Posted on 06/30/2005 2:37:13 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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.
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.
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.
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I agree with you. The guy with the red circle IS NOT the same as the newly elected President. His eyebrows are different.
But it very well COULD BE the man on the other side of the hostage. A more mature, thinner version, these days.
When Germany ELECTED hitler, they became the just recipients of what came years later...
the firebombing of their nation, dresden style.
same goes for Iran.
if the students LOVE america, we should be seeing some dead mullahs, sheiks and conservative muslim leaders.
until then, we must assume that they are NOT as proAmerican as we are told... after all, a student who can go to engineering school to make concrete, also learns how to make pipe bombs...
the lack of dead mullahs tells me that Iran should be attacked indescrimately... unless there is demonstrated a REAL and SOLID desire to depose the Islamist regime.
and that goes for all the muslm countries.
unless you are proven FOR US IN SUBSTANTIA, you are against us... and WILL be targetted.
won't happen
but it should.
I wonder if Michael Ledeen is getting invited to the White House tonight?
He is beyond being a puppet and shill for the mullahs.
Hell, they may be shills and puppets for him.
Background Info on the bad dude now in charge of Iran.
Well, that's just peachy and all....
..but even though we know what this guy did, what in the world can we DO about it? Complain vociferously? Demand he be extradited?
For those who answer "Bomb the living (expletive) outta them", consider: Russia has people there helping them with their nuke "power" program. An attack on Iran COULD be construed as an attack on Russia...who still has nukes and a bunch o' missles to deliver them on our heads.
NOW...what can we do?
This guy may have done in more people personally than SADDAM.....
Well...first we need to go the United nations.... /s
"This guy may have done in more people personally than SADDAM....."
Also, he would have been very cooperative with Ben Laden and any successor to Benny.
Iran is on or X list either way. I don't understand the fixation with this, really.
We're digging out stuff here.
BINGO! That's the guy.
They certainly look the same to me too.
Definitely.
Putty was a spy.....
Which one of them is John Kerry? I think that's Kerry in the back.
I finally figured out how to get a picture to come up and I fixed it.
See post 77.
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