Iran: 30 Years After US Embassy Takeover Video

From The New York Times: (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04hostages.html)
The perception that the hostage siege — once the signature event in the founding of the Islamic republic — has developed into a domestic liability is especially true this year, Iran experts said. Ever since the protests and crackdown after the disputed presidential election last summer, opposition supporters have seized on public anniversaries as a chance to take to the streets, as they are expected to on Wednesday.

Most telling, and perhaps most damning, said the Iran expert Rasool Nafisi, is the reformists increasingly popular slogan. It is, simply, Iranian republic.

Not Islamic republic.

The threat of falling off course and losing the spirit of the revolution looms over us, wrote Massumeh Ebtekar in her blog, Persian Paradox, in June, just after the presidential election. Ms. Ebtekar was the public face of the siege, serving as spokeswoman for the hostage-takers. She provided regular updates on the hostages she referred to as guests of the ayatollah, 52 of whom were held for the full 444 days.

Today, she informally represents the views of many of the former hostage-takers. There were hundreds of students involved, but among the leaders, there tends to be a consensus on certain points, Iran experts said.

While they are not pro-Western, they support engagement with the West. They often talk about the original ideals of the revolution, including justice and freedom, which they say the state has abandoned — especially in its violent crackdown on the recent election protests, which echoed the harsh actions of the Savak, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavis hated and feared secret police.