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Iran Leader Linked To '79 Embassy Crisis

Night StalkerNight Stalker Member Posts: 11,967
edited June 2005 in General Discussion
Washington Times
June 30, 2005
Pg. 1

Iran Leader Linked To '79 Embassy Crisis

Ex-hostages recall Ahmadinejad as interrogator

By Joyce Howard Price and 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 meanie," 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.

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"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -- John Stewart Mill

Comments

  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think someone will see him in their scope.
  • HAIRYHAIRY Member Posts: 23,606
    edited November -1
    What is the issue? Bush insists on Iranian democracy, gets it, and doesn't like the result? Where is Kermit Roosevelt when he is needed?[}:)][;)] Here's an article on the genesis of the Iran/US problem: quote: August 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of America's first overthrow of a democratically-elected foreign government.
    In 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated a coup d'etat that toppled the democratically elected government of Iran. The government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The aftershocks of the coup are still being felt.
    In 1951 Prime Minister Mossadegh roused Britain's ire when he nationalized the oil industry. Mossadegh argued that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves which had been exclusively controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The company later became known as British Petroleum (BP).
    After considering military action, Britain opted for a coup d'?tat. President Harry Truman rejected the idea, but when Dwight Eisenhower took over the White House, he ordered the CIA to embark on one of its first covert operations against a foreign government.
    The coup was led by an agent named Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. The CIA leaned on a young, insecure Shah to issue a decree dismissing Mossadegh as prime minister. Kermit Roosevelt had help from Norman Schwarzkopf's father: Norman Schwarzkopf.
    The CIA and the British helped to undermine Mossadegh's government through bribery, libel, and orchestrated riots. Agents posing as communists threatened religious leaders, while the US ambassador lied to the prime minister about alleged attacks on American nationals.
    Some 300 people died in firefights in the streets of Tehran.
    Mossadegh was overthrown, sentenced to three years in prison followed by house arrest for life.
    The crushing of Iran's first democratic government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship under the Shah, who relied heavily on US aid and arms. The anti-American backlash that toppled the Shah in 1979 shook the whole region and helped spread Islamic militancy.
    After the 1979 revolution president Jimmy Carter allowed the deposed Shah into the U.S. Fearing the Shah would be sent back to take over Iran as he had been in 1953, Iranian militants took over the U.S. embassy - where the 1953 coup was staged - and held hundreds hostage.
    The 50th anniversary of the coup was front-page news in Iranian newspapers. The Christian Science Monitor reports one paper in Iran publishing excerpts from CIA documents on the coup, which were released only three years ago.
    The U.S. involvement in the fall of Mossadegh was not publicly acknowledged until three years ago. In a New York Times article in March 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted that "the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs."
    In his book All the Shah's Men, Kinzer argues that "t is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax [the name of the coup] through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York." Stephen Kinzer, author All the Shah's Men, An American Coup And The Roots of Middle East Terror Prof. Ervand Abrahamian, Middle East and Iran Expert at Baruch College, City University of New York . Author of numnerous book including Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (University of California Press, 1993).


    "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." Winston Churchill

    volenti non fit injuria
  • fishermanbenfishermanben Member Posts: 15,370
    edited November -1
    Okay Hairy. So you are saying that "we are getting what we deserve"? If that is the case, then what do we do now? Are we just screwed? Do we permit them to build nukes knowing that we'd be at the top of their list to be used on? What would your strategy be to combat the threat?

    Ben

    logo_chc_79x76.jpg
    Play Ball!!!
  • RamtinxxlRamtinxxl Member Posts: 9,480
    edited November -1
    quote:"As soon as I saw his picture in the paper, I knew that was the meanie," 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."

    I just find it difficult to believe that one of OUR OWN former military personnel would speak so harshly about the dear Muslims who provided him food and shelter during his 444 day vacation in beautiful Iran.

    Where is our national sense of gratitude?

    Where is our benevolent spirit?

    All the military pension should be withheld from this vicious Colonel Scott until he apologizes for his unkind rhetoric about a DEMOCRATICALLY elected leader in one of our sister nations.

    hairraisingicon.gif
    hairraisingicon.gifhairraisingicon.gif
  • ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    This story leaves out the fact that a few other former hostages have said that he was NOT one of the guards.

