If this discussion was any indication of what she might expect from freedom loving American countrymen and women she might want to stay in Iran.

Espionage charges against imprisoned journalist Roxana Saberi are likely a political ploy, said a University of Minnesota expert on Iran.

William O. Beeman, an anthropology professor who has studied Iran for 30 years, said Wednesday that he thinks Saberi is caught in an internal political conflict while the country is in the midst of an election season.

“We tend not to recognize that other nations have internal politics,” Beeman said. “They play dirty tricks on each other. This is a kind of dirty trick.”