Ohio Man Detained In North Korea For Having Bible In Hotel Room
Jeffrey Edward Fowle was visiting North Korea as a tourist when he was detained. The state news agency won’t specify what his “crime” is.
Fowle’s attorney, Timothy Tepe, said the family will release a statement on Monday and could not comment before then, “given the sensitive nature of Jeff’s situation.”
“This is a very fluid situation that has just come to light and they need time to process it,” Tepe said.
Fowle is now the third American being held in North Korea. U.S. State Department strongly advises Americans not to travel to there because of such arbitrary detainment.
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
jasperjava June 7th, 2014 at 12:13 pm
Who thinks of North Korea as a tourist destination, anyway?
Was this a misguided missionary who thought he could convert the world’s most hardline communist state?
fahvel June 7th, 2014 at 1:56 pm
you got it. He wanders in with his romance novel and can’t understand why the NK’s think of him as a subversive jerk.
FieryLocks June 7th, 2014 at 9:22 pm
North Korea has a god already, his name is Kim Il Sung, and even though he’s dead he’s still the president…weird!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_President_of_the_Republic
granpa.usthai June 8th, 2014 at 2:00 pm
Most North Koreans now believe their half a handful of rice they receive every day for their daily meal is the best in the world. (who could blame them? -perhaps, in time, if Romney’s ‘landslide’ victory of 2012 ever pans out, most Americans will feel the same about the half a handful of Chinese rice they’ll be receiving?).
jasperjava June 7th, 2014 at 5:15 pm
I bet conservatives will pressure Obama to get this guy released, and if the United States get him out, conservatives will criticize the deal that was negotiated.
That’s how they roll.
FieryLocks June 7th, 2014 at 9:19 pm
Of course they would…he had a Bible!
granpa.usthai June 8th, 2014 at 1:53 pm
at this point in time, I believe it to be of much greater import to negotiate for the ‘book’ (not just a copy, but the actual one the North Koreans now have thanks to the idiot). They will be able to use the ‘book’ for all sorts of propaganda purposes – show their Military strength vs. the ‘book’, use pages as toilet tissue, public urination rallies, etc.
Later, we could possibly negotiate for a lesser sentence for the lawless idiot – depending on his response to obeying laws of the land he places himself in.
GET THE ‘BOOK’ BACK!
should be the rally cry of all Americans at this point!
fancypants June 7th, 2014 at 9:09 pm
at this point the gop would go nuts if we traded 5 KIAs for this guy
granpa.usthai June 8th, 2014 at 1:33 pm
if someone would Flynn up, we might be able to get the ‘book’ back. Even as ‘uncooperative’ as the chunky G may appear to be at times, I don’t think he’d pass up a lifetime of free Hustler every month. Hell, make it even easier – send the ‘book’ back COD.
As for the idiot who opted to flaunt his lawlessness in the face of the North Koreans in THEIR country… watts of wuck.