Iranian President a hostage taker?

352klr · Jul 1, 2005

Iranian Monitor said:

I think I have answered this question many times, but for someone to say I have "IM" on "ignore", and then ask the same question over and over again, becomes kind of tedious. Especially when another guy who has read this answer can't get it through his thick skull.

I have numerous family members in Iran. My parents are both US citizens, but my dad lives in Iran, having returned to Iran a few years ago. He visits the US regularly. My mom lives part of the year in the US, but spends at least a few months each year in Iran. I have uncles, cousins, and other relatives who live in Iran, and others who are US citizens and travel between the two countries. My story is not unique; if you live in LA, this is somewhat a typical story. Indeed, each time I go to the airport to pick up or to drop off my parents on their way to or from Iran, I see the thousands of Iranians who make the same trip back and forth.

My father has encouraged me to move back to Iran ever since going there. Since I had gone through my own relationship and divorce issues, I was thinking about it seriously. Indeed, I finally made that decision a few months ago and will be in Iran before October.

My own view is that the country that I once saw mostly in positive light, which I didn't feel deserved the animosity and blame many Iranians felt it deserved, has lost its way. When Hilary Clinton talked about a "vast right wing conspiracy" as her husband was being accused left and right of all sorts of ridiculous things, many (including me) thought she had gone overboard with the language. But as I have come to see the connections between certain groups, and the vast networks that operates using the same tactics (only much worse when dealing with a foreign country where there is no one to correct them), I believe what Hilary Clinton mentioned was only the tip of the iceburg.

The swift boat ads serve as their modus vivendi. Again, when it comes to domestic politics, they have to tread a bit more carefully, and can't come up with the exact same bold face lies they do when the object of their campaign is foreign and has no one to speak for it here. But the general tactics is to have their army of propagandists and liars fill the airways and media with lies and accusations, while those in more "respected" or "official" positions take advantage by using more careful language.

In this process, America has lost being the kind of country which I once believed it was. Today, the "market place" of ideas that once made sure lies were not so popular, has become the market place of propaganda. Truth has become a rare commodity in this market place, and I can help but think the US will be much worse for it.
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A simple no, I did not vote in this election, nor have I been to Iran recently would have sufficed.

Your comment about seeing thousands of Iranians at LAX every time you go there is absolute bullsh!t. Congratulations on embellishing. It truly is unbelievable how full of it you are and how you go to extremes to be an appologist for everything that occurs in a country you haven't been to in years. You are a joke, "Iranian Democracy" is a joke, Iranian military power and hegemony are a joke,

Here's a clip of some of your best comedy:
"3) Regarding political dissent, Dr. Ahmadinejad considers freedom of speech to be a guarantee born from Islamic law and tradition. While we live in a country where some believe you should not criticise the Supreme Leader, at the time of the prophet and the saint Imam Ali, people who disagreed with them were free to voice their disagreement."

Do you catch what is so funny? It's the following: "While WE LIVE IN A COUNTRY..." So where did you cut and paste that from because you don't live in Iran and according to what you have written you have either never been there or haven't been there in decades.

Additionally, what is also humorous is the comment that freedom of speech is a guarantee of Islamic law. That could not be further from the truth.

DamonEsquire posts are more informative than yours in addition to being the best on BS.

Iranian Monitor · Jul 1, 2005

Some people cannot read. I was paraphrashing what someone named "Kalhour" was saying in an interview with an Iranian satellite statioin about Ahmadinejad's positions.

I was in contact with dozens of people in Iran during the elections. People who voted for different candidates. Besides, until very recently when one of the channels was jammed by the US, I had access to two channels from Iran. One is Iran's version of CNN, called IRINN which is a 20 hour news program. That program is broadcast in Iran and outside, but recently the US seems to have jammed it here. The other program that still operates in the US is JJTV. Besides these, there are some 27 Iranian satellite program that are not operated by Iran's govenrment.

Anyway, this is a waste of my time...

