The Hostage Rescue Attempt In Iran, April 24-25, 1980

The Hostages Finally Arrive Home in the United States!

The following is an excerpt from the Tuscon Weekly

"Hostages Reveal Iran Torture.

"The emancipated hostages told of beatings and other atrocities at the hands of the Iranian captors today as they telephoned their loved ones back home.

"One said ... he was told by Iranian interrogators ... that his mother had died. He didn't learn that she was still alive until the freed captives reached Germany this morning.

"As they began a stay of several days at a U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, most of the 52 hostages talked with their families for the first time in 445 days. ...

"Col. Leland Holland, 53, security chief of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran ... 'spent a month in what he called the
"dungeon" and said his captors were S.O.B.s,' said the colonel's mother. 'He said his house was ransacked and
everything taken, including his watch and rings. They took all the furniture and clothes.'

"A spokesman for the family (of Duane 'Sam' Gillette) said: 'His treatment was at times disgusting. I think President
Reagan was polite when he termed the Iranians barbarians. We know that his letters were covering up what the real
situation was. There was no physical torture, but there was psychological pressure. The food wasn't good and the
conditions were very poor.'

"And the family of Malcolm Kalp said ... 'He told us he was beaten by them and placed in solitary confinement because of his escape attempts.' He served from 150 to 170 days in solitary. ...

"Returnee David Roeder, 40, of Washington, D.C., said, 'I've never been so proud to be an American in all my life.' ...
"Outside the hospital ... the crowd ... broke into a chant of 'U.S.A., U.S.A.' Only 12 hours and nine minutes earlier, the two women and 50 men hostages flew out of Iran on an Algerian jet to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' jeers of 'Down with America' and 'Down with Reagan.' ... "

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Iowan drew on faith during hostage ordeal

Posted March 13, 1999

By James Q. Lynch

Gazette Northeast Iowa Bureau

WAVERLY -- The 444 days she spent as a hostage in Iran may define Kathryn Koob in the eyes of others, but she doesn't think of the ordeal often.

"I think about it when I'm asked," she said at a press conference Friday at Wartburg College. "It's a part of my life."

She has been able to move on from the hostage experience that began almost 20 years ago because her faith allowed her to cope with the situation at the time, Koob said. Isolated from the 50 other hostages, she drew on the faith she learned growing up in an "orthodox Lutheran" household in Eastern Iowa.

"Without that faith, I don't know what I would have done," Koob said. "It never occurred to me not to use that faith, the strength that I had been told would be there when I needed it."

She accepted her captivity as a challenge, "something I could not change, but had to learn to live with."

"I didn't like it, but told myself that with the help of God I'll get past it," she said.

As a result, Koob said, she was able to leave her anger behind in Iran along with her ice skates and some of her favorite recordings.

In spite of her experience there, Koob is encouraged by diplomatic efforts to re-establish links between Iran and the West.

Apart from a visit to the United Nations last year, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's visit to Italy this week was the first an Iranian leader has made to a Western nation since the 1979 Islamic revolution installed the rule of the clergy in the country.

Student leaders of that revolution took control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 and held Koob and her colleagues hostage.

"I had hoped we could recognize our differences even sooner," she said about the diplomatic efforts. "But perhaps slower is better.

"However angry we might be about the hostage crisis, Iran is a country full of wonderful people, intellect and culture, and should be a part of the world community," Koob added.

Terrorists still take hostages, but Koob came to Wartburg in Waverly, where she now lives, to talk about other forms of terrorism. She spoke at her alma mater on "Terrorism: Antecedents and Present Action."

"What we're looking at now is narco-terrorism, bio-terrorism, cyber-terrorism and nuclear terrorism," she said. "In these cases, the threat is the terror.

"There is much more reason to be worried about bio-terrorism than even a small group of terrorists with a bomb," she said. "The threat is much, much larger."

She called on federal, state and local governments to prepare responses to these new forms of terrorism. The same resources and effort applied to studying nuclear war scenarios must be applied to preparing to respond to the new threats of terrorism, she said.

