Iran sentences U.S. hikers to 8 years in jail

[randolph85]

So what was Raymond Davis doing, if he wasnt needed and could have been replaced by ordinary pakistani to do his work.
Why does the US military need Afghan-American interpreters, why dont they just hire the local afghans there or better yet just have some software do the interpreting.

raymond davis was not doing anything that the paki govt didnt know about, he and other cia people are registered with the paki government. they dont operate in tribal areas. they are based in large cities. i doubt there are any raymond davis's roaming around waziristan, thats what paid off locals are for.

the US doesnt hire local afghans because they tend to not know english and they cant do background checks on them like they can for "afghan-americans"

[faye]

Usually spys go into a country as journalists or diplomats or Aid workers. Iran and America don't have such a diplomatic relationship and Iran does not allow American Jounalists into the country so this was the alternate route.

well wouldn't they be able to use iranians? why 3 obvious americans? some reports say that locals sussed them and were watching them and saw the iranian guards arrest them on iraq side of border.

[khushal]

well wouldn't they be able to use iranians? why 3 obvious americans? some reports say that locals sussed them and were watching them and saw the iranian guards arrest them on iraq side of border.

Raymond Davis?
Afghan American interpreters instead of local afghans interpreting?

We dont know their purpose.

[faye]

can't compare, sorry. davis was there, in the thick of things with permission to be in the country under false pretenses, i assume. whereas these 3 were bumbling about in a rugged mountain range, standing out like sore thumbs, with american passports and jewish sounding names. in iraq, according to some.

[khushal]

who cares if he was in the thick of things, he was still a white boy spying in pakistan. but iran has no diplomacy with iran so spying is a little more difficult. They could use iranian americans to travel to the country but there is a trust issue. Remember Humam Khalil al-Balawi, the triple agent. no one can spy like a white boy for a white boy.

[khushal]

raymond davis was not doing anything that the paki govt didnt know about, he and other cia people are registered with the paki government. they dont operate in tribal areas. they are based in large cities. i doubt there are any raymond davis's roaming around waziristan, thats what paid off locals are for.

the US doesnt hire local afghans because they tend to not know english and they cant do background checks on them like they can for "afghan-americans"

They did not know what he was doing, they just had suspecions. thats why they had a couple of ISI agents on his tail. Regardless they have diplomatic relations where as America and Iran does not. I would not doubt they have raymond davises in the mountains of Waziristan with close air and drone support at the ready.

As far as your second point, they have huge difficulty with the afghan american interpreters because most of those people dont know how to speak pashto. Most are farsiwan that go there for the money. The locals are much better than the afghan americans. But the real issue is trust as you have stated. The white boy only trusts the white boy when it comes down to it. Remember triple agent Humam Khalil al-Balawi.
U.S. Interpreters In Afghanistan Can't Speak Afghan Languages, Whistleblower Reports
U.S. Interpreters In Afghanistan Can't Speak Afghan Languages, Whistleblower Reports

[unknownprince]

You will not find hikers in places like Waziristan.

If they are caught, they are spies.

Likewise, you will. Not find hikers in Iran, especially now.

Randolph, you place too much trust in one of the most pathetic and incompetent spy agencies in the world.

The drone attacks are targeting all pashtuns

There is no intelligence behind them

[faye]

who cares if he was in the thick of things, he was still a white boy spying in pakistan. but iran has no diplomacy with iran so spying is a little more difficult. They could use iranian americans to travel to the country but there is a trust issue. Remember Humam Khalil al-Balawi, the triple agent. no one can spy like a white boy for a white boy.

whatever the reason it wasn't well planned...unless....someone planned for them to be captured. perhaps the 4th man, who claimed to be sick and didn't go with them, set them up. he could have been mossad and they were peed off at these jewish kids being anti israel like, 'hey guys, lets do a treck up near iran and say hi, to show that iran is not such bad guys. oh, sorry, i am too sick to go, just follow the map i have given you'

[khushal]

whatever the reason it wasn't well planned...unless....someone planned for them to be captured. perhaps the 4th man, who claimed to be sick and didn't go with them, set them up. he could have been mossad and they were peed off at these jewish kids being anti israel like, 'hey guys, lets do a treck up near iran and say hi, to show that iran is not such bad guys. oh, sorry, i am too sick to go, just follow the map i have given you'

Who even knows if they were spying for America, maybe they were spying for Israel. But whatever the reason, my point is no one is stupid enough to hike in that area without proper planning and documents and permission. We all know why the Mexicans hike at the Mexican American border, but this story does not make sense.

