CNN is confirming what My Pet Jawa reported yesterday– the new Iranian President elect was one of the ringleaders of the 1979 hostage crisis:
A quarter-century after they were taken captive in Iran, five former American hostages say they got an unexpected reminder of their 444-day ordeal in the bearded face of Iran’s new president-elect.
Watching coverage of Iran’s presidential election on television dredged up 25-year-old memories that prompted four of the former hostages to exchange e-mails.
And those four realized they shared the same conclusion — the firm belief that President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been one of their Iranian captors.
“This is the guy. There’s no question about it,” said former hostage Chuck Scott, a retired Army colonel who lives in Jonesboro, Georgia.
“You could make him a blond and shave his whiskers, put him in a zoot suit and I’d still spot him.”
Things just got more interesting. And make sure you go to My Pet Jawa’s rundown, which has numerous photographs from then and now.
James Emerson
As I recall…another radical leader who lead revolutionary forces against long established authority also became a great political leader of his people. But then 1776 was a very different time…
Mike S
I spoke to two Iranian women in my office about this yesterday. One of them was back in Iran during the election to visit family and said it was common knowlege that the elections were massively fixed. The other had planned on going back soon but says she won’t now. Both were visibly upset by this.
I asked about life under the Shaw since I’ve been interested in our “enemy of my enemy” policies lately. They said life was very good for them because they were from the upper class but that for most of the country it was very bad. They were not surprised when the revolution took hold so firmly. They fled immediately. One was on the outgoing Air France flight that Kholmeni(sp?) had just arrived on.
I really think we need to revisit our policy. If, more likely when, this happens in Saudi Arabia we will be truely screwed.
demimondian
Heh. If the new president of Iran is shown to have been one of the kidnappers, then I wonder if he expects the United States to respect his diplomatic immunity.
Thoughts?
DecidedFenceSitter
Demi,
We don’t have diplomatic relations with Iran, so unless we do an extra-legal action to obtain him, we won’t ever have that scenario tested.
James Emerson
Not gonna happen…
The whole kidnapping thing was resolved by Reagan’s campaign staff. Rreagan got easily elected because Carter was terribly embarassed by the hostage crisis. In return, no one in Iran was ever held accountable. Sort of a politically motivated quid pro quo…
And besides, if we kidnap the president of Iran, how long will it take the Iranians to remove 3.5mbd of high quality crude off the international market, and keep it off until we return him…
If you think China has us over a barrel, just wait until we piss off the Iranians…
BinkyBoy
Well, at least he’s already well familiar with a lot of the members of our current Administration.