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The Daily Princetonian

Monday, October 18, 1999

Founded 1879 - Online since 1997 Kennedy '52 relates details of months as hostage in Iran

By KATY ZANDY

Imagine spending 444 days wondering every waking moment whether or not you would live another hour. For Moorhead Kennedy '52, this nightmarish scenario became a reality in 1979.

Kennedy spoke last night about his experience as a U.S. embassy employee during the Iran hostage crisis as a part of the '02-'52 lecture series.

In the speech, he described the final days before a group of young Iranians stormed the embassy compound in Tehran, his days of captivity and a few of his thoughts in hindsight.

Kennedy was introduced to an audience of about 90 in the Rockefeller College common room by his classmate, Hal Saunders '52, who was assistant secretary of state at the time of the crisis. Kennedy's wife, Louisa Kennedy, also added her perspective on the experience.

Cut off Saunders described hearing the final words in Washington from embassy officials before contact was cut off – "we're going down now" – and defended the decision to not pull personnel out of Iran before the crisis.

Following him, Kennedy said, "The decisions that Hal and his superiors made were not all perfect, but they worked, and the proof is that you now have a speaker."

Kennedy related the apprehension that he felt in the days before the crisis, as the embassy began to realize that a serious conflict was almost upon them.

In particular, Kennedy recalled the prediction he heard just before the crisis from a Marine guard at the embassy. "Man, we're going to have an Alamo," the soldier said.

Kennedy went on to describe the denial that he experienced during the early stages of being a hostage. He slept in one bed with two other men, wearing his suit jacket and tie because he believed that he would be released any minute.

His wife echoed his initial feeling of denial. "In any crisis, you're going to find a moment where you accept it. If you're wise, you find ways to normalize it. This took time for the families to get used to," she said.

In reaction to the crisis, she volunteered for the State Department and formed the Family Liaison Action Group, which raised money for medical and psychiatric help for the families of the hostages.

After Kennedy spoke about her experience during the crisis, her husband finished the story of his captivity – replete with its moments of terror.

"When you are overcome with fear, your legs begin to twitch," he said. "You live on every thread of evidence, often wrong, and often reaching the worst conclusion."

At the beginning of his captivity, Kennedy said he was held in the American embassy in Tehran. However, after President Jimmy Carter ordered a helicopter rescue that ended in failure, the hostages were spread out over the country.

There was a long period of waiting after the rescue attempt where he was moved frequently, but saw little progress toward a resolution. Finally, a guard walked into Kennedy's room and said, "OK, let's go."

"Our hearts stopped," Kennedy recalled. "We said, 'Go where?' And he said, 'Home.' "

This is a photo of what the Iranians did to the dead Americans who took part in the rescue attempt. This is a shot of an Iranian man taking his knife to one of the bodies. He eventually took off the head of the dead American. This is a barbaric act, but it is not as crude as the next photo, taken of someone who is supposed to represent the religion of Islam.

This is a photo of someone who was supposed to be a holy man in Islam. His name is Ayatollah Kalkali. He literally spit on the bodies of our Marines and Airmen that died in Desert One in the attempt. I consider him a criminal, too.

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CAN IRAN BE FORGIVEN?

A dramatic meeting between a former American hostage and one of his captors could be a powerful symbol of reconciliation

By SCOTT MACLEOD

It has been almost 19 years, but the images from Tehran are forever burned into the American psyche. The sudden assault on the U.S. embassy by Iranian students. The angry street mobs shouting "Death to America!" The parades of helpless, blindfolded hostages. Back home, outraged Americans could only imagine the horrors that the 52 prisoners faced during their 444 days of captivity. Barry Rosen did not have to imagine. He was there. As the embassy's press officer in 1979, he was not only taken hostage at gunpoint but also accused of leading a spy ring and subjected to a mock trial. His punishment included months in a barren prison cell, where an always burning light bulb and constant stress made it almost impossible for him to sleep.

