http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/12/cia...ent/index.html
Sources: CIA finds Iranian president likely not hostage-taker
Friday, August 12, 2005; Posted: 10:35 a.m. EDT (14:35 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A CIA report has determined with "relative certainty" that new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not involved in the taking of U.S. hostages in 1979, two government officials told CNN.
The officials insisted on anonymity, saying they did not want to speak for the CIA about its report.
Several of the 52 former hostages said that Ahmadinejad was one of the students who held them captive at the U.S. embassy in Tehran 26 years ago, after they saw him celebrate his election victory on television.
Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials denied the allegation.
A CIA analysis of one hostage-taker found two weeks ago that the individual was not Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad's official biography says that as a student, he was a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity, the student organization that planned the embassy takeover.
It does not say he was an organizer of the seizure.
The two U.S. government officials who told CNN about the report said the State Department has been conducting additional interviews over the past week with former hostages.
Most of the former hostages have said Ahmadinejad was not present during the hostage-taking, the officials said.
The November 4, 1979, embassy takeover followed protests demanding that the United States return the Shah of Iran to Tehran for trial. He had been overthrown by the Islamic revolution 11 months before and was receiving cancer treatment in New York at the time.
The embassy seizure lasted 444 days and resulted in a botched rescue mission that left eight U.S. soldiers dead.
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