They indulged in some moral equivalence: “Two years in prison is too long, and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran.” They assured the right-thinking world that their hearts (obviously not their minds) were in the right place: said Bauer, “The irony is Sarah [another hiker who was freed earlier], Josh and I oppose U.S. policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility.” http://frontpagemag.com/2011/09/27/useful-idiots’-stockholm-syndrome/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=b51cfcd715-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN

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The point that the three completely miss is that their lives were saved precisely for the fact that they are American.  Had they been Iranian, they would have stood the probable chance to be executed like the many innocent natives who are put to death every year, some just for attending a protest, others for their sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/09/27/hiking-fellow-travelers-and-the-iranian-threat/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=b51cfcd715-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN