Posted on 07/02/2005 10:58:46 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -
A top Iranian former secret agent said Saturday that the hostage-taker in a 1979 photograph that has come under intense scrutiny is not President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but a former militant who committed suicide in jail.
Saeed Hajjarian, a top adviser to outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, identified the man in the photo dating to the 1979 U.S. Embassy siege as Taqi Mohammadi.
Iran's newly elected president has been accused of being a main participant in the taking of American hostages at the embassy. Six former U.S. hostages who saw the president-elect in photos or on television said they believe Ahmadinejad was among the hostage-takers. One said he was interrogated by Ahmadinejad.
The White House said it was taking their statements seriously. President Bush said "many questions" were raised by the allegations.
International media have compared photos of Ahmadinejad, who won a presidential runoff election last week, with a black-and-white picture of one of the hostage-takers, a young man with a thin, bearded face and dark hair that sweeps down across his forehead.
But Hajjarian told The Associated Press they were not the same person.
"This man is Taqi Mohammadi, a militant who later turned into a dissident and committed suicide in jail," he said, pointing to the 1979 photo.
He said Mohammadi was a militant who joined students in the embassy takeover. Mohammadi was later arrested on charges of involvement in the 1981 bombing in Tehran that killed the country's president and prime minister, and committed suicide in prison, Hajjarian said.
Hajjarian's comment follows statements by a number of the former Iranian students who carried out the U.S. Embassy seizure and held Americans hostage for 444 days that Ahmadinejad had no role in events.
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 is at loggerheads with the hard-line Ahmadinejad.
He was shot by a hard-line vigilante in 2000 and is paralyzed and cannot speak fluently.
--
It's quite possible, that they want to muddy the waters, create confustion, and then dismiss the whole thing, with "to the Westerners all Iranians look the same", therefore none of it is true.
I also saw an interview with Rob Sobhani. He was very good and his analysis was right on.
http://rescueattempt.tripod.com/id28.html
There is a 3rd suspect not previously mentioned...
If this really is him, and it really resembles him a great deal, then he's got a butt kickin' coming to him from a long time ago.
Oh dear. When I looked at the orignal photo (as in post #5) I was convinced everyone was talking about the guy holding the hostages arm - I could easily have bought he was the new president. However - the pictures (such as in #8 that suggest it is the guy next to the guy I thought everyone was taling about make me nervous. I never gave this guy a second look when I first saw the photo..... it seems to underline to me that as someone from a non persion culture - ALL THESE PERSION/IRANIAN folk look the same to my untrained aye! On the back of that bit of insight I'm going to stop making these claims to everyone and wait for the CIA or whoever to release something definitive!
What doesn't change is the fold/crease between the upper check and the nose.
Look at that crease/fold between the upper cheek and nose on all of the photos of the top row. The crease/fold appears to be same in the old pictures and the new pictures, from it starts from the nose, length of the crease and position on the face.
Last but not least is the style and grooming of the man 25 years ago is similiar to the man todya. The older photos show a man who had his hair professionally done versus the normal scraggy look of that area from 25 years ago to today. He is dressed in a nice sportcoat in many photos, and he wears a turtle neck which is coordinated. That was not very typical of the average university jihadist when our embassy people were held captive.
If the photos are not the same man over time, then the earlier photos are possibly photos of a cousin or brother. Remember how, so many of Saddam's cousins and brothers looked alike with similiar features. They came from the same city, Tikrit.
"Especially note the high cheekbone lines that run from the center of the nose down around his mouth."
This to me is the same distinguishing feature from the early photos to the currrent ones. I discussed and posted a collage that shows this same feature over the years on reply # 46.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1435369/posts?page=46#46
I don't know if the similarities in grooming is due to being from the same city or if everyone groomed like Saddam to honor him and avoid being killed.
In this guy's case, I think you're right about the skin folds on the face. Grooming can be changed over time, just ask Scott Peterson.
-PJ
"I think you're right about the skin folds on the face. Grooming can be changed over time, just ask Scott Peterson."
My point here re the grooming was that he was well groomed as a college student versus his Jihadist buddies and that has continued to today.
Our lunch guests yesterday were assigned to our Iranian Embassy in the early 1960's. We discussed this situation and the grooming. They said his hair style and clothing was rare for the Arabs in Iran, except those who came from wealthy families. His grooming was very normal for the educated and middle to upper income Persians living in Iran.
This couple predicted the Jihadist takeover in Iran in the mid 1960's. That was based on their observation of the Muslim families raising their young boys to hate everyone but other believers. I showed them the collage hoping that they might recognize someone, and they didn't. However, they both agree that his hair style and dress style as noted above was very atypical of the Arabic men in Iran.
The grooming choices and the skin folds as you noted above indicate that we are talking about the same guy in these pictures.
Please notice the continuity of resemblance in the photos below:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.