The American government has never forgiven Iran for what happened, so why should the hostages? But rather than carry resentment around for the rest of his life, Rosen has decided to make a remarkable gesture of reconciliation. This Friday at a conference in a U.N. building in Paris, he will come face to face with Abbas Abdi, one of the dozen student leaders who planned and directed the hostage taking. As the dramatic meeting unfolds, the former hostage and his former captor will give talks on U.S.-Iranian relations, sit down for meals together and probably even shake hands. That powerful image of healing is sure to be criticized by hard-liners in Iran and by many Americans, perhaps including other ex-hostages. Both men are attending as private citizens and do not represent their governments or any groups.

In interviews conducted by TIME with Rosen in New York City and Abdi in Tehran, they said they were encouraged to meet after Iranian President Mohammed Khatami's call last January--quickly taken up by President Clinton--for cultural exchanges aimed at bringing down the "wall of mistrust" between their two nations. The idea for the meeting originated with Iranian moderates who were friends of Abdi's. They approached a Cyprus-based human-rights group called the Center for World Dialogue, which organized the conference and invited Rosen. Although the two men are still poles apart in their thinking, they welcomed the chance to put the past behind them and help their countries build fresh ties. "I am not naive about Iran, but I think it is important to understand one another's feelings," says Rosen, 54, director of public affairs for Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. "I don't have to forgive and forget. But we are trying to restart this relationship, and this is an important beginning." Agrees Abdi, 42, a columnist for Salam, a Tehran newspaper: "The aim is to contribute to a better understanding and promote a normalization of relations." That is easier said than done.
Plans for a London meeting were aborted when British authorities refused Abdi a visa. He has had to make his preparations in utmost secrecy lest Iran's still powerful hard-liners detain him before his departure for France. Once a fervent supporter of Iran's clerical regime, Abdi was arrested in 1993 and spent nearly a year in prison for criticizing the mullahs' aversion to democracy. Rosen has had to overcome his own concerns. Will a public reconciliation with Abdi create a backlash in Iran against the rapprochement that Rosen deeply hopes for? Or will Abdi somehow publicly embarrass him? While Abdi is ready to shake hands, Rosen is reluctant to commit himself until the moment comes. He hopes, though, that his meeting with Abdi will help "close the circle, close that 444 days." That would bring Rosen closer to a country he loved--and still loves, despite his hostage ordeal.

He first went to Iran as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1967 before taking up graduate studies in Iranian culture at Columbia University three years later. He became U.S. embassy press attache in Tehran in 1978, at the height of the revolution that overthrew the Shah. And he was in the embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, when bearded militants poured over the compound's walls and began the 15-month hostage crisis.
Among those militants was Abdi. In an interview at his spare Tehran office a few blocks from the old U.S. embassy--now a school for the Revolutionary Guards--the Iranian provided rare insight into the takeover and his role in it. The students' aim was to force the U.S. government to extradite the deposed Shah. They genuinely feared, Abdi insists, that the Shah's arrival in New York City in 1979 for medical treatment was part of a U.S. plot to restore him to power, as was done by a CIA-engineered coup d'etat in 1953. Abdi denies that Ayatullah Khomeini ordered the embassy seizure or knew about it beforehand. "The way we saw it, the Imam would either approve of the action afterward or disapprove of it, in which case we would have left the embassy," says Abdi. At 7 a.m. on takeover day, Abdi held a secret meeting with 130 students he had summoned to a hall at Tehran Polytechnic University, where he was leader of the Organization of Islamic Students. He described the takeover plans, gave out assignments and ID badges and told the students to head, one by one, to the embassy, where they would meet up with recruits from other universities. As hundreds thronged into the compound, Abdi's task was to seize the embassy's visa offices while others handled the main building and the ambassador's residence. According to Abdi, the restraint shown by U.S. Marine guards may have averted a bloodbath. Had they shot and killed any of the students, he says, he and other leaders planned to depart and leave the compound to be engulfed by the mob.

