Posted on 09/25/2011 9:43:10 AM PDT by Dallas59
NEW YORK (AP) Two Americans held for more than two years in an Iranian prison on accusations of spying returned to the U.S. on Sunday, ending a diplomatic ordeal that began with what they called a wrong turn into the wrong country.
Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York City at about 11 a.m. (1500 GMT).
The two were released from prison last week. They arrived Wednesday in Oman under a $1 million bail deal and were embraced by relatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Quatar paid the ransom.
Send all three of them back and give back my money, (I’m willing to bet that “bail” $$ is OUR tax money).
Any word on who paid the ransom money?
Where did the $ for the bail come from - who is paying for the families to fly back and forth? Who is paying for all the $ spent on the release of these 3 knuckleheads?
Exactly - the “media” is curiously silent when it comes to who supplied the million dollar ransom.
Anyone care to guess whether or not there is a state department travel advisory on Iraq? Regardless, a truly stupid stunt by some seriously brain damaged folk.
“majored in peace and conflict studies”
What private sector employer in their right mind would hire someone with that listed as his major on a resume? I really hope it was the families and not the US taxpayer who paid for these bums’ release.
I would bet you and me....
Wouldn’t surprise me if the Iranians released them in part because they realized they were the kind that would go home slagging the US and/or praising Iran.
Iran’s laughing at us. This country is a shell of it’s former self.
Who paid the ransom?
Did Qatar pay the ransom after the US government funneled the money to Qatar or agree to reimburse Qatar at a future date hiding it in a govt to govt contract for services. No way is the administration politically going to admit that US taxpayer money funded the release.
Best guess is the Omanis. Of course that's 1 million from them which will likely be repaid to them as another 100 mil in US foreign aid. We already give them over 2 bil so who's going to notice if we throw in an extra hundred mil?
College faculties are not the college faculties of our fathers. They've always been infested with left wing loons but due to the pressures from the conservatives kept mostly a low profile...until the era of Kent State. After that time, the loons came out in all their glory; snuffed out the conservative thought and replaced it with what we see today.
Parents, you need to really investigate these places before shelling out thousands to a place that will turn your son or daughter into enemies of America and Americans.
Gee, when people illegally cross the border into this country, they’re called “undocumented immigrants.”
That I do not know I just read they paid it. No reason as to why they would volunteer to do that. Would not be surprised to find out we paid for it under the table.
Useful Infidels, however briefly....
Caccianli i ciel per non...
esser men belli;
ne’ lo profondo inferno li riceve,
ch’alcuna gloria i rei avrebber d’elli.”
“Heaven to keep its beauty
cast them out, but even Hell
itself would not receive them
for fear the wicked there
might glory over them.”
Inferno III, 40-42
Lordy, it’s all but impossible for me to adequately express the length, breadth and depth of my contempt for these red-diaper useful idiots. Sarah and Shane above all. Josh is just your run-of-the-mill eco-imperialist enviro-lefty but the other two are true servants of evil. They actually worked from Syria?!? Living the lives of privileged lefty propagandists-about-town, somehow obliviously swanning among a people groaning under a brutal tyranny while they cranked out propaganda against the only democracy in the region. Of course, there have been several generations of such people before them but at least many of the ones who served Joe Stalin ended up paying the penalty. Hell, Sarah Shourd even managed to praise fundamentalist Islam’s treatment of women!
Unlike the rest of y’all I can easily believe that they were oblivious to the risk they were running, they undoubtedly had Syrian papers of some sort and assumed Iranians would adore them. Mike Ledeen has postulated that they were bones of contention in the power struggle between Ahmedinejad and Khameni and the final compromise was sentence first, then magnanimous release. Of course, we will never know the full story of the dealings as now every leftist nutjob and his patron are busy claiming credit (where’s Jesse on this one?!) but I’m sure Obama now owes Sultan Caboose a Monica.
I wonder if they’re even the least bit embarrassed about what Bashar is doing right now. Likely they’ll pretend it’s not happening, but it just might put a crimp in their anticipated Promotional tour. There are too many reporters out there who’d ask awkward questions and too many angry commoners who’d heckle their asses off. I doubt they are capable of introspection but they wouldn’t want to be inconvenienced by being put repeatedly on the spot in public.
Well, this sure is a career boost. Even if it came at the hands of an ostensibly “friendly” power. It will make for some fascinating logical and rhetorical gyrations in whatever book they put out. I can’t wait to flip through it at B&M. Expect them to take their places in the Berkeley professoriate shortly.
Anyone up for guessing the title of the no doubt thrilling memoir? Remember there’s now a romance angle thrown in. Mebbe Rigoberta Menchu will give the bride away...
Didn’t Obama, ie We the People, pay the ransom for these idiots? I think so....
Oman paid the ransom for all 3 - I assume they’ll get it back thru some sort of trade or deal made in D.C.
As long as Israel and the United States are the world's premier evils, embarrassment isn't possible.
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