Iranian Monitor · Jul 1, 2005

I could name at least 10 other prominent political figures, including some who are now dissidents, and others which include Khatami's brother, who were part of the crowd involved in the take over of the US embassy. From all these folks, some have chosen the one guy in Iran who might not have been directly involved to express their anger. 26 years after the fact!

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/07/01/washington_abuzz_over_iran_leader/

Washington abuzz over Iran leader

WASHINGTON -- Allegations that Iran's newly-elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, helped the hostage-takers at the US Embassy in 1979 have caused a stir in Washington but are unlikely to cause a sea change in the already-strained relations between the two countries, US officials and regional specialists said yesterday.

''Those events happened some time ago," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters yesterday. ''We're obviously going to have to deal with the Iranian government, which he's going to head."

Hadley expressed far more concern about Ahmadinejad's alleged nuclear ambitions than his radical student past.

But still, questions buzzed around the State Department about what it would mean if Iran's new head of state was found to have participated in one of the most traumatic events in recent US history: Would he be given a visa to attend functions at the United Nations in New York? Would US authorities meet with him at diplomatic events in the Middle East? Would criminal charges be filed?

''If it is true, it becomes impossible to deal with him. By definition he is a terrorist," said Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. ''Engaging a government run by the guys who participated in the most humiliating experience the United States has had in the last thirty years is pretty difficult."

''We have not forgotten the fact that 51 of our diplomats were held for 444 days, that they were taken hostage," said Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman, who announced that the government was launching an investigation.

Ahmadinejad has acknowledged that he was one of thousands of radical students who belonged to a movement that planned the embassy takeover, but his aides and some hostage-takers have denied that he played a direct role.
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Kenneth Katzman, a senior analyst with Congressional Research Service, said proof of Ahmadinejad's involvement ''would not change the equation much."

''It's not as if we were about to embrace Ahmadinejad and now we can't," he said. ''But still, I can see instances where somewhere down the line, if there is a consideration of whether to re-enter in a dialogue with Iran, this could serve as an impediment to resuming that dialogue."

Even if the fuzzy black and white photo of a man next to a blindfolded American turns out to be Iran's president-elect, it would not be the first time that a former Iran hostage-taker went on to fill a high-level government post, according to Katzman, who wrote a book about what became of the hostage-takers.

Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, who in 1979 was a zealous interrogator of embassy staff members and CIA officers, eventually became deputy foreign minister for Mideast affairs and Iran's ambassador to Syria.

Masoumeh Ebtekar, a spokeswoman of the student movement known as ''Mary," became Iran's first female Cabinet minister, according to the Washington Post.

Hossein Moussavian, a radical student activist who was a member of the group that seized the US Embassy, went on to serve as ambassador to Germany and is currently Iran's top nuclear negotiator in talks with France, Britain, and Germany. Katzman said it was unclear whether Moussavian played a direct role in the hostage-taking.

Some of the radical students have grown into reformers who now embrace the United States.

Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, a ringleader in the embassy siege, is now a politician and newspaperman often at odds with Iran's theocracy.
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352klr · Jul 1, 2005

Iranian Monitor said:

Some people cannot read. I was paraphrashing what someone named "Kalhour" was saying in an interview with an Iranian satellite statioin about Ahmadinejad's positions.

I was in contact with dozens of people in Iran during the elections. People who voted for different candidates. Besides, until very recently when one of the channels was jammed by the US, I had access to two channels from Iran. One is Iran's version of CNN, called IRINN which is a 20 hour news program. That program is broadcast in Iran and outside, but recently the US seems to have jammed it here. The other program that still operates in the US is JJTV. Besides these, there are some 27 Iranian satellite program that are not operated by Iran's govenrment.

Anyway, this is a waste of my time...
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What do you mean it's a waste of your time. IT's an opportunity to shovel bs about Iran; an opportunity you never pass up. When was the last time you were in Iran? I look forward to October when you move there and we don't have to deal with your moronic posts anymore.