By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 14 minutes ago
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president-elect belonged to the group that seized the U.S. Embassy in 1979, but he played no role in either capturing or holding Americans hostage, according to friends, associates and a former hostage-taker interviewed Thursday.
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hard-liner elected Iran's new president last week, initially opposed the embassy takeover, although he later dropped his opposition, an aide said.
A former hostage-taker also said, "He was not part of us."
But Ahmadinejad may have been among the hundreds of students uninvolved in the holding of the hostages who nevertheless had access to the embassy during that period.
Five former U.S. hostages said they recognized Ahmadinejad and were certain he was one of the hostage-takers. One hostage said Ahmadinejad interrogated him during 444 days of captivity and appeared to be the students' security chief.
Ahmadinejad, a student at Tehran's Science and Technical University at the time, was a member of the Office of Strengthening Unity, the group of radical students who planned the embassy takeover, associates said.
But he opposed the takeover and was more concerned with targeting the Soviets than the United States, they said.
"At that time, Ahmadinejad had focused his fight against communism and Marxism and he was one of the opponents of takeover of the U.S. Embassy," Mohammad Ali Sayed Nejad, a longtime friend of the president-elect, told The Associated Press. "He was a constant opponent."
Abbas Abdi, the top leader of the students who swept into the embassy Nov. 4, 1979, and took Americans hostage, told the AP that Ahmadinejad was not involved.
"He was not part of us. He played no role in the seizure, let alone being responsible for security," said Abdi, now a leading reform proponent who sharply opposed Ahmadinejad's run for president.
Many students had access to the embassy while it was being held, moving in and out, and Ahmadinejad also may have had access.
During a recent private meeting, Ahmadinejad, asked by a colleague about his role in taking the U.S. Embassy, said he opposed it when it was being planned, according to an Ahmadinejad aide who attended the meeting.
"I believed that if we did that, the world would swallow us," Ahmadinejad replied, according to the aide, Meisan Rowhani.
Ahmadinejad dropped his opposition after the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, expressed support for the hostage-taking, but he never participated, Rowhani said.
Former hostages Chuck Scott, David Roeder, William J. Daugherty and Don A. Sharer told the AP on Wednesday they had no doubt Ahmadinejad, 49, was one of the hostage-takers. A fifth ex-hostage, Kevin Hermening, said he reached the same conclusion after looking at photos.
"I can absolutely guarantee you he was not only one of the hostage-takers, he was present at my personal interrogation," Roeder told AP in an interview from his home in Pinehurst, N.C.
Daugherty, who worked for the CIA in Iran and now lives in Savannah, Ga., said a man he's convinced was Ahmadinejad was among a group of ringleaders escorting a Vatican representative during a visit in the early days of the hostage crisis.
"It's impossible to forget a guy like that," Daugherty said. "Clearly the way he acted, the fact he gave orders, that he was older, most certainly he was one of the ringleaders."
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Associated Press reporters Ali Akbar Dareini and Nasser Karimi contributed to this report.
