VIENNA, Austria — Austrian authorities have classified documents suggesting that Iran's president-elect may have played a key role in the 1989 execution-style slayings of an Iranian Kurdish leader and two associates in Vienna, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Austria's Interior Ministry and the public prosecutor's office are investigating alleged evidence pointing to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's possible involvement in the attack, the daily Der Standard reported.

Officials were not immediately available to comment on the report Saturday.

The allegations against Ahmadinejad come as some of the Americans who were taken captive in Iran in 1979 implicate the newly elected leader in the hostage crisis. Radical Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

In Austria, Green Party leader Peter Pilz told the newspaper he wants a warrant issued for the arrest of Ahmadinejad, who he alleged "stands under strong suspicion of having been involved."

story (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-07-02-iranian-hit_x.htm?csp=34)

Ahmadinejad's involvement in the hostage taking is in dispute

However ... there is no question he is a hard-liner theocratic extremist


Link to U.S. hostages fades
By Greg Miller
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — U.S. investigators have concluded that newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not the glowering Islamic militant seen escorting an American hostage in a 1979 photograph that was widely publicized this week, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The conclusion casts doubt on what had been considered a key piece of evidence that Iran's new president was among the leaders of the group of Islamic fundamentalists who seized control of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the capital, and went on to hold 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

A U.S. official familiar with the investigation of Ahmadinejad's role said that analysts had found "serious discrepancies" between the figure depicted in the 1979 photo and images of the Iranian president. The discrepancies included differences in facial structure and features, the official said.

"If there is a case to be made [that Ahmadinejad was among the hostage-takers in 1979]," the official said, "it doesn't look as if it will be done on the basis of those photographs."

The official stressed that the investigation is continuing and that it is still an "open question" whether Ahmadinejad was involved in the hostage crisis. Analysis of the photos was just one of many avenues in what has become a multi-agency inquiry, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

No evidence Iran leader in siege, U.S. probe continues

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it has unearthed no evidence so far to support assertions by former American captives that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was involved in the 1979 siege of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Several Americans who were held have said they recognized the ultraconservative Ahmadinejad as a ringleader. But two Iranians who were leading figures in the storming of the embassy said he did not take part.

"We continue to look into it to establish the facts," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. Someone sent me these pictures, take a look and see what you think... The first one is the new Iranian President. The second one was taken back during the hostage crisis... see the guy on the right.

The world is so screwed up....this all sounds just about PAR to me.

I don't know, i'm just posting the photos...

To me...the verse you quoted at the end of your first post Buttercup....says it all.

To me...the verse you quoted at the end of your first post Buttercup....says it all.

Do you mean my sig?

Theres a strong resemblance but far from conclusive

The hostage taker has a mono-brow that Ahmadinejad does not

the nose is different too

that impersonator that does Bush on the tonight show is a dead-ringer for dubya too ... So ... I'll wait for what the CIA has to say

Well, in the older pics he's outside in the sun and squinting. That's why he looks like he has more of a 'mono-brow'. I don't think the noses are that different. But who knows? I used to have a neighbor whose dad was working in Iran when it happened and I think was one of the early hostages. I'd be interested in what he has to say.

Do you mean my sig?

Yes...I like the scripture.

As far as the pics, I'm with you....I think the ressemblance is uncanny. But like Java pointed out....pics aren't a conclusive science. I just don't know. Either way, it's a real shame. Things over there are just confusing enough without all this surfacing.

Thanks! I like it too, of course. I was reading someone who likes to brag about how smart he is and how he has such a high IQ... that's what brought this sig to mind. :p

I agree with the rest of what you said. :)

That's not him.

This is:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_hostages3.jpg


He even has the same hair comb over the bald spot thing going.

Hmm, well obviously there's some confusion. Someone (i'm sure he'll eventually post on this thread) sent me those first set of pics.