    But the memory's a funny thing - someone's mistaken. Which side it is, I don't know.

    Fishermanben,

    As you reap, so shall you sow. It's not a question of "what do we do about it now" because, frankly, there's nothing we can do.

    Our military is stretched tighter than a drum in Iraq, our economy is only creating jobs in the service industry (read McDonalds), and our leadership is more concerned with pointing fingers than making the hard decisions.

    Our days of telling other folks what to do are coming to a close - and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
  • hughbetchahughbetcha Member Posts: 7,801 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by ElMuertoMonkey
    This story leaves out the fact that a few other former hostages have said that he was NOT one of the guards.

    But the memory's a funny thing - someone's mistaken. Which side it is, I don't know.

    Fishermanben,

    As you reap, so shall you sow. It's not a question of "what do we do about it now" because, frankly, there's nothing we can do.

    Our military is stretched tighter than a drum in Iraq, our economy is only creating jobs in the service industry (read McDonalds), and our leadership is more concerned with pointing fingers than making the hard decisions.

    Our days of telling other folks what to do are coming to a close - and we have no one to blame but ourselves.


    Col. Scott is not the only former hostage who remembers this character.
  • ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    Hugh,

    I know. Like I said, there are some who say he was and some who say he wasn't.

    Someone's mistaken. Who it is, I can't say.
  • TxsTxs Member Posts: 18,801
    edited November -1
    Originally posted by HAIRY
    What is the issue? Bush insists on Iranian democracy, gets it, and doesn't like the result?[}:)][;)]/quote]

    Do you consider it to be a democratic election if the candidates are limited to a select few that are chosen by the existing government?

    The issue is that we were seeking to return that country to a true democratic state but instead got an "Iranian democracy".
  • RamtinxxlRamtinxxl Member Posts: 9,480
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by ElMuertoMonkey
    said that he was NOT one of the guards.


    As you reap, so shall you sow.


    Could pass up a chance to CORRECT you, EMM--I believe the SOWING comes BEFORE the reaping. [;)]
  • HAIRYHAIRY Member Posts: 23,606
    edited November -1
    txs: quote: Do you consider it to be a democratic election if the candidates are limited to a select few that are chosen by the existing government? Are you referring to Iran or the US?

    If you are referring to Iran, the candidates were not chosen by the government but by the Mullahs.

    If you are referring to the US, the candidates are chosen by the elites of the country (read: Mullahs). Samo-samo. [}:)][;)]


    "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." Winston Churchill

    volenti non fit injuria
  • dolfandolfan Member Posts: 4,159
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by ElMuertoMonkey

    As you reap, so shall you sow.
    Monkey, you are correct.
    And who was the "farmer" in this matter?
    Why none other than your beloved peanut farmer president, Jimmy.

    He gave us this mess, by not supporting the Shaw.
    He also gave us the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Cubans in Grenada. His actions also let the Soviets know the US would do nothing as they waltzed into Afghanistan.

    President Reagan was left to clean up the mess.

    That is why the US needs a president with a backbone and "balls" to be in the Oval Office. This sends a message to the world that the US will not tolerate terroist and commie wackos.

