Well, he was one of eight children, wasn't he?

All kidding aside, I remember the trial of John Demeniuk (forgive any spelling errors), a Michigan resident accused of being Ivan the Terrible, a guard at Auschwitz. Several former inmates insisted Demeniuk was Ivan. The prosecution even produced some [early] computerized models to show how Demeniuk would hav looked as a younger man. In the end, it turned out that Demeniuk was indeed a guard, but at a different camp. Demniuk's features were classic, so it was likely an honest misstake on the part of the witnesses and nothing more.

So, possibly we have a case of misstaken identity here, but I think not. I'm sure there are many former Republican Guards, embassy hostage-takers and otherwise, functioning in a variety of positions of power and who better for the mullahs to appoint as their front man than someone they know will be absolutely loyal to them.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at June 30, 2005 2:56 PM

They all look the same to me. Doh! Sorry, I tried hard not to type that but what can you expect from an Infidel?

Posted by: Infidel at June 30, 2005 2:58 PM

That PIG looks like a DIRTY DOG!

Posted by: jsla at June 30, 2005 3:10 PM

Maybe Grissom can confirm the photo match.

Posted by: Shy Guy at June 30, 2005 3:22 PM

Enlarged photos side by side clearly revealed him to be the same Ahmadinejad of the 1979 hostage taking at the US Embassy in Tehran.

We have Jimmy Carter to thank as he refused to help the Shah by turning his back on him,thus allowing the Ayotolla Khomeini to take over Iran and send the country backwards over a thousand years as well as creating one of the major financers of terrorism throughout the world.

Posted by: Mackie at June 30, 2005 3:27 PM

Conspiracy theory to the side, the Iranians control who they got elected. And who better to try and incite the Americans then the former security chief of the hostage takers.

The anti-American sentiment from Europe and the middle east will rally around this guy. Yes, I did say from Europe too.

They will view this guy as a man sucessful of standing up to the Americans and winning. This guy is very capable of being the "banner" to rally around for muslim armies.

But it seems that the muslims have forgotten one thing. MSNBC website has a article about the hostage taking and the possible identification of this guy.

The last line of the article sums up the muslim bravery: "the hostage taking went on for 444 days, and had exhausting negotiations, BUT minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President the Iranians released the hostages".

They knew peanut Carter was spineless, but Ronald Reagan would kick ass.

Are they willing to try again under our current administration? Please try it, Oh, please, please,please.

I am surprised that Isreal has been silent on this individual. I am sure they can document exactly who this guy is.

Posted by: alaskan1000 at June 30, 2005 3:31 PM

alaskan:

As anti-American as the Europeans may be, I think they are far more frightened of the timebomb in their midst than they care to admit.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at June 30, 2005 3:44 PM

Spencer,

Keep up the good job!

The journey may be tough but we are all cheering on for you.

Posted by: Hadith at June 30, 2005 4:00 PM

To all,

come join me at this forum to fight the jihadist

http://forum.bismikaallahuma.org:/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=7e625ed440ea2c2af8396b058342a1c3

I have noticed that some of you are pretty sharp in your argumentation and if I could get some of you here to write, it would be great.

There are many Muslims out here.

Posted by: Hadith at June 30, 2005 4:03 PM

It looks just like him, but I just found this:

Another of the hostage-takers, Bijan Adibi, said Ahmadinejad ``was not involved. There was no one by that name among the students who took part in the U.S. Embassy seizure.''

Adibi said it's clear from photos, which show a blindfolded American hostage next to a bearded man of about the same height, that the man could not be Ahmadinejad, who stands at 5 feet 2 inches.

``Look at every picture of Ahmadinejad today and he is at least a head shorter. In this picture this man is the height of the American,'' Adibi said.

who knows?
Rebecca

Posted by: Rebecca JW at June 30, 2005 4:13 PM

There are forensic techniques which will accurately compare bone structure, such as shape of cheekbones and jaw which do not change with age, although the fat layer over the bone will. Also if there is a good photo of the hostage takers ears anywhere, they don't change either, and the shapes within the ear are very individual.

