White House checking charge that new Iran president was hostage captor

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3541059

White House checking charge that new Iran president was hostage captor







WHITE HOUSE The White House says it's checking out charges that Iran's new president was one of those who held U-S hostages in Tehran a quarter-century ago.

Five of the former hostages from the U-S embassy say they recognize Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (mahk-MOOD' ah-meh-DIHN'-jahd) from T-V footage. Others say they're not sure, and an aide to the president-elect denies he took part.

But Press Secretary Scott McClellan says the Bush administration takes the allegations "very seriously" and is "looking into" them.

Fifty-two of the staffers and guards seized at the embassy in November 1979 were held 444 days before being released.

One of the ex-captives, retired Army colonel Chuck Scott, says there's "no question" Ahmadinejad was among those who held -- and questioned -- him. A retired C-I-A agent, William Daugherty, says Ahmadinejad appeared to give orders.

<</SNIP>>

[cyberpj]

1. Are you kidding me? Will they stop at nothing? nt.

[maddezmom]

2. and what are they planning to do if he is the same person?

:shrug:

[Mr.Green93]

5. Carter's revenge

Now * is held hostage.

[demo dutch]

17. If true , so where has the CIA been al this time???

Doesn't that make you feel safe?

[maddezmom]

35. no fololing...his picture was on the news for a bit before his win

not buying the timing of this story.

[endarkenment]

21. Cry? EOM

[Strawman]

24. finish the job that "weakass" Jimmy Carter didn't do with his helicopter

I'm being sarcastic here, but that's how they can give this war with Iran they want some macho appeal. I guess the slogan "Real Men want to go to Tehran" wasn't enough.

[Paulie]

3. Well, here's the reason!

Wave the bloody flag, forget about the arms shipments to Iran in the 80's, and BOMB THEM.

[Jawja]

90. We should shout from the rooftops

that a DEAL was made by Reagan for the release of the hostages in exchange for weapons. It's a little late to go after the hostage-takers now. We made a DEAL with the enemy so that Reagan could win an election.

If * pursues this diversion, it should not go without discussing Poppy's role in the deal and yes, let's dig up Iran-Contra as well.

[Double T]

4. Looking for any reason to begin a war with Iran...

could lead to WWIII with China siding with Iran.

[Cha]

6. Fuck you scatty...you amateur

spinmeister.

[Stockholm]

7. This walks, talks and sounds like a duck

What is the origin of this story??

[Igel]

31. From cognate threads: some of the embassy hostages

claim to recognize him, and told AP. Five of them, IIRC, with some being more sure than others.

[natrat]

8. White House checking charge that new Iran president was hostage captor

ok get back to us and let us know,you fucking douchebags

[Virginian]

43. Checking how? Asking Poppy?

"Poppy, do you recognize that guy as who you met with when you arranged for the hostages to be kept until an hour after Reagan was inaugurated and you became Vice President?"

"Is he the same one you sold weapons during Iran/Contra?"

[lastliberalintexas]

62. Asking Poppy or checking the CIA payroll reports

[leesa]

79. No shit! Let's get to the REAL story about this hostage situation.

Do you think BushCo put this guy in power to facilitate the war? We know ignorant, macho Americans will want to punish 25 year old crimes no matter which Bush fomented them.

[splat@14]

9. Let's see. We can't verify this story, they had nothin to do with 9/11,

They may have WMD......

What the fuck are we waiting for. Why aren't we invading these bastards yet?

[woodsprite]

10. I would think 27 yrs can change appearances a whole lot.

Sounds like a new smoke screen to me. Not only will * clean up what his daddy left behind BUT also clean up anything anyone else left behind too! Yeah, right. :hurts:

[Roland99]

15. Shoulda heard these guys on ABC's Good Morning America

One guy mentioning he recognized his face like "it was yesterday".


Yeah...right.


One thing that's been known to be a fact is that witness memories are very flaky and often unreliable.

[SOS]

92. Quote from e-mail

from one of those who recognize his face:

In the e-mail exchange on Monday, Mr. Daugherty asked, "Does this provide any additional leverage for you all in terms of the Bush administration's unwillingness to go along with any compensation?"

