Some good news:
An Iranian-American journalist who was sentenced to eight years of jail on spying charges for Washington will be released Monday after an appeal court reduced the sentence, her lawyer said.
Saleh Nikbakht, one of the two lawyers who defended Roxana Saberi in an appeal hearing on Sunday, said the court turned down the eight-year jail term and issued a two-year suspended prison term.
“The verdict was given to me in person today,” Mr. Nikbakht said. “The appeals court has accepted our defense.” Mr. Nikbakht said that he was waiting for Ms. Saberi outside Evin prison, where she has been held since January. With him were Ms. Saberi’s parents, who live in Fargo, North Dakota, another lawyer for Ms. Saberi,and a crowd of journalists and photographers. They expected her release in about an hour.
I hope she has the good sense to stay out of Iran for two years.
Ash Can
Splendid news.
geg6
Hmmmm. Any chance anyone will notice this might be case where that whole talking to your enemies might actually have worked? By the way, John, just wanted to let you know that I’m off work today due to a massive allergy blowup. My car has been literally turned yellow from pollen and I’m battling a massive headache, severely dry eyes, and congestion so bad I can’t breathe through my nose. Worst allergy season I’ve suffered in years. So I sympathize with you. But I will not be scrubbing my carpets, thank you very much.
Incertus
And it didn’t even take threatening to bomb the shit out of Iran to make it happen. Wingnuts will be so disappointed.
UofAZGrad
This is just a persian trick. Obama has shown weakness and, thus, any good news that could be associated with less belligerence is simply prelude to nuclear, apocolyptic war to usher in the new caliphate. We are so screwed.
John Cole
@geg6: I woke up today and I am completely fine. I am discovering it is really bad after i has rained a couple of days and then dried up and is sunny. Then I can barely breathe.
kay
@UofAZGrad:
It’s odd. She was tried before a closed tribunal. Her lawyers didn’t really appeal. They asked for a retrial: a different (open) process, and that request was going to be granted. Her lawyers were sure that were she given the “standard” process, she would be exonerated, because that’s been the pattern on espionage charges in Iran.
When it became clear that she was going to (open) trial, the government changed course and offered a deal, and it looks like she took it.
sgwhiteinfla
This is STILL good news for John McCain.
Englischlehrer
A nation that recognizes that Obama is barely able to restrain unnecessary violence unleashed on their country releases innocent people from 8-year prison terms. Iran and Venezuela see the political winds shifting and acting more reasonably may be an opportunity for egos to take a deep breath and possibly even put the safety back on their weapons.
UofAZGrad
@Kay
Can’t say I blame her. I think this belongs under the heading, “offers you cannot refuse”
Brian J
Exactly which Republican leader can we thank for this good news? Cantor? Boehner? Limbaugh? McCain? Reagan? Or that awesome Republican combination of JesusChurchillLincolnRooseveltsbothFDRandTeddyTrumanReaganWashington?
geg6
John: I take hope from you. Perhaps I’ll be better tomorrow. In the meantime, I will spend today laying in my Lazyboy, drinking tea with honey, and watching the first season of Tru Blood OnDemand. Too bad I didn’t have this allergy attack while students were still on campus. I love the first days after a semester ends and the students are gone and I can actually concentrate on some of the projects I can never get done when those pesky students are still around and interupting me every ten minutes.
Dennis-SGMM
Other things that didn’t happen:
She wasn’t waterboarded.
She wasn’t held indefinitely without trial.
She wasn’t denied legal counsel.
In other words, in this instance a member of “the Axis of Evil” behaved more ethically than the Bush administration.
kay
@UofAZGrad:
Oh, I agree. It’s interesting, though. The US has been holding two Iranian diplomats in Iraq since 2007, without trial. Ahem. Rule of Law!
I always think these things are wildly exotic and full of mystery, though. Maybe it’s just a straight deal. I know nothing about diplomatic wrangling.
