God, I hated that time in America. Every freaking night on the network news shows my mom watched, there would be the daily count: Hostage Crisis in Iran, Day 103. Hostage Crisis in Iran, Day 235. Hostage Crisis in Iran, Day 444. Sometimes, the hits just keep on coming back!
Watching coverage of Iran’s presidential election on television dredged up 25-year-old memories that prompted four of the former hostages to exchange e-mails. And those four realized they shared the same conclusion — the firm belief that President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been one of their Iranian captors.
Didja get that? History is just itching to bite us in the ass again.
Scott and former hostages David Roeder, William J. Daugherty and Don A. Sharer told The Associated Press on Wednesday they have no doubt Ahmadinejad, 49, was one of the hostage-takers. A fifth ex-hostage, Kevin Hermening, said he reached the same conclusion after looking at photos.
US-Iranian tensions haven’t been this high since, well since the hostage crisis. And now, oh, the irony is so thick its about to smother me, now, George Bush, Ronnie Raygun on steroids, the antithesis of Jimmy Carter, will be drawn back into a saber rattling dance with this Iranian man. If it’s him, this Iranian man who participated in an act that must be highly symbolic for the Muslim world, the recapture of their nation from American rule. He will be their champion against America again. Do we not live in a Shakesperean drama?
It’s too surreal for that. More like Fellini or the movie “Brazil.” There are days when I wonder if the news isn’t pure manufactured fiction.
I agree, sjct, surreal.
My first reaction to this is to questions its veractiy. That’s what it’s come to for me. And I hate that. Hate that my first thought is to question the motives people who went through a horrible ordeal.
I wore one of those metal wrist bands with the a hostage’s name and rank from almost the beginning of the crisis. I lost it along with many things from my junior high and high school years about 15 years ago…that wrist band was one of the things I will miss the most.
I remember reading something about how the president-elect was a part of the group that arranged the embassy takeover, but, we are fed so much propaganda these days, I can’t believe that this is true. Not that I would be surprised if it IS.
Life in present-day America: living in one big Salvador Dali painting. christ.
Yeah, it is sickening when you realize that your first reaction is, “How far will they go to justify their attack on Iran?”, and that this is just an attempt to garner public support from the unsuspecting…
According to this AFP story:
Take with the usual grain of salt but I would think they would be proud if one of their own had been elected President.
What you said about living in a Dali painting reminded me of a diary I posted here way back in the beginning, Alice, though it is less of a wonderland and more of a horrorland.
It just seems so convenient. But that doesn’t mean it is not true. But I predict that, true or not, it will get massive amounts of news attention and work to stir up people’s anti-Muslim bias. It will also distract people in the US from the fiasco the Iraq war is becoming.
I’m skeptical. Just catching the news covergae of CNN where they are reporting that other former hostages don’t agree with the ID. It definitely is interesting that this will bring many people back to this horrible time and the flip side is that it can, once again, highlight the Iran-Contra affair. This should be interesting.
I wonder why this is just coming out now as well. Wouldn’t those 5 former hostages who have identified him have noticed pics of him before the election? Why didn’t they speak up then? I can hear the right-wing spin now – attack their credibility and you hate America and you support terrorists. Well, after all the crap this administration has pulled, anyone who is not skeptical is a fool.
I woke up to this story on the new this morning, and the first words out of my mouth were “Oh SHIT!” as well.
This is not good…
I saw the picture in which he’s leading a hostage away -no link sorry- yesterday. It looks like him yes, but I’m a graphic designer and use Photoshop alot and it looked to me like his head had been put onto some else’s body. There was a halo around his head and his hair was smooth around the edges- just like you would get with a bad photoshop job. I
‘m going to take this with a grain of salt for now.
.
All took place under the leadership of “Greatest American” President Ronald Reagan!
Yep – he’s our partner … once again!
BTW – Abraham Lincoln must not have been the person we all thought he was from our history books.
