FG

Their families say the trio

Their families say the trio were tourists who strayed across the border accidentally after leaving their hotel in the Kurdish region of Iraq to go on an excursion to the waterfall of Ahmed Awa.

It is understandable to arrest and investigate those that cross borders, but to actually go ahead and formally charge these 3 young hikers with spying is typical of this regime. IRI charge anything under the sun with espionage and plots against the state - including iranians. So what do you expect?

The timing is suspect too, Iran could be using the case to pressure the US into accepting a counter demand that leaves it in possession of most of its stockpile of nuclear fuel .

Roxana Saberi was arrested in Tehran in January and convicted of espionage, then released in May after appealing her eight-year sentence. Her release was followed two months later with the freeing of five suspected Iranian agents held by the United States military in Iraq.

So .... they're just "useful".

To Q

He is not swallowing the propaganda. He is dissipating it.

Imagine...

Imagine if three Iranians were caught on the US side of the Mexican/American border and claimed they were just hiking and enjoying the view. Where would they be now? What would the US press say about them. What would Iranians in the US say?

So I agree with Q when he sez "Western lives are more important than Iranians."

I said DON'T be silly, and DON'T swallow the propaganda

the only people who say they were "Quds" forces was USA for self-interest reasons. They were in fact civilian employees of a consular office, who should have had protection.

Your point of view is painfully and boringly obvious: Western lives are more important than Iranians'

To Q--propandandist for the Supreme Murderer and Clown

There's a big differnence.  THose arrested were members of the Quds special forces--not civilians--and they had been providing sophisticated IED devices, just as Iran has been supplying weapons and trainers to Shia in ALL nearby areas to foment troubles.  That's a huge difference. 

It would be something else if these Quds types had been Iranian civilians spreading democracy and talking about human rights (a crime under Iran's despotism) but they were engaged in killing Americans. 

Actually, for that reason, I think we should have begun long ago treating the Iranian regime to its own tactics.  Oh, it is so vulnerable and hated.  The timing couldn't be better.

For Ali (a correction re IRCG incursion)

Ali: The IRCG  forces wandered into Pakistan.  Considering the timing (it was after the bombing attack that killed several top IRCG thugs), the fact the incursion was military and the fact that such incursions had been threartened, it's quite a big difference from three civilian hikers.

Don't be silly

I admire your attempt at "fair play". Actually, if that's your concern, you should know that innocent Iranians were seized by US troops in Iraqi Kurdistan, held and tortured for over a year.

So these kids have some time left.

I am confused

"A few weeks ago a group of Revoutionary Guards wandered into Iran
and were released a day or to later."

They did? INTO Iran? From where?

Was it supposed to be Iraq?

Iran threatens further violations of international law in future

The IRCG has threatened to target Iranians abroad in the near future. That would obviously include Iranians who live in American and are American citizens and who contribute to sources like this.

In essence a criminal and outlaw regime proposed to do abroad what it has already done at home in its self-created crisis: reverting to an abysmal past behavioral pattern.

FOR THAT THREAT SEE:

http://www.roozonline.com/english/news/newsitem/ar...

Such behavior also constitutes an attack on sovereign states.  If they can target our people--even within our own borders--we can target the people who do the targeting within Iran's borders.  That goes for every nation where Iran engages in such outlaw state behavior.

Up to now Iranians who lived abroad, citizens or non-citizens of France, England, the USA, etc., have enjoyed the freedom to speak up without fear of violence, imprisonment, torture and beatings suffered by their counterparts in the old country.  El Supremo Bozo is proposing to change that.

One of our first responses should be to arm and train the opposition, including persecuted ethnic minorites inside Iran.  If you are going to be accused of something, you may as well do--especially under such provocation. 

Besides the Khamenei regime is well known to have armed minorities in Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.  A ship loaded with weaspons and with Iranian military advisers was recently intercepted on the way to Lebanon.