The Storm over the Shah

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The President reserved his bitterest tones for the condition of the hostages, who he said were "bound and abused and hreatened," despite Iran's assurances of good treatment. In private, Carter used even stronger language.* He complained to a delegation of New England Democrats that the Iranian militants were brainwashing the hostages by isolating them from each other and telling them that they had been abandoned by the U.S. The President said that the hostages have not been allowed to bathe or change their clothes, that some have been punished for speaking and that others have been threatened at pistol point. Said Carter: "This is a reprehensible thing, a disgrace to every person who believes in civilization or decency." At the State Department, officials issued a statement demanding that Iran permit a || neutral observer to check on the hostages. Hodding Carter, the dels partment's spokesman, told reI porters: "All the hostages have not been seen, and we have no way of knowing the condition of those people."

According to aides, Carter is also angered by the duplicity of the Iranian militants at the embassy in pretending, as one aide put it, "that they are just a bunch of philosophy majors acting for reasons of conscience." Although the majority of the militants do appear to be students, Washington officials insist that the leaders are veteran leftists in their 30s and 40s, many of whom were trained in guerrilla tactics by Palestinian groups.

At this press conference, Career replied to Khomeini's call for a holy war against the U.S. by insisting that the American quarrel was not with Islam but with the "misguided actions of a few people in Iran." For safety's sake, however, the U.S. ordered that nonessential embassy personnel and dependents be evacuated from eleven Muslim countries, which have become jittery because of the Ayatullah's calls to action and because of the approach of the aircraft carriers Kitty Hawk and Midway to the Persian Gulf.

All week, Washington was awash in speculation that the President would soon take military action against Iran. But U.S. policymakers insisted that the rumors were untrue. General David Jones, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, repeatedly counseled caution; so, too, did the normally hawkish Brzezinski. Said a high Administration official: "Nobody but nobody believes the hostages can be saved with an air strike."

Thus the operative phrase in Carter's press conference was his vow to pursue a "peaceful solution." Accordingly, the U.S. filed suit against Iran in the International Court of Justice at The Hague, asking that Tehran be ordered to free the hostages and return the embassy to U.S. control. The court can adjudicate disputes between nations under a 1961 convention that was signed by both the U.S. and Iran. Court President Sir Humphrey Waldock summoned the 15 judges to a hearing next Monday. He also asked Iran to send a representative. Nonetheless, the suit was largely a symbolic gesture. The court is traditionally cautious and may decide not to intervene in the Iranian crisis. Even if the U.S. were to win a favorable ruling, the court would have no way of enforcing it other than by appealing to world opinion, for which Khomeini and his followers have already demonstrated little respect.-