{A} lawsuit, brought in 1998 after Congress passed legislation allowing such action, was opposed by the State Department, which argued that such compensation would violate the agreement that freed the hostages.

A United States District Court judge dismissed the suit in a decision that was upheld two years ago by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, but new Congressional action could allow the plaintiffs to revive their efforts.

From NYT 7/1/05

[Roland99]

105. Interesting. Esp. considering Iran says the man in the picture is now DEAD

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

11. Chuck Scott donated thousands of dollars

to Bush, Guiliani, the GOP, and Lamarr Alexander in the past few years.

[Supersedeas]

102. almost like the WH was ready and waiting-no, Chucky just out of the blue

[AlGore-08.com]

12. So are they going to bomb the Reagan Library back to the stone age too?

Since he (theoretically) negotiated with the hostage takers to keep their captives until after the 1980 election, to hurt Carter...

[uppityperson]

13. White House checking charge that USA president was hostage captor

WHITE HOUSE The White House says it's checking out charges that USA's president was one of those who held hostages in Gitmo a quarter-hour ago.

Five thousand of the former hostages from the U-S embassy say they recognize George W. Bush(jorj dub'-ell-yuu boosh) from T-V footage. Others say they're not sure, and an aide to the president-appoint denies he took part.

But Press Secretary Scott McClellan says the Bush administration takes the allegations "very seriously" and is "looking into" them.

Fifty-two of the staffers and guards seized at the embassy in November 2001 were held 444444444444 days before being released.

One of the ex-captives, retired Army colonel Ahmadinejad, says there's "no question" Bush was among those who held -- and questioned -- him. A retired C-I-A agent, William Daugherty, says Bush appeared to give orders.

...

[demo dutch]

14. If true, you'd think the CIA would have known this a while ago!

What the hell are they doing, asleep at the switch! Makes me feel really safe!

[grytpype]

16. We better invade Iran right away before they take more hostages.

[Solly Mack]

18. my head just exploded

A Bush wants to investigate this? A Bush? A son of Poppy? Poppy who served under Reagan? That Bush? The Iran-Contra Reagan/Bush? The October Surprise Bush? and they want to "investigate this? lolololololololololololololololol

I need a new word...chutzpah just doesn't cut it anymore.

[Roland99]

19. Need a tissue?

;)

[Solly Mack]

22. Several, please. My monitor is splattered.

[Roland99]

27. I'll send a HazMat team over

[Solly Mack]

30. So my brains a WMD ?

Be sure and tell Shrub...

[Roland99]

39. Oh, he won't be coming anywhere near you.

Unless he can make money off your gray matter. ;)

[Solly Mack]

40. LOL! true that!

[Beetwasher]

20. Yeah, Right, Just Like There Were WMD's In Iraq

:eyes:

[endarkenment]

23. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison

Presidential status revoked. Turns out that prior to being elected they were rebels engaged in armed revolt and acts of terrorism against the duly constituted authorities.

[thoughtanarchist]

25. It was the arab-looking guy with the beard...

:eyes:

[northzax]

26. you know what the wingnuts hate him so much?

he's a freeper. fundamentalist religion, thinks everyone's out to get him, hates the UN, he'd fit right in.

[ElectroPrincess]

28. Whew! I feel so much better now that our ...

Executive Branch is on the job. :sarcasm:

[bushisanidiot]

29. Pres. Nosepicker is counting the $$ he'll make by selling Iran nukes

in 1980 president elect Reagon sold Iran all kinds of military weaponry so that the hostages would be release and he would look like a hero.

who will AWOL Bush sell arms to this time around? he's desperate to look like a hero.

that reminds me. where's osama?

[Igel]

32. Given the absence of reliable info--people that have a motive

to say the guy wasn't involve are saying he's not involved, others whose memories are 27 years old are assumed to be wrong--I'm going to wait.

If Ahmadinejad did what the ex-hostages claim, he's still the elected leader, even if he did participate in the involuntary incarceration of diplomats (etc.) nearly 30 years ago, and oversaw at least some "interrogations" (you know, threats, harsh treatment and the like).

