New Iran President Was Hostage Taker

**Roguish Lawyer** · 06-30-2005, 10:19

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/...ent/index.html

Former hostages allege Iran's new president was captor

Thursday, June 30, 2005; Posted: 12:03 p.m. EDT (16:03 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A quarter-century after their 444-day ordeal at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, several former hostages say Iran's hardline president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of their captors.

"As soon as I saw the face, it rang a lot of bells to me," Don Sharer, of Bedford, Indiana, told CNN. He had served as the embassy's naval attache when the hostage-taking occurred.

"...Take 20 years off of him. He was there. He was there in the background, more like an adviser."

The November 4, 1979, embassy takeover followed protests demanding that the United States return the shah to Tehran for trial. He had been overthrown by the Islamic revolution 11 months prior and was receiving cancer treatment in New York at the time.

The embassy seizure resulted in a botched rescue mission that left eight U.S. soldiers dead and the severance of U.S.-Iranian ties ever since.

The Associated Press reports the White House is taking the allegations seriously.

"I think the news reports and statements from several former American hostages raise many questions about his past," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told the AP. "We take them very seriously and we are looking into them to better understand the facts."

"I saw his picture in the Washington Post on Saturday morning, recognized it immediately and then sent an e-mail out to some of my former colleagues ... telling them what I thought and seeing what kind of responses they might have to it," said William Daugherty, a former CIA officer who now lives in Savannah, Georgia.

Iranian officials deny Ahmadinejad took part, and members of the student group involved in the takeover -- some of whom now support reformist President Mohammed Khatami -- told CNN that Ahmadinejad was not part of it.

The AP, in its archives, has a series of photographs showing a student hostage-taker that some of the former hostages believe to be Ahmadinejad.

But Iranian officials deny it, and, while there is a resemblance, that resemblance is not definitive.

Ahmadinejad's official biography says that as a student at the University of Science and Technology, he was a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity, the student organization that planned the takeover.

Ahmadinejad joined the Revolutionary Guards in 1980 and served in the Iran-Iraq war.

Daugherty said he remembers "seeing him acting in a supervisory or leadership capacity during the first ... 2 1/2 weeks (but) on the 19th day, I was moved into solitary confinement and had limited contact with even my Iranian guards after that."

Sharer said he was 99 percent sure Ahmadinejad was involved.

"In one incident he just called (Army attache Col. Charles Scott) pigs and dogs and we deserved to be locked up forever," he said. "When you're placed in a life-threatening situation of that nature, you just remember those things."

The AP reports that one person who did not recognize Ahmadinejad as a captor was senior defense attache at the time, Col. Tom Schaefer. The AP reported him being more concerned about the return to power of hardliners in Iran than by the thought Ahmadinejad might have been a hostage-taker.

Asked about Schaefer's recollections, Daugherty and Sharer said memory works different ways for different people.

"We were all in different circumstances," Daugherty said. "We were exposed to some of the Iranians more than others. So, you know, if Tom was actually quoted correctly in saying he didn't remember, again that's not the same thing as the guy not being there."

The hostage crisis ended after intense negotiations. Minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as U.S. president on January 20, 1981, the 52 hostages were released.

**The Reaper** · 06-30-2005, 11:05

No de-Islamofascism of the politicians there, eh?

Too bad our Senate doesn't get to advise and consent on their nominees. He would be a shoe in with the Dems.

TR

lksteve · 06-30-2005, 11:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

He would be a shoe in with the Dems.

not so sure about that...he is probably a religious conservative...

**The Reaper** · 06-30-2005, 11:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by lksteve

not so sure about that...he is probably a religious conservative...

Well, that seems to be okay with them as long as you are not a CHRISTIAN religious conservative.

Then you are a subject of ridicule.

TR

casey · 06-30-2005, 13:01

Just happen to have his happy snaps..... (Second photo - far right)

**Roguish Lawyer** · 06-30-2005, 14:30

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtri...027777777.html

Iran's new president declares worldwide 'Islamic revolution'

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Iran's president-elect has proclaimed an Islamic revolution of global proportions.

Mahmood Ahmadinejad said his election coincided with what he termed a new Islamic revolution.

"The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world," Ahmadinejad said. "In one night, the martyrs strode down a path of 100 years."
Ahmadinejad, who did not elaborate, was speaking to the families of those killed in a 1981 attack at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party, Middle East Newsline reported.

The Teheran mayor has served as a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, responsible for the nation's missile and nuclear weapons programs, and has been identified as a suspect in the killing of Kurdish dissidents in Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The 49-year-old Ahmadinejad, who participated in the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Teheran, in 1979, was regarded as the most anti-Western of the presidential candidates. On June 24, he defeated Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president who headed the Expediency Council, the regime's watchdog over what had been a reformist-dominated parliament.

"Thanks to the blood of the martyrs, a new Islamic revolution has arisen and the Islamic revolution of 1384 [the current Iranian year] will, if God wills, cut off the roots of injustice in the world," Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official Iranian news agency as saying. "The era of oppression, hegemonic regimes, tyranny and injustice has reached its end."

The speech marked the first time since the late 1980s that an Iranian president vowed to export Islamic insurgency throughout the world.
Allies of Ahmadinejad said the president-elect, who takes office in August, would seek to revive the principles of the Islamic revolution in 1978. They said Ahmadinejad would also seek to impose Islamic behavior in public, including strict enforcement of a dress code.

"Islamic and revolutionary culture have been neglected in the past years," Iranian parliamentarian Mohammad Taqi Rahbar said.

Iran has been cited as the leading financier of groups that appear on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. Iran's leading clients have been the Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both sponsored by Teheran, as well as Hamas and the Syrian-aligned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Smokin Joe · 06-30-2005, 18:19

Guess its time to take the gloves off with Iran....

Personally I think we should smoke this fucker before he gets his nuclear power and other assests in order.

casey · 06-30-2005, 19:06

Still waiting for positive confirmation on all photos - Thus far all 5 hostages have said its him.

Confirmation for me will be when the FBI says "its not him - we're sure of it".

brewmonkey · 06-30-2005, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by casey

Still waiting for positive confirmation on all photos - Thus far all 5 hostages have said its him.

Confirmation for me will be when the FBI says "its not him - we're sure of it".

I thought some of his fellow "revolutionaries" already said he was involved but "did not take hostages himself"?

casey · 06-30-2005, 20:28

The newly elected president of Iran has been accused of being involved in the 1980 American hostage crisis. Former hostage David Roeder, 66, told SPIEGEL ONLINE, that Ahmadinejad threatened to kidnap his son and cut off his fingers and toes. "You don't forget someone like that," the former Assistant Air Force Attache says. SPIEGEL ONLINE: You are claiming that the newly elected president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of those involved in taking and holding you hostage in Iran from November 1979 to January 1981. How can you be sure?
Roeder: He was present at at least a third of my personal interrogations, which took place nightly for a little over a month early on in the hostage-taking situation. He seemed to be calling the shots, but from the background. The interrogators would ask a question and it would then be translated from Farsi into English by a woman interpreter.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Did they try to exert force on you to answer the questions or did you cooperate freely?

Roeder: I decided that initially I wasn't going to respond in any way, shape or form. They had me handcuffed to a chair and at least during the first few sessions, blindfolded as well. But once the blindfold came off, they had developed a plan that Ahmadinejad was instigating. Because I was not cooperating, they threatened that they were going to kidnap my handicapped son and send various pieces of him -- fingers and toes is what they mentioned -- to my wife if I didn't start cooperating. You don't forget somebody who is involved in something like that....

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You don't think you could have forgotten him after all these years?

Roeder: No, absolutely not. Not when he was involved in threatening my son.

CoLawman · 07-01-2005, 00:42

[QUOTE=Roguish Lawyer]http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtri...027777777.html

Iran's new president declares worldwide 'Islamic revolution'

I am not so sure that this is just bragadocia. My gut instinct tells me that this is a harbinger of things to come. This guy could be worse than Khomeni and Hussein rolled up into one. Just wondering out loud.....but what are Kennedy and Kerry thinking about right now having already been briefed on this guys bio!

