The Latest from Iran (21 September): The In-Fighting Over the US Hikers

See also Iran Interview: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Runs Circles Around ABC News' Stephanopoulos
WikiLeaks & Iran Special (June 2009): The Election Was "A Power Grab by Mojtaba Khamenei"
Iran Interview: Ahmadinejad Defies the Judiciary over the US Hikers

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2015 GMT: The US Hikers. The flight carrying US nationals Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, freed on bail this afternoon, has landed in Oman.

Waiting for them were their families and Sarah Shourd, their companion who was also arrested in July 2009 on the Iran-Iraq border and was freed last September. She and Bauer are now engaged.

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And how is this being played by Iran media? Well, here's a clue: the pro-Ahmadinejad State news agency IRNA has posted a set of 26 photos:

2005 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (At the Movies Edition). The film website Indie Wire offers an English summary, with names, of the arrest of six filmmakers this week on the pretext that they worked for BBC Persian.

2000 GMT: The Battle Within. The conservative Jahan News claims that the "deviant current" around President Ahmadinejad has appointed 50 new provincial governors, for Iran's 31 provinces, ahead of March's Parliamentary elections.

1950 GMT: Rumour of Day. From another correspondent in Tehran, "The missing $2.6 billion [ in the alleged bank fraud]were not stolen, but used by the Government to buy more gold as it fears the increasing impact of sanctions."

1940 GMT: Security Watch. Back from a break to get this from source in Tehran, "Security measures are still extremely high --- wherever [authorities] suspect a meeting, Basijis line up and prevent it. Even private poetry sessions are forbidden or get prohibited by security forces."

1630 GMT: Well, That's All Right, Then. The head of Parliament's Article 90 Commissions, supervising Government activities, says the amount embezzled from several Iranian banks is $1.5 billion, not $3 billion.

1420 GMT: Corruption Watch. The head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has called for "everyone's co-operation" in investigating the "massive bank fraud" of $2.6 billion that is threatening to engulf the Ahmadinejad Government.

1400 GMT: US Hikers Watch. A convoy of Omani cars has taken US citizens Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer out of the Evin Prison complex, almost 27 months after the pair were detained.

As with Sarah Shourd, their companion who was freed last September, Fattal and Bauer are likely to be flown to Oman before returning to the US.

1120 GMT: US Hikers Watch. Press TV has a short article that the Iranian judiciary has confirmed the releases of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer.

The State news agency IRNA is framing the development as a "decision of the appeals court".

1040 GMT:: US Hikers Watch. The lawyers for Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer has said that the bank arrangements for transfer of $500,000 bail for each of the two men have been completed. A convoy from the Swiss convoy is now at Evin Prison for the release of the two men.

0940 GMT:: US Hikers --- All's Well That Ends Well? Masoud Shafiee, the lawyer for US citizens Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer has told US media that he has obtained the signature of a second judge for the bail order of $500,000 each for Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer (see 0625 GMT).

Shafiee said he got the signature from another judge after he was rebuffed on three occasions by a judge who was "on vacation". The remaining step is the procedural transfer of the $1 million in bail money to the correct accounts in Tehran.

A report on Iran State TV quoted officials as saying, "The two American men are free to go back to America." America's NBC News is reporting that Bauer and Fattal would be released from Evin Prison to officials of the Swiss Embassy, which represents US interests in Tehran, at 1030 GMT.

0640 GMT:: Propaganda of the Day. Potkin Azarmehr reports on Iranian State TV's creative use of raw video from Reuters to claim a mass takeover of the US Embassy in Tripoli by the "Libyan opposition".

The Reuters report is on the damage caused to the Embassy after it was evacuated during the uprising against former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, but this is more than enough for the Iranian broadcaster, echoing the Islamic Revolution of 1979, to proclaim that the "revolutionary people of Libya" --- seen here as a total of two people strolling outside the compound's gate --- "went towards the US embassy and took it over".

0625 GMT: President Ahmadinejad has arrived in New York for his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, but the political story for the moment is the US hikers still sitting back in Tehran in their prison cells.

On Tuesday, the Iranian judiciary gave the clearest possible snub to Ahmadinejad as well as to the US nationals Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, sentenced to eight years for espionage after they were detained in July 2009 on the Iran-Iraq border. For the third time, Fattal and Bauer's lawyer saw the signature of a second judge on a bail order of $500,000 each for the two men, only to be told that the judge was still "on vacation". What's more, a judiciary source let it be known that the judge would not be returning from his holiday until he was instructed to.

Ahmadinejad hit back in an interview with the American ABC News, raising the stakes with the declaration that Bauer and Fattal will --- not "may" but "will" --- be released.

So a vivid depiction of the political struggle within the Iranian establishment that has engulfed the two Americans. Not that you would know this from Iran's media --- Press TV keeps its eyes firmly on a photo-opportunity meeting between Ahmadinejad and Bolivian President Evo Morales, while State news agency IRNA reprints the publicity on Ahmadinejad's official website in its lead story to the President's "message to American anti-war activists". Ahmadinejad reportedly said that "domineering powers" spoke of freedom and democracy but instead delivered the gifts of bombs and weapons "to meet the interests of capitalists".