But it doesn't mean I have to bend over backwards to say that he's a fine upstanding person, or since there's somebody else bad in the world, or even worse, that he's actually a good chap.

[progressivebydesign]

45. Only 5 out of 52 former hostages are saying this....

.. and everyone on the other side is saying it is not. The media is pumping this up, BUT, it's bullshit Neocons that are forcing it into some sort of international crisis.

[Igel]

85. My point is that I'm leery of immediately calling those

5 victims--held for hundreds of days, and subject to probably unpleasant interrogations--liars or stooges just because what they say happens to serve somebody else's agenda. Their memories may be failing.

On the other hand, those on the other side have brains that have gone the same amount of time, and their memories may be failing just as well, or be subject to other influences, since what they say also serves somebody else's agenda.

I remain agnostic, but open to the possibilities.

[bribri16]

33. So what if he was, the Iranian people elected him.

n/t

[renaissanceguy]

42. Maybe shrub thinks they didn't get it right the first time.

Time to export Diebold?

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14744291

[colonel odis]

34. whether he was or not is irrelevant. painting him as one is a great

way to whip up fervor to invade iran.

there's just one HUGE problem with that: the u.s. military is spread thinner than lindsay lohan. an invasion would result in the u.s. getting a serious ass-kicking. not a wimpy ass-kicking like vietnam or the kind we're getting now, losing by simply failing to win.

the u.s. would seriously get beat. surely, surely bush the phuckhead has more sense than to do that to our country. if he does, the generals, congress, or someone will have to step in and do what's right.

[natrat]

47. he has no sense, he does not read the paper

he has a little set of ideas that he will cling to because he is not wrong.Very little man

[indepat]

36. Is it maybe illegal under Iranian law for their president to have been a

hostage-taker?

[zara]

37. Wasn't Bush a worthless DRUNK 25 years ago?

Not sure what that proves, but fun to recall; and anyway let's get real:
The Iranians took over an embassy they labelled a "nest of spies".
Noone denies that was correct. What makes us most angry is that is was "our" nest.
It certainly violated international law to hold diplomats hostage. It was cruel and awful.
I disagree with their tactic.
But they were in the midst of a revolution against the puppets of the most powerful country in the world, a country that had undermined their democracy before (Mossadegh) and that they had no intention of allowing to do so again.
And let us recall that violations of international and US law have been perpretrated by the US, such as by Bushi in his war for WMDs that were never there, by fixing the facts about the policy to fool the citizenry (gullible lot that we are.)

[Octafish]

51. He's STILL a worthless drunk.

Thanks for putting things into perspective, zara!

I don't agree with the Iranian "students" or anyone taking hostages.

I can understand where they're coming from. Our CIA overthrew their democratically elected government to install the Shah.

Gee. I'd be pissed if that were to happen here.

Hey!

[zara]

75. Indeed Octafish!

[zara]

77. when will congress make a stupid anti-iranian gesture?

I'm thinking this week.
let's boycott baklava (oh wait that's turkish)
let's change the name of falafel to "f*ckedup-fal". (that's stupid)
let's have congress refuse to serve basmati rice!!
yeah, that's the ticket!
where's a whacko GOP hack now that you need one

[Octafish]

103. Someone say "hack"?

"Falafel. That's French!"

[zara]

104. wow did you google this up?

impressive!

[Doctor_J]

38. Snark

That's right - just keep poking that hole with a stick - it's probably not a beehive.

[EFerrari]

41. Wonder if the hostages at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib --

you know, the 80% of the "detainees" that were picked up for walking on their block, I wonder if those hostages will remember His Fakery in 27 years.

[progressivebydesign]

44. 5 out of 52 former hostages.... only. get your tin foil here..

Okay. I am not one for deep conspiracies.. but.. the charge that the new prez of Iran is one of the captors is rouse. When one of the "former CIA" guys who was a hostage said it was him, then I started getting paranoid. You know.. there is NO such thing as an 'ex-CIA', unless it's Valerie Plame, of course. The White House is looking for and manufacturing a reason to go to war with Iran. 5 of 52 hostages said this guy looks like one of their captors from 25 years ago.. and it's being touted as the truth.

