A July 31 field report leaked to The New York Times by WikiLeaks reveals that the U.S. government knew that U. California-Berkeley alumni Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were hiking on the Iraq side of the Iran-Iraq border when Iranian officials detained them based on suspicions of espionage.

An American government official who served in Iraq told The New York Times that the field report stating which side of the border the hikers were on was consistent with facts related to him by Iraqi officials. The document from WikiLeaks – a website that provides a way for sources to leak information to journalists – is also consistent with a June 23 report by The Nation magazine that said two independent witnesses from an Iraqi village saw uniformed guards from the Iranian police force cross the border to capture the hikers.

A military intelligence assessment included in the leaked document speculated that the Iranian government will benefit from detaining the hikers by presenting them as an external threat, diverting the public’s attention from internal tensions.

Though the document confirms that the hikers were on the Iraqi side of the border, the leaked document refers to the hikers as “Tourists/Reporters,” and the military intelligence assessment stated, “The lack of coordination on the part of these hikers, particularly after being forewarned, indicates an intent to agitate and create publicity regarding international policies on Iran.”

However, in a statement five days after her Sept. 14 release, Shourd said, “We committed no crime and we are not spies. We in no way intended any harm to the Iranian government or its people and believe a huge misunderstanding led to our arrest and prolonged detention.”

Shourd was released by the Iranian government on “compassionate grounds” following the discovery of a lump on her breast and reports from her mother that Shourd had precancerous cervical cells. Both Fattal and Bauer are still detained in Iran.