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Say, Mr. President: Do you suppose you could do something for Roxana Saberi BEFORE she dies? Thanks! [Update]

By Uppity Woman on May 4, 2009 at 1:55 PM in Iran, Media, President Barack Obama

UPDATE: “Report: U.S. Reporter Held in Iran Hospitalized“: “Reporters Without Borders says the American journalist on a hunger strike for two weeks to protest her imprisonment in Iran was briefly hospitalized after she intensified her fast by refusing to drink water.”

We realize she’s just a woman, and we know already how much they mean to Barack Obama.

But she was arrested for buying a bottle of wine in our “newly found” friendly country, that bastion of women’s rights, Iran. Now, we all know how well women are regarded over there. In fact, she was arrested when Annete Bening did her “Bridge” photo op over there. Funny, I never read any mention of Saberi from Annette. I guess she didn’t know…..

Meanwhile, Ms. Saberi continues with her hunger strike. I don’t blame her. It beats living at the hands of those animals

So far, from President Obama, we have gotten the thing we get most of from him: Lip service. I suppose Saberi could just die on her own volition so that Obama won’t have to be bothered with this nonsense any longer. Then he could look into the camera, and read from his teleprompter about how “My heart goes out to the family”….while his eyes revealing his complete boredom as they so often do,

Here’s a video of a Northwestern University demonstration demanding Saberi be freed.

…..and here is the response they got from the White House

  • oowawa

    Roxana Saberi is in dire straits. She was a Miss America finalist in 1998 (among the final 10 contestants), which means that there are pictures and videos of her on stage wearing a revealing bathing suit. Since she is of Iranian descent, she is a perfect candidate for the Iranian authorities to punish severely as an example to all women. Smart and beautiful, she is in grave danger.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxana_Saberi

    • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

      Where is the collective outrage over this? Ms Saberi’s plight deserves a lot more attention.

      • oowawa

        I agree, Ferd. My God, you would think the press would be all over this–they could drag out old footage of her Miss America days and play it for all it’s worth. It sends a chill down my spine that they’re not cashing in on the drama of the situation. Just how completely is O controlling the media? I’m perplexed.

        • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

          I honestly can’t answer that, oowawa. I suppose, “it doesn’t sell”, or some other self-serving media excuse is the reason for the lack of coverage. Had she been a hollywood celebrity with a hangnail, we’d have instant news with complete footage at 11 and commentary the very next morning.

          • PainkillerJayne

            Ferd as sad as it is to say, the media is dead, they will only take their cue from the Glorious One.

            • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

              Yeah, PK, I believe you’re right. Journalists were at one time our primary means of defense against scoundrels in office. Now they have become scoundrels themselves. Who watches the fox guarding the henhouse now? No one, apparently.

              • PainkillerJayne

                Honestly Ferd where are the guys like we saw bring down Nixon.

                newspapers are in the crapper, News channels like CNN are in the cellar.

                Maybe if they reported real news, not something approved of by the White House they would be in a different boat.

                This goes back to the war in Iraq when they gave their balls to be held by the White House.

                How about some real questions to be answered, and don’t take whatever spittle the current admin is throwing out!

                • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

                  Spot on, PK. This kowtowing by the media has been happening since 2001. You would think that at least one journalist would have the moxie to dig for the truth and expose all the lies. Nope–they take the easy way out and become bobbing heads.

          • http://noquarter foxyladi14

            and every hour on the hour

        • SiliconDoc

          Uh, the whole deal is access – remember how CNN lied for 8 years to us all about Saddam and their dead and missing and jailed reporters… in order to maintain access…
          So that’s going be at least part of the same excuse here, even if we never hear it.
          Then there’s the multi-cultural “respect” line, whereby women’s rights aren’t right at all and don’t exist in the culture so out of respect for other cultures, that’s ok.
          Yes, just wonderful – the same will be braying up Amnesty International or any other women or human rights when it’s convenient and gores the safely gored ox or something like that.
          Who knows how deep and distrubed the agenda can become.
          Next is ” the USA has innocents in Gitmo “.
          I kind of doubt the press lords have a spine, and don’t forget the investors in their press backed portfolios on the Street – boy that’s gotta be a factor too. Foreign news budget friendly.
          Plus they have to cover all the terrorist sympathizer gatherings and protests in the USA, so factor in fear for their own from the ranting muslim dappled crowds.
          There you have it.
          Not sure there’s any Obama excuse other than I’d expect ” I have a group put together looking at that “, or ” The president wasn’t aware of that we’ll have to get back to you on that.” Presumably when he finally finds out about what he never knows about – and comments after it’s all over that it was unfortunate.

