Two days post 9/11/11.

Imagine: the world fills with gestures of good will. From every quarter and in every household; in city councils and councils of state; in classrooms, tiny shops, corporate offices. Releasing us to ourselves, to fulfill our own lives, to hail each other as souls, to kiss the earth and all her trembling, sun-seeking creatures, to feel ourselves as earthlings swirling as one in an ever-replenishing cosmic sea of love.

From the Washington Post.

Iran’s president says he intends to grant ‘unilateral pardon’ to two U.S. hikers

TEHRAN — Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he intends to grant a “unilateral pardon” to two Americans who have been jailed on charges of espionage for two years and release them this week.“I am helping to arrange for their release in a couple of days so they will be able to return home,” Ahmadinejad told The Washington Post in an hour-long interview at his office here. “This is of course going to be a unilateral humanitarian gesture.”

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Two American men already held for two years in Tehran have been sentenced to 8 years each in prison on charges of espionage and illegal entry into Iran, state TV reported Saturday. (Aug. 20)

The Americans, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, were arrested along with another American while they were hiking along the Iran-Iraq border two years ago. In August, they were sentenced to eight years in prison. The other American, Sarah Shroud, was released in September 2010.Asked if the release would definitely happen this week, Ahmadinejad said: “I hope so. I hope I will do that.” The president’s decisions are subject to review by clerical authorities in the Islamic republic.

How the two Americans return to the U.S., he said, “they are free to choose.”

“It is a unilateral pardon” of the hikers, he said.