El Cid
Glennzilla notes the different treatment of Saberi and U.S.-backed detentions of journalists:
Unfortunately, in this case, the U.S. actually now has to strive to match the press freedom rights of Iran, and not vice versa. Thanks, right wing pants-pissing Jack Bauer sucking freedom fighters.
gbear
If she’s been sitting in an Iranian prison for the last 5 months, she’ll find it VERY easy (and sensible) to stay out of Iran for two years.
UofAZGrad
@Kay
I think you are giving American rule of law short shrift here. While it may not exist everywhere, it at least exist in any jurisdiction where Tom Delay has been indicted.
wilfred
Wogs with a legal system that might actually be fair? Impossible. Must be a cunning Persian ruse.
kay
@UofAZGrad:
Stop criminalizing politics. Or crime. Whatever.
We’ll never know if the two Iranian diplomats we’re holding get a hearing.
It’s hard to read about Iran, because we have been so consistently lied to about our dealings there my entire adult life. I hear “Iran” and I just assume everything that comes after is partly or completely a lie.
wilfred
Two diplomats? Ask an Iranian about the USS Vincennes and the US investigation of that.
El Cid
If by ‘investigation’ you mean returning to port with full honors and medals were given out, yeah, that.
UofAZGrad
@Kay,
I share your feelings with regard to Iran and the truth. On top of that, throw in my additional frustration of having to defend common sense and moderation with regard to a regime that is fronted by an obnoxious holocaust denier. As you can imagine, it makes me the most popular guy at Passover every year.
Anton Sirius
@Dennis-SGMM:
Those rat bastard Iranians! How dare they show us up by being all moral and shit. It’s definitely time to let Israel off the leash.
Napoleon
By the way, I only have only heard this mentioned in passing one place, although this won’t be a surprise if you have seen a picture of her, but Ms. Saberi is half Japanese (ethnically) and they had approached the Iranians about her release also.
kay
@UofAZGrad:
I love your use of “fronted”. That’s accurate right? That means you aren’t allowed to say it.
I don’t envy you, trying to inject reason.
That’s what’s wrong with the whole Iran debate, as conservatives have set it up. You’re either “defending” Iran or preparing to bomb Iran.
UofAZGrad
@Kay,
By fronted, I meant the fact that Ahmadinejad is the face of the regime as its president but he has no real power especially when it comes to the foreign policy sphere. The mullahs have all the power and they are fat, happy autocrats that have a vested interest in there not being an Armageddon anytime soon regardless of rhetoric put out by the zany prez. The biggest argument I have with people over Iran is trying to persuade them that the regime’s leaders are rational actors and all this fear of Iran unilaterally dropping nukes or willy nilly handing them over to Hamas is laughable.
These guys care about maintaining and expanding their power, plain and simple and nukes are a rational means towards that goal. We should work very hard to undermine this goal but a failure to do so does not mean the end of Israel or the world. It means dealing with a lot of foreseen and unforeseen consequences that we would rather avoid. But there can be no real discussion over America’s Iran policy if opinion makers and media keep harping on Ahmadinejad’s every word and refuse to entertain the notion that the regime is rational. Strangely, many of these opinion makers were members of, or at least strongly supported, the Reagan administration which found Iran rationale enough to sell arms to using Israel as the go between.
kay
@UofAZGrad:
I know what you meant by fronted. That’s why I like it used. It’s true.
The biggest argument I have with people over Iran is trying to persuade them that the regime’s leaders are rational actors and all this fear of Iran unilaterally dropping nukes or willy nilly handing them over to Hamas is laughable.
That’s the whole sales job of the Bush Doctrine, right, in a nutshell? No one is a rational actor?
Leaving out “rational” opens up a whole world of opportunity. It allows an invasion of Iraq. It allows an invasion of Iran based on inflammatory speeches. Once you take rational out, as a basis for decision-making, all bets are off.
