Free Journalists Laura Ling And Euna Lee

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North Korea has sentenced American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to Twelve Years of Hard Labor for "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry." Both are young American women, courageous journalists, who travel throughout the world to report on the "real" news that our mainstream media ignores. Laura Ling reports on Current TV, the station begun by Al Gore, and which station shows exceptional documentaries and intelligent programming. Here's a link to some of Laura Ling's work at Current TV. She is a fearless and exceptional journalist. http://current.com/users/lauraling.htm

Apparently these two American journalists were somewhere near the border with North Korea in March of this year, and accidentally may have stepped onto North Korean land. Big deal. They were not armed with weapons, were not attacking the country, but instead, at most, may have missed the invisible line between the two sections of Korea. Or maybe they never entered North Korea and were just grabbed by North Koreans to have leverage to use against the United States. In either event, these two women did nothing to North Korea, nor did they threaten, or have any apparent intent or ability to harm North Korea. This is a travesty.

The two journalists have been held in separate North Korean cells since early March. Their "trials" were conducted in secret. Sounds just like what we do in Guantanamo. Talk about the chickens coming home to roost. Maybe now the public will begin to see that kidnapping people, imprisoning them without legitimate charges, then holding them forever based on vague claims that they are a "threat" to the nation, is the type of conduct of dictatorships and despots, and should have no place in a democracy. Shame on the United States for setting up the international kidnapping, torture, and murder of others which North Korean can now rely on in its imprisonment of these two young American journalists.

Here is a link to a petition to free the two journalists: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-euna-and-laura

I cannot find a link to any North Korean Ambassador (I don't know if they have any) or government official, so I figure the best immediate alternative is to e-mail and call President Barack Obama and ask that he intervene to free these two journalists (he has already expressed his concern), and e-mail Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and ask her to assist to bring these two journalists home.

President Barack Obama
(202) 456-1414
president@whitehouse.gov

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
(202) 647-4000
(I can't find an e-mail address for Hillary Clinton, but here is the link to the general form they use at the U.S. Department of State):
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php?p_sid=VkRoKgzj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xMTYsMTE2JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**