Posted on 08/13/2005 10:43:29 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
Analysis not final, officials say
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A CIA report has determined with "relative certainty" that Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was not involved in the taking of U.S. hostages 26 years ago, three government officials told CNN on Friday.
The officials insisted on anonymity, saying they did not want to speak for the CIA about its report.
Another U.S. official said the tone of the report is that there is no evidence to date that the new Iranian president was among those who held U.S. diplomats hostage.
The officials cautioned that the analysis is not final.
Two former hostages told CNN they remain certain Ahmadinejad was involved in plotting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, in which 52 hostages were held for 444 days.
The two also said they saw the man they identify as Ahmadinejad many times while they were held, and that he appeared to be in a supervisory role.
A senior State Department official said the government is defining "hostage-taker" as someone who was "involved in the planning, execution and conduct" of taking people captive.
The dispute over what role Ahmadinejad may or may not have played has immediate significance, as the Bush administration considers whether to grant him a visa to attend a coming U.N. meeting in New York.
President Bush said Thursday that while the investigation continues, "We have an agreement with the United Nations to allow people to come to meet, and I suspect he will be here to meet at the United Nations."
After Ahmadinejad appeared on television and in newspapers celebrating his victory in last month's election, several former hostages held at the U.S. Embassy between 1979 and 1981 said he was one of their captors.
Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials denied the allegation.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Gee, I feel much better.
Gee. I wonder which side in the CIA wrote this report. The CIA guys on America's side or the ones on the other side. (Goss probably hasn't completed the fumigation yet).
"Goss probably hasn't completed the fumigation yet".
He's working on it.
The "CIA(CYA)" and Mr McGoo What is the differnce?!
"officials insisted on anonymity, saying they did not want to speak for the CIA about its report" Makes ya go HUMMMM...!
It wouldn't be in the nature of the C.I.A. to take the word of Americans were there under the thumb of the Iranian radicals during their imprisonment. They would prefer the word of one of their bureaucrats who operates a desk in D.C.
Hostage taker or not, the guy was still a professional assassin for Iran
Hitler never personally killed a Jew either. Charles Manson didn't hurt anyone with his own hands. Osama Bin Laden didn't fly the planes into the WTC.
I guess those people and the president of iran are all nice law-abiding people since they didn't do anything. /sarcasm
Does anyone believe anything the CIA says?
The CIA should publish a glossary with their public information releases. For example, in order to fairly evaluate this report it would be helpful to compare their level of "relative certainty" with other baseline determinations. For example, had the CIA determined with "relative certainty" that Saddam Hussein had active WMD development programs and stockpiles, or with a "higher degree of relative certainty", or a "lesser degree of relative certainty". How about the "Saddam's agents were seeking to purchase yellowcake uranium" story. Or, it would be helpful to know whether the CIA had determined with "relative certainty" that Bill Clinton was receiving illegal campaign donations from the Peoples' Liberation Army, etc. etc.
How convenient.
Yup! And that's a big thumbs up to him.
Another slam dunk?
Sounds like someone is manipulating intelligence analysis to avoid a nasty diplomatic dispute. If we knew he was a hostage taker, we couldn't really grant him a Visa, could we? So we deem him not to have been one of the hostage takers. Problem solved.
You could drive a truck through the loophole in this definition. Notice it says nothing specifically about "Interrogation"? I think I'll take the word of the former hostages over the CIA -- at least until somebody at CIA is willing to put their name on this conclusion.
This whole crap by CIA means that we can't stop a terrorist.
Welcome to the USA, you moron Ahmadi!
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