Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Alex Leo: All I Want for Christmas is the Release of 30 Iranian Students - Politics on The Huffington Post

Back in 1979 the "hostage crisis" was started over what former SoS Henry Kissenger was asked (retired?) what could be done about the Shah's secret police, Savak, spying on Iranian students attending schools in the US. He said he could do nothing about it. At the time it was reported that there were 80 F-14s on the ground there that had a compound of near 4000 Grumman employees training the "Anytime, baby" pilots, a cat with two tails. If the USSR made a move for the Iran border in the "hostage crisis" (over US complicity with Savak?) it was announced on the MSM (prime time regular TV) that all the F-14s would be blown up. I was told by the F-14 test pilot that air-to-air missiles on the F-14 were secret and would upset the balance of air power if their technology was captured. One might think the whole situation, (and later shoot-down of an Iranian commercial jet returning from Mecca [or going?] by the US Navy Aegis system mistake, which arguably cost a lot more money more than other airline "mistakes" paid out, i.e., Korean Flight 007, Avianca 052, TWA Flight 800, Swiss-Air 111, etc.) began when students asserted (their right) that they had been abused. I would hope better freedoms would be permitted in this tension increasing situation, a "snowball" effect perhaps. In one of the Wilder/Pryor films ("See No Evil, Hear No Evil") I recall an Iranian student demonstration as part of the film. The patch worn by the F-14 pilot became "Make my day!" from "Anytime, baby!".

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