It has been 13,141 days since 53 American diplomats, military officers and civilians were captured in Tehran and tortured for 444 days near the end of the Carter administration.
And on Nov. 4, the 36th anniversary of the hostage taking, it will be 12,706 days since their release, an event that has been met with false promises from five administrations and 17 Congresses of justice and compensation to those who are still living and their families.
“Why can’t this be done? It’s not that hard,” said retired Air Force Col. Dave Roeder, the head of the “class” of hostages.
The promises have never been stronger. This year, said Roeder, as the administration worked through a sensitive deal with Iran to end its nuclear weapons program, the hostages were urged to “stand down” and in return the administration would push their cause for compensation.
Recalling a conference call from the State Department, Alan Madison, a spokesman for the hostages, said, “They said, ‘Let us get through this and then we’re going to take care of you.'”
After the call, Roeder said the former hostages “came away from that almost with an universal thought that something was going to happen and something was going to happen soon. Well, it hasn’t.”
At issue is their complicated bid for compensation. Because of the terms approved by former President Jimmy Carter in exchange for their release, the hostages were barred from suing Iran. And Washington has never offered anything like what’s been provided to Sept. 11 or Boston Marathon bombing victims.
American hostages on the cover of latest issue of @TIME mag. Read. Support full compensation. #RememberTheHostages pic.twitter.com/iNuwI7PP0V
— RememberTheHostages (@Remember_444) July 22, 2015
The administration has indicated it would back a solution: Raising money from fines on U.S. companies that violate trade embargoes with Iran. It’s a bipartisan bill with more than 80 co-sponsors from Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Sean Duffy.
But now something has hung that support up, possibly the administration’s fight for the Iran deal or its negotiations to win the release of three other Americans held by Iran.
Tom Lankford, the lawyer for the hostages, said the case has urgency. He said 15 of the original hostages have died and five more are “just hanging in there.”
For Roeder, there is also another, maybe larger, issue at work.
“Now that the 4th of November is coming around again, it’s time for something to happen and someone to fulfill the promises that they were going to get something done this year,” he said.
“I want to be able to trust my government.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
