Posted on 09/14/2005 5:16:08 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
A group of former hostages is demanding that the CIA turn over a classified report that they say wrongly cleared Iran's new president of his role in interrogating them during the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran that began on Nov 4,1979.
Incensed that the Bush admin failed to investigate properly Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's role in the hostage crisis, they have launched a campaign ahead of his speech this week at the United Nations to hold the Iranian leader to account.
A September 9 letter from four of the former hostages to the chairman and ranking member of the House International Relations Committee - Reps. Henry Hyde, a Republican of Illinois, and Tom Lantos, a Democrat of California - said: "Now Mr. Ahmadinejad will be granted a visa to address the United Nations, and we will be left to wonder to what extent our Government honestly, completely, and in good faith, investigated his involvement in the crimes committed against us. After twenty-five years, it appears we are being used once again for someone else's political agenda."
Since winning a presidential election in June that three of his opponents claim was rigged, the ascendancy of Mr. Ahmadinejad has bedeviled the Bush administration. Soon after the news of his election victory, former hostages came forward and told members of the press that they remembered the former engineering student as one of their interrogators. Last month, the State Department granted Mr. Ahmadinejad a limited visa, waiving immigration law restrictions that prohibit individuals even suspected of having ties to international terrorism from entering the country. The Iranian president's visa restricts his movements to a 25-mile radius surrounding the U.N. headquarters building.
In an interview yesterday, a retired AF col., David Roeder, one of the signatories of the letter, recalled how in one
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
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