Irascible Iran
RICHARD L. HERSHATTER
Contributing Columnist
hershatter@lbknews.com
My object all sublime,
I shall achieve in time –
To let the punishment fit the crime –
The punishment fit the crime.
(The Mikado, 1885)
Let’s face it—a crime is a crime, whether committed by a skulking individual, or a gang, or a supposedly sovereign country.
Once upon a time, there was a nation known as Persia, famed far and wide as the cradle of western civilization, with scholars and scientists and philosophers that made that country the center of Middle East culture and commerce—the envy of less enlightened areas of the known world.
In 1935, at the request of its government, the official name of “Persia” was changed to Iran, which means “Persia” in the local translation.
Through a series of events too involved and complicated to go into in great detail here, Iran began to lose much of its luster, owing to steps taken by a succession of local governments and actions by colonial powers including Great Britain, and to a lesser extent, by our own country.
In 1979, following the overthrow of an unpopular Shah (whose government had been installed with the help and backing of the United States), an unruly mob, ostensibly made up of students, attacked and occupied the American Embassy and took some 52 U.S. diplomats hostage.
By long custom and tradition, embassies are regarded as a separate piece of the countries they represent; their emissaries have diplomatic immunity from local arrest, and the parcel of ground upon which they stand is inviolate and treated as a sanctuary in much the same way as a church.
If a group of students had in fact violated the norm, it was the immediate duty of the government of Iran to come to the rescue and arrest the individuals responsible.
Instead, the powers that be took the side of the invaders, occupied the embassy grounds and blindfolded its occupants, holding them in defiance of worldwide disapprobation for more than 14 months.
Recent studies have established that Iran’s current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, played a major role in the takeover.
Had someone like Teddy “talk-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick” Roosevelt been U.S. president at the time, the matter would have been resolved in short order.
As luck would have it, Jimmy Carter, one of this country’s wussiest presidents, was in office, and he spent most of the 444 subsequent days wringing his hands. He did make one half-hearted, ill-planned and under-manned attempt at a rescue, but it failed with the loss of lives and equipment.
The election of Ronald Reagan caused the Iranians to read the handwriting on the wall, and without further ceremony, the hostages were swiftly released, without so much as an apology.
Just to be clear, the invasion of an embassy and kidnapping and detaining the American diplomats therein is not only a violation of international law: it is a crime, pure and simple.
Under both U.S. and international law, the miscreants could have been indicted and brought to justice, but it did not happen. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has long since run its course, and it is too late to prosecute anyone responsible.
Thirteen months ago, however, three Americans, two young men and a young woman, were taken into custody by Iran after apparently wandering over the border while hiking in Iraq.
They were charged with spying on behalf of the West and were held for trial, facing a penalty of death, if convicted.
The United States immediately denied that the trio was a group of spies, and it would appear from the facts that the individuals were too stupid to be employed in espionage by anyone.
They were, after all, hiking in the middle of a war zone, in a countryside rife with armed combatants, insurgents and just plain bandits.
Last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian judiciary, after much pressure from U.S. officials and the intercession of the governments of Switzerland and Oman, released the female prisoner on ostensible humanitarian grounds and the payment of $500,000 “bail.”
Iran called it “bail,” but it was clearly a ransom, immediately forfeited to the Iranian treasury. No one knows who paid the ransom, but it appears to have been provided by the government of Oman, which the United States can surreptitiously reimburse, without having violated its own rules against financial dealing with an embargoed rogue state.
The two young males remain prisoners.
The United States has the right to indict persons who have committed crimes against American citizens and take them to trial for their actions. (See United States vs. Panama’s Noriega, who has been a guest of the American prison system for quite some time.)
Ahmadinejad has been in the United States this week for a session of the United Nations. Theoretically, he is entitled to diplomatic immunity, but it is high time that the S.O.B. be taken into custody and subjected to the same rule deviations that his regime imposes on others.
The United Nations bureaucracy will raise hell, of course, but many of them will be secretly pleased, and the rest may be inspired to start behaving themselves as legitimate members of the family of civilized nations should.
And who knows—a prisoner exchange may be facilitated by our friends in Oman.
Richard L. Hershatter is a retired Connecticut lawyer and novelist who writes an occasional column of interest to Floridians. He can be reached at hershatter@lbknews.com.
Lets talk about crimes,
United States conducts operation Ajax resulting in killing of thousands of Iranians. The economic losses to Iran would be in the order of tens of trillions of 2010 dollars.
