Do you find the alibi of these "hikers" to be fishy?

Nope sounds legit to me. I’d deffinately be one of the idiots to do that!

Try searching Expedia for a flight to Baghdad.

I think it’s plausible. You’re probably reading too much into it.

No. They’re not the first people to do it. Plus, do you really think Iran would not accuse any American civilians of being spies?
Also, there are claims that Iranians entered Iraq in order to capture the hikers. 1 of the 3 hikers, Sarah Shroud, was released last month on “humanitarian grounds” in the spirit of Ramadan. Exactly how often does Iran release real spies because they’re feeling religiously forgiving?

I don’t think it’s so much fishy as just plain naive and stupid. You’re an American and you want to go hiking and be a tourist? Go to the Adirondacks or someplace on the Appalachian Trail, or to Great Britain or France or Greece or anywhere. Don’t go to Iraq, a war zone and wander around perilously close to the border of Iran, a repressive theocracy with a little bit of an axe to grind against the U.S. It’s naive and it’s stupid. I don’t think they’re spies. I think they’re idiots.

Give the CIA some credit, @GeorgeGee, if they wanted to send spies into iran, i think they’d do a better job at putting and expecially keeping them there.

Sometimes the truth IS stranger than fiction.

Who knows what they were thinking or if there are some ulterior motives…I don’t get all in a fluther over not knowing the unknowable. lol

It just kind of irks me that it’s presented like “these poor innocent hikers were just out for a stroll minding their own business when all of a sudden, wham, arrested by Iranian extremists.” I’m sure they knew exactly where they were going, and why, and while they don’t seem to have it together enough to be CIA operatives, they very well might be missionaries with a vague notion of converting the “heathen towel-heads” or some such arrogant mission.

@GeorgeGee I don’t think the media would cover up their being missionaries. That’s a personal matter, not a governmental matter.
Why are you so convinced that they knew what they were doing, and not that they got lost? Where is this coming from?

One doesn’t wander off the Appalachian trail and into Iran; it doesn’t go there. And you can’t go to Iraq without knowing you’re entering a war zone. You can’t plan a serious hiking trip in a foreign country you’re not familiar with without looking at a map, and surely having looked at a map you would notice in big letters “IRAN” right next door. Quite simply, there’s no way for an American to “accidentally” find themselves wandering into Iran.

@GeorgeGee Ok. Then the next time you get lost in an area you aren’t that familiar with, I’ll make sure to see it as a huge conspiracy instead of human error.

I think the question should really be ’ why does the human mind get so caught up in other peoples biz.? haha

Really, if you think about it, WHY do we even need to know?

I am much more interested in knowing that there was a fatal shark attack at a beach I love to swim at in my OWN state! lol

I don’t care if they got lost, are missionaries, spies, CIA, or a couple of stoned adventure types.

@Coloma Not to nit-pick, but exactly what is the difference between being lost and being a couple of stoned adventure types? ;)

@papayalily

Same thing, of course. :-)

It might come as a bit of shock to some Americans given how rediculously well guarded the US Mexico border is but it some parts of the world it is very easy to cross a border into another country and not realise it.

And while we’re at it @Lightlyseared, maybe any Mexican who “wanders” into the United States should just say they “got lost while out hiking” and expect to be treated with kit gloves and given a new Garmin to find their way home.

Any Mexican who “wanders” around near the US border is likely to get shot by some well meaning “citizens” long before they get on US soil.

I’ve been looking into to this today, and like many things it appears to be a little more complicated and no less clear what actually happened. There were four people to begin with and one got ill and didn’t go on the hike. Sarah Shourd, Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer went on the hike and were all apparently captured by the Iranian though Shourd was later released. There is evidence that they didn’t necessarily cross into Iran, but that Iranian forces crossed into Iraq and grabbed them. But they are not simply American tourists on a hiking vacation. Shane Bauer is a freelance reporter based in the MIddle East who wrote an article for The Nation last year on Iraq’s Special Forces: Iraq’s New Death Squad. Shourd also is a freelance reporter. She and Bauer were apparently living in Damascus where she was teaching English. Wikileaks released a military document (here’s a copy via The New York Times) regarding the incident. The military concluded the document with this assessment:

