It was fitting that the good news from Iran blew in as spring breezes were warming journalist Roxana Saberi's flood-weary hometown of Fargo, N.D. Jailed since January on charges that escalated from buying wine to espionage, Saberi was set free Monday in Tehran and reunited with her parents. She could be back home soon enough to catch the lilacs blooming and see the sandbags left from Fargo's fight against the Red River this spring.
Saberi's release after a secret military tribunal convicted her for spying merits celebration and pause for thought. Amid an economic downturn, budget battles, flu fears and increasingly bloody foreign disputes, it's easy to become mired in pessimism. The release of this talented reporter is a welcome respite, an example of good people triumphing over daunting odds. It's also a sign that in one of the world's most notorious regimes, moderates prevailed over religious extremists opposed to thawing U.S.-Iran relations.
It was less than a month ago that the 32-year-old Saberi appeared destined to spend much of the next decade in Tehran's Evin Prison. Following a quickie trial behind closed doors, the former Miss North Dakota was sentenced to eight years behind bars. Exactly what she'd done was never revealed. More troublingly, Iranian authorities afterwards repeatedly blocked her lawyers' attempts to meet with her even as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested a reversal of her sentence.
It was a bizarre situation that raised disturbing questions about who was really running Iran. Those in nominal leadership positions calling for a humanitarian gesture? Or, less visible anti-West hardliners who saw Saberi's imprisonment as a chance to derail dialogue with the United States? Fortunately, more moderate forces apparently prevailed. Saberi's jail term has been reduced to a suspended two-year sentence, meaning she's free to go.
Veteran Iran watchers may still be cynical about this affair, and well should be. Saberi was not only a pawn in Iran's internal power struggles, but the regime used her to further its own international agenda. Her release was a blatant public relations move to burnish Iran's tarnished global image. It's one the country deserves due in part to its long track record of detaining reporters -- at least five are still being held -- as well as scholars, and human rights advocates. A nation with true humanitarian aims wouldn't make these arrests in the first place and would release the journalists it still has locked away. That said, Saberi's release is a positive step and a sign that more rational relations with the United States may be possible.
It's not clear when Saberi will arrive in the United States or if she'll spend time recuperating in Fargo. Saberi turned up the heat on Iran by launching a hunger strike garnering global headlines; she'll need to get her strength back. As she recovers, Saberi has a long list of people to thank, starting with her parents, who flew to Iran to muster legal support. Thousands of people also joined her cause on Facebook. Everyone from old college friends to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, North Dakota Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar worked on her behalf and never gave up. It made a difference.
Roxana, we're thankful and thrilled for your story's happy ending. Welcome home.
