On November 1, 1979 Iran's new leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged his people to demonstrate against United States and Israeli interests. Ruhollah Khomeini was anti-American in his rhetoric, denouncing the American government as the "Great Satan" and "Enemies of Islam".
On November 4, amid another chaotic occupation of the grounds, a mob of around 500 Iranian students calling themselves the Muslim Students Following the Line of the Imam (although reported numbers vary from 300 to 2000) seized the main embassy building. The guard of Marines was thoroughly outnumbered, and staff rushed to destroy communications equipment and sensitive documents. Out of 90 occupants, 66 were taken captive, including three who were taken from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Fourteen women, African Americans and non-US captives were soon released, leaving 52 who remained captive until their release in January 1981. Ayatollah Khomeini claimed he was not aware of the students' plan, but he applauded the action afterwards (Though in actuality he had been informed by the "Muslim Students" on November 3).
Former hostages Dr. William Daugherty (who worked for the CIA in Iran), Kevin Hermening, David Roeder, US Army Col. Charles Scott (Ret.), and US Navy Capt. Donald Sharer (Ret.) have alleged that Iran's later president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (elected 2005) was among the hostage takers. All of them have claimed that they are certain that Ahmadinejad is the man whom they remember from their captivity.
Col. Charles Scott recently told the Washington Times [1] that "He was one of the top two or three leaders; the new president of Iran is a terrorist."
On 10 January 2006, President Ahmadinejad declared that his government is following the "religious mission" initiated by Navvab Safavi, a Shi'a cleric who assassinated the historian and author Ahmad Kasravi in 1946 for "insulting Islam." In 2001, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, Ahmadinejad’s ideological mentor, praised Safavi and encouraged Muslims in taking similar steps against the "enemies of Islam." [15] [16]
There have been allegations that Ahmadinejad was involved in terrorist activities during the Islamic Revolution (given the gaps in Ahmadinejad's official biography for that period), and he has been connected to senior Hezbollah figure and terrorist, Imad Mughniyeh [17].
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad made several controversial statements regarding the Holocaust and the State of Israel, at one point referring to the Holocaust as a "myth" and criticizing European laws against Holocaust denial. He said that although he does not know whether or not nor to what extent the Holocaust occurred, if it had in fact occurred, European countries should make amends to the Jewish people by giving them land to establish a state in "Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska" instead of making "the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime". The statements were condemned by many world leaders.
Ahmadinejad is believed by many to belong, or to have once belonged, to the anti-Bahai and anti-Sunni clandestine society known as Hojjatieh. An Islamic society to which Ahmadinejad belonged when he attended Alm-u Sanat University was, according to an article that appeared in the Asia Times Online, an extreme, traditional, and fundamentalist group that maintained close links with Hojjatieh. Three members of Ahmadinejad's cabinet are said to have Hojjatieh backgrounds, including Hojatoleslam Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehyi, the intelligence chief who graduated from the Haqqani theological school, founded by Hojjatieh. Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a Shi'ite cleric closley associated with the school, issued a fatwa urging two million members of the bassij Islamic militia to vote for Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential elections.
The current president of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and is currently working very hard to develop nuclear technology.
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P38Pilot
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)
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