WHY do the neocons want to go to war with Iran?? I don't get it. That's why all of this sabre rattling that the White House and Rice, et al, are doing doesn't make sense. We are stretched to the max right now with Afghanistan and Iraq, why would they be wanting another war? Wouldn't that be total political meltdown for Bush?

[jenmito]

46. pictures shown on MSNBC

Unless the guy got a nose job, it's not the same person. They just showed the profiles of "both" of them, saying the WH is looking into it.

[MODemocrat]

78. Their eyebrows are completely different too

and on NBC, they said the photos were taken the same year. It was hard for me to see any resemblance whatsoever.

[MzShellG]

84. I noticed the same thing

When I saw a report on my local news just now. How stupid to say this is the same person because people say he looks like the captor. A bunch of maroons.

[Horse with no Name]

91. That was my thought

There is a resemblance in the fact that he has brown skin and Mideastern features.
However, the nose, forehead and brows are different.
The nose most noticeable--but it is possible that someone could have a nose job.
However, the slope of the forehead is different, and I doubt he had parts of his skull shaven to change this.
The eyebrows are also different--but that is basically because the forehead slopes differently.
They need to just give it a fucking rest.

[jenmito]

99. Well...

I agree they should give it a rest. And he COULD'VE gotten a nose job, but who gets a nose job to make it INTO a hooked nose rather than the other way around? The older picture had him with a straight nose. He now has a hooked nose. These guys are mistaken.

[Yavin4]

48. To Coin The Old Phrase, Bush and What Army Is Going To Invade Iran

Seriously, what army?

[jenmito]

49. This was kind of funny...

On CNN they were talking about looking into the situation and the smaller print under the main video read, "President Bush: 'I have no information.'" (Like THAT'S a surprise)!

[DrZeeLit]

50. I hear Mr Rogers... can you spell DISTRACTION? I knew you could.... n/t

[Mizmoon]

52. Maybe it's true

:shrug: It really could be.

[Yupster]

76. If it isn't true

He'll clear it up quick enough. We'll learn where the guy was living, working, teaching, whatevering during that time period.

No sense getting worked up one way or the other until we know.

[Rainscents]

53. WH is unbelievably! They want to start another war and if we go into

Iran, there will be World War 111. Especially, Bolton gets in and Bush will put Bolton in during congress summer vacation.

[Moderator]

54. kick

[Tinoire]

55. Bush says wants answers on Iran leader's past

Bush says wants answers on Iran leader's past

Caren Bohan
1 hour, 54 minutes ago



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday he wanted answers on whether Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a leader in the 1979 U.S. Embassy siege as some former hostages have said.

Several of the Americans who were held said they recognized the ultraconservative Tehran mayor -- who was elected president in a landslide on Friday -- as a ringleader in the hostage-taking.

However, two leading figures in the embassy seizure said he did not take part.

"I have no information," Bush told reporters during a briefing on the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland. "But obviously his involvement raises many questions, and knowing how active people are at finding answers to questions, I'm confident they will be found."

Bush also issued a warning to Ahmadinejad, 48, that he and European leaders would send a "strong message" to him about their concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

(snip)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=4&u=/nm/20050630/ts_nm/iran_usa_ahmadinejad_dc

[Uben]

56. Ask the Reagan bunch

They're the ones who negotiate with terrorists! Arms for hostages, remember?

[mtnester]

57. Here it is folks, the justification of invasion

and it FELL in his lap...(or did it?!?!?)

[Sydnie]

70. And all by the last day if June too

He was trying to keep his promise of a June invasion. They should have planted the story earlier if they wanted to stick to their "timetable". :sarcasm:

[stopbush]

58. Ahmadinejad's answer:

"Yes, it's true. I was involved. I fact, I was the head negotiator with the Elect Reagan team back in 1980 when we made the deal to hold the hostages as prisoners until after the election. Hell, we even timed the release for Reagan's Inaugural. If you look at the video, you can see me standing right behind James Baker.

