JESSE OFFERS TO HELP JAILED JOURNO IN IRAN: Roxana Saberi sentenced Saturday to 8 years in prison for spying.

      *The Rev. Jesse Jackson has offered to travel to Iran to help release a jailed Iranian-American journalist who was recently convicted of spying and sentenced to 8 years in prison, reports CNN.       

       "If our voices are heard in Iran today, I would be anxious to travel with a delegation to Iran, if we are permitted, and make an appeal for her freedom," said the civil rights activist, according to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson, 67, was speaking Tuesday at a peace conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.      

       "Whenever we've brought people out of captivity, whether in Syria, Cuba, Iraq, or Yugoslavia, or Liberia, it's always opened a diplomatic door to reduce tensions," he added.      

       Roxana Saberi, 31, received her eig sentenced Saturday to eight years in prison after a one-day trial that was closed to the public. The decision prompted sharp denunciations from President Barack Obama, as well as other U.S. and international officials.      

       Saberi's lawyer has said he will appeal the verdict. Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi has ordered the head of Tehran's Justice Department to make sure the appeals process is quick and fair.      

       Jackson has offered in the past to help release American hostages, most recently in 2005. At that time, he said he was willing to use his role as a religious leader to help secure the release of Roy Hallums, who was kidnapped along with five others in Baghdad in November 2004. Hallums was freed in September 2005 when American troops raided the farmhouse where he was being held outside Baghdad.      

       In 1984, Jackson successfully secured the release of a Navy pilot held in Syria. In 1991, he helped secure the release of 500 "international guests" held in Iraq, and in 1999, he worked to persuade Yugoslavia to release three U.S. soldiers held there during the Kosovo conflict.