Abdi says he never guarded the hostages and has no recollection of meeting Rosen personally. The Iranian still justifies taking the prisoners as a defense against a potential U.S.-backed coup d'etat, holds American support for a despotic ruler partly responsible for provoking the students and tends to downplay the ill treatment of the hostages. However, Abdi echoes the conciliatory words spoken by President Khatami. "No one likes hurting others," Abdi says. "The Iranians regret what the hostages and their relatives endured." He adds that he can understand why Americans felt that hostage taking was wrong.

Rosen flatly rejects the notion that the students' ends justified the means: "It is very dangerous when you cross that moral line." But he sympathizes with Iranian complaints about U.S. support of the Shah's repressive regime. "There is a moral and ethical question that Americans have to face up to," Rosen says. "The Shah served the purpose of stability in the region. But we should have been much more aware of and sensitive to what was going on inside Iran, whether it was human-rights violations or lack of political growth." If that sort of exchange is heard this week in Paris, conference director Eric Rouleau will judge the gathering a success. "We thought this meeting could contribute to a better understanding," says Rouleau, who witnessed the hostage crisis firsthand as a correspondent for the French daily Le Monde. "There are people in both countries who would like to turn a page of history, a page that was very painful." Rosen and Abdi may already have begun writing the next chapter.

--With reporting
by Henry Schuster/CNN web site address :
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/980803/world.can_iran_be_forgiv10.htm l

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Former U.S. hostage meets his Iranian captor

Men shake hands, look to future

July 31, 1998
Web posted at: 11:56 p.m. EDT (2356 GMT)

In this story:

No apologies
Protesters disrupt meeting
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PARIS (CNN) -- Almost 20 years after an Islamic revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed government in Iran, a former U.S. Embassy hostage met face-to-face with one of his Iranian captors.

From 1979 to 1981, Barry Rosen and 51 other U.S. citizens were held captive for 444 days by Iranian militant students upset over the U.S. decision to allow deposed Iranian leader Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, who had cancer and other ailments, to enter the United States for medical treatment.

Other embassy occupants captured when the students stormed the building were released not long after the takeover.

On Friday, Rosen shook hands with Abbas Abdi, who helped organize the embassy seizure. Their meeting was organized by the Cyprus-based Center for World Dialogue as part of a three-hour meeting on U.S.-Iranian relations. Rosen, 54, said the decision to meet with his former captor was one of the toughest he ever made.

"But this platform is not for remembering only my pain or blows to American honor," he said. "Iranians also suffered deeply."

No apologies

Abdi said the students thought the takeover on November 4, 1979, would last no more than a week. The hostages were freed on January 21, 1981. He called the occupation "the most nonviolent possible measure taken ... in response to what the United States had done."

Abdi, 42, now a senior editor at the previously hard-line newspaper Salaam, acknowledged that he was among those who planned the event.

"I could be taken hostage for 444 days," Abdi said. "This I could overlook. "But taking a nation hostage for 25 years," he said, "needs more apologies."

The hostage crisis was but "a row of bricks in this tall wall (of mistrust)," Abdi said. He said the wall's foundation was laid in 1953, with the U.S.-backed coup that toppled President Mohamed Mossaddegh and returned the shah to the Peacock Throne. Rosen disagreed.

"No matter how they rationalize, however, they must face up to the wrong and admit, if only to themselves, that it was unjustified," he said.

In the end, no apologies were given, but the men shook hands and agreed to look toward the future.

"I'm here with Mr. Abdi, because I want to see Americans and Iranians turn that difficult corner away from mutual demonizing," Rosen said.

"The past cannot be altered," said Abdi. "Instead, we must focus on the years ahead and endeavor to build a better future," he said.

Protesters disrupt meeting

The hostage crisis remains a sensitive issue, even among Iranians. The start of the session was interrupted by two Iranian exiles who denounced Abdi as a "mass murderer" and a "terrorist." Both men were forcibly removed from the hall.

