The WORD Blog

I first met Shane Bauer in the Fall of 2008 when he visited the office of New America Media before leaving for the Middle East. Shane planned to travel there with his girlfriend Sarah, where the two of them would study Arabic and deepen their understanding of the cultures of the region.

As a student, artist-photographer and linguist, Shane proposed writing for New America Media and Pacific News Service, its mothership, and sending us photographs while traveling. We expressed strong interest and have posted more than a dozen well-written articles by Shane, often accompanied by photographs.

Shane’s dispatches have been enlightening and follow in the long tradition of American travelers developing into accomplished correspondents. His fluency in Arabic and his writing and photography skills enable him to provide a valuable lens into what ordinary people are thinking and saying in the Arab world. We consider Shane to be a gifted young correspondent.

Shane emailed me in late July to say that he planned a one-week trip to Iraqi Kurdistan in order to get a feel for the region. He was interested in observing and covering the Kurdish elections and proposed writing an article for us about them. We were awaiting his coverage when we learned that he, his girlfriend and another friend had been detained by Iranian authorities in northern Iraq while reportedly on a hiking trip.

We support Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s call for information about the three missing Americans, and look forward to a positive resolution of the situation and their safe return.