Iran has taken five U.S. scholars prisoner on charges of espionage. The story has gotten too little play in American opinion pages, but here are a few pundits and advocates who have decided to speak up on their behalf.

Michael Ledeen wonders why more pundits aren’t talking about Iran’s new “hostage” crisis. Five Americans have been imprisoned and the press isn’t talking about it much.

Trudy Rubin is coming to the defense of Esfandiari: “her jailing flies in the face of common interests shared by sane people in the United States and Iran. So it is crucial that academics and prominent figures around the world tell Ahmadinejad he must release her.”

The Education for Peace in Iraq Center has released a statement on their blog defending the Iranian prisoners.

The Open Society Institute issues a response to the detention of OSI fellow Kian Tajbakhsh.

The Washington Times says that “It should now be obvious to even the most relentless engagement advocates that Tehran simply does not want engagement. Its history of hostage-taking is the record of a hostile regime, one whose character is unchanged over the years in its contempt for the West -- including its own defenders. That it would throw these congenial people in jail as a sideshow during the U.S.-Iran talks on Iraq is a telling indicator of that fact.”

The New Republic says that the case of Haleh Esfandiari may be evidence of Iran's “veiled contempt” for her work on behalf of Iranian women.