Friday, May 12, 2006
President Ahmadinejad's denial
I have now finished Mark Bowden's Guests of the Ayatollah
The book tackles the question, was Iran's current president, Ahmadinejad, one of the hostage-takers, as several former hostages have claimed? While that may be interesting as a historical footnote, Bowden points out that it is even more interesting that Ahmadinejad has denied it:
The diminutive, bearded former appointed mayor of Tehran promptly denied [being one of the hostage interrogators], and memberes of the Muslim Students Following the Imam's Line [the group of "students" who eventually controlled the embassy and hostages - ed.], clearly encouraged by the regime, held press conferences to help him put distance between himself and the takeover [of the American embassy in 1979].
The denial itself was revealing. There was a time in Iran when any association with the gerogan-giri [the Farsi term for the occupation of the embassy and the holding of the hostages - ed.] would have been a tremendous boon to a politician. In the past, a politician might be expected to exaggerate his connection rather than downplay it. Instead, Ahmadinejad admitted, as I have reported in this book, that while he was one of the original five members of "Strengthen the Unity," the student coalition led by Ibrahim Asgharzadeh that initiated the embassy takeover, he identified himself as one of the two members who preferred directing political action against the Soviet Union and who had backed away from the protest when he was voted down and the United States embassy became the target....
If participation in that once "heroic" struggle in the early days of the revolution is now a political liability to be denied, why does Ahmadinejad persist in his anti-Americanism?
The answer is that the embassy seizure -- while perceived by Americans as, first and foremost, an expression of anti-Americanism -- is now understood by many Iranians to be the means by which the mullahs wrested control of revolutionary Iran from the relatively liberal and secular post-Shah provisional government. The hostage crisis gave the hard-liners an issue with which to demonize anybody within Iran who advocated anything less than the most intransigent opposition to the United States. Eventually, the mullahs arrogated all meaningful power to themselves. This is what many Iranians now deplore. The gerogan-giri was certainly a profoundly anti-American moment, but its unpopularity today is because of the impact that it had on internal Iranian affairs. Anti-Americanism in and of itself remains a powerful political tool in Iran, which is why Ahmadinejad is comfortable bashing the United States even while he runs from any assertion that he plotted the embassy siezure in 1979.
3 Comments:
By 
John B. Chilton, at
Fri May 12, 12:19:00 AM:
For me the logic of this seductively attractive argument collapses when you consider that he is the willing pawn of the mullahs. If you want to disassociate yourself from their rise to power, why would you so willingly and happily serve them and their reign of intimidation and corruption? It doesn't make sense from the angle of gaining public support. It doesn't make sense from the angle of having the endorsement of the mullahs.
What am I missing?
By 
, at
Fri May 12, 01:39:00 AM:
I definitely find it interesting that Ahmadinejad has denied that he was one of the hostage-takers. He must know that a digital examination of the photos will reveal that the ears and nose, all the things that don't change on a person, are still in the same place and there's a correlation to the photos from the 1970s. I remembered him the moment I saw him. In the movie 'Into The Night' starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer, the director John Landis, does a cameo of a SAVAK agent chasing the leads. Landis, before his hair turned grey, was a dead ringer for Ahmadinejad and because Ahmadindahaid's 'look' is so distinctive, I'm sure that's why Landis chose to make the character as wired and twitchy as he did...much like the real life model.
Deny it he may, but that was Ahmadinejad in the photos and it might have some value if that meme could get around Iran. It certainly wouldn't add any lustre to his image, from what you say, though I find the explanation of why he would deny it a bit thin. But then, I'm not Persian.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri May 12, 08:08:00 PM:
An article that offers another perspective on the 'Anti-Americanism in and of itself remains a powerful political tool in Iran' idea.
"We should consider, for instance, the fact that the Iranian population remains one of the most pro-American in the Middle East. With the huge cohort of the 30-and-under generation, restive against the strictures of the reigning mullahs, there's much to work with for American public diplomacy if only we can find the right formula. It is also fairly clear that we will lose that strategic advantage the moment American bombs start hitting Iranian targets."
From: http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com/2006/05/engaging-iranians.html
