[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 12 (Monday, January 26, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TRIBUTE TO COMMEMORATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF THE IRAN 
                                HOSTAGES

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to commemorate in the Record the 
anniversary of the release of the Iran hostages on this date in 1981.
  Soon the Senate will be consumed by a great debate regarding the 
proper strategic approach our Nation must take to ensure that Iran does 
not develop a nuclear weapons capability. Tomorrow, the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee will hear testimony from both State Department and 
the U.S. Treasury about the current state of play in negotiations with 
Iran. Next week, the Senate Banking Committee is meeting to consider 
perspectives on the strategic necessity of Iran sanctions that will 
further the debate. I, for one, welcome that important discussion, 
although I recognize that some of my colleagues hold views that are 
different from my own on how best to contain Iran.
  There is, however, yet another important policy matter related to 
Iran that not only deserves but also demands the unified, bipartisan 
support of every Senator. Thirty-four years ago today, January 20, 
1981, 52 of our fellow American citizens returned home after a 
harrowing 444-day ordeal of being illegally held hostage in Iran. We 
sent these diplomats, Foreign Service personnel, along with officers 
and enlisted members of our Armed Forces, to Iran in service to our 
Nation as they were seeking only to strengthen ties between our two 
countries. There was even an American businessman involved. 
Nevertheless, they all paid dearly for this service by being forced to 
endure humiliating treatment, brutal interrogations, mental and 
physical torture, and even mock firing squad executions while their 
families suffered endless waiting and genuine fear of their loved ones' 
imminent demise.
  Although their return was a joyous occasion for our entire Nation and 
we celebrated as one people honoring our heroes, those 444 days took a 
toll not only on the hostages but also on their family members--a toll 
that continues for many to this day. Unfortunately, we failed to 
recognize both the long-term impact their incarceration experience and 
ill treatment would have on many of them and the support they would 
need. In many instances, the results have been tragic. Among the former 
hostages and their families, there have been suicides, advanced PTSD-
type depression, divorces, alcoholism, and drug dependency. 
Unfortunately, Phil Ward, a communications officer from Virginia who 
committed suicide in the fall of 2012, was one who never fully 
recovered from the cruelty of those events.
  We must help to ease this burden and provide these brave Americans 
with the same measure of justice and healing our courts have already 
awarded to other hostage victims and their families. While the Algiers 
Accords, the document which secured the release, bars the former 
hostages and their families from legal action against Iran for the 
brutality they endured, to this day they remain not only the first 
victims of modern hostage-taking but the only Americans barred from 
seeking justice from Iran. The former hostages and their families have 
already waited more than three decades to experience the full support 
of the government they so heroically served and to see some 
accountability by their captors. Therefore, I will soon introduce 
legislation to compensate the hostages and their families by assessing 
penalties on those who continue to do business with Iran in violation 
of U.S. sanctions policy. This legislation, however, represents but one 
solution to an issue that is three decades overdue. Another or perhaps 
an additional option would be to strongly recommend that as a condition 
of the ongoing nuclear negotiations, such compensation come directly 
from ``frozen'' assets that for more than a year now have been released 
to Iran at the rate of $700 million a month.
  Accordingly, I look forward to righting this injustice by working 
with any or all of my colleagues as we stand united in support of the 
former hostages and their families.

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