"We love Republicans. We even help get them elected. We identify with their religious fervor.

"When will I get to visit the White House like Ariel Sharon and the other *good* terrorists?"

[ElectroPrincess]

59. Oh you slay me ... Stop! ROTFLMAO /eom

[Zodiak]

71. nice

Oh that's gooood....

[katsy]

60. I don't need to be a fan of Ahmadinejad...

to state flat out that bozo-boy scares me more than Iran's president.

Even if the allegations against Ahmadinejad were true (and I don't believe that for a second based on what has been reported) he has been elected.

It is up to the Iranians to move at whatever pace they are comfortable with towards democracy if it is what they choose. The older conservatives will move on and younger people will come to age. Who is to say a slower path is the wrong path for these people?

It may be with much sadness, tragedy and time that progressive Iranians can change their government. But who are we to deny them the cost, as well as the accomplishment of controlling their own futures.

One thing everyone can bank on... if bozo-boy has designs on Iran, no good will come of it at all.

With much regret, I trust any government but bozo-boys.

[skamaria]

61. Iranian Prez

Lets see they rose up and overthrew the King(read Shah)and one of the revolutionaries went on to become president of his nation. hummmm sounds
familiar.Can you say George Washington! Tom Jefferson! John Adams.

[Judi Lynn]

63. Bush Wants Answers on Iranian Leader's Past

1:59 PM PDT, June 30, 2005

Bush Wants Answers on Iranian Leader's Past
By Tyler Marshall and Paul Richter, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration today demanded that the Iranian government clarify the role of President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the prolonged hostage crisis that followed.

The administration also pledged to conduct its own investigation into Ahmadinejad's past after several of the 52 Americans held hostage in the embassy said in tough, unequivocal statements that they had recognized the next Iranian leader as one of their captors.

However, at least two other former hostages said they were unable to recall the president-elect as a participant in their ordeal.

"The Iranian government ... has an obligation to speak definitively concerning these questions that have been raised in public," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-063005usiran_lat,0,2127396.story?coll=la-home-headlines
(Free registration required)

[Malva Zebrina]

64. Yeah Bush and I want answers on YOUR past. nt

[lynettebro440]

65. Bush has been itching to take on Iran

This will help in his fight. Who the hell cares, doesn't he have enough on his plate already, the asshole.:spank:

[LaurenG]

66. Yeah well

I f'in want answers about his past. I am his employer yet I don't get to know jack about where he was during nam. Can someone tell him we want answers from him?

[Botany]

67. Hey W ....

.... he will tell you about 79 & 80
if you will tell us about 66 through 86

COCAINE:
<According to a new book, three independent sources close to the Bush family report that Governor Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession, and taken to Harris County Jail, but avoided jail or formal charges through an informal diversion plan involving community service with Project P.U.L.L., an inner city Houston program for troubled youths at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Houston's dirt-poor Third Ward. (In another new book, reporter Bill Minutaglio, writes that the year of community service was arranged by the Governor's father, ex-president Bush, after he caught Bush Jr. driving drunk.)

That year certainly is out of character with the rest of Bush Jr.'s life. Before and after 1972, he was a rich, hard drinking playboy. Suddenly, and only that one time in his life, he worked for a liberal charity in an inner city ghetto. As soon as the year was over, he resumed his previous pattern and has done no charity work since.>

[cornermouse]

68. No he doesn't.

Bush doesn't need answers. He already knows what he wants to do. Answers would only get in his way.

[havocmom]

69. To which Ahmadinejad replied: Show me yours and I'll show you mine.

[Zodiak]

72. No-brainer question...

Anyone who remembers the hostage crisis in Iran can remember how many times they showed footage of the hostages. Were these guys walking around freely and able to hang out with their captors? HELL NO!

These guys were shackled and blindfolded practically every time we saw them, being man-handled by young militants with guns and oftentimes the faces of the mlitants were partially covered with cloth.