But I did a search, and I did find another pic with the guy circled that you just posted. :confused:

Ahmadinejad's involvement in the hostage taking is in disputeNo, the fact of Ahmadinejad's involvement is NOT in dispute, it is whether the pics they have of the students includes him or not

http://rescueattempt.tripod.com/id28.html

Well, in the older pics he's outside in the sun and squinting. That's why he looks like he has more of a 'mono-brow'. I don't think the noses are that different. But who knows? I used to have a neighbor whose dad was working in Iran when it happened and I think was one of the early hostages. I'd be interested in what he has to say.No, the squinting guy looks very different the clearer pics, check out the photos and comparisons on the Rescue Attempt website page

HOWEVER, one of the Iranians I know insists the squinting guy IS him, but another one I know who worked directly with the Shah says it is not

http://rescueattempt.tripod.com/id28.html

I don't want to misunderstand... so you think neither of them is him, but he's one of the guys who you can partially see in a photo standing behind a hostage?

I don't want to misunderstand... so you think neither of them is him, but he's one of the guys who you can partially see in a photo standing behind a hostage?I am not convinced of which is him now

Before I found the real clear shots of all the group up close, I believed it was the blazer man, he was the closest match from the fuzzy pics we had

BUT, two separate Iranian friends say it isn't him, blazer man, but differ from each other.

One says her sources from the government affirm it is the original one fingered

The other, the former Shah's bodyguard, insists it is the man who is cut off and behind the hostage.

4 Former hostages affirm it is the original man, but I am not sure which photos they saw, the man originally shown has different ears, a different nose than the ow President, and those features are dramatically different, not just closely different.

Some other hostages disagree, though, they knew they had different interrogators coming and going.

This could be a disinformation campaign, I dunno, but the man was clearly involved with the takeover/interrogation/holding of the hostages.

No, the fact of Ahmadinejad's involvement is NOT in dispute, it is whether the pics they have of the students includes him or not

http://rescueattempt.tripod.com/id28.html

It is in dispute ... this guys tripod homepage does not constitute proof

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it has unearthed no evidence so far to support assertions by former American captives that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was involved in the 1979 siege of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Several Americans who were held have said they recognized the ultraconservative Ahmadinejad as a ringleader. But two Iranians who were leading figures in the storming of the embassy said he did not take part.

"We continue to look into it to establish the facts," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

It is in dispute ... this guys tripod homepage does not constitute proofMy sources go beyond the former hostages.

Ex-Iranian Agent: Photo Not Ahmadinejad
Las Vegas Sun ^ | July 02, 2005 at 10:52:25 PDT | ALI AKBAR DAREINI ASSOCIATED PRESS


Posted on 07/02/2005 1:58:46 PM EDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -

A top Iranian former secret agent said Saturday that the hostage-taker in a 1979 photograph that has come under intense scrutiny is not President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but a former militant who committed suicide in jail.

Saeed Hajjarian, a top adviser to outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, identified the man in the photo dating to the 1979 U.S. Embassy siege as Taqi Mohammadi.

Iran's newly elected president has been accused of being a main participant in the taking of American hostages at the embassy. Six former U.S. hostages who saw the president-elect in photos or on television said they believe Ahmadinejad was among the hostage-takers. One said he was interrogated by Ahmadinejad.

The White House said it was taking their statements seriously. President Bush said "many questions" were raised by the allegations.

International media have compared photos of Ahmadinejad, who won a presidential runoff election last week, with a black-and-white picture of one of the hostage-takers, a young man with a thin, bearded face and dark hair that sweeps down across his forehead.


But Hajjarian told The Associated Press they were not the same person.

"This man is Taqi Mohammadi, a militant who later turned into a dissident and committed suicide in jail," he said, pointing to the 1979 photo.

He said Mohammadi was a militant who joined students in the embassy takeover. Mohammadi was later arrested on charges of involvement in the 1981 bombing in Tehran that killed the country's president and prime minister, and committed suicide in prison, Hajjarian said.

Hajjarian's comment follows statements by a number of the former Iranian students who carried out the U.S. Embassy seizure and held Americans hostage for 444 days that Ahmadinejad had no role in events.

Hajjarian, considered the brains behind Khatami's democratic reforms program, is a former top official in the Intelligence Ministry, or the secret service. Both supporters and opponents describe him as the "walking memory" of Iran's recent history because of his access to classified information and secrets within Iran's ruling Islamic establishment.

Hajjarian is one of many reformers who is at loggerheads with the hard-line Ahmadinejad.

He was shot by a hard-line vigilante in 2000 and is paralyzed and cannot speak fluently.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1435369/posts