Taken

Taken

THE START

The Iranian Revolution in 1979 led to the overthrow of the Shah.  The government was now an Islamic republic under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini.

​​​​​​​On January 16, 1979, the Shah fled Iran in temporary exile to the United States for medical reasons, although Iran believed he was given political asylum. Khomeini became supreme leader by December 1979 and installed an anti-Western theocracy. 

Iranian Revolution, 1979, New York Times

U.S Embassy in Terhan, November 4, 1979, Wikepedia

TAKEOVER

                   Ebrahim Asgharzadeh(left), November 5, 1979,                    Associated Press Interview, USA Today 

"The society was ready for it to happen. Everything happened so fast. We cut off the chains on the embassy's gate. Some of us climbed up the walls and we occupied the embassy compound very fast."

~Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, Iranian Student Revolt Leader, 1979

"We, the students, take responsibility for the first 48 hours of the takeover. Later, it was out of our hands since the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the establishment supported it."

​​​​​​​~Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, Iranian Student Revolt Leader, 1979

"A few months after the takeover, it appeared to be turning into a rotten fruit hanging down from a tree and no one had the courage to take it down and resolve the matter. There was a lot of public opinion support behind the move in the society. The society felt it had slapped America, a superpower, on the mouth and people believed that the takeover proved to America that their democratic revolution had been stabilized."

~Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, Iranian Student Revolt Leader, 1979

“Today's move by a group of our compatriots is a natural reaction to the U.S. Government's indifference to the hurt feelings of the Iranian people about the presence of the deposed Shah, who is in the United States under the pretext of illness."

“If the U.S. authorities respected the feelings of the Iranian people and understood the depth of the Iranian revolution, they should have at least not allowed the deposed Shah into the country and should have returned his property.”

~The Iranian Foreign Ministry; Pars News Agency; November 5, 1979

                     Ambassador John W. Limbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary                 for Iran,10 February 2010

"We had some local security in police uniforms. Whoever they were, if they were actually police, Iranian police or just neighborhood vigilantes dressed up in police uniforms, they melted away. They were not going to confront the crowd."

~  Ambassador John W. Limbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary; 444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage   

"I called the prime minister’s office and they reassured us me that, 'Oh, don’t worry, we’re going to send some help. All these people want to do is read a statement and leave.' I said, 'That’s fine. Let ‘em read it quickly and get out of here before something happens.' I kept reminding them, 'Listen, you are responsible. This is your responsibility. Our safety, the safety of this compound, is your responsibility. If there is bloodshed, if somebody gets hurt, you will be responsible.' That made no impact at all."

~  Ambassador John W. Limbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary; 444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage

"They said that there’s a force on the way or some group on the way to get these people out, and it will be there at any time, very soon. After a short period of time it became clear that no force was on the way, there was none one coming to help."

~  Ambassador John W. Limbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary;444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage