Kurds Identify 3 Hikers Held in Iran

          
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          August 4, 2009
          Kurds Identify 3 Hikers Held in Iran
          By SAM DAG IIER aud SHARON O1TERMAN
          BAGH DAD — The identities of the three young Americans arrested by k m last week while hiking near the
          country's border with Iraq were confirmed Monday by Kurdish officials, who said they were planning to
          meet for a second time with their Iranian counterparts to discuss the case.
          Swiss diplomats representing American interests in Iran, meanwhile, were trying to confirm the detentions
          with the Iranian Foreign Ministry and were seeking consular access to the detainees, said Lars Knuchel, the
          head of public information for the Foreign Ministry in Bern, Switzerland. Iran and the United States have
          not had formal diplomatic relations since the American hostage crisis of 1979.
          “Obviously, we are concerned,” Secretary of State Hillarv Rodham Clinton told reporters on Monday,
          adding that the United States still did not have confirmation that Iran was holding the three Americans.
          “We want this matter brought to a resolution as soon as possible, and we call on the Iranian government to
          help us determine the whereabouts of the three missing Americans and return them as quickly as possible.”
          The Kurdish authorities identified the Americans as Shane Michael Bauer, of Emeryville, Calif.; Joshua
          Felix Fattal, of Cottage Grove, Ore.; and Sarah Emily Shourd, of Oakland, Calif. Kurdish officials said they
          were students, two of whom were studying Arabic in Damascus, Syria. Mr. Bauer and Ms. Shourd have also
          worked as freelance journalists, with recent articles from the Middle East.
          Writing on the Web site Brave New Traveler, Ms. Shourd, 30, described herself as a “teacher-activist-writer
          from California currently based in the Middle East. She loves fresh broccoli, Zap atistas and anyone who can
          change her mind.”
          She wrote an article for the site in 2008 about a family of Iraqi refugees in Aden, Yemen. More recently, in
          February, she wrote an article for a Web site called New America Media
          Mr. Bauer, who is Ms. Shourd's boyfriend, wrote an article from Baghdad for the June issue of The Nation
          magazine on the Iraqi Special Operations Forces . He is a Minnesota native who graduated with honors from
          the University of California, Berkeley , in 2007 with a degree in peace and conflict studies, according to iüs
          Web site .
          Sandy Close, the executive director of Pacific News Service, the parent company of New America Media,
          said Mr. Bauer left for the Middle East in the fall of 2008 and had since contributed a dozen stories to the
          service. He was based in Damascus, she said, and last contacted the service on July 27, saying he planned to
          spend a week in Kurdistan and file a article about the Kurdish elections.
          Mr. Fattal, 27, who was working and residing until eight months ago at a sustainable living research center
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          in Collage Grove, was raised in Elkins Park, Pa., where his parents still live.
          The three Americans were arrested by Iranian border guards on Friday afternoon after hiking into Iranian
          territory. The Kurdistan regional government's adviser on foreign relations, Falah Mustafa, said the
          authorities would seek a second meeting on Monday with Iran's consul general in the region's capital, Erbil,
          to discuss the case. Mr. Mustafa said the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad was approaching the Iranian
          Embassy.
          A fourth American who was with the group when it first entered the region from the Turkish border on
          Wednesday was identified as Shon Gabriel Meckfessel, 36, a native of California. Mr. Meckfessel had a cold,
          however, and decided not to join his companions on their trek.
          Mr. Meckfessel, a writer and graduate student at the University of Washington , is now believed to be at the
          United States Embassy in Baghdad. The head of the Iranian Parliament's foreign policy committee,
          Alaeddin Boroujerdi, confirmed the arrest of the Americans on Sunday, according to Press TV, a station
          owned by the Iranian government.
          Another Iranian state-owned television station said on Saturday that the Americans had been arrested for
          illegal entry.
          Kurdish officials said the group had camped out Thursday night at the border. Their tents, blankets and
          other belongings, including notebooks and a bottle of whiskey, were found Friday at the campsite.
          Sam Dagher reported from Baghdad, and Sharon Otterman from New York.
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