'I slashed my wrists while in captivity in Iran': Anger of the 52 Argo hostages who DIDN'T escape as battle for compensation goes to White House

Iran hostage crisis 33 years ago saw 52 held at the US Embassy in Teheran



They were held hostage for 444 days and were released on January 20 1981

The deal to release them barred lawsuits from hostages and their families



The survivors are bringing their case to Congress hoping for justice



A group of Americans held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Iran for 444 days in 1979, are taking their battle for justice to Congress.

The 52 embassy workers were taken hostage on November 4, 1979, when revolutionary militants stormed the Teheran building and suffered more than a year of physical and mental torture at the hands of their captors.

More than three decades later the victims and their survivors have yet to receive compensation, prohibited to bring a case against Iran due to the terms of the release agreement from 1981.



Survivor: Steven Lauterbach cut his wrists during his 444 days held hostage, in the hope that he would be so badly hurt that he would be released from solitary confinement

Captive: One of the 52 U.S. hostages is displayed to the crowd outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by his captors, a few days into their ordeal

However, they are hoping to end their 33-year-long battle for justice by persuading Capitol Hill to aid them in their quest for a court judgment against Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Steven Lauterbach, 61, was the assistant general services officer at the US Embassy in 1979. His statement to the Congress begin with the words: ‘I slashed my wrists in Iran’.

Locked in solitary confinement Mr Lauterbach, 28 at the time of the seige, believed it was his only way out. ‘I wanted to hurt myself bad enough that they would panic,’ he told t he National Journal.

He was found covered in blood and says he was ‘ready to die,’ but the militants managed to get him to a hospital in time.

Now he suffers from recurring nightmares that the deal has been rescinded and he will have to go back to his captors.

'It’s never completely in the past,’ he says. ‘You’re always in the shadow of it psychologically.’

Scarred for life: Rodney 'Rocky' Sickmann was only 22 when he was taken hostage in November 1979 and says Iran 'raped' him of his freedom

Blame: Deborah Firestone, daughter of a hostage says the 444 days as a hostage changed her father and is the reason why she has not seen him for eight years

Paraded: The blindfolded and bound man from the 52 held hostage is taken outside the embassy by the young militia in the early days of the hostage-taking

Held: A photograph from November 1979 shows two Iranian militants with a female hostage at the U.S. embassy

‘Iran raped us of our freedom,’ says Rodney 'Rocky' Sickmann, who, aged 22, was the youngest hostage taken.

Mr Sickmann spent the first month in captivity sleeping with his hands tied to his feet, and describes how the hostages were forced to watch torture videos of people being dipped in boiling tar or shot in the head in front of the camera.

To this day he still suffers from flashbacks, has trouble being alone and say he will never forget his time in captivity.

IRANIAN HOSTAGE CRISIS

The Iranian hostage crisis began on November 4, 1979 when young militants calling themselves Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, supporters of the Iranian Revolution, stormed the U.S. Embassy in Teheran.

The storming of the embassy was a result of mounting hostility against the U.S. after the exiled Shah of Iran was allowed to enter the America for cancer treatment

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was installed and supported by both the U.S. and the UK governments but his rule was overthrown shortly after his exile in January 1979 and replaced with an Islamic republic.

In April 1980 there was a failed attempt to rescue the hostages which resulted in the deaths of eight American servicemen, one Iranian civilian, and the destruction of two aircraft.

The release of the hostages was prompted by the invasion of Iran by Saddam Hussein, then leader of Iraq, in combination with the death om the exiled Shah.

The Algiers Accords was signed on January 20, 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, just minutes after he was sworn into office.

All hostages were released the following day after one year, two months, two weeks and two days in captivity.

Army Colonel Leland Holland who died in 1990, would tell his children of being beaten with rubber hoses and telephone books.



Thrice in the years following his release, his family found him kneeling against a wall in the basement with his hands over his head as if he was handcuffed.

Former hostage Bruce German, 76, says he was under constant threat during his time as a hostage. He recalls how the group would be awoken in the middle of the night, stripped and blindfolded for mock-executions.

His daughter, Deborah Firestone wrote a letter to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during her father’s capture begging for his release.

‘Dear Ayatollah,' she wrote 'I wish you could convince your people to let my dad come home to his family.

‘It is very difficult for me not having my dad around.’

When her father finally returned, he was a changed man.

Ms Firestone recalls watching her parents marriage fall apart, after which Mr German moved away.

He missed her college graduation as well as both her and her brother’s weddings. She has not seen her father for eight years.

Over the years the 52 hostages, 12 of which have passed since they were freed, have tried and failed to get justice and relief in American courts multiple times.

This is due to the 1981 Algiers Accords, a deal brokered between the U.S. and Iran by Algeria, which saw the hostages released.

President Carter signed the agreement which included a clause prohibiting the 52 hostages from bringing a lawsuit against Iran in a US court.

The hostages and their families did bring a case against Iran in 2000 and won a default liability ruling after the state of Iran failed to mount a defense.

However, the State Department argued to dismiss the case as it would violate an agreement signed by a U.S. president.

Compensation and justice: Bill Daugherty is estimating that each hostage should be awarded nearly $18million for their ordeal

Arguing that the Congress has never specifically invalidated the Algiers Accords, District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled to dismiss the case in 2002.

In his ruling he wrote: ‘Were this Court empowered to judge by its sense of justice, the heart-breaking accounts of the emotional and physical toll of those 444 days on plaintiffs would be more than sufficient justification for granting all the relief that they request.’

‘However, this Court is bound to apply the law that Congress has created, according to the rules of interpretation that the Supreme Court has determined. There are two branches of government that are empowered to abrogate and rescind the Algiers Accords, and the judiciary is not one of them.’

Judge Sullivan dismissed a second case in 2010 for the same reason, which was later rejected by the Supreme Court.

In the forthcoming weeks the hostages and their families will put forward a dossier of information to the Congress, containing interviews with survivors and families about their 444-day long ordeal.