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Hostage Crisis Resolved
University Daily Kansan, January 19, 1981
Delighted, excited families await hostages'homecoming
By United Press International
Guarded optimism gave way to unbridled relief today for the families of the $2 American hostages with the news Iran had agreed to free the captives.
Oh my God! Oh my God! I can't believe it!" cried Agnes Moorehead Kennedy, 73 of New York. She is the mother of Moorehead Kennedy, a State Department economic and commercial officer taken captive in the U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran 14 months ago.
"I'm very glad this happened finally," said Jake Riggett, a staffaff. Ariz, the son of hostess John Grawey.
"I can't believe! I'm so filled with happiness I
n't believe it! We've waited long. I'm too
much!"
Greeves said he had no plans to travel to Greece to meet his father but planned to wait in Athens until they could see each other.
"It's going to be three or four days at least," he predicted.
Jeff Needham of Bellevue, Neb., brother of hostage Paul Needham, exclaimed, "this is it all over." after the state department called him to report that a. m. EST to tell them of the latest developments.
Lia Moeller said it will be "the greatest moment of my life when I see my little girls with
Ms. Moeer, wife of hostage marine STG. Michael Moeer of Loup City, Neb., said she wants to telephone her husband as soon as before deciding whether to meet in West Germany.
Dorstein Morefield, wife of Consul General Richard Morefield, told reporters at her San Diego home that for the first time "in months and months and months" she didn't have a headache.
"It's a glorious feeling," she said. "It's not a note to make, it's a time to feel. The weight's been on you."
Mrs. Morefield's young son, Kenneth, held both hands to her shoulders as they gathered around the television to watch the president's address.
"I got what I wanted for my birthday," said Kenneth, who will turn 15 Wednesday.
"As soon as I become rational and sensible again, I've got to make plans to go to Washington," said Carol Elledge of Kennewick, Wash., sister of army warrant officer Joseph Hall. "I just can't hardly wait to see something of them."
Mary Tarbell of Erie, Pa., sister of hostage
Col. Charles Scott of Atlanta, said she's "numb" from the news.
"I'm real happy. But I don't want to say a whole lot until he's out," she said. "Like President Carter has said, we want to see him out before we say much."
"Now we are ready for him to come home. Now there is a yellow ribbon tied around an old oak tree."
Paul J. Keough of Natick, Mass., brother to William Keough, former superintendent of the
Tehran American School, said today's news is "a culmination of a lot of wishes and prayers of a lot of people we know" + added he doesn't think the deal will fall through at this point.
In Passandae, Calif., the Rev Earl Lee and his wife have an affair, and he himself to believe in the 443 day order is联
"I really think it is umbelievable," said Lee, "I whose son, Gary, was among the captives." But, yes, I can believe it now. I satisfied. I feel that I am a great and thankful person that it is just about over.
"It is over, but we still want to see Gary on a plane and hear his voice. I feel thankful for you."
"My prayer now is that these men and women will leave behind in Iran all their hatred, resentment and bitterness and come home with a new attitude to life face.
"I really feel prized joy now and it's been a while since I felt that." Mr. Lee said.
Richard Hermening of Cudah, Wis., was almost sleeechless after hearing the good news.
"I don't know what to say except that I'm glad it has finally come to an end," said Hermening, father of Kevin Hermening. "It's only a matter now before they're on a plane and flying out."
Hermenning sat all day Sunday with a bottle of champagne on a table in front of him, waiting for word. Asked whether he had opened it yet, Hermenning said, "No, I just got up at 3 (am CST). I thought about it but I have to wake up a little bit to do that."
In Krakow, Mo., the family of hostage Marine
Kristen Dickmann opened a bottle of
champagne, William.
Matti Jones of Detroit, whose husband,
she and her two children, is survived by
his four children, still alive.
"Well, we're very, very happy," she said. "There is good news this morning. This is the first time (our) hopes were really realized. It's marvelous."
the Sickman family, said, "They are jubilant about what is going on."
A spokesman for the suburban Detroit family of hostage Joseph Subick Jr. said the 24-year-old hostage's parents "believe for the first time it's the real thing."
In communities across the country Sunday,
relatives and friends of the hostages gathered for
the funeral service in a small cemetery.
About 300 people gathered in the tiny town square in Mount Pleasant, Pa., to pray for the victims.
