Posted on 07/31/2009 1:49:35 PM PDT by Cheap_Hessian
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. State Department says it's investigating reports that three Americans have been detained by Iranians after wandering near the border in the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Two Kurdish officials say the three Americans apparently were arrested after entering Iranian territory without permission.
One security official says the missing Americans were tourists on an outing.
The official says the three contacted a colleague Friday and said "they had mistakenly entered Iranian territory and troops surrounded them."
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood says the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is "aware of the report and is investigating."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
“One security official says the missing Americans were tourists on an outing.”
“Come on, honey, everyone goes to the beach on vacation. Let’s go to Iraq this year!”
I think it's a little too early for tourism in Iraq, even in the Kurdish region.
May God bless these people. I hope they are released unharmed. The hate factor is high in Iran right now.
Wow, that certainly is reassuring.
Suicide by dimwit-travel-guide?
Maybe we should outsource our border security to Iran. At least they seem to be paying attention.
It was reported on Fox that one of them was an ‘activist’.
From the gov't or the people or both??
The Outdoor channel had a show on last year with American hunters going into Iran via group tours to shoot mountain rams.
The Iranian people were great and very friendly to the US hunters. One hunter even wore an American flag on his backback. The hunters could not believe how friendly the Iranians were from their touchdown in Tehran to the rural mountain villages. They said they saw no animosity towards Americans.
What was cool was they carried their rifles through the Tehran airport.
Don't blame the people of a whole country for it's few wackjob leaders.
Obviously had no GPS unit?
And now they face Sharia law, will be interesting to see if one of Obama's lawyers argues on their behalf.
Maybe we need a protest in Washington in front of the Iranian quasi-consulate.Chicago Black Powah vs. The Mullah running dogs.
Pass the popcorn.
And may they miraculously be released unharmed and write a book about it.
Yep! Maybe there's a bright side to this...{:-)
Good grief; if you had seen my previous posts on Iran, you would know that your admonition is as far from being necessary as possible. In fact, you would know that I am about the last person who needs to be told such a thing.
It is not the Iranian people who took these men into custody. It is representatives of the current government.
Because of what is taking place in Iran right now, the hate factor is very high.
It is very beautiful there and the culture and infrastructure are quite different from that in the rest of Iraq.
The Kurdish area remained much more peaceful than the rest of the country during the worst days of the war.
But at present, it's still a little risky.
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