Posted by: Granny Weatherwax at June 30, 2005 4:22 PM

Waterdragon...

Time will tell and I hope you are right.

But after reviewing 42 weblogs in Europe after this story has broke, the consensus 100% has been anti-American and support for this guy. They are even liking him even more, and want the story to be true.

The weblogs are not anti-American in nature.

Posted by: alaskan1000 at June 30, 2005 4:25 PM

can you seriously expect the truth from followers of a religion that advocates, exalts, and celebrates lying and murder in the quest for world domination?

waterdragon52: there is a website for City Journal where i saw an article on the situation in france's inner cities, particularly the cement and steel monoliths that form the french "projects". i believe the title was "Les Cites" or something like that. unfortunately i am not very computer literate or even functional for that matter so this is as much of a heads-up as i can provide;

www.city-journal.org

Posted by: t-ham at June 30, 2005 4:28 PM

alaskan:

42 weblogs is certainly a lot of weblogs from which to draw a concensus, but it doesn't follow that these are representative of the broader population, which probably resents the threatening lumpen mass in its midst.

Actually, it might be more revealing to find out how many European Europeans are seeking to immigrate to North America. A story not long ago in the Toronto Globe and Mail spoke of Dutch immigration to Canada. I think there would be more than a little irony if there is a quiet exodus to the apparently despised US by Europeans who are sickened by what is happening in their cities, when I hear all the time of Americans wanting to move to Canada because they don't like Dubya.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at June 30, 2005 4:36 PM

waterdragon52: found it-City Journal, autumn 2002

"the barbarians at the gates of paris" by theodore dalrymple

Posted by: t-ham at June 30, 2005 4:39 PM

Alaskan, I'm with you on Dhimmi Khadr (Jimmy Carter's new name) being spineless and his presidency an all-around disaster. Well, maybe, if we're willing to re-examine the era and distill its lessons, the chilling one might be that the USA has dug itself so deeply into the imperial role that it simply can't get out without a great deal of national pain. After all, Khadr wanted to show the world that the USA was also "just one of the boys" and called quits in the Cold War--with the result that the Soviets gobbled up swathes of Africa and planted their feet firmly on the Central American mainland.

But I'm still of the mind that Iran's a good reason why US policy should let the Muslim world stew in its own juices. At the end of World War II, the Soviets tried to detach parts of northern Iran, and we spoke strongly against it. In the early 1950's, Mossadeq won power by playing footsie with the same Communists who had served the Soviets a few years before, and got himself deposed in a US-backed coup. Perhaps it was morally and legally wrong for us to back a coup then, perhaps it was justified on geostrategic principles. Either way, we became the "bad guys" in Iranian eyes for it, and paid the price in 1979--with everyone forgetting that it was Mossadeq's darling Tudeh friends who had served the superpower that actually sought to annex Iranian territory while they waved his picture to tell the Shah they remembered how he got back into power when young.

This election convinces me that the Iranian dissidents who tells us how much they love America are simply fishing for money. If the mullah-ocracy was so damned unpopular, the Iranian people would've elected someone else.

If we wake up one morning to see Mr. Hostage-taker's fly-beswarmed head on a pike in the middle of Tehran and a bunch of mullahs under arrest while a new Iranian government starts sending compensation checks to the ex-hostages on its own, then I'll believe there's a sea-change in Iran. Not before. But, in the meantime, keep 'em at arm's length, and let them know that there will be an ICBM targeting any nuclear installation they set up, and that it will fly should they try anything.

Posted by: Kepha at June 30, 2005 4:46 PM

Don't forget that the Soviets took full advantage of Carter's craven weakness and drove into Afghanistan, thus spawning the Mujahadeen and UBL -- We have Carter to thank for all the jihadi successes in the horrible aftermath... Weakness and appeasement in the face of fascism will ALWAYS bring more suffering in the long run than confrontation. Confrontation can take the form of Cold War containment, or out and out butt kicking as we see in Afghanistan or Iraq. When the Iranians chanted "Death to Carter" I couldn't totally find fault with their position...

