Guests Of The Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis (94 page)

Nest of Spies: America’s Journey to Disaster in Iran, Amir Taheri. Adler & Adler, 1988.

Hard Choices: Critical Years in America’s Foreign Policy, Cyrus Vance. Simon and Schuster, 1983.

Rescue Mission

Delta Force, Charlie Beckwith and Donald Knox. Harper Collins, 1983.

No Room for Error: The Story Behind the USAF Special Tactics Unit, John Carney and Benjamin Schemmer. Presidio Press, 2003.

The Holloway Commission Report, Department of Defense, 1982.

Inside Delta Force, Eric L. Haney. Delacorte Press, 2002.

The Guts to Try: The Untold Story of the Iran Hostage Rescue Mission by the On-Scene Desert Commander, James Kyle. Crown, 1990.

Crippled Eagle: A Historical Perspective of U.S. Operations, 1976–1996, Rod Lenahan. Narwhal Press, 1998.

“Inside the Rescue Mission,” David Martin. Newsweek, June 12, 1982.

The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA, Antonio J. Mendez. Perennial, 1999.

The Iranian Rescue Mission: Why It Failed, Paul B. Ryan. Naval Institute Press, 1985.

Terrorism and Democracy, Stansfield Turner. Houghton Mifflin, 1991.

Hostage Takers

The Takeover in Tehran, by Massoumeh Ebtekar, as told to Fred Reed. Talon-books, 2000.

The Spy Den Documents, National Security Archives.

The 444-Day Crisis in Tehran, Amir Reza, Sotoudeh Hamid Kaviani, trans. Nikki Faratsatpour.

Other

Iran and the United States, Richard W. Cottam. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988.

Nationalism in Iran, Richard W. Cottam. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979.

The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict, Dilip Hiro. Routledge, 1991.

All the Shah’s Men, Stephen Kinzer. Wiley, 2003.

The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, Charles Kurzman. Harvard University Press, 2004.

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi. Random House, 2003.

An Islamic Utopia: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati, Ali Rahnema. I. B. Taurus, 2000.

Prophets Without Honor: A Requiem for Moral Patriotism, William M. Strabala and Michael J. Palecek. Algora, 2002.

444 Days, The Hostages Remember, Tim Wells. Harcourt, 1985.

DOCUMENTARY AND VIDEO

The Carter Center Library collection

444 Days to Freedom: What Really Happened in Iran, directed by Les Harris. View Video, 1998.

Part One

The “Set-in”

1 The Desert AngelBefore dawn…secret meeting, Hashemi. Hashemi was supposed…“the United States is next!” Hashemi, Ebtekar’s Takeover in Tehran (TT). Few of the hundred…siege to the place, Hashemi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, The 444-Day Crisis in Tehran (T444DCT). A CIA analysis…“prerevolutionary situation,” Carter’s Keeping the Faith (KF), p. 438. When the embassy opened…no imperial designs. Taheri’s Nest of Spies (NS), p. 92. By the fall of 1979…like a fort, Howland, Golacinski, Laingen, Limbert, Metrinko.

2 Would the Marines Shoot?A big demonstration…larger crowd, Laingen, Limbert, Golacinski, Hashemi. For a discussion of the tendency to inflate the numbers of “martyrs” at anti-shah demonstrations, see Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution (UR). Referring to the most notorious of the “massacres,” Black Friday, Kurzman writes: “Estimates of casualties on this day … range from fewer than one hundred to many thousands. The post-revolutionary Martyr Foundation could identify only seventy-nine dead, while the coroner’s office counted eighty-two and Tehran’s main cemetery, Behesht-e-Zahra, registered only forty” (p. 75). Shortly before…cars and on foot, Hashemi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, TT and T444DCT. The plan had been hatched…would die, Asgharzadeh, Hashemi, Mirdamadi, Abdi, Naimipoor, Khoeniha, T444DCT. When Asgharzadeh…Islamic Republic, Rajaeefar, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, Khoeniha, T444DCT. The mullah’s ideas…source of all evil, Golpour, Kashani, Khoeniha, Tajzadeh, Rahnema’s An Islamic Utopia (IU). In sessions…blindfold that many, Hashemi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, TT, T444DCT. The planners had…traitorous administration, Mirdamadi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, TT. The students had also…a statement, Asgharzadeh, T444DCT. Days after the plan was hatched…knew nothing of takeover plan, Asgharzadeh, Khoeniha, Ebtekar TT; Khomeini quoted on p. 58. Now, as Hashemi moved…what would happen then? Hashemi, Asgharzedeh, Naimipoor, Ebtekar, TT.

