Posted on 07/01/2005 12:25:56 AM PDT by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Iran Leader Linked To '79 Embassy Crisis
Excerpt:
Joyce Howard Priceand David R. Sands, The Washington Times:Americans held in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Iran said yesterday they clearly recall Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad playing a central role in the takeover, interrogating captives and demanding harsher treatment for the hostages.
"As soon as I saw his picture in the paper, I knew that was the bastard," said retired Army Col. Charles Scott, 73, a former hostage who lives in Jonesboro, Ga.
"He was one of the top two or three leaders," Col. Scott said in a telephone interview. "The new president of Iran is a terrorist."
The new president's hard-line political views and his background as a student radical in the Iranian Revolution are well known.
But recollections of Mr. Ahmadinejad's direct and personal role in the embassy drama promises to complicate the already rocky relations between Iran's new president and the Bush administration.
Donald Sharer, a retired Navy captain who was for a time a cellmate of Col. Scott at the Evin prison in northern Tehran, remembered Mr. Ahmadinejad as "a hard-liner, a cruel individual."
"I know he was an interrogator," said Capt. Sharer, now 64 and living in Bedford, Iowa. He said he was personally questioned by Mr. Ahmadinejad on one occasion but does not recall the subject of the interrogation.
Col. Scott recalled an incident when Mr. Ahmadinejad berated a friendly Iranian guard who had allowed the two Americans to visit another U.S. hostage in a neighboring cell. Col. Scott, who understands Farsi, said Mr. Ahmadinejad told the guard, "You shouldn't let these pigs out of their cells."
Col. Scott said he responded by making a rude gesture to Mr. Ahmadinejad.
The man about to become Iran's sixth president since the revolution became "red-faced" and stormed out of the cell.
U.S. officials have condemned the voting procedures that led to Mr. Ahmadinejad's upset in a runoff win over moderate cleric Hashemi Rafsanjani on June 25.
Iran's hard-line Islamic rulers, who have long and close ties to the incoming president, barred all but a handful of the 1,000 candidates who sought to run in the election.
It has long been known that Mr. Ahmadinejad, then a 23-year-old engineering student at Tehran's Elm-o Sanaat University, played a critical role in planning the embassy takeover in November 1979.
An ardent supporter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Mr. Ahmadinejad was a founding member of the Office for Strengthening Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries. The OSU, as it became known, was closely linked to Ayatollah Khomeini.
The OSU organized the storming of the U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran. Mr. Ahmadinejad backed the decision and reportedly proposed the student radicals should storm the Soviet Union's embassy as well.
Mo Jazayeri, executive editor of the London-based Iran Focus, a news service that features reporting critical of Iran's Islamic regime, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Ahmadinejad "played an important role as the main security chief" inside the embassy compound.
Iran Focus yesterday circulated a November 1979 Associated Press photo that it claimed showed a young Mr. Ahmadinejad beside a blindfolded American hostage. But neither the Associated Press nor The Washington Times could verify that the figure in the photo was the future Iranian leader.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's office has denied he helped storm the embassy and said the man in the photo is not the president-elect. But the office did not comment on whether Mr. Ahmadinejad had other duties during the 444-day hostage ordeal.
Another former hostage, Kevin Hermening of Mosinee, Wis., said he came into contact with Mr. Ahmadinejad right after the takeover.
"He was involved in interrogating me the day we were taken captive," recalled Mr. Hermening, who, at 20, was the youngest hostage.
Mr. Hermening, a Marine security guard at the Tehran embassy, said his interrogators were seeking the combinations for "safes and other things that were locked."
"There is absolutely no reason the United States should be trying to normalize relations with a man who seems intent on trying to force-feed the world with state-sponsored terrorism," Mr. Hermening said. ....
- SMCCDI reported that a bassij militiaman was killed near the Capital.
- Middle East Newsline reported that Congress has been examining the prospect of granting U.S. support to an Iranian opposition group, the MEK.
- Adnkronos International reported on the conference organized by the Green Party in the European parliament to examine the results of the recent Iranian presidential elections.
- IranMania reported that Iran's revenue from oil are set to exceed the forecast by $24 bln.
- Roozonline reminds us that eighty percent of the Iranian population does not want what the new president stands for.
- Roozonline said, what is interesting to consider is Europe's share of responsibility for Mr. Ahmadinejad's positions.
- Roozonline asked, Where is imprisoned Akbar Ganji?
- It is being reported that a poem is appearing on the builds and walls throughout Iran, Ahmadinejad is a murderer, his votes are dead (fraudulent).
- I have now produced a tool for those who need to get a quick briefing on all the major developments in Iran. In the right side bar of this blog you will find a complete listing of all our Week in Review posts.
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
If this guy is a terrorist that held Americans as hostages before, then he is a target of this war on terror and there is no other way around it.
I'm sure Socialists such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin will condemn the former hostages accusations and defend the terrorist President. Once a terrorist always a terrorist.
Here's hoping his term in office will be shortened considerably.
Is it true that if this President-elect was behind the hostage taking, that many of the ruling elite will have a tougher time supporting him? I heard this on NPR.
What possible difference does it make? Even if it was the reincarnation of Ghandi who became the Iranian "president," the position is nothing more than a sham to keep the masses placated. Iran is a theocratic dictatorship, and if the "president" is a former hostage taker, or a friggin' saint, it makes no difference. It's well beyond time to take that bunch down, before they send us a nuclear calling card.
It makes a difference how he's viewed by the rest of the world. It's much easier to gain support for our position if everyone knows the score.
From GLOBALSECURITY....
A younger Ahmadinejad from a photo from Global security is in the photo above.
Ahmadinejad is the dude on the right with the dark turtle neck, not the guy in the red circle. The guy in the red circle apparently died years ago.
Two words - ROLL EAST!
How did this guy win the election overwhelmingly? I thought the young people wanted change. I'm really confused about Iran now. We kept hearing about how they were ready to overthow the mullahs ... now ...
"we now have these pictures of the Jihadist in charge of Iran."
I don't know if this is the same guy. But even if he isn't (perhaps, especially if he isn't), this is a nice PSYOP to remind the Iranians that we don't need the threat of WMD's or a 9/11-link to justify kicking their ass.
He won the election the same way Saddam always won. The threat of death to you or your loved ones can be a real motivation to vote.
The election of this devil in Iran has just bought the Iranian people a death sentence. Time is running out now quickly. I would hope that some Iranian (or special ops) would be able to take this guy out. Perhaps he could meet with some unfortunate accident, but it would have to be soon, as in now.
Are you saying the election was rigged? It may well have been ... but I don't see anyone in the media saying so.
Like a JDAM, well a couple of them at least, targeted on the podium for his inauguration. That would definitely shorten his term, possibly to a negative value. :)
Hoder is calling Americans Bastard and Lewd!
You might be interested to see what he says and may be print his BS on the blog!
http://hoder.com/weblog/
http://hoder.com
BUMP
Hope his nice profile page is still there!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.