Ahmadinejad not man in Tehran embassy photo - CIA [View All]

Ahmadinejad not man in Tehran embassy photo - CIA
Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:43 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A CIA analysis has concluded a hostage-taker
pictured in an old photo at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran is not Iranian
President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a U.S. official said on Friday.

The analysis compared photos of Ahmadinejad and an embassy
hostage-taker whom former U.S. hostages identified as the newly
elected Iranian leader. It found discrepancies serious enough to
suggest the two are different men.

"If there's a case to made that Ahmadinejad was one of the
hostage-takers, it will not be made on the basis of those
photographs," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of sensitive nature of the subject matter.

The photos were widely published in the U.S. media late last month.

The official said the photo analysis was only one part of a broad
inter-agency investigation into Ahmadinejad's role in the aftermath
of the 1979 revolution that severed U.S.-Iranian relations and
brought Islamic rule to Iran.