    God bless President Bush and our troops!
  • HAIRYHAIRY Member Posts: 23,606
    edited November -1
    Ahhh, Dolfan, you are a bit mistaken. The Shah lost power when Mossadegh took office and it was another Republican President, Eisenhower, who gave the go-signal to Kermit Roosevelt to engineer a coup and put the Shah in power. Apparently, you didn't read this:
    quote: August 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of America's first overthrow of a democratically-elected foreign government.
    In 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated a coup d'etat that toppled the democratically elected government of Iran. The government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The aftershocks of the coup are still being felt.
    In 1951 Prime Minister Mossadegh roused Britain's ire when he nationalized the oil industry. Mossadegh argued that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves which had been exclusively controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The company later became known as British Petroleum (BP).
    After considering military action, Britain opted for a coup d'?tat. President Harry Truman rejected the idea, but when Dwight Eisenhower took over the White House, he ordered the CIA to embark on one of its first covert operations against a foreign government.
    The coup was led by an agent named Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. The CIA leaned on a young, insecure Shah to issue a decree dismissing Mossadegh as prime minister. Kermit Roosevelt had help from Norman Schwarzkopf's father: Norman Schwarzkopf.
    The CIA and the British helped to undermine Mossadegh's government through bribery, libel, and orchestrated riots. Agents posing as communists threatened religious leaders, while the US ambassador lied to the prime minister about alleged attacks on American nationals.
    Some 300 people died in firefights in the streets of Tehran.
    Mossadegh was overthrown, sentenced to three years in prison followed by house arrest for life.
    The crushing of Iran's first democratic government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship under the Shah, who relied heavily on US aid and arms. The anti-American backlash that toppled the Shah in 1979 shook the whole region and helped spread Islamic militancy.
    After the 1979 revolution president Jimmy Carter allowed the deposed Shah into the U.S. Fearing the Shah would be sent back to take over Iran as he had been in 1953, Iranian militants took over the U.S. embassy - where the 1953 coup was staged - and held hundreds hostage.
    The 50th anniversary of the coup was front-page news in Iranian newspapers. The Christian Science Monitor reports one paper in Iran publishing excerpts from CIA documents on the coup, which were released only three years ago.
    The U.S. involvement in the fall of Mossadegh was not publicly acknowledged until three years ago. In a New York Times article in March 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted that "the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs."
    In his book All the Shah's Men, Kinzer argues that "t is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax [the name of the coup] through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York." Stephen Kinzer, author All the Shah's Men, An American Coup And The Roots of Middle East Terror Prof. Ervand Abrahamian, Middle East and Iran Expert at Baruch College, City University of New York . Author of numnerous book including Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (University of California Press, 1993).
    So if one is attempting to assign responsibility, may I suggest we consider, first and foremost, our Republican friends? And to think that today we now see yet another Republican President forcefully removing another Arab leader. And we dumb Americans believe the BS carefully fed to us that it is about "FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, and the AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE"; no one even realizes it is about oil? [}:)][;)]

    "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." Winston Churchill

    volenti non fit injuria
  • hughbetchahughbetcha Member Posts: 7,801 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by ElMuertoMonkey
    Hugh,

    I know. Like I said, there are some who say he was and some who say he wasn't.

    Someone's mistaken. Who it is, I can't say.


    Maybe they are all correct. The guys who remember the interrogator are correct because he interrogated them. The guys who say he is not one who interrogated them are correct, because they were interrogated by someone else. Maybe the entire country of Iran has more than one interrogator.
  • nemesisenforcernemesisenforcer Member Posts: 10,513 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Everyone that honestly believes the Iranian elections are fair and honest and represent the will of the people, raise your hand. That's what I thought.

    "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
  • ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    Ramtin,

    I just pulled a Bushism![:D][:p]

    Thanks for the correction - it's been a long night/early morning (haven't slept since 7:00AM yesterday).
  • RamtinxxlRamtinxxl Member Posts: 9,480
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by ElMuertoMonkey
    Ramtin,

    I just pulled a Bushism![:D][:p]

    Thanks for the correction - it's been a long night/early morning (haven't slept since 7:00AM yesterday).


    Ain't it funny how we always SUBCONSCIOUSLY imitate those we LOVE and ADMIRE the most? [:p][:0][^] Get some sleep, dude, can't have you acting normal and human like the rest of us...[;)][:o)][B)]
  • pickenuppickenup Member Posts: 22,844 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Was the release of this story (fabricated or not) a precursor to other "reasons" to invade Iran?


