Cycles of History

November 4, 1979: Around 300 selected student radicals, thereafter known as Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran. To break the chains locking the embassy's gates, a female radical was given a pair of metal cutters that she hid beneath her chador.

"Although the initial plan was to hold the embassy for only a few hours, it soon changed. Khomeini made no comment on the occupation for several days, waiting first to gauge American reaction to the hostage taking, which he feared might be violent. It was not. Some credit the soft line of American President Jimmy Carter, whose immediate response was to appeal for the release of the hostages on humanitarian grounds and his hopes of a strategic anti-communist alliance with the Islamic Republic for the Iranian decision not to release the hostages quickly. Iran's moderate prime minister Mehdi Bazargan and his cabinet resigned under pressure on November 6, just days after the event. Bazargan was attacked for meeting with American official Zbigniew Brzezinski and was unable to muster support for the release of the hostages."

"On the evening of 24 April 1980, six C-130s left Masirah Island, Oman, and eight RH-53D helicopters departed the USS Nimitz in the Arabian Sea. Both formations headed for the location code-named Desert One."

23 March 2007: 15 British sailors and marines on detached duty from the HMS Cornwall are seized in coastal waters along the Iraq-Iran border by forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

30 March 2007: "The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz will sail April 2 to support U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Navy said.'"


No word yet out what the good fellows from the Brecon Beacons are doing with their spare time these days...