"I tell you, I've never seen so many people cry for joy," Mayor Bill Potoka said. He promised that once Mile is released the town will "the largest parade this area has ever seen."
Other families of hostages reacted happily to the U.S.-Iran agreement.
The parents of hostage Johnny McKeel were waiting beside the fireplace when the phone rang at 3:20 a.m. at their Balch Springs, Texas, home. After a short conversation with an undersecretary of state, Wynna McKeel grabbed her husband and walked outside with her husband, Johny Sr.
Robert Hohman, father of hostage Donald Hohman, came to his door today smiling, with tears in his eyes and a "Free the Hostages" pin on his shirt. "I'm not official. I'm grateful for what Carter has done."
After the State Department phoned Ernest and Susan Cooke in Memphis, Tenn., with the news about their son Donald, they unorked chambers before they were cooking throughout the night on the patio.
Cooke pulled two yellow ribbons from his lapel and crushed them. They had said "Release the Labels."
They stood in the light rain, tying the ribbon around their oak tree.
"There. Now we are ready for him to come home. Now there is a yellow ribbon tied around an old oak tree," she murmured as her voice broke.
Hostage spotlight shined on Lawrence after Forer's Iranian criticisms, trips
Staff Reporter
Bv LINDA RQSEWICZ
Fever refused to comment on the hostage release early this morning. Dillingham could not help himself.
The Iranian hostage situation became a local issue soon after the embassy takeover when Norman Forer, KU associate professor of social welfare, and Clarence Dillingham, then minister for security, led Tehran in December 1979 in an unofficial attempt to resolve the crisis.
Forer and Dillingham went to Iran representing the Committee for American-Iranian Crisis Resolution, a group of Lawrence citizens and KU faculty members who supported the Iranian revolution and condemned the regime of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Their mission was not approved by the State Department or by KU.
DURING THEIR stay in Tehran, the two staff members met with the Iranian militants at the U.S. Embassy and made public statements criticizing U.S. policies toward Iran.
The trip was not instrumental in the hostages release. However, the two helped arrange religious services for the hostages first Christmas and Easter in captivity.
A second trip to Iran was arranged by Foyer in February 1980 in an attempt to set up a "dialogue for reconciliation" between Iranian and U.S. citizens. Foyer said he was invited by the student militants to resume talks between themselves and a delegation of Americans.
Forer and Muriel Paul, a Lawrence social worker, led a group of 49 Americans from the crisis resolution committee to comply with the formalized conditions between the two countries.
Members of the committee meet with officials
and staff of the council and militant
students holding the hostages.
The group also met with religious leaders that included the son of the Ayatolian Khormeni.
LOCAL MEMBERS of the delegation were Forer, Paul, Linda Burdell of Kansas City, and Lester Jessep, former chairman of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Indians of Mayetta.
Both Forer and Dillingham were suspended without pay by KU for the time they spent in Iran. During the time they were away the two have alleged that their families received threatening phone calls and that libelous statements were made by University officials.
Forer and Dillingham filed suit Dec. 13, charging Acting Chancellor Del Shankel, former Chancellor Archie R. Dykes and the University with libel, invasion of privacy and denial of due process in the action taken against the two as a result of the trip.
FORER'S IRIANIAN contacts arranged for Easter services for the hostages. The first week in April led three clergymen, including Eleanor and Robert, to exhume. Executional Christian Ministries, left for Tehran.
FOREER AND HIS committee were in the public spotlight for the first couple months of the hostage crisis. But Forer then shummed public comment. He went to New York City and helped the families of hostages, helping some plan visits to Iran.
Before leaving for Iran, Bremer said, "When we clergymen go to Iran, we're VIPs. Our role is very much respected. So this Easter service invitation is consistent with their character."
Bremer had said that the clergy could play an important part in ending the crisis because of "the Islamic nature of the Iranian revolution."
"The reckless act of President Carter without the consultation of the American people, their congressional representatives and the hostages" families demonstrates a cynical disregard for the sovereignty and world peace." Forer on the rescue attempt in which eight Americans were killed
Norman Forer
Forer was in New York April 25, 1980, the morning after the aborted rescue attempt. He was working with Mrs. Bonnie Graves, wife of one of the hostages, to plan a trip to Tehran.
"In the face of growing attempts by hostage families and their supporters to achieve a conviction against the release of their loved ones, the government has a campaign of interference and intimidation."