    The gene pool needs chlorine.
  • ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    Ramtin,

    [:D][:D][:D]
  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Ramtinxxl:
    Could (sic) pass up a chance to CORRECT you, EMM--I believe the SOWING comes BEFORE the reaping. [;)]
    Ram, haven't you heard of the left's wonderful WELFARE STATE? His comment merely reflects his political perspective . . . you know, the New Deal / Great Society one with the cart before the horse, a chicken in every pot, etc.? [}:)]

    "There is nothing lower than the human race - except the french." (Mark Twain)
  • codenamepaulcodenamepaul Member Posts: 2,931
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by HAIRY
    Ahhh, Dolfan, you are a bit mistaken. The Shah lost power when Mossadegh took office and it was another Republican President, Eisenhower, who gave the go-signal to Kermit Roosevelt to engineer a coup and put the Shah in power. Apparently, you didn't read this:
    quote: August 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of America's first overthrow of a democratically-elected foreign government.
    In 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated a coup d'etat that toppled the democratically elected government of Iran. The government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The aftershocks of the coup are still being felt.
    In 1951 Prime Minister Mossadegh roused Britain's ire when he nationalized the oil industry. Mossadegh argued that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves which had been exclusively controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The company later became known as British Petroleum (BP).
    After considering military action, Britain opted for a coup d'?tat. President Harry Truman rejected the idea, but when Dwight Eisenhower took over the White House, he ordered the CIA to embark on one of its first covert operations against a foreign government.
    The coup was led by an agent named Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. The CIA leaned on a young, insecure Shah to issue a decree dismissing Mossadegh as prime minister. Kermit Roosevelt had help from Norman Schwarzkopf's father: Norman Schwarzkopf.
    The CIA and the British helped to undermine Mossadegh's government through bribery, libel, and orchestrated riots. Agents posing as communists threatened religious leaders, while the US ambassador lied to the prime minister about alleged attacks on American nationals.
    Some 300 people died in firefights in the streets of Tehran.
    Mossadegh was overthrown, sentenced to three years in prison followed by house arrest for life.
    The crushing of Iran's first democratic government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship under the Shah, who relied heavily on US aid and arms. The anti-American backlash that toppled the Shah in 1979 shook the whole region and helped spread Islamic militancy.
    After the 1979 revolution president Jimmy Carter allowed the deposed Shah into the U.S. Fearing the Shah would be sent back to take over Iran as he had been in 1953, Iranian militants took over the U.S. embassy - where the 1953 coup was staged - and held hundreds hostage.
    The 50th anniversary of the coup was front-page news in Iranian newspapers. The Christian Science Monitor reports one paper in Iran publishing excerpts from CIA documents on the coup, which were released only three years ago.
    The U.S. involvement in the fall of Mossadegh was not publicly acknowledged until three years ago. In a New York Times article in March 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted that "the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs."
    In his book All the Shah's Men, Kinzer argues that "t is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax [the name of the coup] through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York." Stephen Kinzer, author All the Shah's Men, An American Coup And The Roots of Middle East Terror Prof. Ervand Abrahamian, Middle East and Iran Expert at Baruch College, City University of New York . Author of numnerous book including Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (University of California Press, 1993).
    So if one is attempting to assign responsibility, may I suggest we consider, first and foremost, our Republican friends? And to think that today we now see yet another Republican President forcefully removing another Arab leader. And we dumb Americans believe the BS carefully fed to us that it is about "FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, and the AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE"; no one even realizes it is about oil? oil is the american way of life[}:)][;)]

    "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." Winston Churchill

    volenti non fit injuria




    Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun.
  • victorlvlbvictorlvlb Member Posts: 5,004
    edited November -1
    codenamepaul
    Get over it Dubya's killed more people then your gun has.We have a little less then three years to put up with Dubya. Lets hope he can appoint at least one conservative judge to any of the higher courts. History proves no G.O.P. president can appoint a conservative judge,(three? out of seven),. If Dubya leaves Washington , with out screwing with social security and not getting us into an other war I'll be happy. Now can we get back to having fun.Dubya never stopped illegal aliens from entering the U.S.A. when he was govenor why should he worry about them now? Like what me worry? Lets all be happy that we have guns to shoot and a place to shoot them. Lets not worry about how the returning vets and thier familys will get along in the years to come. We will always hve slick Willy and Ted K to blame for anything that goes wrong with are country. Now let us all have a good time this forth of July. Hope yor cookout is a real winner this year.[:)][:)][:)]

    Psalm 109:8
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