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| 36 years on, big win for Tehran embassy hostages |
| 2015-12-25 |
| [TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES] After spending 444 days in captivity, and more than 30 years seeking restitution, the Americans taken hostage at the United States embassy in Tehran in 1979 have finally won compensation. Buried in the huge spending bill signed into law last Friday are provisions that would give each of the 53 hostages or their estates up to $4.4 million. Victims of other statesponsored terrorist attacks such as the 1998 American embassy bombings in East Africa would also be eligible for benefits under the law. "I had to pull over to the side of the road, and I basically cried," said Rodney V Sickmann, who was a Marine sergeant working as a security guard at the embassy in Tehran when he was seized along with the other Americans by an angry mob that overran the compound on November 4, 1979. "It has been 36 years, one month, 14 days, obviously, until President B.O. signed the actual bill, until Iran was held accountable," he said. The law now stands to bring closure to a saga that riveted the nation and ruptured America's ties with Iran. The very agreement that won the hostages' release in 1981 barred them from seeking restitution. Their legal claims wererepeatedly blocked in the courts, including an appeal denied by the Supreme Court. Congress tried but failed to pass laws granting them relief. But this year, vindication came in a decision that forced the Gay Paree-based bank BNP Paribas to pay a $9 billion penalty for violating sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Some of that money was suddenly available for victims of state-sponsored terrorism. Congress was also motivated by many members' anger over the Iran nuclear accord, which was hailed earlier this year as a herald of warmer relations with the Islamic Theocratic Republic. Hostages were subject to physical and psychological torture during their long ordeal, and many regarded the thaw as frustrating and premature. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Would rather have seen it come out of Iran's frozen assets. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2015-12-25 10:45 |
| #1 Buried in the huge spending bill signed into law last Friday are provisions that would give each of the 53 hostages or their estates up to $4.4 million. I'm sure that will impress the widows and children of those left behind at Desert One. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-12-25 08:20 |