This past weekend, North Korean government sentenced Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years of hard labor for crossing the Chinese border while investigating a story about refugees. The two were arrested on March 17th and were charged for committing "hostile acts."

The last time I saw Laura was a few days before her departure. I was in San Francisco and she looked busy at work, perhaps in the final stages of planning her trip. I just remember her zipping back and forth from office to office. She looked in the zone. I didn't stop to say hello.

In 2005, I sat down with her to talk about Current TV for Rocketboom. I remember trying to find a quiet place to talk -- which didn't work out so well. We ended up making the choice to just go with it. Watching the video today makes me sad.

Currently, the US government is working to release Laura and Euna, who many speculate are being held as pawns in a very high stakes chess game.

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