Rarely have so many journalists, politicians and commentators so totally missed a headline. There are now five American hostages in Iran. Each case has been largely treated by itself, almost as if it were an oddity, something requiring a special explanation, instead of another piece in a luminously clear pattern whose meaning should be intuitively obvious to us all.

The five American hostages are:

Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington and the wife of the distinguished historian Shaul Bakash;

Parnaz Azima, a journalist for radio Farda, the Farsi-language component of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty;

Ali Shakeri, a founding board member at the University of California, Irvine’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding;

Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant working for George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Robert A. Levinson, a former FBI officer reportedly investigating tobacco smuggling on behalf of a private client. He disappeared after he flew to Iran’s Kish Island in March.

The two women — Esfandiari and Azima — were regular visitors to Iran, and both were visiting their mothers at the time of their arrests.

Read the rest at Michael Ledeen on Iran on National Review Online (http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MjNhMDNiOTBmMzMxNDMyMzgyODk3YmQ1ZDQ0MDFiYjc=)

I have also additionally posted this topic :

Ask Questions - Get Answers [ Politics - Welcome ] (http://www.answerway.com/viewques.php?pgtitle=Politics&category=163&msection=0&quesid=62787)

And

Ask Questions - Get Answers [ Politics - Welcome ] (http://www.answerway.com/viewques.php?pgtitle=Politics&category=163&msection=0&quesid=62616)

The last hostage crisis with Iran lasted 444 days with daily updates on Nightline.. This time it appears the dinosaur media is not very interested .

Do you think it may have something to do with the names of the hostages??

There is nothing for the media to gain on this story. Otherwise you would see the story on every channel. Hate to be so cynical.

Finally ;weeks later, the Washington Compost is finally reporting on this story

washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/31/AR2007053102009.html)

They conclude their report by saying These individuals are pawns. Those in Iran who care about the world's respect should press for their release.

Facing reality ;this type of action has been the Iranian M.O. since the 1979 revolution. Besides the 1979 hostages they also had their pawns in Lebanon seize hostages in the 1980s .

Like the pirates they are ;we saw them seize British sailors earlier this year ,and last summer their clients instigated a war against Israel by kidnapping an Israeli soldier .

I don't know how anyone else thinks but when people ask me about an exit strategy from Iraq I say the exit road goes through Tehran .

I believe if private citizen goes willingly into a country that is openly hostile to members of another country then they must be willing to take the risk of being jailed or worse. The same thing has happened in China and other nations that have issues with the US.

Haleh Esfandiari has now been held hostage for 2 months in Evin prison and the status of the rest of the hostages is unchanged . As I said above; during the 1980 hostage crisis the MSM had daily updates and Ted Koppel had a segment about it every night on television .


Four years ago, a Montreal photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, was arrested by police in Tehran, taken to Evin prison, and wound up getting questioned to death. Upon her capture, the Canadian government had done as the State Department is apparently doing — kept things discreet, low-key, cards close to the chest, quiet word in the right ears … By the time Zahra Kazemi's son, frustrated by his government's ineffable equanimity, got the story out, it was too late for his mother.Haleh Esfandiari - July 23, 2007 - The New York Sun (http://www.nysun.com/article/58902)

The Iranians claimed that Zahra Kazemi had an "accident " in prison .


Shahram Azam, a physician who'd examined Ms. Kazemi's body... said that she had broken fingers, a broken nose, a crushed toe, a skull fracture, severe abdominal bruising, and internal damage consistent with various forms of rape.

Rarely have so many journalists, politicians and commentators so totally missed a headline. There are now five American hostages in Iran. Each case has been largely treated by itself, almost as if it were an oddity, something requiring a special explanation, instead of another piece in a luminously clear pattern whose meaning should be intuitively obvious to us all.

The five American hostages are:

Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington and the wife of the distinguished historian Shaul Bakash;

Parnaz Azima, a journalist for radio Farda, the Farsi-language component of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty;

Ali Shakeri, a founding board member at the University of California, Irvine’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding;

Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant working for George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Robert A. Levinson, a former FBI officer reportedly investigating tobacco smuggling on behalf of a private client. He disappeared after he flew to Iran’s Kish Island in March.

The two women — Esfandiari and Azima — were regular visitors to Iran, and both were visiting their mothers at the time of their arrests.

Read the rest at Michael Ledeen on Iran on National Review Online (http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MjNhMDNiOTBmMzMxNDMyMzgyODk3YmQ1ZDQ0MDFiYjc=)

I have also additionally posted this topic :

Ask Questions - Get Answers [ Politics - Welcome ] (http://www.answerway.com/viewques.php?pgtitle=Politics&category=163&msection=0&quesid=62787)

and

Ask Questions - Get Answers [ Politics - Welcome ] (http://www.answerway.com/viewques.php?pgtitle=Politics&category=163&msection=0&quesid=62616)

The last hostage crisis with Iran lasted 444 days with daily updates on Nightline.. This time it appears the dinosaur media is not very interested .
There appears to be reluctance by the leftist media towards shining a poor light on Iran; I suppose the leftist media is a bit afraid of giving the Administration any more probable cause for retaliating against Iran; after all, they don't want to rock the boat, never mind it may be blown out of the water.