Hostage to Khomeini Robert Dreyfuss
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This article is rooted in the Iran Hostage Crisis. That theory puts the cart before the horse. Perhaps the most damning evidence against Ahmadinejad with regard to the hostage-taking came from Bani-Sadr, Iran's president during the early days of the Khomeini revolution. Embassy, taking its personnel hostage. Took millions of dollars from the weapons sale and routed them and guns to the right-wing "Contra"² guerrillas in Nicaragua. This is not another 'October Surprise' theory purporting how the hostage crisis resulted in some Khomeini-Republic better deal. On November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students devoted to Khomeini and encouraged by his vitriolic speeches seized the U.S. In November 1979, a month before Khomeini became Iran's supreme leader, the Muslim Student Followers laid siege to the US embassy compound in Tehran and seized 52 hostages. Then, when the mission failed, Khomeini and the hostage-takers saw it as a sign from Allah that the “Great Satan” was being defeated. In response to the exiled Shah's admission to the United States in September 1979, a large crowd seized the US embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American citizens hostage.