Iran is Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad likes to boast about the

superiority of Iranian moral values to those of the West.

So, a week before he traveled to the U.N. General Assembly, he

sought to divert attention from Iran's dismal human rights record

by intervening to free Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers

who had been jailed for 13 months in Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad likes to boast about the superiority of Iranian moral values to those of the West.

So, a week before he traveled to the U.N. General Assembly, he sought to divert attention from Iran's dismal human rights record by intervening to free Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers who had been jailed for 13 months in Tehran. He claimed this was a gesture of Islamic compassion due to her health problems.

But his gesture rings hollow given that Shourd's two companions - her fiance, Shane Bauer, and friend Josh Fattal - remain in Evin Prison. Nor can Ahmadinejad's gesture hide the horrors perpetrated on hundreds of Iranians imprisoned since rigged elections last year.

The three Americans were arrested while hiking in Iraq's scenic north, near the unmarked border with Iran. Shourd and Bauer were working in Damascus, Syria, and Fattal had joined them for a hiking holiday. Iran claims the three illegally crossed the border, but they may have been seized on the Iraqi side by Iranian border guards.

Until last weekend, no charges had been lodged against the three, and their interrogation stopped months ago. "They have been held as hostages" while the regime sought to get something for their release, said Iran expert Gary Sick.

More recently, a letter was smuggled out of Evin prison that came from prominent human rights activist Abdollah Momeni and was addressed to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It described horrific torture. You can read the entire text at www.iranhuman rights.org, but it takes a strong stomach.

Momeni details savage beatings and near-suffocation, confinement for months in a coffin-like cell, having his head held in a toilet bowl full of feces, and threats of rape or imminent execution. He was finally forced into a false confession at a sham trial.

Of course, Iranian officials regularly deny that they torture prisoners or coerce confessions. But in this globalized world, they can't keep their behavior secret.

The world is watching: Will Iran stone Ashtiani to death or hang her? Will Khamenei investigate the abuse of Momeni and other prisoners? Will the Islamic republic stage a show trial of Fattal and Bauer, knowing they are innocent? Or will it act like a responsible international player and set them free?

Nothing will discredit Ahmadinejad's pretensions more than further show trials in violation of all norms of international behavior. Iran's moral standing depends on what it does, not on his self-aggrandizing words.