Scott Johnson notes that The Atlantic Online has set up an extensive page of resources on Iran, mostly pulled from reporting and opinion pieces contained in its archives. Check it out.
The bulk of Johnson's post involves a review of the new book by Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden, entitled Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam. Johnson also notes this interesting fact, which those of us who have been following the developments in Iran have long suspected:
... I asked Bowden if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- the president of Iran -- was involved in the hostage seizure. Bowden told me that his reporting establishes that Ahmadinejad was one of the central figures in the student group that planned the seizure and took over the American embassy; he was identified as one of the group's ringleaders by every one of the dozen or so hostage takers Bowden interviewed in Tehran in 2004 before Ahmadinejad became president. Bowden's book thus could not be more timely. (emphasis added)
Whatever happens in Iran, we -- like the diplomats of the 1930's -- are in no position to plead ignorance, or claim that we had no understanding of what was to come.
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