Hostages and diplomats to often using video recorded inside the mc compound by iranians. It is narrated by actor William Shatner and is available and is about 90 minutes. Narrator november 4, 1979, iranian students storm the embassy of the United States of america in tehran. Everybody thinks it will be an overnight affair, but it will not. Narrator this is the story of a traumatic crisis that lasted 444 days and ended in january 1981, a personal drama about 51 american men and two american women. We look forward to being with you hopefully, as soon as we , can. Narrator their crime was being associated with the u. S. Embassy in tehran, the punishment was total incarceration. We are happy to see someone from the outside world. Narrator this will be an inside view, with exclusive iranian shot footage never seen before. When did you arrive in iran . I arrived on september 19, 1979. I am a planner for the u. S. Navy. I think today is the 19th of january. Your name and your job. I was the attache at the u. S. Embassy. Narrator this is what really happened as told by fugitive and captive americans, including the head of the u. S. Embassy, bruce lange. Our story starts at the white house on october 22, 1979. Day minus 14, u. S. President jimmy carter believing the shah of iran needed medical tests and treatment, allowed him to enter the United States. President carter it was the right thing to do, and it was at the end of an almost full year of good relations with iran. Narrator eight months earlier, the Ayatollah Khomeini had returned home from exile in france. Although provisional government existed, he became the supreme power in the country. His triumphant return was treated like the Second Coming of mohammed. The ayatollahs campaign to transform iran into an Islamic Republic began. The first target was the shah, tried in absentia and the sentence was death. For 37 years, he was killing our people. 7000 people died in this country. Narrator this deep hatred for the shah was well known to the American Government. The fact that u. S. Had supported the shah prior to the revolution made the embassy in tehran a highrisk posting. The u. S. Man on the spot was bruce lange. He felt strongly that u. S. Should not admit the shah and explained why in a topsecret letter to the state department. I thought until the revolution had put its own institutions of government in place and we had put an ambassador in place and signaled in that way our acceptance of the revolution that it would be dangerous to proceed with his admission. Narrator jimmy carters decision to admit the shah and incensed the iranian public. There were daily demonstrations outside the main gates of the u. S. Embassy compound. Inside, security had already been beefed up to protect a reduced staff of 70. The embassys agricultural attache on november 4, 1979, he was leaving the Embassy Grounds for his office off the compound a block and a half away. As i walked out of the chancellery that morning there , was chanting out front. We knew it was a celebration that one year previous students hs been shot but the sha people in the streets. On that particular morning, we did not perceive more threat than usual. Narrator however, he was concerned about security for the compound, so he went to the Iranian Foreign ministry to ask for more protection. With him was his political officer dick thompson. The reaction generally when we asked for increased protection was one of sympathy. Narrator while iranian diplomat at the Foreign Ministry sympathized with the americans, a mile away at the embassy, hundreds of students were swarming around the main gates. Just before 11 00 a. M. , the attack began. They were over the walls, the chain on the main gate was cut. This was filmed by a student, here showing the motor pool area being overrun. The motor pool was behind the main gates of the Embassy Compound. To the right was the chancery, the operational hub of the Embassy Housing the sensitive communication systems. Way behind the chancery, past some fields and bungalows was the twostory consular building where visas were issued, completely sealed off from the rest of the compound. The students apparently knew that the 13 marines in the compound had Standing Orders not to shoot, but to make sure, the women led the assault. As the attackers overran the motor pool area, marine Sergeant Jimmy lopez stationed at the consular building in the rear of the compound heard the news on his walkietalkie. That happened so fast as soon i heard the transmission, i got up and looked in my little peephole behind me and there were already people running on the compound. The heavy front doors have been bolted shut. Inside were 45 americans plus iranian staff and citizens. Visitors. The marine guards fired tear gas to buy time. When it was realized help was not coming, one of the chancery Security Officers went outside to try to persuade the students to leave. He was immediately captured. The iranians had radios, the net was full of garbage, they were jamming transmissions. The land lines, the telephones were impossible to get through because by that time the basement had been taken. Narrator the students broke in by breaking a basement window. This was all watched from the safety of his office from the compound. He was in radio contact with the this each diplomats on the secondfloor floor of the chancery. Letting him know what was occurring on the roof of the embassy, people very early on managed to get on the roof, were cutting cables, taking down antennas, pulling down the american flag. Narrator the students now threatened to shoot the captured americans. This Security Camera relayed the chilling scene inside the chancery. The people in the chancery had been told was the students just