Hostages: New Iranian President 1979 Captor

Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have been one of the terrorists who took over the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979, according to several former hostages.

Former hostages allege Iran’s new president was captor (CNN)

The White House said Thursday it is taking seriously the allegations by former hostages that Iran’s hardline president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of their captors at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran a quarter century ago. President Bush told foreign reporters he has “no information, but obviously his involvement raises many questions.”

“As soon as I saw the face, it rang a lot of bells to me,” Don Sharer, who served as the embassy’s naval attache at the time, told CNN. “…Take 20 years off of him. He was there. He was there in the background, more like an adviser.”

Abbas Abdi, the man well-known to be the leader of the 1979 hostage-takers, told CNN that Ahmadinejad, the Tehran mayor, “absolutely was not” part of the event that involved the captivity of 52 people.

Given the sore spot that the 444 day hostage crisis is in US-Iranian relations, this had better be a case of mistaken identity.

Update: Kate McMillan had this one in the wee hours of the morning.

FILED UNDER: Middle East, Terrorism, Uncategorized, , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. kenny says:

    “this had better be a case of mistaken identity.”

    Or what is the US going to do ?

    Claim that Iran is involved in 9/11 ? Done that.

    Claim than Iran has WMDs? Done that…..

    And has the US provided any evidence that Iran is trying to get WMD’s or is the us government just shrieking “9/11! Axis of evil!!!!!!!”

    The US government’s credibilty outside the US ran out long ago.

    I hear 25 years ago Bush was a cokehead.

  2. herb says:

    I just wonder how much longer we in the US are going to put up with Iran. We have taken their Sh** for over 25 years now and not one of our Presidents have had the balls to put Iran in its place. We need to drop a few “Big Ones” on a few select targets and tell them to get with it or more will come. In fact, we should have dropped a few on them 25 years ago. I am sick of those Islamic bastards as well as our chicken-sh** politicians here at home that don’t have the balls to go after Iran.

  3. kenny says:

    “I just wonder how much longer we in the US are going to put up with Iran”

    So invade them then.Knock up some claptrap about how they were involved with 9/11 and attack them.

    Prove they were involved and the rest of the civilized world will cheer you on. Fail to prove they were and it’ll be iraq times 4.

  4. Timbo says:

    Is it just me, or does anybody else here think that Kenny and herb are really the same person, provoking backlash from both sides of the spectrum by posting ultra-extremist views.

    One idiot or two, the comments of each are ludicrous.