Perhaps didn’t run clandestine arms to the Confederates when the North needed to be defended.
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!
Um, no.
I came back to this diary this morning because this story made the front page of the local paper, The News & Advance with the headline “U.S. examining claim that Iran’s new leader was ex-hostage taker.” The article featured blather from WH officials saying the situation required investigation. But it also featured two photographs: one of Ahmadinejad and the unnamed hostage-taker, side by side. You don’t have to be a retired CIA photo expert (see Oui’s post below) to see these are two distinctly different men. Different eyes, eyebrows, nose and cheekbones. There are similarities, of course, they are both Arabic-looking.
So, I’m wondering if any other local readers — with eyes to see — are pondering, as I am, why the WH feels this requires additional investigation and publicity.
So, dear friends, I conclude this is propaganda, pure and simple. What it does is remind the public of the hostage crisis with a subtle nudge, “Remember the Iranians. They hate us. We hate them. Remember we still haven’t gotten even with them for taking our hostages.”
What’s that? Do you hear a drum beat? There are elections coming in ’06 and Republicans need another war to bolster their national security creds…
.
Saeed Hajjarian, a top adviser to outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, also denied an Austrian newspaper report and claims by Iranian dissidents that Ahmadinejad had a role in the 1989 slaying of an Iranian opposition Kurdish leader and two associates in Vienna.
Hajjarian, considered the brains behind Khatami’s democratic reforms program, is a former top official in the Intelligence Ministry, or the secret service. Both supporters and opponents describe him as the “walking memory” of Iran’s recent history because of his access to classified information and secrets within Iran’s ruling Islamic establishment.
Hajjarian is one of many reformers who are at loggerheads with the hard-line Ahmadinejad. He was shot by a hard-line vigilante in 2000 and is paralyzed and cannot speak fluently.
Saeed Hajjarian
[…]
Exiled Iranian dissident Alireza Jafarzadeh, who runs Strategic Policy Consulting, a Washington-based think tank focusing on Iran and Iraq, said Ahmadinejad was a Revolutionary Guard commander who supplied the weapons used to kill the three on July 13, 1989 in Vienna. Jafarzadeh said his assessment was based on Iranian government sources “who have provided accurate information in the past.”
Jafarzadeh is a former U.S. representative for the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The council is the political arm of the Mujahedeen Khalq, a group that Washington and the European Union list as a terrorist organization.
Alireza Jafarzadeh seems to be the Iran version of Achmed Chalabi? Does indeed look like an orchestrated attack of smears on Iran, part of preparation for war propaganda! It stinks – the Ugly American.
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!
…supposedly remade as a moderate pragmatist, would have been bad news as well.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have been arguing for nearly two years now that the Bushistas intend to attack Iran next. Iran is America’s principal rival for control over the Arabian Peninsula, and as such, the Iranians must be knocked down a peg or ten.
I have been told time and again that (a) the American military is stretched too thin to do that and (b) the American public and Congress would never stand for it.
While American ground forces may be insufficient to launch an assault on Iran, American aerial and naval forces have overwhelming superiority over their Iranian counterparts. Bush can blockade the main Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, effectively strangling the Iranian economy, and simultaneously bomb the living daylights out of the Iranians (to eliminate its nuclear programme or some such pretence).
As for justifying the attack before the world, the American people, and the Congress–well, what you see before you is just the latest piece of a plan designed to manufacture an excuse.
Elements of “tension”: The US complains about the Iranian nuclear programme. The US complains that Iranians are supporting jidahists in Iraq. Bush criticises the Iranian election process, resulting in a surge in the polls for the radical candidate and the defeat of the relatively moderate Rafsanjani. It turns out that the new President of Iran was one of the hostage takers (maybe…are these hostages “Swift Boat” veterans?).
The United States is moving closer and closer to attacking Iran. Bush is obviously pushing the Iranians hard, hoping they will lash out in some way that will justify his assault on them (attacking a US warship, shooting down American reconnaissance planes, etc).