wanted them to come out and they would hold them for an hour or two. They were trying to make a statement about the shah being allowed into the u. S. And continuing to stay in the u. S. We are not with ordinary people, american officials. We are opposite to your government. Narrator with no help coming, the staff retreated floor by floor. One american went out and he was immediately blindfolded and bound and threatened with death. The americans surrendered. While this was happening, 10 americans had locked themselves in the security vault, shredding confidential documents on the orders of bruce langan at the Iranian Foreign ministry and it given orders to start shredding via radio. There were people outside the vault door itself. We instructed the people to stall that as long as they could in order to complete the Destruction Program in the vault. But when they reported they had done that, we told them to go ahead and surrender. Narrator there were still many secret documents locked away in bruce langans office, and he had the key. Later this would come to haunt the americans. None of these details were known to the other americans hiding on the other side of the compound, which was walled off from the rest of the grounds. All they knew was the chancery had been overrun. The head of the consular section, Dick Moorefield. Was clear thatt help was not going to be coming from the iranians. We heard people on the roof and began to smell smoke as they burned their way through the ceiling. Narrator somebody then threw a brick for the washroom window. Consul bob anders or the crash. They put a ladder to the window and demonstrators tried to come in. I kicked open the door and came in so quickly, screaming my full head off, i shocked the iranian coming to the window in a bit of a panic, didnt know what to do because he saw made walking towards him with the business end of a gas grenade facing him and gary lee standing behind me with a shotgun, and he proceeded to scramble out the window as fast as possible. I popped a grenade and was getting ready to throw it out the window, and then this head on the other side looked up to see if the coast was clear, and the grenade chose that moment to go off right in his face. Narrator meanwhile, in the chancery, the captured americans , blindfolded and bound, were being taken to the ambassadors residence. The students started playing russian roulette with the women hostages to learn the combinations to bruce langans safe. At the same time, in the back of the compound, 12 americans and some iranians were preparing to leave the consular building. Fortunately for us, the terrorists had not blocked the street entrance. The consulate building, unlike the chancery, has a direct door onto the back street. I asked rich queen to open the door and start the scattering process. So i opened it up and there were three or four dressed as National Police and the revolutionary guard actually it i said how are you in farsi. I said we are leaving the building. He said ok. At that time people started to file out. Narrator the americans split into two parties, six in one group, led by the consular Dick Moorefield. We got another block or so, a group of eight or nine young militants ran up and surrounded us and said we were hostage, and at first i didnt catch that. I said youve got the building, do whatever you want. Burn it down. They said, no, you dont understand. You are hostage. He said keep on walking, dont stop, dont talk. Just walk straight. As we started to walk off, the young man fired a shot. They surrounded us saying cia, cia, etc. Some other nonsense. The guard started frisking me for weapons. He found a radio and started to walk off with it. He was going to take the radio. I said excuse me. He turned around and i smiled and used hand gestures to confuse him, grabbed the radio, grabbed the bottom smashed it on , the wall and destroyed about 4000 worth of electrical equipment, and i handed the shattered components back to him and said, now you can have it. Narrator the second escaping group. These five americans, led by bob anders had taken a different route and were on their way to the British Embassy, a standard contingency plan, but the route became blocked by demonstrators. At that bob said i am going point home. We said we are going with you. We just wanted to get off the street because i noticed at least it seemed like some people were starting to stare at us. Narrator the relative safety of bobs apartment was only four blocks away, but across the street from it was revolutionary Committee Headquarters. When we came to the street where the Committee Headquarters was, we crossed it and peered around the corner to see if anyone was looking and then make a mad dash for the building on the other side, and we did that one after the other and made it into bobs apartment, which was quite a relief, i think, for all of us. As soon as we got in there, we got on the telephone and on the radio. Everyone in our embassy had two way radios. We were trying to call different apartments and couldnt get answers anywhere. I became convinced we were the only ones able to get out. Narrator he was right. Back at the main gates of the embassy, the other captured group was being forced back to the motor pool area. By now it was Late Afternoon in tehran and the hostages were split into small groups. Moorefield and his colleagues were about to join them. They escorted us to the ambassadors house. While we were there they separated us. My hands are bound with a nylon cord which cut off the circulation after while. Our hands were tied to the chairs and our feet were tied to the feet of the chair, and at which time they went through the show of questioning us before the cameras this young man had. There is