        • NomNomNom

          I’m glad they are not: it isn’t like people in Iran don’t watch tv or have some access to our programming. I’m thinking it could just enrage them against her even more.

          • oowawa

            NNN, you’re perhaps right about this. We wouldn’t want this to become a kind of mini version of the Iran Hostage Crisis. The Iranians would likely revel in the media circus, and it would probably work to Roxana’s disadvantage. This is kind of a hostage crisis, isn’t it?

            • FLDemFem

              One thing made my eyebrows rise up considerably..

              But she was arrested for buying a bottle of wine in our “newly found” friendly country, that bastion of women’s rights, Iran.

              Who was selling wine in a Muslim country where alchohol is forbidden? Was that person arrested?? And shouldn’t she have known better than to buy wine in a country where the religion forbids it? This stinks of set up. Just sayin’.

      • Donna “Abigail Adams” Brazile

        The press can’t be distracted from their lovefest with That One long enough to do REAL reporting.

        Stop the hopefest!

        • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

          Stop the hopefest!

          LMAO. You sure brighten up a room, Donna.

          Ferd.

  • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

    One would think That One would be all over this to get her released so he could then state how much the Iranians want dialogue with us and that the door is open for a new beginning and how correct he was with his promise of dialogue. I suspect the TelPrompTer has not gotten around to displaying that for him to mouth the words quite yet. Well, that and he just doesn’t damn well care.

    • SiliconDoc

      Great comment, and I agree. I found a news article that was the best of what I’d seen.
      ” The Obama administration has called the espionage allegations against Saberi baseless and demanded her immediate release. Iranian authorities have promised a fair review of her appeal.

      Saberi, a dual Iranian-American citizen, has lived in Iran for the last six years. She was born in the U.S. and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota.

      She was initially accused of working without press credentials, but authorities later made the more serious charge that she passed intelligence to the U.S. She was convicted on the espionage charge after a one-day trial behind closed doors.

      The case has been a source of tension between the U.S. and Iran at a time when the Obama administration is reaching out to Tehran after decades of diplomatic stalemate.

      Saberi was working as a freelance reporter for organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp. before her arrest. ”

      Says there’s an appeal coming as well, so it’s possible Obama could do something and both sides could save face, at least from their own PR personas.
      http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090504/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_us_journalist

      • PainkillerJayne

        “I hope that we can be a bridge to open a dialogue between the two countries,” said three-times Oscar nominee Bening in Tehran.

        Annette and Warren should be leading the charge on this one. Am I surprised they are not? NO

        I am not surprised Barry has nothing to say. After all one of his campaign songs was “99 problems and the Bitch ain’t one”

        My heart goes out to this young woman. When I had heard today she had been hospitalized for not drinking water I wondered how long it would be before the force feeding began.

        It’s a sorry situation which I feel Iran won’t think getting egg all over it’s face is such a big deal. Barry has already sucked up to them in a manner of speaking. His Presidential video wasn’t such a big hit I understand.

        May the Greater Good prevail.

  • listing starboard

    I have also noticed that detached and bored look in Obamas eyes. My heart is full of sorrow for the brave women who try and speak up in Islamic countries, they are true heroes.

    • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

      I have also noticed that detached and bored look in Obamas eyes.

      I have as well (when I can stomach looking at him). That he bit off more than he could chew by hoodwinking the country for his new title is amply evident.

      • oowawa

        Fortunately, the “detached and bored look in Obama’s eyes” can be easily transformed into a look of rapt and attentive interest: just stand him in front of a mirror; or, stand him in front of a large group of people watching him reverently, so he can imagine his reflection in their eyes. He’ll perk up.

        • http://noquarter foxyladi14

          lol.works like a charm..

    • SiliconDoc

      Looks like another testing of the waters by Iran, I wonder if Obumbler is going to blow it.
      Bye that press piece I linked above, it sure looks like a scam. If one doesn’t have credentials, how exactly is there access is for spying…
      Furthermore that or another link says her Dad (originally or still Iranian) travelled there already to ask for her release.
      Finally, one of the stories says she was there for six years and was soon to return and had a book she was writing on the lives of Iranians or some such.
      So, it looks to have a censorship slant as well.

  • Diana

    This whole situation breaks my heart. If she survives it will be a miracle. What will happen to her in a year from now when other news replaces this news. What will they do with her then…we all know how humanly women and girls are treated there.

  • NomNomNom

    http://www.iranfocus.com/en/iran-general-/iran-sends-mixed-signals-on-us-journalist-clinton-17704.html
    I have actually read more about this in Iranian media than in our own. This article includes some statements by Clinton.

  • bubblewrap

    What will they do with her then…we all know how humanly women and girls are treated there.

    why go there to begin with?

