Iran's President elect President Was Terroist Captor ?

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jun 30, 2005, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Ex-Hostages: Iran's President Was Captor

SAVANNAH, Ga. — 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, Ga. "You could make him a blond and shave his whiskers, put him in a zoot suit and I'd still spot him."

Scott and former hostages David Roeder William J. Daugherty and Don A. Sharer told The Associated Press on Wednesday they have no doubt Ahmadinejad, 49, was one of the hostage-takers. A fifth ex-hostage, Kevin Hermening, said he reached the same conclusion after looking at photos.

Not everyone agrees. Former hostage and retired Air Force Col. Thomas E. Schaefer said he doesn't recognize Ahmadinejad, by face or name, as one of his captors.
Several former students among the hostage-takers also said Ahmadinejad did not participate. And a close aide to Ahmadinejad denied the president-elect took part in the seizure of the embassy or in holding Americans hostage.

Militant students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days to protest Washington's refusal to hand over the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi for trial. The shah fled Iran earlier that year after he was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution.

The aide, Meisan Rowhani, told the AP from Tehran that Ahmadinejad was asked during recent private meetings if he had a role in the hostage taking. Rowhani said he replied, "No. I believed that if we do that the world will swallow us."

Scott and Roeder both said they were sure Ahmadinejad was present while they were interrogated.

"I can absolutely guarantee you he was not only one of the hostage-takers, he was present at my personal interrogation," Roeder said in an interview from his home in Pinehurst, N.C.

Daugherty, who worked for the CIA in Iran and now lives in Savannah, said a man he's convinced was Ahmadinejad was among a group of ringleaders escorting a Vatican representative during a visit in the early days of the hostage crisis.

"It's impossible to forget a guy like that," Daugherty said. "Clearly the way he acted, the fact he gave orders, that he was older, most certainly he was one of the ringleaders."

Ahmadinejad, the hard-line mayor of Tehran, was declared winner Wednesday of Iran's presidential runoff election, defeating one of Iran's best-known statesmen, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani. The stunning upset put conservatives firmly in control of all branches of power in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Scott, Roeder, Daugherty and Sharer said they have been exchanging e-mails since seeing Ahmadinejad emerge as a serious contender in Iran's elections.

"He was extremely cruel," said Sharer, of Bedford, Ind. "He's one of the hard-liners. So that tells you where their government's going to stand for the next four to five years."

After seeing recent newspaper photos, Sharer said, "I don't have any doubts" that Ahmadinejad was a hostage-taker.

A memory expert cautioned that people who discuss their recollections can influence one another in reinforcing false memories. Also, it's harder to identify from memory someone of a different race or ethnicity, said psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine.

"Twenty-five years is an awfully long time," Loftus said. "Of course we can't say this is false, but these things can lead people down the path of having a false memory."

Schaefer, of Peoria, Ariz., didn't recognize Ahmadinejad and said allegations that he had been a hostage-taker don't concern him as much as knowing hard-liners are back in power in Iran.

Scott gave a detailed account of the man he recalled as Ahmadinejad, saying he appeared to be a security chief among the hostage-takers.

"He kind of stayed in the background most of the time," Scott said. "But he was in on some of the interrogations. And he was in on my interrogation at the time they were working me over."

Scott also recalled an incident while he was held in the Evin prison in north Tehran in the summer of 1980.

One of the guards, whom Scott called Akbar, would sometimes let Scott and Sharer out to walk the narrow, 20-foot hallway outside their cells, he said. One day, Scott said, the man he believes was Ahmadinejad saw them walking and chastised the guard.

"He was the security chief, supposedly," Scott said. "When he found out Akbar had let us out of our cells at all, he chewed out Akbar. I speak Farsi. He said, `These guys are dogs they're pigs, they're animals. They don't deserve to be let out of their cells.'"

Scott recalled responding to the man's stare by openly cursing his captor in Farsi. "He looked a little flustered like he didn't know what to do. He just walked out."

Roeder said he's sure Ahmadinejad was present during one of his interrogations when the hostage-takers threatened to kidnap his son in the U.S. and "start sending pieces — toes and fingers of my son — to my wife."

"It was almost like he was checking on the interrogation techniques they were using in a sort of adviser capacity," Roeder said.

Hermening, of Mosinee, Wis., the youngest of the hostages, said that after he looked at photos and did research on the Internet, he came to the conclusion that Ahmadinejad was one of his questioners.

Hermening had been Marine guard at the embassy, and he recalled the man he believes was Ahmadinejad asking him for the combination to a safe.

"His English would have been fairly strong. I couldn't say that about all the guards," Hermening said. "I remember that he was certainly direct, threatening, very unfriendly."

Rowhani, the aide to Ahmadinejad, said Ahmadinejad said during the recent meeting that he stopped opposing the embassy seizure after the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, expressed support for it. But the president-elect said he never took part.

"Definitely he was not among the students who took part in the seizure," said Abbas Abdi, the leader of the hostage-takers. Abdi has since become a leading supporter of reform and sharply opposed Ahmadinejad. "He was not part of us. He played no role in the seizure, let alone being responsible for security" for the students.