On the other hand no need to wonder what the President is already thinking!

I would really like to get some of the QP's thoughts on this approaching storm.

uboat509 · 07-01-2005, 02:45

Something stinks about that whole election and the Iranian youth smell it also. I suspect that he is going to have to spend a lot of time trying to keep any election skeletons in the closet. He is definatley someone to watch but with over half of the population under 25 and many of them deeply disafected he is not going to have free reign to run amok. It is likely that there will be some sort of crackdown but that will consume a lot of time and resources and ultimately they (the crackdowns) will be less and less effectives as the Iranian youth gets more and more accustomed to what freedoms they do have. If anything, it is going to take him a while to consolidate power and crush any resistance.

SFC W

**Kyobanim** · 07-01-2005, 07:41

And so was the VP . . .

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/....ap/index.html

**Roguish Lawyer** · 07-01-2005, 10:08

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/....ap/index.html

Iranian VP was voice of the 1979 hostage-takers

Friday, July 1, 2005; Posted: 8:24 a.m. EDT (12:24 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If the newly elected Iranian president turns out to have been a main participant in the holding of American hostages in Tehran, he won't be the first top Iranian official with a role in the 1979 crisis.

The current Iranian vice president and head of the Environment Department, Massoumeh Ebtekar, was the chief interpreter and spokeswoman for the radical students who took over the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Dubbed "Sister Mary" by the American press because her heavy head scarf resembled a nun's habit, Ebtekar gave almost nightly interviews during the standoff, denouncing the hostages as spies and accusing the United States of committing crimes.

Five former U.S. hostages who saw Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in photos or on television said they believe he was among the hostage-takers. One said he was interrogated by Ahmadinejad.

The White House said Thursday it was taking their statements seriously. President Bush said "many questions" were raised by the allegations of the former hostages. The State Department said it is investigating.

Some of the former students have said Ahmadinejad opposed the takeover and played no role in it, even though he was a member of the hard-line Islamic student group that seized the embassy.

Ebtekar, who is also one of Iran's six vice presidents, has been the highest-ranking woman in the moderate-leaning government of President Mohammad Khatami.

She acknowledged her part in the U.S. Embassy takeover in remarks to reporters in 1998.

"The generation that is in executive and policy-making jobs is a revolutionary generation that played an active role in every stage of the revolution," Ebtekar said then.

A report in The New York Times that year had detailed her involvement, which was not listed on Ebtekar's biography.

She was an 18-year-old freshman at Polytechnic University in Tehran when she became the public voice of the student takeover. She spoke English better than others in the student group because she had lived in suburban Philadelphia as a child and had attended American schools.

She once told an ABC News reporter that she could imagine being provoked into killing the hostages.

"Yes," she said. "When I've seen an American gun being lifted up and killing my brothers and sisters in the streets, of course."

In the turbulent early days of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad was more concerned with putting down leftists and communists at universities than striking at Americans, former students said. During the long standoff, he was writing and speaking against leftist students, they said.

It is unclear whether the Bush administration had explored previously whether Ahmadinejad was involved in the hostage episode. National security adviser Stephen Hadley said Thursday that the United States has followed his career. "Obviously, one of the things you do when you get a report like this is look back and see what you have in the files and that's the process that's going on now," he said.

Hadley said the White House was looking into the photographs and had not reached any conclusions. "They are allegations at the present time," he said. "We need to get the facts."

Hadley stressed that the United States would have to deal with Ahmadinejad, even if the administration did not approve of the way he was elected. Bush denounced the election, saying it was designed to maintain power in the hands of an unelected few who denied ballot access to more than 1,000 people who wanted to run.

Smokin Joe · 07-01-2005, 12:34

Oh this just gets better by the minute.

I think there is a debt still owed and I can think of the perfect set of individuals to be the debt collectors.