Mark Bowden: Iran's Bad Behavior Recalls Old Times

May 11, 2006 — -- Mark Bowden has been fascinated with the 1979 Iran hostage crisis since the moment it happened because it was his first day on the job as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Iran's current behavior in the world diplomacy arena makes Bowden's new book even more timely.

"There's this supreme arrogance from a religious-rooted viewpoint where you think that you know the truth and the rest of the world is wrong, and that's where these Islamists are coming from and in that sense this episode of the takeover of the embassy is the beginning of this global struggle we find ourselves in," Bowden, author of "Guests of the Ayatollah," told "Good Morning America."

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been making headlines lately. He recently sent a letter to President Bush criticizing the American government and saying that liberalism and democracy had failed. He has also said that he wanted to wipe Israel off the face of Earth and that Iran wanted nuclear power.

Ahmadinejad, Bowden says, was one of the five students in a group called Strengthen the Unity that planned the kidnapping of 52 Americans. They were held in the basement of Iran's U.S. Embassy for 444 days. However, he does not believe Ahmadinejad interrogated the hostages.

"I think he was one of the key players throughout," he said.

When the Ayatollah first arrived to rule Iran, he set up a secular -- as opposed to a religious -- provisional government.

"That's what the students were taking aim at when they took the U.S. Embassy, and two days later they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations when the provisional government collapsed," Bowden said.

Bowden, who also wrote "Black Hawk Down," a book about the tragic U.S. military efforts in Somalia, called Iran's current government "a dangerous regime."

"The recent statements by the newly elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, make it clear there are dangerous players in the Middle East and if they get hold of nuclear weapons, we should all be concerned," he said.