As a practical matter, it looks like this: as long as there are no threats, real or implied, imminent or otherwise, the United States will act with restraint, and attempt diplomacy. I’m not sure what the point of having “diplomacy” is if we can just discard that when faced with really any opposition. This elaborate system was put in place for when things fall apart. If everything’s peaceful, we don’t need any diplomatic process. The minute we identify a threat, we go right to force? Why bother with lip service? Just have “peace” and “war”. Two choices. One fails, go to the other.
MNPundit
@gbear: She’s on her way out of the country as soon as she can “make arrangements” according to the story I read. Glad she wasn’t actually a spy.
Trollhattan
I’m glad she’s out, period. I’m also looking forward to what should be a cracking good book.
Cyrus
I hadn’t read anything about how serious the charge of spying was in the first place, and to the extent that the NYT article addresses that at all, it raises more questions than it answers.
That’s it.
A charge of spying seems very hard to believe as a follow-up on a charge of buying wine, but OK, it’s not impossible; Tim McVeigh was in custody for some minor traffic violation a couple hours after the bombing, or something like that. Sometimes people get stupid. But how did her press card get revoked? By whom? (Apparently it was the second time; according to Wikipedia, she was issued one press card when she moved to Iran in 2003 and it was revoked just months later, also for no known reason.) Was her prosecution intended to intimidate her fiancé the freedom-of-speech-advocate movie producer?
Also, Saberi is ridiculously hot. She’s half-Iranian, half-Japanese, and grew up in Fargo. She has two master’s degrees and is working on a third, and she’s fluent in French. (Or so I deduce from the fact that she majored in it in college.) She’s a reporter, obviously, which is admirable or at the very least interesting. I know I’m not supposed to objectify women by talking about how hot they are, but give me a break, she was a finalist in the Miss America competition, it’s not like we have to tiptoe around that.
opit
U of AZ Grad
I wonder if you can see the similarity between Iran’s mullahs and US CEOs. International corporations far outstrip any past anti-monpoly legislation and operate on a scale where you have to figure their best ploy is to rip off the U.S. taxpayer.
Maj-Gen Smedley Butler’s classic rant “War is a Racket” puts many illusions to rest.
I still can’t figure out the tactical threat Iran poses next to that of Russia. Putin stated in clear terms they’d be p.o.’d no end at an attack on Iran. They doesn’t get into the crock of shit smeared against them at every turn.
But Gitmo and al Ghraib aren’t a problem any lawyer is going to solve. Alexander the Great and his sword cutting the Gordian Knot is the only approach with a remote chance of success.
The U.S. Congress is complicit in authorizing acts which call for the death penalty according to U.S. law by removing the penalties. How’s that for a super sized lemon ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Servicemembers'_Protection_Act
TenguPhule
And we can expect to be taunted about this by the Iranians for generations to come.
Yet another reason to line Bush and co. up against a wall.
asiangrrlMN
Wait, Iran did the right thing (no matter the reason or the pressure), and now we have to work hard to equal them. Great. Just great.
I’m glad for Roxana Saberi. I’ll be even more glad when we do the right thing as well concerning the Gitmo detainees and others.
asiangrrlMN
@El Cid: Thank you for posting the GG link. Sigh. Now I’m really depressed about American hypocrisy. Excellent read, though. Everyone should read it.
Bruce
@TenguPhule:
yes…na na na na na na….come on dude…i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again…it’s wrong to exhonerate the iranian government for doing one thing right once…do you know how many political prisoners are in that fucker (i’m talking about evin). I don’t pretend that the US is all good all the time, but you shouldn’t engage in moral relativism like that. Quite frankly it doesn’t help my cause and it doesn’t help your cause. I’m glad there’s a grown up in the white house, but don’t pretend like there’s a grown up leading iran, officially or inofficially.
DPirate
I’m glad she’s out, and I think she’d be a fool to go back ever.