Word: asgharzadeh
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...Asgharzadeh made clear at the time in his frequent harangues to Western reporters, the students were outraged by the entry of the deposed Shah of Iran into the U.S. for cancer treatment. Mindful of the CIA-engineered coup that restored the Shah to his throne in 1953, the students saw conspiracies everywhere, hence their painstaking effort to reconstruct embassy documents retrieved from the shredder. The students had another aim: they hoped anti-Americanism would end the factional feuds undermining the revolution...
...several days before the takeover, Asgharzadeh dispatched confederates to rooftops overlooking the embassy to monitor the security procedures of the U.S. Marine guards. Around 6:30 a.m. on the cataclysmic day, the ringleaders gathered 300 selected students, thereafter known as Student Followers of the Imam's Line, and briefed them on the battle plan. To break the chains locking the embassy's gates, a female student was given a pair of metal cutters that she could hide beneath her chador...
...Asgharzadeh said the plan was to hold the embassy for three days. "I didn't think that it would lead to the deep-rooted conflict with America that still exists," he says. But the students were carried away by public opinion when thousands thronged to what was denounced as the "Nest of Spies." "Things got complicated," he says. "We couldn't make decisions on our own anymore." One problem, he says, was keeping discipline in the ranks. The planners insist that the students were under orders not to harm the hostages, and were dressed down when they did. Asgharzadeh says...
...student militants did well by their exploits, later winning election or appointments to high posts. But their luck ran out after Khomeini died in 1989. In 1991, Asgharzadeh found himself not only removed from his seat in Parliament but also heading for prison for criticizing the despotic tendencies of the ruling clergy. The student militants were again excluded from politics. "The embassy takeover was in defense of Iran's independence," explains Mirdammadi, 44. "But after Iman Khomeini died, the danger was to democracy. Iran moved away from the freedom of choice and expression that had been promised to the people...
Abdi and the others can still scarcely help themselves when it comes to blaming America for Iran's ills. Asgharzadeh says he is willing to say he's sorry if the repentance is mutual, but Mirdammadi disagrees: "I am sure that we will never apologize to America." Abdi is not looking for a lovefest but wants mutual respect and diplomatic relations for the sake of Iran's national interest. As he puts it, "The Americans were a nuisance to us, and we were a nuisance to them. Perhaps now we can talk to each other on an equal footing...