Free Republic

Considering that it is permissible in Iran to stone women to death, and considering that the mad mullahs jail women's rights activists who protest, no one should be surprised that the Iranian government singled out captive British sailor Faye (Topsy) Turney for special abuse. The old, demented goats no doubt got a self-satisfied chuckle out of casting Seaman Spec. Turney as the spokeswoman for the 15 Brits taken hostage in an outrageous act of piracy and provocation. Iran is not a country that grants women the freedom to serve on a ship, or, for that matter, to do many other...

The story of the American hostages who spent 444 days in Iran is now more than a quarter century old and rarely told in the detail that it deserves. I should know. I was one of them. Because the 52 of us who suffered the ordeal now number only 42, I was excited to read Mark Bowden’s latest book, “Guests of the Ayatollah.” With many of us approaching our 60s, 70s and beyond, I had begun to believe the story would never be completely and properly told. Most Americans believe the beginning of modern terrorism against the United States began...

Just A Reminder : "Guests of the Ayatollah (Mark Bowden) will be on Discovery Channel in 10 mins. That is all.

MARK BOWDEN The subtitle of Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden’s exhaustively researched account of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 and 1980, is The First Battle in America’s War With Militant Islam.This statement may be redundant, because the seeds of our current troubles in Iraq, not to mention our growing conflict with Iran, are evident on virtually each of the book’s 680 pages. The storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by young Islamic zealots led to 444 days of captivity for 66 American hostages, diplomatic dead ends based on failed U.S. intelligence, a disastrous attempt at a military...