WASHINGTON (UPI)—Following is the text of the statement delivered on national television by President Carter in announcing the signing of an agreement that will result in the release of the $2 American hostages in Iran:
Text of President Carter's talk
"I know you've been up all night, but I appreciate it very much.
"We have now reached an agreement with the American Embassy, in the freedom of our American hostages."
"The last documents have now been signed in Algiers following the signing of the documents in Iran which will result in this agreement. We still have a few documents to sign before the money is actually transferred and the hostages released.
"The essence of the agreement is that following the release of our hostages, then we will unfreeze and transfer to the Iranians a major part of the assets which were frozen by me when the Iranians seized our embassy compound and took our hostages.
"I particularly stress my public thanks, as I have already done privately, to the Algerians, to their president, their foreign minister, (Mohammed) Ben Yahla, and to the three presidents of France," superb job in fair and equitable arbitration between ourselves and the officials of Iran.
"I will have more to say to you when our American hostages are actually free. In the meantime, Jody Powell will stay in close touch with developments, working with secretary of state, secretary of treasury, my friend and colleague Stephen Fowler frequently to Warren Christopher in Algeria.
"We don't yet know exactly how fast this procedure will go. We are prepared to move as rapidly as possible. All the preparations will be made pending the final documents being signed.
that exist between residents of our nation and Iran and vice versa.
"Jody Powell will keep you informed about developments."
Asked as he left how he felt about bringing the hostage crisis to an end during the final week, Carter replied: "I'll wait until the hostages are demeaned and then I will have another statement."
Christopher's real award comes three days later
While halfway around the world in Algeria, where he sought release of the American hostages, Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher was awarded the nation's highest award.
In White House ceremonies the Friday before Ronald Reagan's inauguration, President Carter awarded the medal of freedom to Christopher, a lawyer turned diplomat, and to 14 others, including the state Edmund Miskle, CBS anchorman Walter Crondtile and actor Kirk Douglas.
But it was Christopher, no. 2 man at the state palace, who was given the highest presidential praises.
Carter had a telephone line open to Aligers so that Christopher could hear his words of praise when he presented his medal to the Deputy Secretary's wife, Marie.
The President recalled that when he was in Plains, Ga., reporters asked him, "Of all the public servants, who would you rate the highest?"
"I said without hesitation, 'Warren Christopher.' He said. I am indebted to him and so is the pain."
Warren Minor Christopher, 55, preceded his accomplishments as a diplomat with a law career that began when he was a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Douglas.
Since his arrival at the state department, Christopher often has been called upon to perform some of the most delicate and sensitive diplomatic tasks. He has been on special missions to Southeast Asia regarding the Indochina refuge problem. He was in the Greece-Turkey-Cyprus area of the eastern Mediterranean during difficult times.
And, in a mission perhaps just as sensitive, he was dispatched to Capitol Hill to defend the Carter administration's aid program to Nicaragua. He also held frequent briefings to keep Congressmen abreast of the developing Tehran hostage crisis.
He is known to ambassadors of other nations
as the man who has called them in to give him
bate.
Christopher also called in the Chilean ambassador to tell him Washington was cutting off ald and recalling most U.S. officials from Santiago because of the bombing in Washington of former Chilean diplomat Orlando Leteller.
He told Anastasia Somoa, Nicaragua's former leader to forget about playing politics while running for president.
He told Soviet charge d'affaires ValidsenVaillen that the most concerned over the Soviet building was
His official duties have included the most
important matters in the Carter administration—human rights.
Christopher heads the interagency group that has the last word on any foreign policy decisions dealing with human rights issues. It is called the Christopher Commission.
A former president of the Los Angeles Bar Association, Christopher headed the American Bar Association's standing committee on Federal Judiciary when chosen to become Cyrus Vance's Deputy at the state department. Many years before, when Vance was Secretary of the Army, he chose Christopher as his civilian aide for Southern California.
In 1987, President Johnson picked Christopher as deputy Attorney General. Born in Scranton, N.D., Christopher attended the University of Oklahoma and earned a degree magna cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1944, graduating from Stanford University Law School in 1949.
Release
From page 1
The American people will always remember this contribution to humanitarian matters by the Algerian people and their leaders," Christopher said.
for serving as intermediary in the long negotiations.
Sources in Tehran said there were no demonstrations in the Iranian capital today, contrast to the outpouring of thousands reviling the U.S. invasion and accusing the seizure of the U.S. Embassy Nov. 4, 1979.
Carter had hoped to announce the agreement in a nationwide broadcast late last night, but the complicated task of translating the numerous languages involved in the emergency change took time for all the involved parties.
One U.S. official said that providing spare military parts to Iran was involved in the accord along with unfreezing Iranian assets.
"This is a tremendously complicated business, even if you had two entities, speaking the same language across the same table," the official said.
escrow in the Bank of England for transfer by the Algerians to Tehran only after the hostages "haved cleared Iranian air space," White House chief of staff Jack Watt Jr. said yesterday. Part of those funds are earmarked for repayment of American loans to Iran.
Carter's speech announcing the agreement had been ready since early afternoon when he cut short his last weekend at Camp David to fly back to the White House.
The hostages were to be taken to the U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden for a week or more of "decompression," medical examinations, consultation with psychiatrists and reorientation to accustom them to freedom after their long ordeal.
The State Department has asked the hostages' families not to go to Wiesbaden because their presence may work against the readjustment process.
Iran is reportedly getting $8 billion in blocked Iranian funds and gold. This is being put in
American officials said some members of a 30-man hostage task force, mostly medical personnel, left Washington yesterday afternoon and were in Wiesbaden. Cyrus Vance, former aide to the U.S. Defense Force, resigned last spring after the hostage rescue attempt failed.
Key dates in the hostage ordeal
Nov. 4, 1978: Moesl militants seize U.S.
embassy taking 63 Americans hostage.
Nov. 8: U.S. suspends shipments of military spare parts to Iran.
Nov. 9: U.N. Security Council calls on Iran to free hostages.
Nov. 14: Carter freezes Iranian assets in American banks.
Nov. 18: Khmeliem says hostages will be tried as sales unless shut down.
Nov. 12: oil imports from Iran halted
Nov. 19-20: 13 hostages, women and blacks,
freed.
Dec. 4: U.N. Security Council demands release of hostages.
Jan. 28: six American diplomats hidden by Canadian Embassy three months escape from Iran.
Dec. 15: Shah files from U.S. to Panama.
African Defender U.S. 60 Panama.
Dec. 24: three Greek clergymen visit hostages in embassy.
April 6: three American clergymen pay Easter visit to hostages.
March 6: militants say they will hand over hostages to government, but do not.
April 7: Carter breaks diplomatic relations with Iran, halts trade.
March 23: Shah flies to Egypt.
April 9: militants say hostages will be killed if U.S. attempts military action.
April 17: Carter threatens possible military action against Iran.
April 21: mother of Marine Sgt. Kevin
Scheffler, Mrs. Batha Timms' first and only
relative son,
April 24: U.S. rescue attempt fails; 8 Americans killed, five injured.
May 24: World Court orders release of hostages.
June 2: former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark heads 10-member American mission to Tehran in defiance of Carter orders.
July 11: ailing hostage Richard Queen freed.
Sept. 12: Khomeini says hostsages would be
defeated if U.S. returns Iranian assets and
rebels.
Nov. 2: Iran's Parliament votes to free Washington meets conditions set by Khomineh.
guarantees no military or political intervention in Iran.
Dec. 25: Swiss upstarts say negotiations apparently "have broken down."
Nov. 10: Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Christopher flies to Aligiers.
Dec. 21: Iran demands $24 billion in "guarantees" denoted in Algeria
Nov. 6: State Department pursues indirect Algerian contacts with Iran.
Nov. 27: militants say hostages handed over to Iranian government.
Dec. 25: hostages visited by Algerian ambassador.
Dec. 30: U.S. offers to deposit up to $6 billion in frozen Iran assets in Algeria, with Algeria simultaneously taking possession of hostages.
Dec. 29: U.S. offers to unfreeze some Iranian assets.
Jan. 14: Iran's Parliament approves
international arbitration of claims against U.S.
Jan. 15: Iran gives Washington one day to transfer Iran's frozen assets to Algeria.
Jan. 16: U.S. experts arrive in Algeria.
A billion in Iranian gold and assets to London.
Jan. 18. Nabavi says agreement reached.
U.S. officials cautious but optimistic.
Jan. 19: Iran agrees to release the Americans following signing of agreement by the United States and Iran.