dagblog - Comments for "Bottom line: Saberi was a spy"

I have no idea how smart this

MiddleClassBill — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:33:09 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

I have no idea how smart this person is. But I know that once my 10 year-old son told a bully at school one day that his daddy was a police officer. He was trying to avoid getting beat up. When I read the NYTimes story that's what it reminded me of. People will say crazy things when they're desperate.

Bill, neither of us knows for

acanuck — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:27:33 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

Bill, neither of us knows for sure, and neither of us is going to convince the other.
But I am baffled that she could supposedly think "making up" a story about contacts with CIA recruiters would help keep her OUT of jail.
Saberi will spend the next few days in Vienna, unwinding with her parents, before talking to the media. We'll see what her story is then; my guess is it will still leave a lot of questions unanswered.

She said that she made up the

MiddleClassBill — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:11:52 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

She said that she made up the story about a former official proposing that she work for the CIA. I don't have enough information to know whether she was lying to try to get out of jail or whether she was telling the truth.

And your point on NPR - she was working for them. The article says that when she was in Iran she did reporting for NPR. NPR is not disputing that. NPR is simply saying that the documents she had were not part of her NPR work. I don't see how that statement by NPR makes her guilty.

I don't know how you're so sure that NPR and BBC were part of her cover story. Like you said - the article certainly doesn't say that.

See out-of-position reply

acanuck — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:27:45 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

See out-of-position reply below.

This is supposed to be a

acanuck — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:26:59 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

This is supposed to be a reply to Genghis.

Like I said, not a very good

acanuck — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:25:35 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

Like I said, not a very good spy.
The NYT article, based as it is on third-party accounts, leaves a lot of loose threads. We don't know, for example, when the Iranians learned of her trips to Israel; it clearly was after the fact.
Much of the weirdness and confusion you refer to originates in her confession: She says she talked to CIA recruiters before leaving the U.S., but didn't take their proposal seriously. Then she comes across a document in an Iranian government office, and copies it "out of curiosity."
By the time she gets to trial, her story seems -- and I'm simply inferring from the fact NYT looked into the question -- to have become that she was researching a story about the long-finished Iraq War for NPR or BBC. The NYT found no basis for that claim.
One of her lawyers stated today that her initial story of being charged with illegally buying a bottle of wine is also not true.

I heard much of this

oleeb — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:38:41 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

I heard much of this "evidence" in NPR in the past week, but I think most was unknown till now because the court proceedings were held in secret. The media didn't report anything till now because they had nothing to report except the verdict.

It is possible she was a spy, but I don't think we have nearly enough information to be sure about it.

"Journalist" is one of the

The Old Grouch — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:57:19 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

"Journalist" is one of the most common covers for "intelligence asset" in the real world. The tasks of a journo are such that it provides what any spy might want - access to people, places, and things.

And hey, No Class Bull(shite): Do we here in the US not also imprison spies?

Personally, I think lowlife scum like Jonathan Pollard ought to rot in prison, and then the worms can have him. Just to remind casual readers, he sold out our Navy submarine fleet to the Israelis, who turned around and sold the info to the Russians in exchange for a few refuseniks. Some "allies" we have there in the Middle East, huh?

I would not be shocked if she

☠enghis — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:30:12 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

I would not be shocked if she were a spy--spies exist--but the evidence described in the article sounds weird. What kind of spy hangs on to a six year old formerly classified document? And why did she have to go to Israel, twice, to meet with her handler or whomever? Why not come back to the U.S., which would be much less suspicious. And if the Iranians knew that she went to Israel, the trips can't have been all that secret. Nor am I following the alibi bit. In Iraq, you mean? If she said that she had been working for NPR and BBC, why wouldn't the article spell it out?

Letting her go with a slap on

acanuck — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:52:30 +0000

In reply to Bottom line: Saberi was a spy

Letting her go with a slap on the wrist? Yeah, sure.
I definitely wouldn't want to spend eight years in an Iranian prison. But that's the risk you run when you sign on to the espionage game, whether for the money, for the thrill, or for love of your country.
Bill, can you read that NYT story and honestly maintain Saberi was an innocent victim of circumstances? What's most telling are the quotes from NPR and BBC, which make clear she wasn't working on their behalf. Why do you think the NYT asked them? Because, although the article doesn't spell it out, that was part of her cover story.
Look, I'm not arguing that spying on other countries is morally wrong -- just that it's illegal and really, really dangerous.
Try this thought experiment: she's an Iranian-American translating for the State Dept. and a similar sequence of events transpire.
She's in for 30 to life, and there's no way the president steps in to get her sentence commuted.