3 The Morning MeetingWalking down the wide corridor…feel for the place, John and Parvaneh Limbert. The morning meeting…voting with their feet, Laingen. Khomeini had…“the nation,” The Iran Hostage Crisis, a Chronology of Daily Developments, p. 35. John Graves…his staffing, DOS/ICA cable, Tehran 11376, 10/28/79. Laingen had…case basis, Laingen’s Yellow Ribbon (YR), p. 9. The decision…catastrophic, Laingen cable ref: State 256811, 9/30/79. It was…had answered, Jordan’s Crisis (C), p. 32. The embassy…for decades, Laingen, Golacinski, Morefield, Scott, Schaefer. Kalp, a CIA officer…not everyone could rise above it, Kalp. Some of those…peacefully resolved, Golacinski. Limbert then…report of the trip, Laingen, Golacinski, Howland, Limbert, Tomseth. Michael Metrinko…across the front yard, Metrinko, Joan (Walsh) Howland, Limbert.

4 We Only Wish to Set-inKevin Hermening…closed and locked, Hermening. Inured to months…thin, vertical strips, Ahern, Laingen. A few of the Iranians who seized the embassy continue to argue, twenty-five years later, that they uncovered an American plot to overthrow the revolution, but nothing in the voluminous “Den of Spies” documents they seized, pieced together, and published in more than forty volumes makes their case. The documents do offer a fascinating look at clandestine American activity in Iran going back to the mid-twentieth century and dramatically illustrate the failure of the spy agency to accurately understand the forces leading up to the revolution. Just six months before the shah was forced to flee the country, CIA deputy station chief Jack Miklos wrote from Tehran, where he had been stationed since 1974, “Iran has now reached the position of a stable and moderate middle-level power well disposed to the United States, which has been a goal of our policy since the end of World War II.” In appendices to her book Takeover in Tehran, which she judged too hot for American publishers to handle, Massoumeh Ebtekar had all of the seized documents from which to choose her bombshell revelations and, out of the mass of material, chose two cables. The first is a portion of a letter by John Graves, attempting to analyze the revolution, in which he concludes that it was primarily a revolt against privilege. Graves’s assessment is dubious, and Ebtekar would disagree, but there isn’t the slightest hint of spying in it. The second document records a CIA meeting with Abolhassan Bani-Sadr in Tehran after the revolution, in which Bani-Sadr is revealed to be working long hours—“until after midnight on a regular basis”—and somewhat less than eager to meet with Americans (he stood up the officer at their first scheduled meeting, and kept him waiting for hours for the second). The Iranian official confessed he was concerned about making arrangements to bring his family back to Iran and offered his guest—there is no indication that Bani-Sadr knew he worked for the CIA—some broad and entirely innocuous insights into how the emerging government was taking shape. Hardly the stuff of a coup d’état. In his office…out of his office, Rosen’s The Destined Hour (DH). Inside the front door…take more time, Golacinski, Howland, Sickmann, Gallegos, Moeller, Joan (Walsh) Howland, Laingen, Tomseth.

5 Michael, I’m Really SorryInside the consulate…on the roof, Lopez, Morefield, Queen’s Inside and Out (IO), Ode. In his second-floor…felt set up, Metrinko. Golacinski was…situation needed, Golacinski, Gallegos, Lopez, Sickmann, Limbert, Persinger, Joan (Walsh) Howland, Belk, Hermening.

