Nir Boms and Shayan Arya,

Washington Times

Andre Maurois once said, “If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.” So seems to be the case with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Last week, the friends and families of Hane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal – three University of California at Berkeley students who ended up hiking on the wrong mountain – did the Google-era thingto mobilize support for the hikers’ release – they released a YouTube video. The three students, caught on July 21, were accused of spying and are being held hostage along with hundreds of other political prisoners who could perhaps be used as a future negotiation card. While the students’ parents are responding in a 21st-century way, the hostage-taking tactic is an old tradition in the Islamic republic.

On Nov. 4, 1979, less than a year after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 70 Americans captive, 52 of whom were kept for 444 days. The goal of the hostage-takers was to prevent American intervention in the Islamic regime’s internal affairs and the return of the late Shah of Iran, who was in America for cancer treatment. Continue reading →