An American hostage being paraded before the cameras by his Iranian captors. Following the Iranian... 
(MPI/Getty Images)
More Photos
"The American government should never have cut a deal," said Kevin Hermening, now a financial advisor in Wisconsin, but who was a 20-year-old Marine stationed in the embassy when the crisis began.
"The bottom line is, because our country put the interests of 52 people ahead of the interest of millions of American citizens, we have had to deal with Islamic terrorism for past 30 years," he said.
"The Iranian government has never been held to task with blood or treasure for what took place," he said. "You shouldn't be able to violate international law and get away scot-free." Hermening and most of the other hostages added their names to a class action lawsuit in 2001, seeking to bring suit in U.S. federal court against the government of Iran to receive reparations.
But despite attempts in the courts and in Congress, as well as appeals to five different presidential administrations, the hostages have never received compensation or an apology, a fact they blame on the State Department's adherence to the deal the United States made with Iran in January 1981.
The hostages involved in the suit said they believe the U.S. government remains hamstrung by a devil's bargain struck by Carter, under intense political pressure in the waning days of his presidency.
Despite successive American administrations labeling the Iranian regime everything from a "rogue state" to a pillar of the "axis of evil," the State Department has fought the former hostages in court.
Under a 1996 law that allows citizens to bring suit against foreign governments in federal court, the hostages sought and won $33 billion in compensatory and punitive damages in 2001. But just prior to a hearing to determine the final damages, the Bush administration in 2002 stepped in and said the case violated the Algiers Accords, preventing the hostages from receiving anything.
The Algiers Accords was the deal between Iran and the Carter administration that freed the hostages, and included a clause preventing the hostages from suing the Iranian regime.
In 2003, the hostages filed another class action lawsuit. The Bush administration offered them a few thousand dollars apiece, but the hostages refused and Congress never acted. In 2004, the Supreme Court refused to hear their case.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
