One of my high school friends keeps me posted on the exciting goings-on of our fellow alumni. She’s amazingly connected like that – and she pays attention. Normally her updates revolve around who’s getting married…but last week, her gchat status shocked me. Cheltenham ’00 grad & Member of the Tribe, Joshua Fattal, was taken into custody by Iranian police/soldiers. He and two others, college friends from UC Berkeley, were arrested on July 31st when they accidentally crossed the Iranian border when hiking in the mountains near Ahmed Awa, a tourist resort.
Late last week they were moved to Tehran. According to a press release from AFP, Aladdin Brujerdi, head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission said “Having kept our officials in captivity for some time, I don’t think the Americans expect the fate of these people to be determined soon.” He was referring to the 5 Iranian diplomats held by the US for two and a-half years, after being charged with arming militant factions. Now it seems that Iranian officials are working to convince themselves that the three hikers were entering Iran to fulfill some kind of mission related to the elections & aftermath… According to a Reuters article, one such official said “In the most optimistic scenario, we think that the three had plans to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.” Another parliament official said, on an Arabic, Government-run TV station that the three Americans entered the country as spies. I wasn’t friends with Josh in high school, but I think that he was the yearbook editor. Cheltenham’s yearbook is called El Delator – or The Informer. Was it a plot from senior year of high school? It seems just as plausible as their Optimistic Assumptions that the three planned to interfere with Iran’s affairs – or even that they’re spies. Seriously?
mike darnell
8/10/2009
Poor bastards are f*cked.
Maybe Bill will hop on down to fish ‘em out.
I doubt it though.
vicki
8/10/2009
So…wait..they accidentally got to Iran from…Iraq? Out of the frying pan and into the fatwa.
On an additional note, now may not be the best time to go hiking…either on the Appalachian Trail or NEAR IRAN.
froylein
8/10/2009
CK and I were amazed by the stupidy of those people when the case was in the news last week. I should like to add that they had travelled to Kurdish territory, which is a major stupidity in and of itself. To quote my brother, “Darwin has proved himself right again.”
arielle
8/10/2009
obviously, they made some poor decisions – as many of us have never met them, I hardly think it fitting or appropiate to decide that they deserve to die because of their mistakes.
froylein
8/10/2009
None of us has decided they deserve to die; some of us have come to the conclusion they lack common sense and basic survival instinct. Tehran, no doubt, is delighted.