one american who shall remain nameless who was telling the iranians who each american was, giving them information. He should have been shot for that, but i dont set policy. Narrator back in washington, d. C. , the state department set up a fully functioning iran working desk within hours of the takeover. Although concerned, secretary of state cyrus vance and officials were sure the iranian government would eventually come to the rescue. By now it was getting dark in tehran and started to rain. The embassys takeover made for an evenings entertainment, whole families came to the embassy and chanted death to america. Death to the shah. Meanwhile, bruce was still at the Foreign Ministry and told them to take sanctuary in the Swedish Embassy upstairs. I walked up the stairs to the Swedish Embassys office suite and they were expecting me. Narrator at the foreign minister met with him. He told the diplomats he would speak to the revolutionary counsel that night and assured them the crisis would soon be resolved. He asked me where i proposed to spend the night and i said, well, that is your responsibility, mr. Foreign minister. I am here with the assurance your government will provide protection for me in my mission. It is your responsibility. Can you assure me i will be safe on the streets . Obviously you cannot. He just wanted us to go away. His attitude was i have enough headaches. Your people are just making my life more complicated than it need be. Narrator so they were then taken to an ornate ballroom used for diplomatic receptions. They demanded telephones. They were taken in and plugged into the ballroom, so we were able to continue our discussion with washington on one of the lines, and use the other phone to make local calls. It was an uncomfortable, worrisome night. We could not accept with assurance what he told us. Clearly we hoped what he told us would be true by morning, but we had no assurance of that and we were very skeptical. Narrator meanwhile at the Swedish Embassy, the end of day one of the hostage crisis left lee with nowhere to go, so he stayed the night in the embassy. He was at least more comfortable than his 63 captured colleagues. We were sure this would be over in a day at most. Narrator day one of the 444day hostage crisis was finally over. Narrator as day two dawned, lee continued to monitor the compound from his viewpoint in the Swedish Embassy. A mullah showed up. Inside the grounds. Narrator he was no less than the son of the Ayatollah Khomeini. If he had told him to release the hostages, there is no doubt they would have, but he didnt. Instead he gave him the ayatollahs support. Most of the militants were students, mainly from tehran university. They were zealots and conservative shiite muslims, the dominant faith of iran. They were angry at the government for maintaining normal relations with the United States, so in october, 1979, 30 or 40 of them met to plan in action, against the iranian government and the United States. Incredible as it sounds, the siege of the u. S. Embassy was only supposed to last three to five days. When the government proved incapable of stopping the students and the ayatollah signaled his support publicly, the students found they had started something worth continuing. With massive popular support, including elements of the military, they demanded the return of the shah as a way to end the takeover. The hostages are here because this is the only thing we can have here against america, and we tell them we do have the hostages until they send the shah here. The iranians were looking for some people by name, and the word came back to the Swedish Embassy that my name happened to be one of them. Narrator the person whod then gave sanctuary to him was a scandinavian friend of his. She worked in the Swedish Embassy. I was taken to a private residence and spent the next two weeks in that residence day and night. Narrator that same day, a u. S. Information Cultural Agency called the iranianamerican society was being overrun. The director was kate colb. They escaped the students and were given sanctuary by the germans in their cultural center. The germans were absolutely fantastic. They not only provided us a safe space to get to immediately, but were willing to take us into their homes if we needed a deep cover. Narrator but they made the biggest mistake of their lives. They returned after hearing that the militants had left. There they were joined by the person who had been at the tehran airport during the takeover. Within 15 minutes of return, they were all captured. All three of them were being taken to the Embassy Compound to join the other people being held hostage there. At that point we realized we had to do something about the other five. Narrator the five consular staff were the only americans now out. They still trusted the Iranian Foreign ministry enough to tell them the six were free. When we first learned that the six were free in the city, we had informed the Foreign Ministry at the level we thought appropriate and sought their assistance. I said in effect that you should be aware that there are several people who were not caught by the student militants who are presently in tehran. Narrator it has never been revealed before that the Iranian ForeignMinistry Officials knew that the six americans were free. It is possible that 20, 30, more people knew. Narrator later on november 5, terms were set for the five to be picked up by British Embassy staff. The british had a housing compound in the northern part of the city. They put them up there. Narrator while they were safe behind the gates of the british compound, for kate, it was the start of 14 months of captivity. When we arrived at the Embassy Compound, we were separated and searched. The young