Posted by: jsla at June 30, 2005 5:00 PM

Kepha: This election convinces me that the Iranian dissidents who tells us how much they love America are simply fishing for money.

The majority of Iranians are under the age of 25. They have no memory of what happened under the Shah, or what the revolutionaries did to the American Embassy. All they have is what they see of their corrupt theocrats, and what their blinkered media tells them.

Iranian youth is pro-American if only to the degree they are against the entrenched theocrats. The ayatollahs have raised up a generation of anti-clericalists.

Posted by: Loxias at June 30, 2005 5:01 PM

I have some experience (some 3 years) in this sort of game, so here it goes:

- the noses are different (the guy in the recent pic has a bigger nose, but then again the size of the nose increases with the ageing process)

- similar browridges
- similar lips
- both appear to have same headshape (dolichocephalic) and a similar cephalic index
- I can even find some similarities in both guys' cheekbones

Conclusion: at a first glance, I felt tempted to say that those guys were not the same man, but after a careful observation I would say that yes, they are the one and the same.

However, I think that the testimonies of the hostages themselves are a lot more trustworthy than those poor quality pictures. I seriously doubt that those pics would be worth a dime in a court of law, their resolution is too poor.

Posted by: alex221166 at June 30, 2005 5:16 PM

alex221166:

One of the cable news stations was able to reproduce a high quality image of the noted black and white photo (possibly digitally remastered) and then place it next to a current photo of the Iranian president about the same size. Every unique distinction came easily into play. It was clear to me that both men are one in the same after 26 years.

Posted by: Mackie at June 30, 2005 5:32 PM

I believe the testimony of those who were hostages. It was a period of time that I believe none of them will ever forget - nor the faces of those who were holding them

Posted by: Beth at June 30, 2005 6:12 PM

I say close but no ringer. Saw a close up of the two on TV today, the eyebrows and brow ridges do not appear to be the same and the shape of the lips are also different. A forensic expert should be able to make a correct call in a nano second though. But does it really matter, the whole damn leadership of that country comes out the same damned evil cesspool.

Posted by: krkrjak at July 1, 2005 12:49 AM

As much as I hate the Islamic scum, I have to say that this is not the same person. But if I you were to compare the souls, the thoughts and the intentions of the two, you'd get a perfect match.

Jihadist scum.

Posted by: angry_kafir at July 1, 2005 9:16 AM

He looks a little, ....ugh....no ... a lot.....like Pinocchio, only his nose is much much bigger,.... I mean not much much bigger.......really gigantic much bigger, ....ugh, I mean colossally gigantically much bigger. In short a real pecker head.

Posted by: WOG at July 1, 2005 9:33 AM

It's not the same man. Look at the bone structure-- the eye sockets the shape of the eyebrows the growth pattern of his beard. They are not images of the same man. He could be related to him however because the overall shape of the face is very similar as is the lower lip.

Posted by: Kemaste at July 1, 2005 10:49 AM

Kemaste: as to the eyebrows, remember the pics are from different angles and that AJ has his brow muscles contracted in the recent pic. That explains the diferences.

Posted by: alex221166 at July 1, 2005 6:30 PM

It may be the same man but the images are different...different lighting, different ages, different photo equipment, color versus black and white, one clear the other blury...then there is the element of chance...how did it happen that out of the multitude of "students", that this one particular individual, just happened to be photographed holding the left arm of the hostage. Then years later a leader comes up who is nearly, or is, a dead ringer for this terrorist...isn't that just a little tooo coincidental?
By the way, not one of those in that photo look like any "students" I ever saw...check out the guy on the far right, the one in the black turtleneck shirt, with that slick looking jacket, holding a cigarette. Doe's he look like a student??? see what I mean...the plot gets thicker...

Posted by: duh_swami at July 2, 2005 12:14 AM

These photos need facial recognition software to help compensate for aging, etc.
And isn't this guy 5'2"? What is the height of the hostage?
It's these kind of efforts that need to be done to figure this all out.

Posted by: schutzhund at July 3, 2005 12:53 AM