rohn@randvax.UUCP (Laurinda Rohn) (12/14/84)
> from -Andy Berman > Hints and inuendos have been dropped, by unnamed "analysts" as well > as by State Dept Secretary Schutz himself that the Iranians were > in cahoots with the hijackers of that plane. But the two Americans > who were tortured and survived militantly deny this. They > report the Iranians did indeed save their lives in a brave > storming of the plane. The story that I heard on the news was that the tortured Americans and the pilot of the plane, all of whom said they saw no evidence of cooperation between the Iranian government and the hijackers, were not in the main area of the plane during most of the episode. I don't know about the validity of this, but I do recall hearing this same story from more than one source. The staff and some other passengers in the plane also apparently said that they thought that after the Iranian press people (or government negotiators, or whatever they were) left the plane, the hijackers had new weapons they hadn't had before. If this is in fact the case, I'd say that's some pretty strong evidence against the Iranian government. We'll see.... > It serves Reagan's foreign policy interests well to continue to see Iran as > a devil, a pure evil. But it serves the American people better to > deal with facts as they exist and to make balanced foreign policy > judgements based on reality, not self-serving myths. > This is not a defense of the rotten Khomeni regime, only a defense of > the need to deal with events as they happen, not as someone's policy > might wish them to have happened. All of what you say is true. But please remember that we don't know the facts yet. Reagan probably does want to believe that the Iranian government was helping the hijackers whether it was or not. He may be wrong, but he may also be right. It's going to be a big strike against Khomeni if he refuses to send the hijackers back to Kuwait for trial. Lauri rohn@rand-unix.ARPA ..decvax!randvax!rohn "I told you when I met you I was crazy..."