Angry Attacks on America

(3 of 8)

It is possible that any Americans found guilty would be sentenced to prison rather than executed, or perhaps simply expelled. But the chances are that only some lower-level employees would be acquitted. To Western reporters, Deputy Prosecutor Ghaffarpour last week defined espionage as "the gathering of information for use in hostile operations, military, economic, political and psychological, etc., against the Islamic community." That is broad enough to cover nearly all the intelligence-gathering functions that just about every major embassy in the world carries out.

The students holding the Tehran embassy last week provided some ominous indications of the kind of "evidence" that might be produced against the Americans. In a courtyard decorated with portraits of Khomeini, students chanting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great!) publicly interrogated in two groups the 13 hostages who were eventually freed. Secretary Joan Walsh was quizzed about embassy correspondence with Shahpour Bakhtiar, the Shah's last Prime Minister, who is now in exile in France. Bakhtiar asked for material support and intelligence on events in Iran; the embassy denied his request, but expressed a wish to "maintain the dialogue." As the chants continued, Walsh said the exchange was "not normal embassy correspondence," though it seemed quite normal to Western diplomats in the crowd. The questioners implied that the U.S. was helping Bakhtiar encourage separatist movements.

The students also asked pointed questions about millions of dollars in counterfeit American greenbacks, deutsche marks and Iranian rials that had been found in the embassy. They had been brought there by an Iranian, and the embassy apparently was trying to track down the counterfeiters.

Student interrogators implied that the embassy had been attempting to undermine the Iranian economy. "Oh heavens, we weren't involved!" exclaimed Walsh. The English-language Tehran Times, nonetheless, bannered a headline the next day: HOSTAGES REVEAL "PLOT" TO HIT IRAN'S ECONOMY.

Could any of the hostages actually be CIA employees? The U.S. is saying absolutely nothing about that possibility, but all major countries do have intelligence agency personnel that work out of their embassies. It is a worldwide practice, as the Iranians know.

Trials of any of the hostages would be an absolute violation of international law. Accredited diplomats have immunity against being tried by the host country. If they are suspected of espionage, the normal procedure is to declare them persona non grata (unwelcome) and order them to leave the country.

President Carter, who has put aside almost all other business to concentrate on the Iranian crisis, was in a state of fury. He took care not to let it show in public, but he did not conceal it from his aides. "He's in an ice-cold rage," reported one. "That look in his eyes can just chill you solid." Carter reacted to the first threats of spy trials for the hostages by authorizing Press Secretary Powell to release a statement asserting that "worldwide outrage . . . would be greatly heightened." Then he received a full CIA translation of