AP Photo shows Irans new President as 1979 US
hostage-taker
Wednesday, 29th June 2005
Iran Focus
London, Jun. 29 - Iran Focus has learnt that the photograph of
Irans newly-elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, holding the
arm of a blindfolded American hostage on the premises of the United
States embassy in Tehran was taken by an Associated Press
photographer in November 1979.
Prior to the first round of the presidential elections on June 17,
Iran Focus was the first news service to reveal Ahmadinejads role
in the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
The identity of Ahmadinejad in the photograph was revealed to Iran
Focus by a source in Tehran, whose identity could not be revealed
for fear of persecution.
Soon after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Ahmadinejad, who was
studying in Tehrans University of Science and Technology, became a
member of the central council of the Office for Strengthening of
Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries, the main
pro-Khomeini student body.
The OSU played a central role in the seizure of the United States
embassy in Tehran in November 1979. Members of the OSU central
council, who included Ahmadinejad as well as Ibrahim Asgharzadeh,
Mohsen Mirdamadi, Mohsen Kadivar, Hashem Aghajari, and Abbas Abdi,
were regularly received by Khomeini himself.
Former OSU officials involved in the takeover of the U.S. embassy
said Ahmadinejad was in charge of security during the occupation, a
key role that put him in direct contact with the nascent security
organizations of the clerical regime and the Islamic Revolutionary
Guards, which he later joined.
After the 444-day occupation of the U.S. embassy, Ahmadinejad
joined the special forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutors
Office, based in Evin Prison. The Revolutionary Prosecutor was
Assadollah Lajevardi, who earned the nickname the Butcher of Evin
after the execution of thousands of political dissidents in the
1980s.
Defectors from the clerical regimes security forces have revealed
that Ahmadinejad led the firing squads that carried out many of the
executions. He personally fired coup de grace shots at the heads of
prisoners after their execution and became known as Tir Khalas
Zan (literally, the Terminator).