So when did these guys get s good look at him? Were the blindfolds removed briefly for showering and such? How soon after you've had a blindfold taken off that has been on for days can your eyes adjust enough to the light to see anything?

Terrorists of the fundamentalist Muslim sort do not screw around with keeping their prisoners in the dark. They do not offer courtesies, and seeing the face of militant leaders would be one they would not offer at all.

This story is B.S., and considering the sources, it stinks to high-heaven. Pure Bush propaganda, and you know what? We need to scream it aloud NOW that he is lying again or we will find ourselves in Quagmire Part III. They have no credibility, so lets use that to our advantage and save some lives before it is too late. This all goes back to the DSM and why that issue is STILL the paramount issue to be pushed by bloggers everywhere.

[Jack Rabbit]

73. BBC Link

From the BBC Online
Dated Thursday June 30

Iran victor 'kidnap role' probe

The US says it is examining reports that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took part in the 1979 hostage-taking at Tehran's US embassy . . . .

But three Iranians involved in the action, as well as Mr Ahmadinejad's own staff, have denied that he took part.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, the hostage-takers' leader, told the BBC that the new president had not been there.

Another top student leader, Abbas Abdi, also denied the allegations as did Hamid Reza Jalaiepour, a third hostage-taker.

The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says the three former students are now reformists who oppose hardliners like Mr Ahmadinejad, and would have no reason to hide his involvement now.

Credible witnesses such as these won't mean anything to the Bushies.

[agincourt]

74. When RW military people say things to help Bush,

I just figure it's another lie. I'm sure there were composite sketches on the hostage takers, expressly to identify them if they got into power. Even our pathetic CIA would be more on top of things than that.

[davekriss]

80. Propoganda, manufacturing consent for...

...the next victim of imperial onslaught, Iran.

Anyone recall the stories of Lieutenant Commander Speicher? The pilot that was shot down during the first days of Operation Desert Storm in 1991? I recall (first) Condie Rice looking angry and serious in front of the cameras in the early spring of 2002 claiming that the USG had "good intelligence" that Speicher had survived and was being held captive in the bowels of Baghdad by a demonic Saddam Hussein, who as she would tell us was a WMD-soaked fiend much worse than any Hitler.

It was so obviously a first foray in the Orwellian march to war that I turned to my wife and said we'd attack Iraq by the end of the year (I was off by 3 months).

Mind you the Speicher status (KIA or MIA) is an enduring controversy, but it was so blatantly exploited as a demonizing tool by the Bush administration that the underlying motive seemed clear -- namely, manufacturing consent for an illegal, immoral, and unjust invasion of Iraq.

Somehow this story about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems so in tune with the way the Speicher story was used that I'm almost willing to bet that we'll be at war with Iran by the end of this year. Almost. However, that must not come true.

[spanone]

81. I'm sure we'll have to invade and capture or kill him.......same bullshit

[spanone]

82. The 'media' is all over this story. Even my local media covered it.

6 or so of the captors swear it's him, dammit. Hey, if we can elect criminals, so can they.

[goforit]

83. Their Paranoid delusional thinking is off the charts!!!

Unbelievable!!!

Is this Disney World on the Dark side or what?

[BrightKnight]

86. Perhaps Iran would be more moderate if we weren't in Iraq. n/t

[maddezmom]

87. WH has been following his career...so why hadn't they investigated before?

The administration has acknowledged that it has followed Ahmadinejad's career in Iranian politics, so it was unclear why the United States could not say if he were a hostage-taker or whether the issue had been explored before. "Given the nature of the regime and his own past, I don't think it should be surprising," McClellan said.

If Ahmadinejad turns out to have been a participant, he wouldn't be the first top Iranian official with a role in the 1979 crisis.

The current Iranian vice president and head of the Environment Department, Massoumeh Ebtekar, was the chief interpreter and spokeswoman for the radical students who took over the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Dubbed "Sister Mary" by the American press because her heavy head scarf resembled a nun's habit, Ebtekar gave almost nightly interviews during the standoff, denouncing the hostages as spies and accusing the United States of committing crimes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050701/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iran_president;_

[True_Blue]

89. The CIA and WH obviously doesn't have a clue

Hard to believe that this guy has been around for years and now all of a sudden the US Government is wondering who he is.

