Former Iranian hostage hopeful of progress on compensation

Although she was held hostage by Iranian revolutionaries for 444 days, Kathryn Koob has been a firm believer in forgiveness and reconciliation.

Thirty-four years later, Koob is joining many of the 51 other Americans who were held hostage from Nov. 4 1979, to Jan. 20, 1981 in Tehran, in seeking compensation for their ordeal.

Koob, now retired from teaching at Wartburg College in Waverly, said she hasn't suffered many of the same hardships, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, a many of the hostages.

“But I decided part of reconciliation was to support my colleagues,” said Koob, who in 1979 was the director of the Iranian-American center in Tehran, a cultural exchange program of the U.S. State Department. She's joined an effort to lobby Congress to approve a plan to allow hostages to seek compensation.

The “Justice for the American Diplomats Held Hostage in Tehran Act,” which has been approved by the U.S. House, would double fines and penalties levied against U.S. companies that do business with Iran and redirect half of the amount to a newly established trust for the American hostages, the estates of deceased hostages, and their families.

It has been introduced in the Senate where it has been assigned to the Foreign Relations Committee. So far it has four co-sponsors.

“It's been a priority of mine,” said 1

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District Rep. Bruce Braley, who introduced the plan in the House.

“Thirty-four years is far too long for American citizens who were tortured to be denied access to justice,” said Braley, whose constituents include Koob. “So I'm very happy the Senate is taking that up.”

The plan calls for a $400 million fund that would allow hostages or their family members to collect about $4.4 million each, or $10,000 for each day they were held captive. Five years after their release from Iran, the hostages received approximately $22,000 each, or $50 for each day held captive, from the U.S. government.

The hitch is that lawsuits to win compensation were not allowed under the Algiers Accord, the pact that freed the hostages.

“I have a hard time understanding how a treaty made under duress – because it was -- can hold any validity,” Koob said. “It's hard to reconciling that with trying to hold Iran responsible.”

Braley agrees with her that agreements negotiated under duress are revocable. He believes it's a violation of the Geneva Conventions to make agreements that don't allow victims to seek compensation from their captors.

The money won't make the former hostages whole, Koob said.

“Many of my colleagues suffered all sorts of things that I didn't,” she said. “I've listened to their stories. It was tough. One day they can, hopefully, put it behind them.”

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