6 Hostage to Whom? For What? Golacinski, Lee, Lopez, Morefield, Cooke, Queen, Lijek.

7 Shoot Me, Don’t Burn Me!On the top floor…nobody else was, Kupke, Belk, Barnes. At the foot…“them away!” Gallegos, Moeller, Hermening. Looking down…“burn it down!” Hermening, Golacinski. After seeing…everyone else, Limbert.

8 Ann, Let Them InOn the other side…open the door, Laingen, Scott, Schaefer, Swift. The stash…locked it, Kupke. One of the marines…were there, Belk, Scott, Kupke. Golacinski was hustled… “Allahuakbar!” Golacinski, Roeder, Sharer, Kennedy, Belk, German, Sickmann, Hall, Limbert. President Jimmy Carter… “great day for football!” Beckwith’s Delta Force (DF), Burruss, Jordan, C, Brzezinski’s Power and Principle (P&P).

9 I Told You SoFarouz Rajaeefar…she hung up. Rajaeefar. Other excited occupiers…“the Imam’s Line,” Ebtekar, TT. A few miles…embassy returned, Laingen, Yazdi, Tomseth, Precht.

10 I’m Going to Cut Out This Eye FirstInside the chancery…to the roof, Ahern, Barnes, Kupke, Hermening, Howland. The phone lines…he said, Howland, Koob, Royer, Englemann, Jones, Golacinski.

11 GaptoothKupke’s pockets…evident disbelief, Kupke. The description of Sheikh-ol-eslam is drawn from several of the hostages who came to know him well, among them Daugherty, Ahern, Kupke, Scott, Metrinko, and Limbert, as well as from photographs taken at that time. With men grabbing…walked away, Ahern memo to CIA director, from National Security Archive.

12 Go and Kick Them OutBy midafternoon…swish of fabric, Joan (Walsh) Howland, Limbert, Rosen. Ibrahim Yazdi…out of their hands, Laingen, Yazdi, Khoeniha.

13 Wheat MoldBefore he was…than they themselves did, Limbert. Throughout the residence…and never returned, Cooke, Hall, Queen, Scott, Sickmann, Subic, Persinger, Sharer. After the moment…just a nightmare! Belk, Jones, Hermening, Kupke, Queen, Limbert, Hall.

14 Okay, Go Ahead and ShootThere was to be little…smoking cigarettes, Daugherty—both my interviews with him and his In the Shadow of the Ayatollah (ISA).

15 An Island of StabilityAcross a continent…Delta’s first mission, Beckwith, DF, Burruss, Fitch. Beckwith was northbound…Kennedy interview, Brzezinski, P&P, Carter, KF, Jordan, C, Precht, Powell, Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men (ASM), Cottam’s Nationalism in Iran (NI) and Iran and the United States (IUS), Turner, press accounts (New York Times, Washington Post), Valeriani.

16 Two Minutes of HateMonday morning brought…heavy sleep, Limbert, Asgharzadeh, Rajaeefar, Hashemi, Hall, Parvaneh Limbert. Through that long…sixty-six hostages, Koob, Royer, Lijek.

17 Obviously, We Don’t Want to Do ThisTwo days after…its response, Brzezinski, P&P, Jordan, C, Beckwith, DF, Burruss, Lenahan, Nightengale, Vaught. At a meeting of the National Security Council…“Islamic thugs?” Powell’s The Other Side of History (TOSH). Any hope of the higher powers…and so fast, Yazdi, Tabatabai, Khoeniha. Ibrahim Yazdi left his office…had the imam’s ear last, Yazdi. In his speech that day…willing to negotiate, news reports, Jordan, C, Brzezinski, P&P, Valeriani. As Hamilton Jordan…angry Americans, Jordan, C.

18 Yes, and This Is for YouThe hostages at the embassy…save his life, Belk, Hohman. As the students scrambled to organize themselves…if it came to that, Morefield, Hashemi. Bob Ode, the eldest of the hostages…“this is for you,” Ode, Sickmann. In the first week of confinement…they were being interrogated, Limbert. Bruce Laingen…making circles, Laingen, Tomseth, New York Times, Washington Post accounts, TV news tapes from the Carter Center.