Official Iranian attitudes toward the United States have softened somewhat since the election last year of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

Despite opposition from hard-liners in Tehran, Khatami has called for a "crack in the wall of mistrust" between both countries.

There was no immediate official response from Iran about Friday's meeting. However, the U.S. State Department called the encounter "a positive development in the people-to- people dialogue that both nations support."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

 
Browse by Claim to Fame: The Iran Hostages

11 records found

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• Blucker, Robert Olof   b. October 21, 1927  d. April 3, 2003
  Iranian Hostage. An economics officer with the United States Department of State, he was assigned to the US Embassy in Tehran Iran when it was seized by Iranian militants on November 4 1979. Sixty-six Americans were held hostage. Thirteen were released on November 20 1979. One was released due to illness on July 11, 1980. The remaining fifty-two, including Robert Blucker were held a total of 444 days. They were finally released on January 20, 1981. Blucker earned a bachelor of science degree in...[Read More] (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Cremated
   
• Cronin, Elizabeth Ann   b. 1940  d. May 7, 2004
  Iranian Hostage. Employee of the United States Department of State. She was the Deputy Political Officer at the US Embassy In Tehran Iran when it was seized by Islamic militants on November 4, 1979. She and 51 others were held hostage for 444 days until they were finally released on January 20, 1981. She was one of only two women who were held for the entire 444 days. Her assignment in Tehran was a part of a long dipomatic career that spanned from 1963 to 1995 and included assignments in...[Read More] (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery, Upperville, Fauquier County, Virginia, USA
   
• Graves, John Earl   b. May 16, 1927  d. April 27, 2001
  Information officer for the United States Department of State. One of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981 (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Cremated
   
• Holland, Col. Leland James   b. August 2, 1927  d. October 2, 1990
  United States Army Colonel. One of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA
   
• Kalp, Malcolm   b. 1939  d. April 7, 2002
  Employee of the United States Department of State in the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran. One of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. He attempted to escape three times and was kept in solitary confinement for most of the time he was held. He was killed when the vehicle he was driving was hit from behind by a drunk driver. (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Congregation Chai Odom Cemetery (Dedham), Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA
   
• Keough, William    b. September 11, 1930  d. November 27, 1985
  Iranian Hostage. One of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. Served as Superintendent of the American School in Tehran. (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Calvary Cemetery, Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
  Plot: Section 20 Grave 538
   
• McKeel Jr., John D   b. June 26, 1953  d. November 1, 1991
  Unites States Marine Sergeant. One of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. Shot to death while trying to help a woman who was being robbed. (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, Riverside County, California, USA
   
• Moore, Bert C.   b. March 3, 1935  d. June 8, 2000
  Iranian Hostage. A Foreign Service Officer with the United States Department of State, he was one of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Cremated, Location of ashes is unknown
   
• Ode, Robert C   b. December 1, 1915  d. September 8, 1995
  Foreign Service Officer with the United States Department of State. One of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Cremated
  Plot: Ashes interred in Church of the Advent (Episcopal) Sun City West, Maricopa County, Arizona
   
• Plotkin, Gerald Jerry   b. January 4, 1934  d. June 6, 1996
  One of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981. He was the only non-governmental employee amongst the hostages. (Bio by: Erik Lander)
  Mount Sinai Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA
   
• Queen, Richard Ivan   b. 1951  d. August 14, 2002
  Irainian Hostage. Employee of the United States Department of State in the U.S Embassy in Tehran Iran when the embassy was seized by Islamic militants on November 4 1979. He was held hostage for 250 days, but was released on July 11 1980 due to an illness which was later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. The 52 remaining hostages were released on January 20 1981 after 444 days in captivity. He died of complications of Multiple Sclerosis.
  Unknown*
  *Editor's note: Find A Grave is currently seeking additional burial information for this individual. Please email with any updates you may have. Thank you!
  
• http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=pr&FSctf=180