Week In Review

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A familiar face

News tips come from many sources, ranging from freelance reporters trying to sell stories to committed partisans seeking to promote information that they hope will advance one cause or another.

We try to look at all such information with an open mind, make an independent assessment of its legitimacy, and publish it if it has genuine news value.

So it was when we received an e-mail on Wednesday with a link to a Middle Eastern Web site (www.iranfocus.com) that claimed Iran's new president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had played a central role in the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

We were particularly intrigued by a photograph, purportedly distributed by the Associated Press on Nov. 9, 1979, showing a blindfolded American hostage being paraded in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The bearded man with a vicelike grip on the hostage's left elbow, the Web site said, had been identified as Mr. Ahmadinejad by "a source in Tehran, whose identity could not be revealed for fear of persecution."

We asked reporter David R. Sands to work with our photo desk to contact the Associated Press to see whether we could find out more about the photograph.

Mr. Sands also began researching the authors of the Web site -- an Iranian opposition publication called Iran Focus -- and looking for independent information about Mr. Ahmadinejad's role in the hostage crisis.

Senior editors decided to build up the package. They asked the photo desk to secure permission to reprint the AP photo and assigned National Desk reporter Joyce Howard Price to contact some of the former hostages for comment on the rise to power of one of their captors.

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