Iran and North Korea have more than their hatred for the United States in common. They have both detained female American journalists in recent weeks — and we can’t help but wonder how these political outcasts will use them against their mutual enemies.

Increasingly concerned about the well-being of Roxana Saberi, who has been locked up in Iran since January, the United States has been pressuring the Islamic Republic to grant consular access to the American journalist. Officials hope someone from the Swiss government — which serves as the intermediary between the U.S. and Iran — can ensure the physical well-being of the North Dakota woman. Saberi’s father, Reza Saberi, says she is "pretty suicidal" and may go on a hunger strike if she is kept in Tehran’s Evin Prison much longer.

"I tried to calm her down. I told her we are doing everything and to just hold on. Don’t give in. We will try to secure her release," Mr. Saberi said.

Most alarming was news this week that Roxana could sit in prison for "months or even years." Although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she’s working to secure Saberi’s release, and a number of groups have joined the fight, Huffington Post’s Sam Sedaei wonders why President Obama hasn’t done more to free Saberi. "How could President Obama speak up for humane treatment of foreign detainees at Guantanamo, but keep silent on the torture and mistreatment of Americans in Iran’s Guantanamo?" writes Sedaei.

Meanwhile, in North Korea, some fear Pyongyang could use journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee as bargaining chips in their diplomatic battles with other countries. Reports say the women, who work for Al Gore’s Current TV, have been interrogated as possible spies after being arrested near the China-North Korea border while filming a documentary, and will likely be charged with espionage. Although North Korea has vowed to treat the journalists well, that by no means eliminates all concern. As with Saberi, the U.S. is pushing North Korea to grant the Swiss consular access to Ling and Lee.

"North Korea will send them home, but it will not happen quickly," Andrei Lankov, a professor of North Korean studies at Kookmin University in Seoul, told The Washington Post. "The North Koreans want to show the world that illegally crossing their border will not be tolerated and they want to squeeze political and financial concessions from the United States." Let’s hope neither nation squeezes too hard.