Noam Chomsky, an American academic best-known to viewers of Iranian television for his criticism of American foreign policy, made a personal appeal to Iran’s government to release two detained Americans in a video message posted online on Wednesday.
Mr. Chomsky called on Iran to free Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who have been detained in Tehran on espionage charges since their arrest while hiking near an unmarked portion of the Iran-Iraq border in 2009. A third hiker, Sarah Shourd, was released in September, and now leads the “Free the Hikers” campaign.
