November 4 is the 30th anniversary of the siezure, by young Iranian militants, of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Leading up to that event, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had returned to Iran from exile in France, leading an Islamic revolution that forced the Shah of Iran to flee. Fifty-two of the US diplomats seized by the Iranians were held captive for more than a year, most of them at the US embassy.
On November 4, 1979,the United States embassy in Tehran was seized by militants in the name of Iran's new leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. For the next 444 days, it was the scene of captivity for 49 Americans, including embassy Press Attache Barry Rosen.
He describes how he was taken hostage. "One young man, looking rather ferocious at that time, started to kick, to kick the door down," he says, "This person said to me in a loud voice, in Farsi, "You are under arrest! You are a member of the nest of spies! You are going to come with me!"
The Acting US Ambassador at the time, Bruce Laingen, was also taken hostage. In hindsight, he says, the close U.S. relationship with the Shah of Iran, widely unpopular, set the stage for what happened.
"If we had done things differently, you could come up with all kinds of scenarios. But I believe myself that it was almost inevitable," Laingen said.
A celebration in Algiers on November 1st, where Iran's Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan was photographed meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, pushed the situation over the edge, according to Victor Tomseth, who was a political officer at the embassy. "I'm convinced to this day that it was that picture that was the catalyst for the student group that carried out the attack on the embassy," Tomseth said.
The U.S. diplomats spent nearly 15 months confined in the embassy, the foreign ministry and other Tehran locations.
In the U.S., Americans hung yellow ribbons to show solidarity, also putting pressure on President Jimmy Carter to act.
Months later, the US mounted a rescue mission. A dust storm turned the operation into a disaster, killing eight servicemen. The mission was aborted.
Barry Rosen says the U.S. made several mistakes, including not closing the embassy after an earlier takeover attempt in February 1979. "We should have shut down the embassy after February 14th. And said to the Iranians 'When you want us back, we will be back,'" he states.
Bruce Laingen says decisionmakers in Washington weren't paying attention to the detailed reports the embassy was providing about the deteriorating situation in Iran.
Washington was paying attention to the Cold War and Moscow, according to Rosen. "We are still worried about the Soviets. We had listening posts in the embassy. That to the administration was more important than bilateral relations or the bodies [the embassy personnel] that were in Tehran," Rosen said.
Bruce Laingen says he spoke with Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi late on November 4 about the situation. "I had a telephone conversation that night, of the first day, when he told me 'Look. We will resolve this by morning.' And I said to him, 'OK, what am I going to do?' What are you going to do with me? And he said 'Why don't you go down into the diplomatic reception rooms [at the Foreign Ministry] and find a place to sleep there?" Laingen recalls.
It was a nap that lasted nearly 15 months. In November 1980, President Carter lost his re-election bid. On January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as President of the United States. On the same day, Bruce Laingen and 51 other Americans were freed.
Some 30 years later, the United States and Iran are still at odds.
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#1
If you want more detail and background, read Mark Bowden's "Guests of the Ayatollah". Warning: the treatment of the hostages will make you angry and your contempt for Jimmy Carter will increase. No, really!
You can get a taste here from back when The Atlantic was worth reading: Desert One Debacle
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/04/2009 10:38 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Well, he sure as hell is NOT on our(United States) Side, what makes you think he's on Your side? He's NOT on anybody's side But His own Fame and Wealth Side?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/04/2009 11:00 Comments ||
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#2
You may not want him to answer that.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/04/2009 11:02 Comments ||
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#3
He may not be on anybody's side, but he is definately AGAINST the United States, freedom, and anybody who wants freedom.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/04/2009 11:10 Comments ||
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#4
Too bad that the MSM will not be able to hear these pleas. Maybe after they've gone broke...
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/04/2009 11:27 Comments ||
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#5
Obama sees himself as a celebrity and a vain one at it!
Special navy forces discovered weapons and ammunition on a cargo ship overnight Tuesday, after boarding a cargo ship some 100 nautical miles west of Israel flying an Antiguan flag.
Defense officials said the ship was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and probably Hizbullah.
The troops found the weapons and ammunition cache hidden behind what appeared to be a civilian cargo.
Continued on Page 47
IRAN "must choose" whether to open the door to opportunity and prosperity, US President Barack Obama said in a statement marking 30 years since the storming of the US embassy in Tehran.
Or what?
"We have heard for thirty years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for," Mr Obama said.
"It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity and justice for its people."
Radical Islamist students captured the city-centre US embassy on November 4, 1979 - just months after the Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed shah.
The students, who took 52 American diplomats hostage and held them for 444 days, said they were responding to Washington's refusal to hand over the deposed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Iran's top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri today said the capture of the US embassy 30 years ago by Islamist students was a mistake.
"The occupation of the American embassy at the start had the start of Iranian revolutionaries and the late Imam Khomeini and I supported it too," he said. "But considering the negative repercussions and the high sensitivity which was created among the American people and which still exists, it was not the right thing to do."
Continued on Page 47
#2
IRAN "must choose" whether to open the door to opportunity and prosperity
(a) Iranian elites already have prosperity---and they couldn't care less about the rest of Iranians.
(b) Talk of prosperity coming from the man busy turning USA into an economic cripple?
#3
I'm sure the Iranian mullocracy is shaking in their curly-toed slippers right now. Might even have them converting to Judaism real soon to avoid the consequences.
#4
Oh, and I almost forgot: I'm sure the mullocracy never considered the consequences, and they are rethinking their choices right now in an emergency session.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/04/2009 14:19 Comments ||
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#8
Oh wait, he's going to make a speech about them and use the power of his words to change their behavior. This is what we have for a leader....heaven help the Republic!
[Iran Press TV Latest] Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah says Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and Tehran has the right to continue its nuclear program.
"All countries have the right to use peaceful nuclear technology, and we believe that Iran's activities are in the area of peaceful nuclear energy, and we support such a program," IRNA quoted al-Sabah as saying in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Kuwait on Tuesday.
During the meeting, Mottaki and al-Sabah discussed the latest bilateral and regional issues.
The Kuwaiti emir also stated that Iran's security enhances the security of the Middle East region.
"We regard Iran's security as our own security," al-Sabah added.
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