איז דער בילד פון נייע איראנער פרעזידענט

U.S. Pursuing Reports That Link Iranian to Embassy Seizure in '79
By NAZILA FATHI and JOEL BRINKLEY
TEHRAN, June 30 - Two Iranian leaders of the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 dismissed allegations on Thursday by former American hostages that Iran's president-elect was one of their captors. The Bush administration, however, said it took the charge seriously and vowed to investigate.

"Obviously his involvement raises many questions," President Bush told reporters on Thursday morning, referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president-elect.

In Tehran, Abbass Abdi, a former student leader involved in the seizure, said Mr. Ahmadinejad had played no role, although he had wanted to. "He was a student at a different university," Mr. Abdi said, "and we kept the plan secret among our own members who we trusted. He called after the embassy was captured and wanted to join us, but we refused to let him come to the embassy or become a member of our group."

Mohammad-Reza Khatami, who was also involved in the hostage-taking, said he never saw Mr. Ahmadinejad at the embassy. "I don't think he was part of it," he said. "I cannot remember him at all." Mr. Khatami is the younger brother of the departing president, Mohammad Khatami.

A photograph of a blindfolded American hostage being led by a man with some resemblance to a young Mr. Ahmadinejad was posted on various Web sites in recent days. But his office posted a photograph of him in that era seeking to show there was little resemblance. A close aide to Mr. Ahmadinejad, Kaveh Ejtetehadi, called the claims of his involvement "absurd."

Stephen J. Hadley, the American national security adviser, said the White House was examining old photographs and looking "back to see what you have in the files."

In separate interviews, four former hostages who were military or intelligence officers at the embassy and identified the president-elect as a leader among their captors did not waver. Though they shared their impressions, they said they had reached their conclusions independently. One of them, William J. Daugherty, a former intelligence officer, said: "I recognized him right off. When you're in a situation where your life is in jeopardy, where you know your family is going through hell because of what you're in, and your country is being humiliated, you don't forget the people who cause it. I remember so much his hatred of Americans. It just emanated from every pore of his body."

Mr. Daugherty said he saw Mr. Ahmadinejad 8 to 10 times in the first 19 days of captivity, before the hostages were separated.

At 6:45 p.m. Monday, after seeing the picture on the Web site of The Washington Post, Mr. Daugherty sent an e-mail message to three other former hostages, Charles Scott, Donald Sharer and David M. Roeder, which began: "I assume you've noticed that the new Iranian president was one of" - here he inserted an expletive - "who was behind the takeover of the embassy and our incarceration. Not to mention having expressed a determination to pursue a nuclear program that will allow them to develop a nuclear weapon."

Less than 90 minutes later, according to Mr. Daugherty, Mr. Scott, who was a colonel in 1979, responded that he remembered Mr. Ahmadinejad as the man who had dressed down the students guarding Mr. Scott and Mr. Sharer, a commander. "He's not on my Christmas card list," he concluded.

A few minutes later, Mr. Roeder sent an e-mail message saying: "Hey guys, I thought I recognized that S.O.B. when I saw him on TV last night. He was one of the interrogators in the room with Mary the translator when they threatened me with my son's kidnapping." Mr. Roeder was a lieutenant colonel.

Another former hostage, Kevin Hermening, 45, a financial planner in Mosinee, Wis., who was a Marine guard at the embassy, remembered Mr. Ahmadinejad as an interrogator and "higher-rank security official."

Relations between Washington and Tehran remain bitter and brittle 26 years after the embassy was seized, particularly because of American and European efforts to close Iran's nuclear production facilities. The countries do not have diplomatic relations. The Bush administration's response to the allegations is likely to drive the two further apart.

Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Thursday: "We, as a government, are working to establish the facts surrounding this story. But I do want to say one thing, and that is to underscore the fact that we have not forgotten - we have not forgotten - the fact that 51 of our diplomats were held for 444 days, that they were taken hostage."

Student militants stormed the embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, and seized the hostages, then held them until the day President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981.

Mr. Ahmadinejad was a student activist before the 1979 Iranian revolution, according to his Web site.

In an interview, Mr. Roeder, 66, the former deputy Air Force attaché at the embassy, said he remembered Mr. Ahmadinejad working in a supervisory role in one-third or more of the 44 interrogations he underwent.

"The interrogator and the interpreter always deferred to him, so he was clearly in charge," he said.

Colonel Scott, who was an Army military attaché, said, "There's no doubt from the way the guy moves, it's the same guy." Several other former hostages said they did not recall Mr. Ahmadinejad, but added that they did not find this surprising because the hostages were held in isolated rooms.

Paul M. Needham, 54, a hostage and now a professor at the National Defense University who lives in northern Virginia, said he did not recognize Mr. Ahmadinejad. "I remember four specific individuals," Mr. Needham said. "He is not one of them."

But, like others who said they did not recall Mr. Ahmadinejad, Mr. Needham added that those who did remember him should be believed.

"If they say that yes, they recognize him," he said, "there's about a 99.9 percent probability that it is right."

Speaking at a White House news briefing on the president's trip next week to the Group of 8 summit meeting in Scotland, Mr. Hadley emphasized, as Mr. Bush did, that the government had not yet determined whether the allegations were true, but that they would be investigated seriously.

Mr. Scott, Mr. Roeder and Mr. Sharer were plaintiffs in the most recent of several lawsuits that sought, unsuccessfully, to force the current Iranian government to pay compensation for what the hostages endured during 444 days of captivity.

Their lawsuit, brought in 1998 after Congress passed legislation allowing such action, was opposed by the State Department, which argued that such compensation would violate the agreement that freed the hostages.

A United States District Court judge dismissed the suit in a decision that was upheld two years ago by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, but new Congressional action could allow the plaintiffs to revive their efforts.

In the e-mail exchange on Monday, Mr. Daugherty asked, "Does this provide any additional leverage for you all in terms of the Bush administration's unwillingness to go along with any compensation?"

Nazila Fathi reported from Tehran for this article, and Joel Brinkley from Washington. Reporting was contributed by Felicity Barringer, David E. Sanger and John Files from Washington, and Terry Aguayo from Miami.

New York Times