WASHINGTON, 1 July 2005 — US President George W. Bush said yesterday allegations that Iran’s newly elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of the men who took dozens of Americans hostage in the late 1970s in Tehran raised many questions.
“I have no information,” Bush said while talking to reporters ahead of a trip to Scotland next week. “But obviously his involvement (in the hostage-taking) raises many questions.”
Earlier, the White House said it was looking into allegations by several former American hostages that Ahmadinejad was one of their captors.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said of the allegations: “We take them very seriously and we are looking into them to better understand the facts.’’
Former hostages say Ahmadinejad played a central role in the takeover of the US Embassy in Iran, interrogating captives and demanding harsher treatment for the hostages.
“As soon as I saw his picture in the paper, I knew that was the man,” retired Army Col. Charles Scott, 73, told journalists. “He was one of the top two or three leaders. The new president of Iran is a terrorist.”
Former hostages Chuck Scott, David Roeder, William J. Daugherty and Don A. Sharer told the media that after seeing Ahmadinejad on television, they have no doubt he was one of the hostage-takers. A fifth ex-hostage, Kevin Hermening, said he reached the same conclusion after looking at photos.
A close aide to Ahmadinejad denied the president-elect’s participation in the seizure of the embassy or in holding Americans hostage.
The hostage-taking, which came in reprisal for Washington’s refusal to hand over ousted Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi for trial there, led to the defeat of President Jimmy Carter by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.
Militant students seized the US Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The shah had fled Iran earlier that year after he was overthrown in the revolution.
A zealous supporter of Ayatollah Khomeini, Ahmadinejad was a founding member of the Office for Strengthening Unity Between University and Theological Seminaries. Known as the OSU, it became closely linked to Ayatollah Khomeini.
It was the OSU that organized the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran.
But another former hostage, retired Air Force Col. Thomas E. Schaefer, said he doesn’t recognize Ahmadinejad as one of his captors. Several former students among the hostage-takers also said they did not believe that Ahmadinejad had taken part in it.
And Abbas Abdi, one of the leading hostage-takers who was recently released from prison told The Times of London Ahmadinejad was not one of the militants.
Mohammad Ali Sayed Nejad, a longtime friend of the president-elect, said that in 1979, “Ahmadinejad had focused his fight against communism and Marxism and he was one of the opponents of seizing the US Embassy. He was a constant opponent.”
In April 2002, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit by the hostages seeking $33 billion in damages. The State Department intervened, arguing the lawsuit would violate the US-Iranian agreements that freed the hostages and would damage US credibility.