  • Dutch

    She seems to be taking out of the hands of the Iranians. What a powerfully amazing young woman she is. She has more guts than any man out there. Obama and our vaunted press will have her blood on their hands.

  • I’m a Linda too

    The big problems are, one, Obama is a coward and two, the media isn’t covering this.

    Hoping Senator Clinton will be able to do something here, because Obama surely aint, espcially if it’s going unnoticed by our media.

    Where are THEIR BALLS for this? For one of their own? Can’t THEY dedicate time to the GRAVE situation involving Ms. Saberi? To quote the hypocritical one, “WHERE IS YOUR DECENCY, MAN”?,

    Let’s get a fraction of the media coverage on the now freed Hostage situation from the Pirates.

    • I’m a Linda too

      Having said that, too bad this isn’t an election year, there might be different action…but like Mr. Carter and Iran, we better hope for someone else to save Ms. Saberi.

      …H I L L A R Y !!!???!!!

      • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

        I would think that HRC is diligently working behind the scenes (she doesn’t like to steal the show like her “boss”).

        • http://noquarter foxyladi14

          i.m betting the farm on her..

        • I’m a Linda too

          True.

          But I also just sent an email that maybe if she hasn’t already, to reach out to the Ayatollah, being he is again differing from Ahmadinejad.

          Any and every effort can only help. :)

      • NomNomNom

        I posted a link that included Clinton’s recent comments but it got eaten: add the h–p & then
        //www.iranfocus.com/en/iran-general-/iran-sends-mixed-signals-on-us-journalist-clinton-17704.html

        • SiliconDoc

          Thanks for the link, even more info there. I see Hillary has commented on it pointing out at least 3 different stories their government has spread making it difficult to deal with them. lol – inferring they don’t know what’s going on and can’t get their act together – and hence, producing this:
          ” In a rare move, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appealed for a fair trial. ”

          Other info that seems important from that link you posted: ” Saberi, who is also partly of Japanese descent, has reported for the US National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News and has lived in Iran for the past six years.

          In a rare move, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appealed for a fair trial.

          Her detention has come amid a bid by President Barack Obama to open up diplomatic contacts with Iran, an arch US foe since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. “

        • SiliconDoc

          The pressure is on, since Ahmadinejad made that rare move in a call for a fair trial, I’m not sure what that means other than fair trials aren’t the usual, which appears obvious from the other information.
          Some expert should tell us what it means…
          Other news was Roxana is both an Iranian citizen and a US citizen, but Iran does not recognize dual citizenship.
          I imagine the problem for them is her book which was reportedly near or ready and she was coming back soon.
          So it’s a censorship imprisonment at my view.

          • NomNomNom

            I read a report that says her confession will be aired soon: there was another journalist a Canadian Iranian in 2006 that was released after making a false confession: I’m hoping this is for the same reason, to make Ahmedinejad look merciful.
            http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46713
            It might be more believable if they hadn’t just hung a woman and stoned a man, with another stoning pending.

            • oowawa

              A forced confession while surrounded by hostile captors . . . we’ve seen that played out before, and every time I see it, I am chilled to the bone. That the confessor this time is a brave young woman, who will no doubt be emaciated by the time of the “ccnfession” makes it even more repugnant. All hail, Ming the Merciful! Magnanimous ruler of Yada Yada Yada . . .

              It might be more believable if they hadn’t just hung a woman and stoned a man, with another stoning pending.

              “Another stoning pending?” What do they have, calendars for these things?

              • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

                This sort of barbarism really gets my blood boiling. It is torture, no more no less.

              • NomNomNom

                Right now there are 10 people convicted of crimes and sentenced to death by stoning whose executions have not yet been carried out: among them, Ashraf Kalhori, who in 2006 was convicted of adultery with her husband’s killer, a charge she denies.
                She was also sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment for allegedly taking part in the murder. “Her husband was killed in April 2002 after quarrelling with their neighbour, Mahmoud Mirzaei. According to Ashraf Kalhori, the killing was accidental, but police accused her of having an affair with her neighbour and encouraging the attack.” The judge sentenced her to death based on his “insight.”
                At the time of her sentencing she had already served 5 years in Evin prison, the same place Saberi is being held. She has 4 children: at the time of her conviction they ranged in age from 9 to 19.
                Her lawyer said in late February that she was scheduled to be executed soon.

              • Docelder

                How are we supposed to reconcile that this primitive nation stones people to death in 2009? This is stuff right out of the old testament. So how do we go about letting people have freedom of religion when this is what is possible from total freedom? Yet, what is the alternative? U.N. approved religions? I am not sure which one bothers me the most, to be honest.

                • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

                  You raise a troubling question. What do we do with zealots, i.e., those who will not conform to even the most rudimentary tenets of civilized society? There have been some fairly bizarre cults in this country that worry me no end but having even the potential for UN involvement is even worse, in my estimation. We can control the nuts, if necessary.

    • PainkillerJayne

      The big problems are, one, Obama is a coward and two, the media isn’t covering this.

      You said it in a nutshell there Linda.

  • NomNomNom

    :( admin: I can haz posts? 2nd one into spaminator in a row.

  • Texas Playwright

    Yep, bho the fraud is very cowardly as is the media. The fraud and the media are bought by the financial oligarchs, who are running the global affairs now–take away the oil and where would be the wars? Greed/power/misogyny. Time to raise more hell, We the People.

    • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

      Time to raise more hell, We the People.

      Do I ever agree with you on this one. “We the People”, that group for whom the Constitution was written need to do something before this spins so far out of control that it can no longer be stopped.

  • Sfhillary

    If you people think that Obama, or any president, would conduct whatever diplomacy is being used to get this woman freed in public, in the media, where you can see it, you are even stupider than you usually seem.

    Trust me: like any American citizen in trouble overseas, Saberi will have the State Department doing whatever is possible to free her, which in the vast majority of cases means that she will indeed be freed.

  • http://noquarter foxyladi14

    we the people…
    there are so many of us.we will prevail.

  • James Guglielmino

    You folks are a hoot. “Obama is a coward.” Yeah, how quickly you forget that he got our guy freed from the pirates *without* losing any of our people. I’m wondering, what would you have him do, go mano y mano with President “I’m A Dinner jacket?” Just in case you haven’t been around very long, these kinds of things happen fairly often. They used to happen in China and Russia during the Cold War and they happen now, from time to time. GB currently has a little girl in prison in Laos who is going to be sentenced to death. She was kept in a 4X4 cell with a total of 6 people and it isn’t understood who impregnated her. She is accused of smuggling over the death penalty amount of drugs. Give it a little time. I suspect that the fasting is embarrassing to Iran. It won’t want anything really bad to happento her. But, “Obama is a coward.” You are ignorant fools.

    • Docelder

      But is all of this just some test of Obama to see what he will do? Probably so. So far he hasn’t disappointed Iran and I seriously doubt that he would. Not sure why that is, but that is the more important question.

    • Donna “Abigail Adams” Brazile

      Gugaloo loo:

      Hey race baitin’ hatin’ esteemed vet who thinks he’s learn-ed:-)

      Didn’t have your finger up enough holes today?

      Stop the slobberfest!

    • oowawa

      Yeah, how quickly you forget that he got our guy freed from the pirates *without* losing any of our people.

      Oh yeah–I completely forgot about O’s military service–the “Barry & the Pirates” episode. He was dashing on that day–the way he swooped in on a rope with knife in teeth and “freed our guy.” What a swashbuckler!

      • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

        It’s Barry Flynn!

        • oowawa

          LOL — except much more handsome than Erroll–The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood all rolled up into one daring and suave yet dignified character . . . and an organizer to boot! No wonder 69,000,000 folks lined up to vote for him!

          • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

            No–not 69,000,000 duds who need their buckles swashed!

            I can’t take it anymore. Beanie-wearing, chubby-faced obamabots with cheeto stains on their cheeks playing pirates. The humanity!

          • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

            Administrator: I lost an innocuous comment here to the mysterious scrubbinator. Can you extricate it for me?

    • Benjamin Franklin Berfle

      So having opinions which differ from yours is a hoot, huh?

      I’d say that it is you who is the hoot as you come to a website that you know has opinions which differ from yours, yet you insist on blathering about what you think, all the while forcing us to at least acknowledge your presence vicariously because it appears on our computer screens.

      You are ignorant fools.

      I think you have delusions of grandeur, or else voices in your head, that force you to do and say these things.

      Get help, goob.

  • NomNomNom

    http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=12176
    link to Amnesty International’s petition to free Saberi.
    Whatever one’s beliefs about AI, they have been successful in the past of freeing prisoners in Iran.

  • NomNomNom

    Another good site: volunteers around the world to go on 24 hour hunger strikes, organized by her us alma mater, Northwestern Univ.
    http://freeroxana.net/?p=394
    also has address Iranian ambassador

  • Hot Librarian

    Why not offer a swap? Put her into Gitmo for their choice of inmate.

    • NomNomNom

      hell, she is a former beauty queen journalist and you’re a hot librarian, that’s not sooo far apart: maybe we should just trade you

  • NomNomNom

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8035249.stm
    Saberi has ended her hunger strike.