BBC: Iran victor 'kidnap role' probe ~~ The US says it is examining reports....

BBC ^ | : Thursday, 30 June, 2005, 15:11 GMT 16:11 UK | staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Iran victor 'kidnap role' probe

The president denies being among the hostage-takers

The US says it is examining reports that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took part in the 1979 hostage-taking at Tehran's US embassy.

Some of the former US hostages have said they recognise Mr Ahmadinejad as one of their captors.

But three Iranians involved in the action, as well as Mr Ahmadinejad's own staff, have denied that he took part.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, the hostage-takers' leader, told the BBC that the new president had not been there.

You could make him a blond and shave his whiskers, put him in a zoot suit and I'd still spot him Former US hostage Chuck Scott

Another top student leader, Abbas Abdi, also denied the allegations as did Hamid Reza Jalaiepour, a third hostage-taker.

The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says the three former students are now reformists who oppose hardliners like Mr Ahmadinejad, and would have no reason to hide his involvement now.

Questions raised

Photographs have appeared on the internet showing a young bearded man leading a blindfolded American hostage - alleging that this was Mr Ahmadinejad a quarter of a century ago.

US hostages differ over whether the new president was their captor

But the man in the photograph appears much taller than Mr Ahmadinejad, and looks nothing like other pictures of him as a student which can be found on his website, Frances Harrison says.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the allegations should be taken seriously.

"I think the news reports and statements from several former American hostages raise many questions about his past," he said.

"We take them very seriously and we are looking into them to better understand the facts."

One former hostage said he was sure the man was Mr Ahmadinejad.

"This is the guy," retired army colonel Chuck Scott told AP news agency.

"There's no question about it. You could make him a blond and shave his whiskers, put him in a zoot suit and I'd still spot him."

Four other former hostages agreed with Mr Scott, but at least one disagrees.

A total of 52 US citizens were taken hostage after a group of young activists climbed over the embassy wall during the Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the Shah and brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power.

[DJ MacWoW]

You know one of the first things this guy wants to do shut down the internet,

I can't imagine why....*looking innocent*

[Robert_Paulson2]

This is freaking me out.

---

the whole country is freaking out.
trying to support a president we like, even some love...
whilst scratching our heads at the events occuring each day...

not a criticism per se... although I have been pouring it on of late... just an observation.

I want the bad guys DEAD.
We cannot possibly be so frozen out in intell that IF this is him, W was not told.

Perhaps we kept our hand to our chest, so we could justify killing the bastards running radical islam and the nuke america factory in Iran.

Who knows.
Info? Disinfo?

I want payback.
Period.
He's a muslim, a radical, a real threat to America, and a supporter of terror abroad...

I think he is an evil omen that needs to be dealt with.

[TheForceOfOne]

Hey,
I think the new guy is perfect. If you could put a label on that can of soup, his picture explains exactly what is in the can. Call it one of those things where everyone can now identify with our enemy. He is a poster child for terror. The propaganda war just turned in our favor, no room for MSM spin on this one after he is positively identified.

[nuffsenuff]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that one of the slimeballs who took our guys hostage is now the president of Iran.

Does anyone else see just how wrong that is? Or is it just me?

Was I too young in 1979 and now I have a phobia against those terrorists? Is anyone else with me?

Is this not a huge development?

[Robert_Paulson2]

yes.
not just yes.
HELL YES!

[Howlin]

Within the last couple of years, I saw a report -- I swear it was on Prime Time or one of those ABC shows -- with Chris Wallace in Iran.

He was walking the streets, talking about the young people and the sense that they had of freedom just on the horizon.

Right in the middle of his taping, this Iranian woman ran up to him and started screaming into the camera, "You tell the Americans to come and do for us what they did in Afghanistan. We want freedom, too." Wallace said that they warned the lady that she could get in trouble, but she didn't care -- she said "Put it on your TV. We want freedom."

ABC had had the sense blur out her face, but it was, beyond a doubt, one of the most moving things I have EVER seen on TV. I'll admit it: I cried like a baby for her.

I have never been able to get that out of my mind.

[nuffsenuff]

Okay. I thought I was just overreacting.

Whew.

[nuffsenuff]

I'm not holding out much hope that she's still alive.

[Howlin]

It's not just you!

In 1979, when that was going on, I was in my "first marriage," aka The Black Hole; my husband was an EXECUTIVE with a big company down here - I know, I know, imagine me a company wife......LOL.

One night I found myself at a cocktail party with a bunch of this B school graduates, boomers just like me -- people who had essentially avoided the draft in college, if you will -- and TO A PERSON, they were ALL calling for nuclear action against Iran if they didn't give up our guys! To a person!

It was mindboggling for me -- and the first time I really undestood that old thing about when you pay your first payroll tax you become a Republican.....LOL.

The BOOMERS wanted to bomb Iran! Simply amazing.

[Iscool]

It's not the guy right holding the hostages arm. It's the guy to the far right.

Certainly looks like him...Worth investigating further...

[Howlin]

DJ, I will be really anxious to hear any news from there in the coming weeks and months.

I imagine the first thing to go will be the satelite dishes. (Of course, the Afghanis proved you can make them out of beer cans!)

[RaceBannon]

Part of me never got over it I guess...

http://rescueattempt.tripod.com

HoldOnNow, here are the pics I tried to send to your call screener tonight, she didnt get the webaddress right
http://rescueattempt.tripod.com/id28.html

[TheForceOfOne]

I have alway heard the younger Iranians were pro-western culture. It is the Mullahs that hold them back. They may take care of this situation for us, who knows. With democracy blooming on the eastern and western borders of Iran the lid may be about to blow off of this repressive regime sending the entire middle east straight into the 21st century.

[DJ MacWoW]

Stories like this lady are hurtful when you hear the liberals singing their broken record about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The fools have no relationship with reality. But that poor lady does.

And what is going to happen to all those young people in Iran who have been demonstrating for freedom lately? This man will be worse than Hussein.

[nuffsenuff]

I was eight at the time.

[TheForceOfOne]

I remember the "Bomb Iran" song to the beat of Barbra Ann and all the radio stationed played it.

[axlhuckleberry]

1979? That's nothing. We gave Iraq chemical weapons in the Iraq-Iran war in the 80's.

[Howlin]

I would like to clarify this statement of mine:

people who had essentially avoided the draft in college, if you will --

I should have found a better way to express that; I didn't mean to make any derrogatory judgment about people who went to college back then. I was just trying to point out how much things had changed for these people.

I lived that time and I know made their own decisions based on their beliefs and their lives. And since I am a woman, I really have no place questioning anybody.

I apologize to anybody that statement may have offended.

[TheForceOfOne]

We supplied both, we backed both, we let them fight each other, and in the end we will have come back and kicked both there a$$es, now who's there daddy! lol

[Howlin]

Race, I can remember the night the news broke about that rescue.

Part of me didn't get over it either.