Nov. 4, 1979-- Iranian militants storm U.S. embassy inTehran

[media]

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- William J. Daugherty puts it mildly when he
says he could have had better assignments in his first year with
the CIA. Chuck Scott speaks more bluntly, calling it "444 days of
sheer hell."
When Iranian militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran on
Nov. 4, 1979, Daugherty of Savannah and Scott of Jonesboro were
among 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.
Twenty-five years later, both Georgians say their experience as
hostages changed their lives for the better. But they refuse to let
it be the event that defines them.
"Christ, it's been a quarter of a century. It's not the only
thing that happened in my life," says Daugherty, 57, who stayed
with the CIA until 1996 and now is a professor of government at
Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah.
"The only way to look at Iran is simply as one of the
assignments that wasn't as good as some of the others you could
have," he said.
Scott, 72, had been an Army colonel heading a 12-member advisory
group in Iran to sell arms to U.S. allies.
Having fought as a special forces in Vietnam, he recalls the
shouts of Iranians yelling "Death to America!" as they surrounded
the embassy that Sunday morning -- and a feeling of helplessness
that was difficult for a military veteran to accept.
"For the first time in my life I had to surrender and there was
no other option. And that meant I lost my freedom and mobility,"
said Scott, who has spent the 24 years since his release as a
public speaker. "Having been in the graduating class of Terrorism
101 ... I have a lot of insight on terrorism a lot of people
wouldn't have and still don't have."
Daugherty, stationed in Iran as a CIA junior officer, remembers
he wasn't too alarmed at first when the militants entered the
embassy, blindfolding and restraining the Americans inside.
The captors were students, in their late teens and early 20s,
and appeared to be unarmed, he recalled. Having served in the
Marines in Vietnam, Daugherty didn't feel very threatened. He
expected to be quickly released.
"It was probably around January or February that I quit waking
up thinking, this is going to be the last day," Daugherty said.
"It took that long ... for it to dawn on me that we were going to
be there for the long haul."
By the time Iran freed the hostages on Jan. 20, 1981, Daugherty
had spent 425 days of his captivity in solitary confinement. Scott
had also done time in solitary, was tortured and three times
marched in front of a firing squad as if he was going to be
executed.
"They dragged us out in the middle of the night, set us up
spread eagle and started going through firing commands. They did
everything but give the command to fire," Scott said. "I started
thinking, we've been through all this and they're just going to end
up shooting us and we don't even know why."
Both men continue to be strong critics of U.S. policy toward
Iran, saying the hostage crisis taught Middle Eastern countries
that terrorism is a viable foreign policy to use to intimidate the
United States.
Daugherty blames Iran, by sponsoring terrorist groups Hamas and
Hezbollah, for the deaths of about 300 Americans -- including two
suicide bombings of U.S. embassy buildings and a Marine base in
1983 and 1984 in Beirut, Lebanon.
"Iranian terrorism has killed nearly 300 Americans ... which is
300 more American lives than were ever killed by Iraqi terrorism,"
Daugherty said. "So whether or not you agree with Iraq, the
country who has been the chief murderer of Americans has never been
called into account for its actions."
Scott also blames the U.S. State Department for helping defend
Iran's immunity from lawsuits filed by the former hostages seeking
reparations from Iran.
In April 2002, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit by the
hostages seeking $33 billion in damages. The State Department
intervened in the case, arguing the suit would violate the
U.S.-Iranian agreements that freed the hostages and damage American
credibility.

"It told me the U.S. government still doesn't understand that
when we set up deals with the devil and see them enforced, we're
playing right into the terrorists' hands," Scott said. "It's
taken more out of me physically and emotionally than the Iranians
were able to inflict in 444 days of sheer hell."