"I can express that I hate the cell, and I should, but for now it’s the place where I rest my head. I do my deepest thinking there.
Late at night, in the darkness, I cry in the cell where no one can see me. At times, even the most brutal gangster prisoner
sheds his macho mask to purge pent up tears. I pray in the cell, and I write my loved ones there. Hey, if
I’m going to be honest with myself, my cell is one of my best “buddies” in prison.
~ Michael McLean
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In a no-holds-barred statement, two Americans who spent 781 days in an Iranian prison on spying charges called themselves hostages
of sour U.S.-Iranian relations and described the screams of prisoners being beaten, the mental manipulation of their jailers,
and how they lived in "a world of lies and false hope" until their sudden release last week.
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Gone was the diplomacy and the words of gratitude to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that marked the statements
from their fellow prisoner Sarah Shourd one year ago, when she was freed after 410 days in prison ahead of companions Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
This time, with all three back on U.S. soil and nobody left as possible bargaining chips, the trio condemned the Iranians
but also criticized U.S. practices — such as secret CIA prisons — that they said their jailers would cite if they complained about conditions in Tehran.