Dangerous Assignments, Risky Travel and Government to the Rescue

Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been freed from North Korea, but three other Americans are still being detained for crossing from remote Kurdistan into Iran. These are only the latest in a series of international incidents created by American citizens accused of entering forbidden zones, creating multiple headaches for US diplomats. Are foreign governments justified in suspecting they might be spies? Do both tourists and journalists have an obligation to stay out of trouble? Should the US government always come to the rescue, whatever the diplomatic trade-offs might be?