New Hurdle for the Hostages

Iranian demonstrations in the U.S. could prolong their ordeal

Once again, Iranian students were protesting near the White House and testing the limits of American patience. As several hundred supporters of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini gathered last week in Washington's Lafayette Square, they were pelted with eggs, soft tomatoes and ripe fruit by an angry crowd of flag-waving Americans. "Go home! Go home!" shouted a gray-haired woman. Yelled a teenager: "The Shah would know how to deal with you. He'd have you beheaded!"

Just hours earlier, many of these same Iranians had faced a similar confrontation at the Islamic Center in the Woodside section of Queens, N.Y. More than 1,000 of the area's residents hurled insults and eggs at the foreigners and prevented buses from taking them back to Washington. At a press conference eerily like those conducted by the militants in Tehran, where the 52 American hostages have been held since Nov. 4, the Iranians denounced what they called police brutality during their recent imprisonment. Joining the Iranians in the mosque was Mark Lane, the publicity-hound attorney, who has been out of the headlines since 1978 when he was retained by Jim Jones' Peoples Temple in the Guyana jungle. After police-escorted vans finally took the Iranians from the mosque, New York Mayor Koch exclaimed: "They're not students, they're provocateurs. They should all be expelled! Can you imagine what would happen to American students if they acted like this in Iran? They would probably be stoned to death."

The Iranians had arrived in Queens after being imprisoned for a total of ten days following their arrest for disorderly conduct during a violent demonstration in Washington. They were allowed to select lawyers and to meet with a Muslim clergyman. And because it was Ramadan, the Islamic holy month that imposes fasting during the day, prison authorities established a special dining schedule, serving a meal just before sunrise and another after sunset. Even so, the prisoners went on a hunger strike and some eventually even had to be force-fed.

Ordinarily, the Iranians would have been processed quickly, but they refused to give authorities their names. That, in turn, created another problem: the Immigration and Naturalization Service could not determine whether they were residing legally in the U.S. After being held five days in a District of Columbia jail, the Iranians were turned over to the INS, which sent them to more spacious facilities in New York.

Then, with no explanation, the Iranians last week began revealing their names. The agency was satisfied that the protesters were in the U.S. legally; most are college students in the West and Midwest. All were set free on Wednesday; two who had been charged with more serious offenses were released on bond. While some Iranians immediately headed back to Washington for more demonstrations, others first stopped off at the Islamic Center. None seemed inclined to return to Iran, although White House Press Secretary Jody Powell pointedly declared: "We would be happy to honor any such request."

In Tehran, the militants exploited the arrests of the Iranians in the U.S. to whip up a new anti-American frenzy. Fakhredin Hejazi, a leading member of the new Iranian Parliament, alluded to the U.S. hostages when he warned darkly that "the U.S. will be sorry if the slightest harm comes to our children." Meanwhile, a crowd of more than 100,000 fist-waving Iranians marched to the occupied American embassy to demonstrate on behalf of their countrymen imprisoned in the U.S.

The outburst in Tehran came just when U.S. officials believed that the hostage crisis might be easing. Not only was the Shah dead, but the Iranian Parliament at last had convened; Washington had hoped that that body would resolve the hostage issue quickly so that it could concentrate on Iran's critical domestic problems. Said a Carter Administration official: "We have been avoiding any actions that would flare up emotions in Tehran against the U.S. Now all of a sudden you've got mobs outside the U.S. embassy again."

Administration officials believe that the militants holding the hostages might have directed their allies in the U.S. to stage their demonstration with the hope of landing in jail. This would have given extremist Islamic factions in Iran a cause to exploit and so continue to discredit any efforts by President Abolhassan Banisadr, a relative moderate, to release the hostages. The militants also might be maneuvering to prevent an attempt by their clerical leaders to resolve the crisis. In London, where Iranians have demonstrated against the U.S. and been arrested, Scotland Yard also thinks that militants in Tehran might have been calling the shots.

American officials believe, but lack concrete proof, that the zealots in Tehran have been financing militant Iranian activities in the U.S. The key man is suspected to be Bahram Nahidian, a Georgetown rug merchant who is believed to have access to several million dollars provided by Iran. U.S. law enforcement officials think that the Iranian militant network in this country is in daily radio and telephone contact with the hard-liners in Tehran. Officials even feel that some of the Iranians have been recruited as assassins to intimidate and eliminate leaders of the anti-Khomeini Iranian community in America. The prime suspect in last month's killing of Ali Akbar Tabatabai, a former Shah official, is Daoud Salahuddin, who was once Nahidian's bodyguard.

With little relief in sight from Iranian student demonstrations--and the outrage they trigger among Americans--the White House will continue to face a painful dilemma: How to rein in the Iranian militants in the U.S. without triggering dangerous reprisals against the American captives in Iran?

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