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reports and taped statements from the captives, and
IBDA-C. See GREAT EASTERN ISLAMIC their safety and return became a national focus. The
RAIDERS’ FRONT. inability of the administration of U.S. president Jimmy
Carter to quickly master the crisis is often cited for
Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential
election.
IMU. See ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF The crisis developed in the midst of Iran’s Islamic
UZBEKISTAN. revolution, after the U.S.-supported Shah Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi fled the country in January 1979. Aya-
tollah Ruhollah Khomeini, living in exile in Paris,
returned to Tehran in February, and anti-American
INLA. See IRISH NATIONAL LIBERATION sentiment reached a fever pitch. The hostage crisis
ARMY. began soon after the United States permitted the Shah
to enter the country for cancer treatment in October
1979.
On November 4, a crowd of about 500 radical
INTERAHAMWE. See ARMY FOR THE students occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking
LIBERATION OF RWANDA. embassy employees hostage. The students soon had
the backing of Khomeini and most of the government
and demanded concessions from the United States and
Iran’s former monarch. After capturing approximately
INTERNET. See CYBERTERRORISM. 90 people inside the embassy, the captors freed most of
the women, non-Americans, and African Americans.
They held the remaining 53, many of them elderly
IRA. See IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY. diplomats, hostage until January 1981.
Television screens across the United States broad-
cast images of the hostages nearly every night and
showed video messages released by the kidnappers.
IRANIAN HOSTAGE CRISIS Soon after the hostages were taken, ABC began show-
ing a nightly report called America Held Hostage; the
show’s name was changed in the spring of 1980 to
Beginning in late 1979, Iranian radicals held 53 Nightline. The hostages were often shown handcuffed
Americans hostage for a grueling 444 days. Americans and blindfolded, growing thinner as the ordeal contin-
hungry for news of the hostages watched television ued. Two Christmases in a row, Katherine Koob,

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