Word: shahs
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...were paraded last week before vengeful crowds while their youthful captors gloated and jeered. On a gray Sunday morning, students invoking the name of Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini invaded the embassy, overwhelmed its Marine Corps guards and took some 60 Americans as hostages. Their demand: surrender the deposed Shah of Iran, currently under treatment in Manhattan for cancer of the lymphatic system and other illnesses, as the price of the Americans' release. While flatly refusing to submit to such outrageous blackmail, the U.S. was all but powerless to free the victims. As the days passed, nerves became more frayed...
Meanwhile, a wave of anger spread across the U.S. (see box). On campuses, Iranian flags were torched and the Ayatullah Khomeini was burned in effigy. In Beverly Hills, an anti-Shah demonstration by Iranian students turned into a near riot, with onlookers shouting obscenities at the Iranians. In New York City, at the close of an Iranian student demonstration, a Columbia University undergraduate shouted: "We're gonna ship you back, and you aren't gonna like it! No more booze. No more Big Macs. No more rock music. No more television. No more sex. You're gonna get on that...
...week's end the impasse remained unresolved. The American hostages, under guard in the embassy, were visited by Swedish, Syrian and other diplomats. Some were allowed to send letters, and 33 reputedly signed a petition supporting their captors' demand that the U.S. extradite the Shah. Khomeini let it be known that he would not be receiving visitors over the weekend, thereby precluding for the moment much chance of direct negotiations for the prisoners' release...
...seizure of the embassy and its staff was an ugly permutation of the acts of political terrorism to which the world has grown increasingly accustomed. Most Iranians detest the Shah for the excesses of his regime, and what they feel was his plundering of their country. Many objected to the Carter Administration's decision to admit...
...called for the meeting of the U.N. Security Council, at which members adopted a resolution expressing concern over the detention of the American diplomats, and he asked several of Iran's Muslim neighbors, including Pakistan, for help. Fresh offers of assistance poured in. The Shah passed the word that he was willing to leave the U.S., leading Egyptian President Anwar Sadat ?who had denounced the seizure of the hostages as "a disgrace to Islam"?to offer to send his private jet to fly the ailing monarch to Cairo. Retired Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali announced he would be willing...