Newsvine - Lawyer: Iran jails U.S. journalist for spying

In 1979, Iranian students attending colleges and universities in the US thought they were being spied on here in the US by Savak, the Shah's "secret police" which had untold consequences at home in Iran with their families over politics. One spokesperson asked Henry Kissinger no less what might be done who answered he thought there was nothing that could be done. He was out of office then also. I am not sure of the causal "link" to their taking of the US Embassy in Teheran (old spelling then) and the "October surprise" that resulted along with the "arms for hostages" scandal which resulted in the return of the Islamic clergy where before, led by General Schwarzkopf's father in the American Expeditionary forces of the 1930s there had been placed in power secular rulers, which however lead to a very large "secret police". That Schwarzkopf was later put in charge of the Federal investigation of the "Lindbergh baby kidnapping" I read in the newspapers.

Just prior to these events of the past, the more recent now about thirty (30) years ago, the Grumman Corporation (now Northrop-Grumman) had a compound of over 3000 employees just outside Tehran, training them to service and fly the F-14 "Tomcat" of which they had 80 (reported to be 77 recently Washington Post) which I thought I read back then in Newsday, the Long Island, NY paper, was to have been 100 aircraft, mostly built where Grumman was once that island's single largest employer (Apollo LEM, aircraft, computers, etc.) I was sitting with the test pilot of the F-14, Tom Gwynne, his wife and anthropologist had been in Iran, when during the crisis it was announced on a major television station during "prime time" we would blow them all up if the USSR made any military movement for it's own shared border. He said, now with the "Cradle of Aviation Museum" that the plane was well known to them it was probably over the air-to-air missile tech which would upset the balance of power in the world if obtained.

It seems a shame that this woman would be held for spying, which to my mind seems to be what started it all, Savak in the US and perhaps if the details were better known both sides might agree to put the past aside and let her come home. After all Grumman was not the only company there making money, though perhaps the only one with a large compound, according to Newsday.