ahmadinejad also defended the legality of his re-election last spring, which was met with days of violence in the streets.
“The law prevails,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “I don’t see any problems.”
TODAY SHOW VIDEO: KIN SPEAK OUT
Sep 17th
REPUBLISHED FROM MSNBC: Relatives tell TODAY’s Matt Lauer that the three hikers should be freed as a humanitarian gesture.




