Ahmadinejad said among embassy kidnappers

Washington Times:

Former Iranian president Bani Sadr reportedly confirmed that President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of the kidnappers at the U.S. Embassy in 1979.

The kidnappers held 52 people hostage for 444 days.

Bani Sadr, who was president during part of that time and is now in exile in Paris, told a Yediot Aharonot reporter Ahmadinejad was in the embassy throughout the hostage crisis.

"Ayatollah Khomeini's deputy, Ayatollah Khamenai, demanded of him a constant report on what is happening in the embassy," said Bani Sadr.

Bani Sadr laughed when he was told that Ahmadinejad denies it.

"What do you want? That he should not deny it?" he said. "I was president and I know the details and I am telling you for sure that he was there, though his role was not organizational. He was the chief reporter to Khamenai." READ MORE

One of the U.S. hostages said he recognized Ahmadinejad as one of the kidnappers.

The U.S. State Department said Saturday Ahmadinejad is not the student militant seen in a photograph from the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy. A State Department official said investigators were still trying to determine if Ahmadinejad was involved in the kidnapping.