Breaking Friday Evening: ABC News’s Martha Raddatz is reporting that Mother Jones contributor Shane Bauer, his girlfriend Sarah Shourd, and friend Josh Fattal—who apparently strayed into Iran while hiking in the Kurdistan region of Iraq—are being moved to Tehran. ABC characterizes this as a sign that the negotiations over the fate of the three Americans will drag on.
Yesterday, Mother Jones printed the account of a fourth American hiker, Shon Meckfessel, about how Shane and his friends came to be detained. ” I hope that people understand my friends’ presence in the area for what it was: a simple and very regrettable mistake,” he concludes.
Shane has a piece in the upcoming issue of Mother Jones on corruption among Iraqi contractors. In accordance with the wishes of the families of all three missing Americans, we plan to post the piece early next week.
Update: On Saturday, PressTV, an English-language news agency funded by the Iranian government, reported that the a commission of the Majlis (Parliament) will meet to discuss the fate of the three Americans tomorrow. Since the US has no formal diplomatic relations with Iran, the Swiss are acting as an intermediary. Things got odder on Saturday when Iraq (an age-old enemy of Iran) also pressed Tehran officials for details surrounding the hikers’ arrest.
Clara Jeffery is Co-Editor of Mother Jones. You can follow her on Twitter here.
