Iran says UC Berkeley grads had spy links

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(04-08) 12:47 PDT BERKELEY -- Iran's intelligence minister appeared to harden the country's position on three recent UC Berkeley graduates who have been held there since last summer, accusing them of having links to U.S. intelligence services.

The charge was made during an interview on state television, portions of which were described on Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV today. It comes a month after Sarah Shourd, 31, and Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 27, were allowed to call home.

The three were arrested on July 31 after hiking across the border from Iraq. Friends said the three had been backpacking to see a waterfall during a break from teaching jobs in Damascus, Syria. Their families maintain the hikers strayed across the unmarked border accidentally.

Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said in the television interview that Iran has "credible evidence" that the three were linked to U.S. intelligence but did not elaborate, other than to say that the information would be released soon.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/08/BA6M1CROT6.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

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During the interview, Moslehi also wore this: :tinfoilhat:

Don't try reading the most-recommended comments on the article on the SFGate.com site - it's filled with liberal-bashing for some reason just because those students were from Berkeley.