American reporter held incommunicado in Iran

Roxana Saberi has gone missing, and the Iranian police are the prime suspects.  The independent journalist’s family last heard from Roxana on February 10th, when she told them that the police would only hold her a couple of days.  She advised them to remain quiet, but three weeks of silence later, they’re going public in an effort to pressure Tehran (via Mitch Berg):

A U.S. journalist has been arrested in Iran, and her father said Sunday she told him in a brief phone call she was detained after buying a bottle of wine.

Roxana Saberi, 31, has not been heard from since her last call on Feb. 10, her father, Reza, told The Associated Press on Sunday. …

Officials in Iran have not publicly confirmed the arrest. A duty officer at the U.S. State Department said Sunday officials were looking into an AP request for information on the case.

The Iranians suddenly have something to say about Saberi, however.  Agence France-Presse reports an accusation of “illegal” news gathering:

Iran said on Monday that a freelance US journalist with Iranian nationality who is reportedly being detained in the Islamic republic has been gathering news “illegally.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi did not confirm or deny whether Roxana Saberi, 31, was being detained by the Iranian authorities, but said her activities were “illegal”. …

“Ever since her credentials were revoked by Ershad, her activities have been illegal,” Ghashghavi said, referring to the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, which provides press accreditation for foreign journalists and Iranian reporters working for foreign media in Iran.

“Since 2006 when her press accreditation was revoked, she should not have illegally sought to gather information and news in Iran.”

Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota, has dual citizenship; her father was born in Iran.  He strongly advised her not to go when Saberi made plans to live and report in his native country, but she insisted that she wanted to report on the stories of everyday Iranian life.  She has been working on a book about Iran and its people since losing her press accreditation, but the New York Post reports that the Iranians have tacitly allowed her to file short news reports on a free-lance basis — at least until last month.

This puts Barack Obama’s “smart power” foreign policy to the test.  If Saberi’s case gets a lot of attention, the State Department will feel the pressure to get her released.  This happened a few times during the Bush administration, which succeeded in all but one case to gain the release of arrested Americans.  The one failure was former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared two years ago after visiting the Iranian island of Kish.  That case has all but dropped off the radar of Americans in the meantime, and the Iranians deny holding Levinson at all.

The Iranians say they will publicly comment on Saberi’s status on Tuesday, which will be this evening in the US.  We’ll see if Obama and Hillary Clinton’s extended hand will have any effect.

Blowback