President Demands Iran Release American Captives

President Bush on Friday demanded that Iran "immediately and unconditionally" release the four Iranian-American scholars and activists who have been arrested and held on suspicion of spying.^[1]

"I strongly condemn their detention at the hands of Iranian authorities," the president said in a statement.^[2] The United States has denied that the four are spies or employees of the U.S. government; the State Department on Thursday warned U.S. citizens against traveling to Iran, and further accused Islamic authorities in Iran of a "disturbing pattern" of harassment of Iranian-Americans.^[3]

The four detained scholars and activists are Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars; Kian Tajbakhsh with George Soros' Open Society Institute; journalist Parnaz Azima from the U.S.-funded Radio Farda; and Ali Shakeri, a peace activist and founding board member at the University of California, Irvine, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding.^[4] "These individuals have dedicated themselves to building bridges between the American and Iranian people, a goal the Iranian regime claims to support," Bush said. "Their presence in Iran — to visit their parents or to conduct humanitarian work — poses no threat."^[5]

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey asserted that Tehran has still not responded to repeated requests for access to the detainees by Swiss officials.^[6] The Swiss act as intermediaries for the United States in Iran because the two nations do not have diplomatic relations.^[7]

"This is hardly the stuff of espionage, this is hardly the stuff of government disputes…………….It is absolutely incredible to us to think that there could be any possible doubt in the Iranians' minds that these individuals are there simply to conduct normal, basic human interactions, including family visits," Casey said.^[8]

A fifth American citizen, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, has been missing in Iran since early March and Washington has cast severe doubts on Iranian claims to have no information about him in response to repeated requests through the Swiss and others.[9]


See our section on Intelligence Operatives and the classification thereof on our website, here.

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^[1] Jae-Soon Chang, Bush demands Iran release Americans, Associated Press Newswire, June 1, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Matthew Lee, U.S. warns against Iran visits as fourth Iranian-American detained, Associated Press Newswire, June 1, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.