19 George LambrakisHaving accomplished…significant enough? Hashemi, Scott (interview and Pieces of the Game), Keough, Sharer, Ebtekar, TT, T444DCT. Overview on embassy operations was provided primarily by Laingen. The role played by Captain Neil Robinson emerged from many interviews. Now an air force general assigned to the NSA, Robinson declined to be interviewed. Vice consul Richard Queen…given a raise without being informed, Queen (interview and IO). Kathryn Koob walked…she told them, Koob (interview and Guest of the Revolution [GR]). Al Golacinski was questioned about his watch…torture and interrogation, Golacinski. John Limbert was questioned…“ten years old at the time,” Limbert. Those interrogated…of the takeover, Hall. Many of those sessions…suited him fine, Golacinski. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Dave Roeder…led him back upstairs, Roeder, Ebtekar, Hashemi. If they had a hard time…where he would spend the next five months, Metrinko, Joan (Walsh) Howland.

20 “R” DesignationDespite their clumsy and sometimes comical methods…he pleaded, Daugherty, National Security Archive. The students realized soon enough…he was told, Ahern.

Part Two

Den of Spies

1 We Don’t Have the Shadow or Superman Videotapes of TV news coverage from the Carter Center Library, news reports.

2 Forgive Me, Oh, ImamOn a chilly Thanksgiving…a long time, Quarles, Maples, news reports. Quarles, Maples, and Gross…certain as a spy, Ebtekar (interview and TT), T444DCT. Joan Walsh…to freedom, Joan (Walsh) Howland. The release…“determined to avoid,” videotapes of news reports, including the 60 Minutes interview with Khomeini from the Carter Center Library, news reports, Powell.

3 Only Whores Go Without UnderwearAs winter settled over…an irregular schedule, the Mushroom Inn description and changing of the guards is drawn from my interviews and the Wells interviews, Queen, IO, and Scott, PG. Golacinski’s group…moved to a new spot, Golacinski, Roeder. Richard Queen…claim of importance, Queen (interview and IO), Hall, Lijek. The two remaining female hostages…Swift was taken away, Koob.

4 World-Devouring GhoulsPerhaps because…“Richard Owen,” Queen (interview and IO). Thirty-three hostages…five days after the takeover, news reports, Brzezinski, P&P, Carter, KF, Vance’s Hard Choices (HC). The first big session…photos in his pocket, Rita Ode, Dorothea Morefield, Penne Laingen, Barbara Rosen, DH, Shaplen (The New Yorker, June 2, 1980). For his part…pure capitulation, Brzezinski interview. At a foreign policy breakfast…the response would be swift and harsh, Brzezinski, KF, Jordan, C, TV news tapes from the Carter Center, Carter, KF, Moses’s Freeing the Hostages (FTH).

5 Davy Crockett Didn’t Have to Fight His Way In Burruss, Fitch, Schoomaker, Beckwith, DF, Ishimoto, Kyle’s The Guts to Try (GT), Nightengale, Holloway Commission.

6 The Corrupt of the Earth Limbert, Kupke, Graves, TW, The Spy Den Documents.

7 The Largest Thefts and Exploitations in HistoryIt would be hard to tell…he would never recover, news reports. Carter was considering…said Brzezinski, Moses, FTH, National Security Archive, TV news tapes from the Carter Center and the Morefield family. Carter was furious with the network…dare to assert control, Powell, Lenahan, Nightengale. House Speaker…“horseshit,” news reports, Nightengale, Burruss. Given the bewildering variety…condemn Carter and the American government, AP. When the shah attempted to…political weight, The Iran Hostage Crisis, a Chronology of Daily Developments, Jordan, C. At the White House…underscore his impotence, Carter, KF, Jordan, C, Brzezinski, P&P, memo obtained from the Carter Center Library. In a series of speeches…toward military action, Tehran Times. The president was briefed daily…left dark, Carter, KF.