If all else fails, Bush will announce an American-British naval blockade of the Iranians to prevent the import of nuclear materials (the new President says he’s going ahead with Iran’s nuclear programme), hoping to provoke an attack by the Iranians on American naval forces–or, failing that, American provocateurs will secretly attack the Iranians along the Iran-Iraq border in hopes of getting pursuing Iranian troops to cross the border.
The United States is going to attack Iran. The UK may or may not be along for the ride (probably not). It is going to happen, and nobody can stop Bush. Bush’s Tuesday night speech showed a President quite divorced from reality and insistent on his view of things–and Bush has had his sites on Iran all along.
.
I suppose, if one were to choose, an understandable accident is slightly better than a proper defensive action, but neither of these statements really reflects the full horror of what has occurred. The suggestion has been made that the President of the United States should have limited himself to a simple statement of responsibility, coupled with a promise to pay generous compensation to the families of the victims and, indeed, many American citizens have voiced their concern at the absence of a statement which has indicated a willingness to pay compensation to the victims. The sums involved in the context of the amount of money which the American Government spend on defence would be minuscule and one could contrast it with the cost of keeping the Vincennes on station for a week.
Seventh Fleet – USS Vincennes
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan’s Happy Hour and add some cheers!
.
Abdi and Mirdamadi are now leading proponents of reform that would support democratic changes and are at loggerheads with Ahmadinejad.
Mohammad Ali Sayed Nejad, a friend of the president-elect, said he and Ahmadinejad unsuccessfully argued in favor of seizing the Soviet Embassy at the time, and Ahmadinejad told colleagues in a recent meeting he opposed targeting the American mission because it would bring international condemnation down on Iran. “I believed that if we did that, the world would swallow us,” he said, according to his aide Meisan Rowhani.
Ahmadinejad dropped his opposition to the U.S. Embassy takeover after the revolution’s leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, expressed support for it, but he never participated, said Rowhani.
CNN has coverage with a former FBI agent to compare available photos and video shots, his conclusion was very clear: is not the same person! Sorry George – although for GWB truth is not an option in his War of Terror.
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!
.
Sixty-six Americans were taken captive when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, including three who were at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Six more Americans escaped. Of the 66 who were taken hostage, 13 were released on Nov. 19 and 20, 1979; one was released on July 11, 1980, and the remaining 52 were released on Jan. 20, 1981. Ages in this list are at the time of release.
These five men were outspoken on ‘recognition’ of Ahmadinejad.
William J. Daugherty, 33, Tulsa, OK. Third secretary of U.S. mission.
Sgt. Kevin J. Hermening, 21, Oak Creek, WI. Marine guard.
Lt. Col. David M. Roeder, 41, Alexandria, VA. Deputy Air Force attaché.
Col. Charles W. Scott, 48, Stone Mountain, GA. Army officer, military attaché.
Cmdr. Donald A. Sharer, 40, Chesapeake, VA. Naval air attaché.
In CNN interview with former FBI specialist on person identification, two clear differences were established. First the width between eyes, the bridge across nose, and eyebrows are clearly spaced differently. Second is the nose silhouette, one has a beak like nose, the other has a straight angle nose. He was quite definite in his conclusion from the material presented to him. See the latter link “five men” and the photos to compare yourself.
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!
.
TEHRAN – July 3, 2005 — Iran accused the U.S. and Israel on Sunday of a smear campaign against its president-elect and warned Europe, which is in tricky nuclear negotiations with Tehran, not to join in the mudslinging.
The ultraconservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who won a landslide presidential election victory, has been accused of taking American hostages in 1979 when radical students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Iranian exiles and an Austrian politician are alleging he was involved in the 1989 slaying of a Kurdish leader and two associates in Vienna.
Iranian officials have denied both allegations.
“The charges are so evidently false that they don’t deserve an answer. It’s clear that it’s mere lies,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday at a news conference in Tehran.
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!