Irony Alert: Freed Iran hikers to speak at Occupy Oakland — days after Iran pledges support for OWS movement

Last week, Iran’s leaders declared their support for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Last month, those same leaders finally decided that the public relations fiasco of imprisoning American activists on bogus “spying” charges was a bad idea, and let them go free.

How odd is it, then, that those three hikers would then also throw their lot in with the same political movement that their former captors are supporting:

Freed American hikers speak to Occupy Oakland on Monday night

OAKLAND — The two UC Berkeley graduates and the Oakland woman who were jailed in Iran after they hiked over an unmarked border will speak Monday night at the Occupy Oakland encampment, the first time the three have appeared together on the West Coast since they all were freed.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, were jailed as spies for 26 months in a Tehran prison and released last month on a $1 million-bail-for-freedom deal. Sarah Shourd, 33, was freed last fall on $500,000 bail after spending a year in the same prison. Bauer proposed marriage to Shourd while they were in prison.

The three will speak at 5 p.m. Monday at the amphitheater in front of Oakland’s City Hall to the Occupy Oakland encampment, a spokesman for the three said. They will be speaking about their experience in Iran.

I have no idea what they’re going to say, but my irony meter starting beeping loudly when I saw that the hikers and their jailers now seem to be on the same team.

UPDATE:

The three American hikers – Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd – freed after being imprisoned by Iran, addressed the Occupy Oakland camp Monday night and said they supported recent hunger strikes in California state prisons to protest conditions in isolation units and excessive gang security measures.

Having experienced the “psychological torture” of solitary confinement that the Pelican Bay State Prison prisoners are undergoing, the hikers said they understand their struggles. Fattal, 29, said he began a hunger strike the day before.

They said the Occupy movement represented the America they believe in.

“This feels like coming home,” said Bauer, 29.