JOURNALISTS RELEASED LAURA LING AND EUNA LEE FREED PRESIDENT CLINTON HELP FREE LISA LING’S SISTER0 comments

We send our prayers and best wishes to the families of Laura Ling and Euna Ling. The two American journalists were just freed from North Korea by leader Kim Jung Il.  The two jailed journalists return to the US on a flight with former President Bill Clinton.  Bill Clinton’s visit is considered a political boost for Kim Jung Il’s tarnished public image.  Former Vice President Al Gore finally broke his silence about the journalists. Laura Ling and Euna Lee  are reporters for Current TV and were arrested while working on a story about defection in North Korea. The two journalists were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

UPDATE: Is this the best new role for Bill Clinton to fill in the Obama White House?

The families of the jailed reporters appeared on Larry King Live earlier this year to plead for the release of the journalists.

Larry King Live – Families of detained journalists – 1 June 09 en Yahoo! Video

As my colleagues Mark Landler and Peter Baker report, Al Gore was present this morning at the airport in Burbank, Calif., when Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who work as journalists for his company, Current TV, returned home to the United States after more than four months in North Korean custody. Britain’s Channel 4 News posted the raw video of the emotional homecoming embedded above on their Web site.

The BBC also played  the same video of Mr. Gore joining family members on the tarmac as the plane carrying the two women and former President Bill Clinton, who had traveled to North Korea to secure their release, arrived in Burbank.
Earlier, Mr. Gore and Joel Hyatt, the founders of Current TV, broke the company’s silence over the fate of its two employees, who had been imprisoned in North Korea since March and were pardoned on Wednesday by North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, after a meeting with Mr. Clinton. This message from Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt appears on the Current TV Web site today:

Welcome Home!
Laura Ling & Euna Lee

LAURA LING AND EUNA LEE ARE COMING HOME

Current Media journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been detained in North Korea since March 17th, will be coming home on Wednesday morning with former President Bill Clinton, who is at this moment returning from North Korea having obtained their release.

We want to thank the Obama Administration for its continuous and determined efforts to achieve this outcome, and President Clinton for his willingness to undertake this mission.

All of us at Current are overjoyed at Laura and Euna’s safe return. Our hearts go out to them – and to their families – for persevering through this horrible experience.

We will have more to say in the days and weeks ahead. But for now, all our thoughts are with Laura and Euna and their families, who have shown remarkable courage and initiative for the 140 days of this ordeal.

My colleagues Mr. Landler and Mr. Baker report that Mr. Gore, speaking after the journalists arrived, said, “President Obama and countless members of his administration have been deeply involved,” in securing their release. “To everybody who has played a part in this,” he added, “we are so grateful.” [source]

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• Laura Ling and Euna Lee chronology * (laobserved.com)
• North Korea frees 2 U.S. journalists (msnbc.msn.com)
• You: U.S. journalists leave N. Korea with Bill Clinton (cnn.com)
• The Lede: Video of the Journalists’ Homecoming (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
• In Release of Journalists, Both Clintons Had Key Roles (nytimes.com)
• Pardoned U.S. journalists to arrive in L.A. (cbc.ca)
• N. Korea pardons U.S. journalists: state media (cbc.ca)
• US journalists released from North Korea after Bill Clinton visit (telegraph.co.uk)

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