Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was recently elected as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since then, the Bush Administration has been all over the place about whether he was one of the leaders of the hostage taking during the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran.

This from Administration spokesman Scott McClellan on Thursday of this week during the White House press briefing:

"Q On another matter, does the White House have an update on the investigation into Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's role in the Iran hostage crisis?

MR. McCLELLAN: Sure. A couple of things. One, it is something that we have been looking into. In terms of the President, we've looked into the allegations that were made, and -- about his involvement in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. We know he was a leader of the student movement that organized the attack on the embassy and the taking of American hostages. However, we are still looking into whether or not he was actually one of the hostage-takers. That's something we continue to look into.

Q Scott, what -- Scott -- just hold on a second. He was a leader of the student movement that orchestrated the attack on the embassy and the taking of the hostages, but you don't know if he was a leader of it? That sounds like --

MR. McCLELLAN: We don't know if he was explicitly one of the hostage-takers.

Q But he organized the attack that led to the hostage-taking.

MR. McCLELLAN: He was a leader, is the way I would describe it, of the student movement that organized the attack and the taking of American hostages.

Q Scott, what more --

MR. McCLELLAN: We're continuing to look into it.

Q What more information do you need at this point, and what are you looking into to try to actually determine that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, when we have more to say on it, then we can talk about it at that point. But that's the update in terms of what we know at this point.

Q Where is the evidence leading you now? Do you believe that he was involved --

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know -- I'm not going to go there at this point, John. We're going to continue to look into it.

Q As a substantive matter, if he was the leader of an organization that led to a hostage-taking, what does it matter if he was actually there physically doing it?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, remember, I told you I don't think it should surprise anyone, given the nature of the regime in Iran, that he might have been involved in this kind of activity. But, again, there were people that were actually the hostage takers and carried it out, and we're still looking into that.

Q How do you know that, though, Scott? How do -- is this from photos, or from interviewing people over there --

MR. McCLELLAN: This is the latest update. If there's more to share, we will do so once we're at that point."


Here's my point. Iran has been on the enemies list since 1979 and joined the "Axis of Evil" in 2003. Ahmadinejad has been in Iranian politics for over 20 years - as a governor of several provinces and Mayor of Teheran (Iran's capital and largest city) since 2003 - a rising star in many ways.

Yet we are told there is doubt as to his level of involvement in one of America's most humiliating episodes.

So....

Either the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on U.S. intelligence work can't track a public highly-ranked individual in a "enemy" society that is relatively open, or;

We are witnessing yet another drip-drip-drip campaign of orchestrated manipulation of the news leading to the potential demonisation of Ahmadinejad.

Neither situation is very comforting.