[Newspoetry] Newspoetry: LIVE in Iran

[John Wason]

>Message: 1
>Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 09:50:54 -0500 (CDT)
>From: gillespie william k <gillespi at uiuc.edu>
>To: <newspoetry at lists.groogroo.com>
>Subject: [Newspoetry] Newspoetry: LIVE in Iran

>also, anybody read about the US attempting to block a lawsuit against
>Iran by former hostages?
>
>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011016/pl/iran_hostages_2.html
>
>This story strikes me as odd for a couple of reasons: 1. so the government
>objects to responding to anti-US Islamic terrorist or criminal activities
>by *legitimate* means? 2. Could this be part of the October Surprise in
>which the Reagan campaign struck a deal with our enemies to *delay* the
>release of American hostages to discredit Carter before the election?
>
>Quoth Reeker:
>
>State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Tuesday that the
>government's intervention in the case ``has absolutely no connection to
>the war on terrorism.''
>
> ``We only recently became aware of the suit'' and ``to obtain the
>hostages' release in 1981, the United States agreed to bar the
>prosecution of any pending or future claims against the government of
>Iran by these individuals arising out of their seizure and  captivity,''
>said Reeker. ``The U.S. and Iran continue to have serious and long-standing
>policy differences with each other.''

As a former law student, and not having read the article, this raises some
interesting legal issues in my mind.  Whom do the former hostages sue, and
in what court?  Assuming an American court, how do they compel the presence
of the defendant(s)?  What about the statute of limitations, and whose law
establishes or defines it?

John W.