The details are scant, but devastatingly harsh.

Fargo native Roxana Saberi, who had reported from Iran with press credentials for globally respected news organizations including the BBC while a graduate student in Iran, has now been charged with espionage.

We're an optimistic and positive-thinking bunch in the upper heartland, so we'll think positive. But the charges, which have gone from allegations of buying a bottle of wine to espionage, hit our hearts with the same deep concern as looking out upon the Red River which will rise again and batter against sandbags with a second crest soon.

It's easy to jump to the conclusion that this idealistic woman who wanted to inform and educate people in the Western world about the everyday people of Iran is now being used as a pawn in global diplomacy and brinksmanship.

We only want to see her back home. We could use another sandbagger.

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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette