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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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050189
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05018900.021
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 51World NotesIRAN
Events in Iran are often fueled by forces that are not
immediately apparent. Thus it was difficult to know quite what to
make of the verbal missile fired last week by parliament Speaker
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during a prayer session at Tehran
University. Several "big American spies," he announced, had been
arrested and would be punished for plotting to overthrow Ayatullah
Ruhollah Khomeini.
Although he did not name names, Rafsanjani said some of those
detained were Iranian navy personnel who aided the U.S. when it was
patrolling the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war. He cited an
incident in September 1987, when U.S. forces attacked and boarded
the Iran Ajr as the ship was laying mines.
In Washington the Bush Administration cloaked its response in
deliberately vague language. "My information is, we don't really
know what they're talking about," said White House Press Secretary
Marlin Fitzwater. Said former CIA Director Richard Helms,
Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976: "If it's true, it's a shame
they got caught." At the Brookings Institution, Middle East
specialist Yahya Sadowski speculated that Rafsanjani might be using
the cry of spies as a way to divert attention from his own
political problems.