The release by Iran of one of the three American hikers who Iran says are spies and who most others contend inadvertently crossed into Iranian territory has been long-awaited and is very welcome. The country continues to hold two other Americans, however, and Tehran seems intent on prosecuting them on espionage-related charges. The Iranians should release all of the Americans as a human gesture. It is ironic that Iranian president Ahmadinejad was the first to champion the release of the American woman on humanitarian grounds as it has been discovered that she has a lump in one of her breasts and precancerous cervical cells. It was the ruling religious hierarchy, however, who decided to impose a bail of $500,000 before releasing the woman. On Friday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Iran to free other hostages and her spokesman said she had agreed with Sultan Qaboos to work together for their release. Clinton told reporters it would “be a very significant humanitarian gesture” for Tehran to release the two after freeing Shourd. Her spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington later that Clinton telephoned Sultan Qaboos to thank him for Oman's role in obtaining Shourd's release. “And they agreed to stay engaged and to work cooperatively to do everything possible to bring about the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal,” he added. It seems doubtful that the three were on any kind of espionage mission. There has been no evidence presented to suggest seriously that that is the case. Instead, there has been an unfortunate movement towards “extreme tourism” in the West, in which tourists purposely put themselves in danger. The kidnapping of a group of British tourists by Eritrean rebels a few years ago is a case in point. Whenever a tourist excursion requires armed soldiers for protection – as the Ethiopian tourists did – it should send up a red flag that maybe the excursion is not exactly worth it. On one hand, we have little sympathy for the Americans. Their actions were foolish. But it is just as foolish for Iran to turn it into an international incident. __