United States support human rights violations of Shah which result in tens of thousands of deaths.
United States colludes with an honorary citizen of Detroit to invade Iran. The resulting war leaves more than a million dead on Iranian side mostly due to the use of Chemical weapons provided by US and its allies to the Detroit guy. If that horrendous crime was not enough US navy jumps in and fights on the side of the Detroit guy, since this Detroit guy did not have a proper Navy. But anyways, US navy to make it topped out, shoots down a civilian airliner of Iran killing 290 people among them 66 children.
United States supports Alqaeda/Taliban/Mojahedin, who were keenly anti-Iranian, and use them as a proxy to make a new enemy for Iran on the east of the country. These (ex)US allies then over run the Iranian embassy in Afghanistan and kill all Iranian diplomats.
United States takes Iranian diplomats hostage in Iraq. The diplomats who were guest of Iraqi president are later on freed by his intervention, but the process takes some years and so they remain blind folded in a US dungeon.
Tally of Iranians suffering by direct actions of United States: Tens of millions
Tally of Americans suffering by direct actions of Iran: Probably thousands if not less
But ofcourse the Iranian suffering counts for nothing. They are brown.
It is amazing to find fascist ideology still alive and thriving in 21st century. Amazing indeed.
how sweet to turn facts to suite one own interpretation of facts!
were american spies in tehran released swiftly when regan was elected? or after long negotiation thru algeria resulting in algiers accord?
well i dont know what other misfacts you have put in yr article cause i dint find it worth reading to the end
so go on disrepute yourself and fool others in the due process… that how the zionist media works!
I don’t think the write prove a valid point here. Just like the US, Iran as well have a legal system, which has to be adhere, just as the legal system of the US. I don’t think the idea of taking the Iranian president is even legal or intellectual. The two young men, made a mistake by entering into Iran illegally. There are so many people in the US, esp the illegal immigrants that has to post a bail, to be allowed to leave US, or detention center.
I’m not sure, if the writer know, that Iran doesn’t require the 500k bail, I think the writer is just anti-Iran, and the point that he is making is just as if a small baby is crying for milk. The 500k will be return to her, if she meet all the court dates, and eventually follow the process…
I agree, a crime is a crime and whilst the argument put forward by yourself does delve just deep enough to paint a very easy picture for your readers to grasp. I cant help but noticing the ever-so fleeting reference to the Shar. You talk of injustice and you are right, but consider the reasoning behind the actions after 20 odd years of violent oppression from a dictator put into power by a foreign entity. The same foreign entity they lashed out against. Yes they lashed out and continued to do so for 444 days. Though it might be pertinant to ask, how long have the illegally held prisoners of Guantanamo Bay been held? .
The black and white picture of the world you paint is a fairytale that a simple minded buffoon like yourself conjures up to sleep better at night knowing you hold the moral high ground all the while saying to yourself “but I cant stop what they do.” I’m sure that’s just what the disillusioned youth that took those hostages thought, right before they grew a pair and stood up for what they believed in. You sir, are incapable of knowing just what that’s like, but like them I have fought for what I believed in and lost friends in the process. Your words are twisted and feeble, much like the man himself.
Do you know that prior to 1953 Iran was a strong Democracy?
Please read the historical link – http://www.grist.org/article/2010-07-01-how-bp-helped-destroy-democracy-in-iran/
Things get complicated.
Are we absolutely sure the CIA has no operations along the Iraq Iran border?
The fourth paragraph of my column refers to the event that transformed Iran into the theocracy it is today.
As to the possibility of the CIA sponsoring the three young hostages as spies, Heaven help the U.S. if that is the case. We would have been better off with the three stooges or the four Marx Brothers.
Ummm will we then hand Rumsfeld and Bush over for war crimes trials under international law? Will our government be held accountable for arming Saddam with chemical weapons that resulted in the deaths of over 50,000 Iranians? Will anyone at the CIA be held accountable for violationg international law by helping overthrow Irans popularly elected prime minister and training the Shah secret police – all violation of international law? Or do you assume that everone else should abide by the law and not the US? How about all the nun-raping death squads in Central America we have armed and trained? Btw Carter got the hostages home alive, and the Iraniand had struck a deal with Reagan not to free them sooner so Reagan could win the elections.
If you want to see how the CIA does in fact badly screw up go to Google and read up on the events surrounding the kidnapping by the CIA of the cleric Italy. There are now warrants for the arrest of CIA agents in Italy as a result.