In Iran, a Hostage-Taker Is Now Hostage
Washington Post / Robin Wright
10-Aug-2009 (3 comments)

Last week Iran's theocracy widened its crackdown from suppressing an opposition movement to putting on trial the very revolutionaries who launched the Islamic republic. This new purge may be more profound politically than the campaign against the followers of Mir Hossein Mousavi: The Iranian revolution is eating its children.

Mohsen Mirdamadi saw it all coming. He warned me about it five years ago. The only thing he didn't foresee was his own role. Last week, he sat in a revolutionary court, dressed in gray prison pajamas, as one of its victims.

I've followed Mirdamadi since the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover. In 1981, I stood below the plane that brought 52 American diplomats to freedom in Algeria and wondered about the type of people who seized, interrogated and brutalized hostages for 444 days. Mirdamadi was one of three ringleaders. Former hostage John Limbert remembers him as "particularly nasty." I met him a decade ago.

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ex programmer craig

Too bad

by ex programmer craig on Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:11 AM PDT

Unrepentant about the hostage drama, he nevertheless urged better relations with Washington. "Once enmity with America was in line with our interests," he said in 2002, "but it is not like that today. Our interests today lie in detente with America."

He needs to stand trial in the US and be punished for what he's done. If I make my living by robbing people and then decide it isn't in my interests to rob people any more, that doesn't let me off the hook for having victimized people in the past.

Since he won't be tried in the US, I hope the Iranians hang his ass. At least then he will have died in a good cause.


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maziar 58

9;10 and lies......

by maziar 58 on Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:37 PM PDT

wasn't late Reagan promise on his campaign to attack Iran if hostages are not home by 1/20/1980 ?Maziar


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faryarm

Karma: Nothing stays the same...

by faryarm on Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:07 AM PDT

Poetic Justice?


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