U.S. HOSTAGES MAY OUTLIVE AYATOLLAH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170095-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 95
• Publication Date: May 14, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170095-2
I
CAl
THE WASHINGTON POST-
14 May 1980
JACK ANDERSON
U.S, Hostages May OutliveAyatollah
The *American hostages in Iran may other grievances by. seizing hostages
outlive their tormentor, Ayatollah Ru- And the Bureau for the Battle Against -
hollah Khomeini,-if intelligence reports Corruption, an appendage of the prose-
about his health are correct.. cutor's.:office, functions as a vigilante
The reports. claim that the Iranian' band enforcing. Moslem standards.
oracle-weakened by a heart attack; - -;.?, . Presiding overall this is the ailing, 80- plagued by prostate problems ! and ; year-old Khomeini .who has become an -
slowed.by old age--shows symptoms of ; Iranian., Mao Tse-tung,' seemingly un-
physical deterioration. He has become.,; = touched and untroubled by the chaos he
feeble, his movements faltering, his..',- I created , p'
The only question, according to the
intelligence reports, is whether the aya
tollahor -his-regime will collapse first.
He sits cross-legged in his shrine in Qom,.
aloof and scowling, while a power strug-
gle reges around him.- R
Rebellion has flared up in northwest-
ern Iran. Kurdish guerrillas, carrying
weapons airdropped by the Soviets,
have attacked; government, outposts.
They are the shock troops for the
Soviet-supported Kurdish -Democratic
Party, which hopes to carve an indepen-
dent Kurdistan out of Iran. -
The Soviets are also stirring up other
rebellious ethnic minorities, intelligence
reports allege, as part of a strategy to
destabilize r, and dismember Iran.
Throughout -the country,, violence has
erupted between. militant Muslim Hez--
bollhis and radical Marxist Fedayan..
Even the ruling Revolutionary Coun-
cil is irreparably split between Ayatol-
lah Mohammed Beheshti's religious ac-
tivists and President Abol Hassan .Bani-
Sadr's moderates. The populace is at the
mercy, meanwhile, of arbitrary revolu-
tionary prosecutors,- local revolutionary.
committees and armed militants. -
The taking of hostages, for example, r.
has caught on. The militants are-now
likely to.. resolve-. contract disputes or
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170095-2