Another of the hostage-takers, Bijan Abidi, said Ahmadinejad "was not involved. There was no one by that name among the students who took part in the U.S. Embassy seizure."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161163,00.html

Nice to know whos in charge of IRAN and it's nuclear ambitions are a top world threat.
Iran just became public enemy number# 1

yaser345 · Jun 30, 2005, 12:18 PM

Don't always listen to the media...especially fox....=/...

radTube · Jun 30, 2005, 05:01 PM

This wouldn't count as evidence in any court. A couple of guys think they recognise someone who they might have seen 25 years ago... while being interrogated? Maybe, maybe not. Definitely not worth starting a war.

Rasta Monsta · Jun 30, 2005, 05:32 PM

I totally agree dude, that is more than enough evidence for me. Nuke that place into a sheet of glass. . .you can still drill through it.

rasta

**dj_stick** · Jun 30, 2005, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radTube

This wouldn't count as evidence in any court. A couple of guys think they recognise someone who they might have seen 25 years ago... while being interrogated? Maybe, maybe not. Definitely not worth starting a war.

im not so sure about that

attempt to put yourself in their spot - 444 days, over a year in a POW camp, the sort of psychological trauma you would be put through. I think that they probably would remember the face of the person in charge of that - especially through their nightmares

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jun 30, 2005, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

im not so sure about that

attempt to put yourself in their spot - 444 days, over a year in a POW camp, the sort of psychological trauma you would be put through. I think that they probably would remember the face of the person in charge of that - especially through their nightmares

Bingo!

raid517 · Jun 30, 2005, 10:00 PM

Quote:

I totally agree dude, that is more than enough evidence for me. Nuke that place into a sheet of glass. . .you can still drill through it.

Lol, how true.

Having said this - and propoganda aside (after all what else is Fox for?) I do think Iran poses a sticky problem. I don't think anyone should start a war, but what exactly is the problem with sending a few cruise missiles to take care of that nuclear plant of theirs before they actually get the chance to fire it up? I mean it's not exactly like it's a secret where it is.

I have nothing against Iran - and I certainly wouldn't like to see another fiasco like Iraq, but why not go back to the good old days where a few bombs or cruise missiles could do a pretty good job of taking care of business? I didn't like it when Pakistan got the bomb either though - but at least if they let it happen this time, it's hardly going to be a surpise. How good will Bush look if he just sits and lets them get away with it? We should be lookinjg everywhere to get rid of as many of our nuclear bombs as possible - not allowing other countries to build more.

GJ

raid517 · Jun 30, 2005, 10:06 PM

The only snag there is that half of the population of Iran would pour over the border in Iraq to attack the Americans - and the Iraqi Shia's - who are the dominant group in Iraq right now and who are Americas allies there, would turn against the Americans - because they have stong religious and cultural ties with Iran.

Mmm... it seems Bush tied his own hands by chasing shadows in Iraq - when the real problem (as it always has been) was over the border in Iran. Maybe he is going to have to let the Iranians build a bomb after all? It appears it's either that or face a massive defeat at the hands of a genuine popular uprising in Iraq.

It seems to me that Iraq increasingly just keeps comming back to bite George W. on the arse.

GJ

radTube · Jul 1, 2005, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

im not so sure about that

attempt to put yourself in their spot - 444 days, over a year in a POW camp, the sort of psychological trauma you would be put through. I think that they probably would remember the face of the person in charge of that - especially through their nightmares

Have you actually heard of anyone ever having these movie-style crystal clear flashbacks of whoever did them evil of some sort. These are human beings we're talking about and photographic memory isn't a common trait. They're human beings who have no reason to like Iranians, mind you.

And who said that he was in charge? The article even quoted the man (Abbas Abdi) who led the group of students who took the hostages. These guys said they'd seen Ahmadinejad (or whoever it actually was) a couple of times, and thought he was "head of security". Also I find it quite suspect that they'd come to their conclusions after being in contact, not separately. Would have been much more believeable the other way around. I'm not saying that they're lying, just that there's a big change they're mistaken.

Jun 30, 2005, 10:06 PM	#8
raid517 DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 2,518 Rep Power: 0	The only snag there is that half of the population of Iran would pour over the border in Iraq to attack the Americans - and the Iraqi Shia's - who are the dominant group in Iraq right now and who are Americas allies there, would turn against the Americans - because they have stong religious and cultural ties with Iran. Mmm... it seems Bush tied his own hands by chasing shadows in Iraq - when the real problem (as it always has been) was over the border in Iran. Maybe he is going to have to let the Iranians build a bomb after all? It appears it's either that or face a massive defeat at the hands of a genuine popular uprising in Iraq. It seems to me that Iraq increasingly just keeps comming back to bite George W. on the arse. GJ Last edited by raid517; Jul 1, 2005 at 04:37 PM.

Jun 30, 2005, 12:18 PM	#2
yaser345 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Don't always listen to the media...especially fox....=/...

Jun 30, 2005, 05:01 PM	#3
radTube just keepin' it cool Join Date: May 2002 Location: Finland Posts: 228 Rep Power: 0	This wouldn't count as evidence in any court. A couple of guys think they recognise someone who they might have seen 25 years ago... while being interrogated? Maybe, maybe not. Definitely not worth starting a war.