”S2 ASSESSMENT: The lack of coordination on the part of these hikers, particularly after being forewarned, indicates an intent to agitate and create publicity regarding international policies on Iran. The leadership in Iran benefits as it focuses the Iranian population on a perceived external threat rather than internal dissension. Kurdish leaders remain concerned about international perceptions regarding security as they seek to increase investment in the KRG. Expect KRG leadership to intervene to return the 3 individuals and the Iranian government to accuse them of being spies. Additionally, KRG leadership may impose additional restrictions on private activities near the Iranian border.”

This article from The Nation states that their families don’t believe that they were there with the intention of stirring up trouble and The Nation is mincing its words by referring to “this perhaps faulty intelligence assessment”. Who knows?

The Nation states:

“The release of this document by WikiLeaks raises as many questions as it answers. Why did the US military not make this information public in the days immediately after the hikers’ arrest, when such information could have pressured the Iranian government to release the hikers? Was this report conveyed to the US State Department—and if so, when? When The Nation contacted the US State Department in June, a spokesman told us that our article was the first time State had been presented with the claim that the hikers were seized by Iranian forces in Iraqi territory.

The military report concludes with an “S2 [military intelligence] assessment that “The lack of coordination on the part of these hikers, particularly after being forewarned, indicates an intent to agitate and create publicity regarding international policies on Iran.” This conclusion is at odds with what family, friends and colleagues of the hikers including this magazine where Bauer worked as a freelance journalist, have said about the hikers, namely that they were there as tourists who had no intent to report on Iran, much less “agitate and create publicity.” Did this perhaps faulty intelligence assessment play a role in determining how the US military and later the US State Department dealt with the case?”

The plot thickens to the point of murkiness.

I really shouldn’t have answered this question last night considering how little, apparently, I actually knew about it. I rescind my first answer and my new answer is: Who the hell knows what’s really going on here?

Though my new answer is really actually a question. :-)

I hope all my links work. Sorry if they don’t

Thanks @lillycoyote for doing some homework on this. Yes, it raises more questions than it answers but it’s better than swallowing the simplistic press accounts of “the big bad Iranians picking off innocent hikers” that just really didn’t make any sense. That’s all we’ve gotten for 10+ years, “we gonna get the bad guys!” “You’re with us or against us” Line up, say your pledge, don’t ask questions.

@GeorgeGee I have to admit that I’m a little embarrassed by my initial, knee-jerk answer to this question, considering how little I actually knew about the situation, apparently. And I’m sure there’s still quite a bit to know. Somebody gave me a GA on it after I had “rescinded” it and just wanted to say “stop doing that.” It’s not a great answer! My initial answer reflects my own biases which are that I get a little tired of Americans and other Westerners, including missionaries, but not aid workers and real journalists, let me make that clear, going off to visit war zones and countries in chaos and turmoil and other dangerous parts of the world, for no good reason and then find themselves in trouble and the State Department and high level government officials have to spend valuable time and resources and military has to spend time and valuable resources and sometimes risk their lives to come in an try to save these people’s asses when they shouldn’t have been where they were in the first place. It’s a dangerous world and if you go to dangerous places without a really good reason to be there you should understand that there might be consequences, dangerous and unpleasant consequences. Anyway, end of rant. But I’m glad you appreciate my “homework.” I got so into it that I didn’t realize that my left foot had fallen asleep and I finished the post, clicked on “Answer!”, got up from my chair and fell flat on my ass! Thank goodness for carpet! But thanks for asking the question. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on.

@GeorgeGee You really underestimate human stupidity if you think one could not honestly commit such a mistake. I’m not saying this is the case, mind ou, i’m just saying i wouldn’t find it hard to believe…

That said, i have no simpathy for the present iranian government, so the more shit they get the better. Which is a possible reason why those hikers might have wandeed there to begin with, now that i think of it…