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"...The most terrorizing day of my entire life"

Retired Army Colonel Chuck Scott, a 31 year veteran of the U.S. military, was Chief of the Defense Liason office at the American embassy in Tehran, supplying arms sales and military assistance to the Shah's regime.

On November 4, 1979, ("the most terrorizing day of my entire life") the embassy was seized by revolutionaries after the United States refused to hand over the Shah to stand trial for his crimes. Scott recounts enduring torture, solitarily confinement and lousy food during the 444 day long ordeal, much of which he calls "sheer hell".

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became President in 2005, Col. Scott adamantly claimed that he recognized him as one of his former captors in Tehran (his claims have never been substantiated).

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Col. Chuck Scott addressed the roots of the hostage ordeal in the 1999 ABC-TV special The Evolution of Revolution, part of The Century series hosted by Peter Jennings.

"One thing that the CIA was good at in those days was organizing opposition groups. General Schwarzkopf's dad was in there with Kermit Roosevelt and handed out money to pro-Shah demonstrators and assisted in the ouster of Mossadegh and the return of the Shah."

"From that day on, the people of Iran believed, basically as an aticle of faith, that the United States was behind the Shah, so therefore the Shah was a puppet of the United States and we were responsible for all the Shah's failings, shortcomings and excesses."

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Related links:

Columnist George Will: 1953 Coup was a "Success"

Senator John McCain: Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran

Alan Greenspan: "Iraq War Largely About Oil"

CIA Director Michael Hayden Avoids 1953 Coup Question

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