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Sunday, May 17, 2009
Root Causes: Recalling Carter's Catastrophic Betrayal of an Ally as Obama Appeases Iran
History worth remembering as Barack Obama prepares to appease the atomic ayatollahs and abandon America's strategic ally, Israel....
Betrayal of an Ally
In 1969, the Shah of Iran, a modernizing monarch and loyal American ally, sent one of 73 Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages to NASA for the historic first lunar landing. The message, which still rests on the lunar surface, says, in part: "We pray the Almighty God to guide mankind towards ever increasing success in the establishment of culture, knowledge and human civilization."
10 years later, the Shah was a homeless refugee, wandering from country to country in his second and final exile.
After decades in power, he had been betrayed by the United States, stabbed in the back by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who threw him under the Islamist bus in a craven attempt to jump aboard.
The craven Carter would not even allow the Shah to be treated in the U.S. for pancreatic cancer. After stops in Egypt, the Bahamas and Mexico, the President, at the request of David Rockefeller reluctantly allowed the Shah into the U.S. for medical treatment. The Iranian regime, which had come to power with Carter's help, demanded the return of the Shah to stand trial; the U.S. refused to turn him over but asked him to leave the country. He left the U.S. on December 15, 1979, and lived for a short time in Panama before accepting an offer of permanent asylum from Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat. The Shah returned to Egypt in March 1980 where he received urgent medical treatment but nevertheless died from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on July 27, 1980 at the age of 60. Egyptian President Sadat gave the Shah a state funeral. 
Islamist Payback
The Shah's death came nearly one year after Iran's maass murdering mullahs repaid Carter for his kindness toward them and cruelty toward the Shah--with a kick in the teeth.
On 4 November 1979 a group of so-called students--led by Revolutionary Guard members--stormed the United States embassy in Tehran taking dozens of U.S. staff hostage. The operation was sanctioned at the summit of Iran's leadership.
Thousands of other protesters pressed around the compound, responding to a call by the country's new leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to attack U.S. and Israeli interests.
Of the 90 people in the compound, six Americans managed to escape to other embassies. Other non-U.S. citizens were released. But 66 were captured, including three seized at the Foreign Ministry.
Jimmy Carter had no idea how to respond. At one point, his chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan recalled, Carter sat down to write a letter to Khomeini. "If Khomeini is the religious leader he purports to be, Carter told Jordan, "I don't see how he can condone the holding of our people."
The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the U.S. military attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980, which resulted in an aborted mission, the crash of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American service members and one Iranian civilian.
The humiliating hostage crisis ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981. The hostages were formally released into U.S. custody the following day, after 444 days in captivity, just minutes after the inauguration of America's new president, Ronald Reagan. 
POSTSCRIPT: Many analysts believe that Iran's present president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, played an active role in the hostage crisis, and that he can be seen in some of the photos of the relevant events. Ahmadinejad is known to have been member of the "Office for Strengthening of Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries" or the OSU, the main "student" group behind the takeover.
Sunday, 17 May 2009
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