Americans Held Hostage in Iran Win Compensation 36 Years Later

[IDemo]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — After spending 444 days in captivity, and more than 30 years seeking restitution, the Americans taken hostage at the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979 have finally won compensation.

Buried in the huge spending bill signed into law last Friday are provisions that would give each of the 53 hostages or their estates up to $4.4 million. Victims of other state-sponsored terrorist attacks such as the 1998 American Embassy bombings in East Africa would also be eligible for benefits under the law.

“I had to pull over to the side of the road, and I basically cried,” said Rodney V. Sickmann, who was a Marine sergeant working as a security guard at the embassy in Tehran when he was seized along with the other Americans by an angry mob that overran the compound on Nov. 4, 1979. “It has been 36 years, one month, 14 days, obviously, until President Obama signed the actual bill, until Iran was held accountable,” he said.

The law now stands to bring closure to a saga that riveted the nation and ruptured America’s ties with Iran. The very agreement that won the hostages’ release in 1981 barred them from seeking restitution. Their legal claims were repeatedly blocked in the courts, including an appeal denied by the Supreme Court. Congress tried but failed to pass laws granting them relief.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/us/politics/americans-held-hostage-in-iran-win-compensation-36-years-later.html?_r=0

[Historic NY]

1. Long overdue, sadly 20 of them are gone....

they landed at the airport in my town I have many photos of that momentous day.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. "An angry mob"?

What were they angry about?

[christx30]

3. What the mob is angry about

doesn't matter to the people being attacked by that mob. All the attacked are worried about is getting out alive.
And then being held for more than a year, not knowing if you are going to see your family again? Yes, I think they are owed some compensation for that.

[sdfernando]

4. You must be young....

Learn some history re: US meddling in Iranian affairs in 1050s and the CIA sponsored overthrow of the DEMOCRATICALLY elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh....the seeds were planted then.

Not meaning imply lack of knowledge....just good to know history about these things.

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. I wish.

Just trying to be.... "Socratic", I guess is the word.

I love ( i.e detest) the context-free reporting that regularly attends M$M ( such as NYT) reporting of US vs, Iran and the SENTIMENTALITY and EMOTIONALISM that grips its lightly informed American readership as a consequence.

And it applies to much more than Iran.

But its a problem even Socrates couldn't figure out.

Carry on.

[Dustlawyer]

7. We were told for years that they took our hostages because they were a nation of "crazy people" and

"religious fanatics." What we weren't told was we stole their oil and had their elected Prime Minister hung immediately after the show trial. We installed a dictator who used his Secret Police to murder all college professors and anyone educated enough to be a potential threat. He killed millions of his own people with our support.

When politicians demonize Iran they never mention this of course. I doubt that even they know. They don't seem to be students of history.

[cprise]

9. Its times like this I'd love to pick journalists brains

See how many questions it takes before they start calling me names. Or the other tactic: "Hey! I'm a Liberal but..."

I'm a Liberal but... SQUIRREL!!!

[Festivito]

5. Republicans held those hostages for personal profit.

Freed the exact hour that Ronnie Raygun, er, oh yeh, Reagan, gave his inaugural speech. Much later, the proceeds that came from selling arms to bad bad Iran went to insure that the ONE-PERCENTERS in central America could save their personal holdings so they could become even more rich.
Thanks Ronnie!11!!!!!1!1 Glad your estate can't be sued!!!!111!1!!1 Even better, the payments will come during a Democratic administration!!!111!!11 Sad about your buddies who were convicted::: ((

The very agreement that won the hostages’ release in 1981 barred them from seeking restitution.

Oh yeah, you even managed to put the blame on Jimmy Carter. What fun!!!!11!!1

The law now stands to bring closure

Closure. They get closure. Americans imprisoned for personal profit of Reagan Republicans. We may never know if GHW Bush went over there and made that deal like we now know that Republican Nixon went to squash efforts to stop the war in Vietnam. I'd like to know, but, for now: only stupid people vote Republican or stupidly rich people.

FYI: There is some sarcasm in italics.

[emulatorloo]

11. Well said. Reagan political operatives prolonged their ordeal

Thank you for taking the time to write this up.

[Chemisse]

8. I am confused about why the government owes reparation to the former hostages.

Certainly they should receive their salary for that time period, along with some kind of good-sized lump sum of hazard pay. But reparations? Is the government admitting fault in this?

I believe there was some kind of arrangement between Reagan and the hostage-takers, which prolonged the captivity until after the election. Is this money an admission of this and other wrongs done to these people by the United States?

Please note - I do not begrudge these folks this money I just wonder what the underlying story is.

[appalachiablue]

10. The part about restitutions I don't understand either and why the State and Justice Depts.

blocked the hostages claims for almost 40 years. Kudos to Ben Affleck and all involved in the 2012 movie "Argo". The film was made after the 1997 release of classified US govt. documents about the covert rescue operation of 6 US Embassy employees who escaped the initial revolutionary takeover in Nov. 1979 and went into hiding at the Canadian Embassy for several months as the film portrays. People who denigrate the value and influence of film and visual arts and the motion picture industry are asses.

At a parade celebration for the returned hostages in Washington in late Jan. 1981, just after the horror show of Raygun's Jan. 20 Inaugural, I watched the newly released Americans from a govt. building rooftop on Constitution Ave. Earlier that fall we were in the audience when Pres. Jimmy Carter and his group entered one of the area theaters for a performance of the play "Amadeus" and applauded loudly. That was soon after Carter's Nov. 1980 election defeat to Raygun, a shocking event that profoundly changed the course of US history for the worse. And so here we are.

The Reagan administration's involvement in the Iran Contra arms deal came out later in the early 90s. Years earlier in the 1970s the father of one of our college friends was a physician to the Shah of Iran. While we didn't discuss politics, I know the student was liberal in outlook. During that time when he was in school in the US, his older brother was at Oxford and his sisters and mother managed to get out of Iran's turmoil to Switzerland. But his father was held in Iran after the 1979 Revolution so the family was not able to see him until years later briefly in Europe and he died not long after. The friend didn't talk much about matters at the time.

Prior to the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis there were many Persians at the DC university I attended and other schools so much that our student center was derisively called 'Teheran U' by some. But when the US seized Iranian assets in late 1979 after the regime change those students suddenly disappeared from campus. Many of the them were called home or relocated elsewhere. In the 80s our friend went to California where he joined a law firm and settled.

[treestar]

12. Who is paying the taxpayers

Or Iran somehow ? He refers to Iran being held accountable but it seems the USA is