I know one thing for sure is that toppling the Iranian regime would solve most of Americas problems in the region.

[Niazi]

And I hope that you are made to serve on the front lines in both this war and that one! Learn to use a gun Niazi, because chicken hawks rarely know how to fight wars.

I don't need to fight i want Iran to test her own medcin ,god willing it will happen but I'm praying that it be in my life time I never thought I'll see Pakistan but I know I touched raw nerve when mentioned Iran since half your DNA is of Qizabash.

I only express a ordinary afghan wishes you do not like it you can lump it.

Ta ta

[Catya Sher]

I already mentioned that I thought they were either indirectly or directly helping Israel
LOOK ! Israel won't trust a NON-Jewish American to do anything for them.
Why were all 3 Jewish ??

I never read they were anti-Zionist.
If they were, well there's a plethora of other objectives shared by US and
other intelligence agencies of the area.

There are a lot of false reports in circulation that they were arrested on the Iraqi
side of the border. That's idiotic.
Iranians don't do that.

The fact is that BEFORE the American occupation of Iraq, I traveled myself
in Iraqi Kurdistan, going to Arbil. It was SO closely monitored that I could not
set foot out of the Ark and maybe one or two other places.

Surely everything has NOT changed THAT much over this time. Things
rarely do in the Middle East overall. Despite regime changes,
much of older ways remains intact; that's how it's been for many thousands of years.

In sum: Iraqi Kurdistan has ALWAYS BEEN a highly volatile area.

There have been other Jewish American writers who snuck across the border
in this general area - at least according to their own tales. I could dig up the name of one book,
but I actually doubted the entire story, as an American would not
have been able to hang around on the Iranian side so easily as he made out that
he did.
This was a former CIA agent or officer who supposedly retired and decided to take
a little jaunt into Iran through this general way of marching through such mountains.

The CIA and Mossad have ALWAYS been interested in this region.
Who can say exactly their objective?
To find out how well the border is guarded, or sentiments of people just across
on the Iranian side ? These are vague guesses; no one in the general public can possibly know.

So I repeat, these people were too smart to be "hiking" out there.

I know the news agency that at least two if not 3 worked for.
Sandy Close, the head of Pacific News Service, is married to a man
who - in fact, just to mention - LOVES Afghanistan very much.
In younger years, he traveled there and studied
lost Arab tribes in Afghanistan. HIs book on this
called I think "The Arabs of Afghanistan"
is on the shelves of libraries.

I'm telling you all that this agency is very sharp compared with average American ones
as far as the lay of the land in this tumultuous part of the world.

They are incomparably more sophisticated than any major American news outlet.

I am not holding PNS responsible at all; but merely saying that these
freelancers for them could NEVER have been THAT STUPID as to wander across the border
on a "hike" -----
pathetic excuse, but eagerly picked up by the media, which dubbed them
the innocent title "The Hikers".
Why didn't the media call them "The Intruders" - or "The Bumblers" ??
No: they're Americans, so they always do right - !!

Borders are sacrosanct; any country is angry when people sneak into it - duh.

Iran is justified to look at them suspiciously -

Hopefully, though, a deal will be done to swap the tragic Shahrzad for them
as this is the only humane way out of a tricky diplomatic impasse.

[randolph85]

You will not find hikers in places like Waziristan.

If they are caught, they are spies.

Likewise, you will. Not find hikers in Iran, especially now.

Randolph, you place too much trust in one of the most pathetic and incompetent spy agencies in the world.

The drone attacks are targeting all pashtuns

There is no intelligence behind them

i dont think u have been following anything i have been saying. like i said, they dont send white american spies into danger zones for them like the tribal areas or iran. thats why they pay off locals. out of all the executed spies in the tribal areas, none have been white americans.

[faye]

Who even knows if they were spying for America, maybe they were spying for Israel. But whatever the reason, my point is no one is stupid enough to hike in that area without proper planning and documents and permission. We all know why the Mexicans hike at the Mexican American border, but this story does not make sense.

I know one thing for sure is that toppling the Iranian regime would solve most of Americas problems in the region.

how would toppling iran solve americas problems in the region khushal? wouldn't it just create more chaos? the saudis and the isarelis would like that to happen.

[khushal]

i dont think u have been following anything i have been saying. like i said, they dont send white american spies into danger zones for them like the tribal areas or iran. thats why they pay off locals. out of all the executed spies in the tribal areas, none have been white americans.

White people arent going to be sent to mingle with the locals. what can they accomplish, no one would trust them. They are usually sent to do other work mostly technical that locals can not do.