When just the act traveling to a certain country makes you a target for torture and imprisonment by your own government, it would make one uncomfortable, particularly as a person who would like to travel.

Unfortunately, if a small portion of HN'ers find this story worth upvoting, it will hit the frontpage, even though it is a very political article with no relevance to hackers, technology or startups nor does it affect life of the typical HN audience. As HN becomes more mainstream, expect more mainstream articles.