[Walt Starr]

88. TRANSLATION: Our Policy is that he is a radical and a terrorist

now we will fix the intelligence around the policy.

[maddezmom]

93. Reuters: No evidence Iran leader involved in 1979 siege-U.S

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it has unearthed no evidence so far that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was involved in the 1979 siege of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Several Americans who were held have said they recognized the ultraconservative Ahmadinejad as a ringleader. But two Iranians who were leading figures in the storming of the embassy said he did not take part.

"We continue to look into it to establish the facts," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Asked if the United States was aware of the allegations before the hostages went public, McClellan noted that President Bush had said on Thursday "that he didn't have any information."

more: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050701/ts_nm/iran_usa_dc_2

[jamesinca]

94. just exactly what are they going to do if it is true?

Are they going to dislike Iran more?

Are they going to put them in the "axis of evil" again?

Are they going to make up another reason to go to war with Iran again?

Are they going to deny them an invitation to the ranch in Crawford for a 6th year?

Are they going to tell Iran during times of civil war, revolutions and coups that what they did 25 years ago was not nice?

Don't get me wrong, I feel for the people that were held for that time, but what does it really matter at this point? I don't think he should apologize if he is not truly sorry for what he did, if he is the one who did it. If Iranian law allows current and former revolutionaries to run for office what business is it of ours? We did not have a problem with Castro until he did not do the U.S. bidding, I think the same thing is happening here. It seems to me that the U.S. foreign policy is: The world is our barrel boy and if they insist on lubricant they are bad. I think Iran asked for lubricant 25 years ago and the U.S. is playing the jealous, jilted, abusive, significant other.

[wakeme2008]

95. Bush Questions Iran Leader - Elect's Past (hope not a dup

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Iran.html

uly 1, 2005
Bush Questions Iran Leader - Elect's Past
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:17 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House said Thursday it was investigating whether Iran's new president played a role in seizing the American Embassy and holding 52 U.S. captives a quarter century ago. President Bush said the allegation by former hostages ''raises many questions.''

The administration was reviewing its files on Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the hostage comments were brought to light by The Associated Press.

''I have no information, but obviously his involvement raises many questions,'' Bush said in an interview with foreign reporters. The administration said it would have to deal with Ahmadinejad, regardless of his past.

..more at link

[chelsea0011]

96. This was all during Bush's drunken' stupor period?

[Puglover]

97. Really,

I have a few questions about your past President Cocaine.

[dArKeR]

98. I have a few questions on Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and how the

US Gov. installed him and how many people he and the CIA murdered during his rein of terror.

++++++++

1953 was a busy year for Allen Dulles. Even as he readied the CIA for a coup in Guatemala (see card 9), his agents were toppling the liberal left government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq and paving the way for the Shah of Iran. With Dulles' encouragement, the Shah made the Iranian people an offer they couldn't refuse - join his party or go to jail. Thousands who refused to yield were imprisoned or murdered. During regional elections in 1954, the Shah's agents raided a religious school and hurled hundreds of students to their deaths from the roof. His regime received 100% of the vote that year, in an election which registered more votes than there were voters.
The Shah's subsequent solidification of power led to an iron fisted rule enforced by fear and torture. His secret police agency, SAVAK, was created in 1957 and managed by the CIA at all levels of daily operation, including the choice and organization of personnel, selection and operation of equipment, and the running of agents. SAVAK's torture methods included electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails.
Iran under the Shah became a devoted U.S. ally and a base for spy operations on the border of the Soviet Union. But eventually the Shah was overthrown in 1978 by an indigenous people's revolution that held sway until fundamentalist religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile and reasserted his power during the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/EurMEast.html

[DS1]

100. Obviously we have to invade NOW

Where's my flag?

[Massachusetts]

101. White House checking charge

And then what?

[struggle4progress]

106. Translation: K.Rove is grinding the polling numbers to see if this works.