WASHINGTON, D.C. — An American journalist recently convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran has been released, according to her lawyer.
The journalist, Roxana Saberi, grew up in Fargo, N.D., and had been in detention for nearly three months. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was one of a number of lawmakers who had worked to have Saberi released.
In a statement, Klobuchar said, “I am glad this injustice has been reversed and Roxana Saberi is now free to return home. Her arrest and imprisonment provoked a worldwide response. The government of Iran should never have used this young American journalist as a pawn in their international game.”
In recent weeks, Klobuchar had worked closely with the U.S. Department of State on freeing Saberi, according to the senator’s office. Klobuchar also sent a letter to the secretary general of the United Nations in March, urging him to intervene with the government of Iran to secure the immediate release of Saberi.
Saberi, a 32-year-old American-Iranian national who graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, had been living in Iran for the past six years reporting for National Public Radio and the BBC. She had planned to return to the United States this year.
Glen Greenwald on Salon.com -“Roxana Saberi’s plight and American media propaganda” – details the willful amnesia regarding our own reckless, questionable imprisonments… as other journalists are being detained, imprisoned with no apparant charges by the US.
To name a just a few from G. Greewald’s worthy research…Sami al-Haj, al-Jazeera cameraman… or Bilal Hussein; one with a long track record as AP “Pulitzer Prize winning war coverage”, imprisoned by the US…with no apparent charges.
So maybe we should discover, cover our own false imprisonment records; blaze those too with headlines occasionally?…or at least peek in the mirror once in awhile so we can at least cosmetically, view our own ghoulish hypocrisy? Call it holistic coverage…call it solid investigative journalism.
Congressmen play show-and-tell with Saberi’s story. Makes good sense. Looks like they are doing something I suppose.
Presidential voices cry out outrage….all for one neophyte, entry-level independment (sure I’m glad she’s free,okay?) imprisoned in Iran and, headlines dominate the front page even as diplomatic relations get all gummed up even more in the process.
Where’s the press on all our own unjustified imprisonments? Side by side coverage should parallel all the stories some of the time, eh? But the media has been essentially silent on our own giant steps of false, unjustified imprisonments.
Glenn Greenwald has done his homework and his is a balanced and honorable investigation.