News stories from Sunday December 21, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Iran demanded $24 billion in "guarantees" from the United States for the recovery of its frozen assets and the wealth of the late Shah in exchange for the freedom of the 52 American hostages. In addition, Iran seems to indicate that the United States should assume responsibility for damages to American companies and individuals during the Iranian revolution. [New York Times]
- The faint hope in Washington that the Carter administration could obtain the release of the hostages before it leaves office Jan. 20 appeared to disappear as the State Department examined Iranian conditions for freeing the hostages. Secretary of State Edmund Muskie said that Iran's demand for billions of dollars in "guarantees" was unreasonable and went beyond the legal powers of the presidency. Mr. Muskie said that the United States had proposed to Iran that in return for the release of the 52 Americans it would seek to restore Iranian-American relations to their status on Nov. 4, 1979, the day the American Embassy in Teheran was seized. [New York Times]
- The hostages are being kept in hotels around Teheran, an Iranian official said, disclosing for the first time since the fruitless American rescue attempt last spring the whereabouts of the Americans. Behzad Nabavi, the Minister for Executive Affairs, said the Americans would be interviewed on Iranian television on Christmas Day. "We have prepared for them rationing cards for sugar, for cooking oil and so on for one or two years," he said. "From our point of view it is no problem even if they stay with us for years." [New York Times]
- Unionization of chicken processors on the Chesapeake Bay's eastern shore has begun, and the Frank Perdue plant, the biggest in the area, is the initial target. Union leaders compare their determination to organize thousands of employees with the 17-year struggle at the J.P. Stevens textile mills in the South, a fight that was won last October. "We're in this till doomsday if it takes that," a union organizer said. [New York Times]
- A new police complaint panel in Chicago has disbanded, saying that it was refused a budget and a staff by Mayor Jane Byrne, who established the panel three months ago after mounting criticism regarding alleged brutality by police officers. Mayor Byrne said there were no funds for the panel in the 1981 budget and that it had "served its purpose" anyway. [New York Times]
- The swift deployment of ground forces anywhere in the world is the goal of an Army experiment at Fort Lewis, Wash. The Army is developing a new light infantry division that can be sent abroad, mainly by air, with almost the striking power of the heavy armored divisions designed to fight a land battle in Europe against the Soviet Union. "This could change the Army for the next 50 years," said Col. Harold Van Meter, the officer in charge of the testing. Advanced technology is essential to the experiment. [New York Times]
- Sabotage might have caused the crash of a Colombian plane with 68 people aboard. The 62 passengers and six crew members, all Colombians, were killed, the airline Aerovias del Cesar said. A spokeswoman for the airline said a threatening call had been received and it was believed that the French-made Caravelle had been sabotaged. [New York Times]
- Tensions in Canada increased between the federal government and the western provinces after British Columbia decided to go on a virtual tax strike against Ottawa. Robert McClelland, the provincial Minister of Energy, announced that he had instructed two provincially owned companies not to pay a new excise tax that Ottawa placed on natural gas sales as part of an energy program designed to increase Ottawa's share of oil and gas revenues. [New York Times]