Bruce & Mohammad

By Bruce Albion Bailey and Beruz Anthony Jalili

This is a true story of two friends who took it upon themselves to investigate the downing of Iran Air flight 655 which was accidentally shot by USS Vincennes on July 3rd 1988.
Mohammad Ali was born in Tehran and named after Ali, the son-in-law of the final Prophet.
Bruce was born in Pocatello, Idaho and named after the fourteenth ce

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beruz Anthony Jalili
• Release date: Sep 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9780578564289

Bruce Albion Bailey

Bruce Albion Bailey was born in Pocatello, Idaho where he spent the entirety of his childhood before moving to California as a teenager. After receiving his degree in law from Stanford University in 1956, Bruce worked as an attorney for the United Nation's office in Geneva, Switzerland. During the Vietnam War, he put a pause on his career in law to serve as a naval aviation officer. When the war came to a close, Bruce devoted his practice primarily to defending victims of aviation accidents. Bruce spent the last chapter of his career, from 2000 to 2011, involved in medical malpractice cases. He's now retired and spends his time mostly reading and reflecting on an eventful life.

Book preview

Bruce

&

Mohammad

BRUCE ALBION BAILEY

BERUZ ANTHONY JALILI

Copyright © 2019 Bruce Albion Bailey, Beruz Anthony Jalili

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-578-56428-9

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

BAD DAY IN A NEW COUNTRY

FLIGHT 655

THE PERSIAN CARPET

WHO DO 1 KNOW ON THE PERSIAN GULF

IS THERE A CASE FOR THE PASSENGER' S FAMILIES

DUBAI

ITALY

YUGOSLAVIA

PAKISTAN AND INDIA

FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT

APPEAL

WHY DOES IRAN FEAR THE UNITED STATES

PHOTOGRAPHS

THE SAFAVID DYNASTY AND SHI-ITE ISLAM

ANCIENT TIES

TEHRAN TODAY

Afterword

FOREWORD

This is a true adventure story. Although some of the names have been changed, the events described—both contemporary and historical—are factual.

Mohammad and Bruce would like to take you on a trip to the Persian Gulf and Iran. We want to tell you about events that even today, in 2019, significantly affect the relationship between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Mohammad Ali was born in Tehran and named after Ali, the son-in-law of the final Prophet. Bruce was born in Pocatello, Idaho and named after the fourteenth-century king of Scotland.

The first part of our story details how we got to know each other and explains how we came to go to the Persian Gulf. Part of that story is the tragic destruction of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser. This happened over three decades ago, so why do we need to tell this story today? Why does it matter now? The passengers are all still dead; their families have moved on with their lives.

It still matters today because of the dangerously unstable relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States.

Many Iranians consider the destruction of the scheduled passenger Airbus, in an airway and under air route traffic control, an intentional act.  They believe its purpose was to threaten Iran to prevent them from invading Iraq when it was under Saddam Hussein’s control—then protected by the United States.

On July 4, 2012, in Tehran, BBC Farsi television transmitted: When the American people are making preparations to celebrate the independence of their nation, halfway around the world, the fire which USS Vincennes unleashed on a civilian airliner brings an entirely different anniversary. (To Iran)

Specifically, The U.S. did not apologize and did not assume responsibility, providing only voluntary payments to the victims, of about $213,000 per passenger. The Iranian government considers this amount an insult. In comparison, Libya paid $3 billion to the victims of the Lockerby incident. But the biggest insult that infuriated the Iranian people was the awarding of the Legion of Merit medal to the Vincennes Captain Will Rogers and the navy Commendation medal to an air warfare officer.

These are high honors to receive for shooting down a scheduled civilian airliner, loaded with passengers, in the middle of an airway climbing under air route traffic control.

Iran is presently pursuing civilian atomic power for electricity. Iran also is accused of concentrating uranium beyond 20% toward weapon grade, for the production of an atomic bomb. To try to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, the U.S. organized sanctions, reducing trade, causing damage to the Iranian economy. Israel is threatening to drop bombs on Iranian nuclear sites. Israel has allegedly assassinated five Persian nuclear scientists. The United States says that no options are off the table.

Many in Iran believe that they need an atomic weapon to protect themselves from the United States, which they consider to be a new colonial power, replacing the British Empire and the former Russian Empire. The military power of the United States is feared in Iran, and many people there believe atomic weapons are necessary to protect their country from attacks by this hostile country. Iranians consider that the U.S, in the recent past, has taken coercive actions toward Iran as if it were a colonial country under U.S. control.

Why would Iranians think such things? People in the United States believe that the U.S. only uses military power for world peace, not for economic domination. Recent twentieth-century history appears to raise questions about this view, even though it is the opinion shared by both authors of this book. Here is some historical background:

The U.S. supported the British, in removing the ruler of the antique Qajar Dynasty from the throne and replacing that ruler with an officer from the Persian Cossack Brigade, Commander Reza Khan. He adopted the ancient aristocratic name of Pahlavi. Reza Khan and his son ruled Iran, under British and U.S. support until the Revolution of 1978.

In 1942, The U.S., with allies Britain and Russia, invaded and occupied Iran. The allies removed Reza Khan from the Peacock Throne but replaced him with his son Mohammad Reza. The U.S. economically and politically supported him as the Shah of Iran, despite his support of some repressive and unpopular measures.

In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddeq was elected Prime Minister by the Majlis, the national legislature. One of his programs was to fund needed development and modernization with a larger share of oil revenues via nationalization of the Iranian oil wells operated and owned by the British.

With the urging of the British, who wanted funds after economic losses in WWII, the U.S. sent the CIA to remove the Prime Minister from office. The CIA followed direct orders, and Mosaddeq was removed from office and imprisoned for life. Most of his cabinet members were executed. Britain kept the oil.

The 1963 Status of Forces agreement pushed through the Majlis by the Shah, (at the request of the U.S), provided that Americans were immune from prosecution for alleged crimes under Iranian law. The U.S. sent a former CIA director as ambassador to Iran. This was viewed in Tehran as a calculated insult.

In 1988, Iran Air Flight 655, a Persian Gulf scheduled  flight with a full load of passengers, in an international airway in Iranian airspace. The plane was shot down by a U.S. high-tech guided missile cruiser. This happened when Iran, after an eight-year war defending against the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, was poised to invade and conquer Iraq.

The present-day universal belief of Iranians in Iran is that the destruction of the Airbus and the killing of 290 passengers and crew of the airliner was an intentional warning that Iran must not invade Iraq or their country would be destroyed by the American military.

The purpose of our book is to show you, in a clear and straightforward manner, that the destruction of the airliner was due to the negligence of the captain and crew of the Vincennes and careless Navy command decisions. This was covered up by the U.S. government, which should have simply told the truth.

We filed a civil case on behalf of the deceased passengers’ families against the U.S. in Federal District Court in San Francisco. The U.S. was able to prevent a trial, concealing the truth. Our petition to the U.S. Supreme Court lost. The clear and plain facts, based on international investigations, must now be presented in the hope of putting to rest the present day hatred of many Iranians against the U.S. for the perceived intentional deaths of the passengers and crew. Negligence is one thing, murder is another.

We also tell the story of how we traveled around the world to find the international passengers’ families in Italy, Yugoslavia, Pakistan, and India and brought them into the case against the United States for negligence.

We also want to explore present-day Iran. American media portrays a violent unsettled country with little hope of progress or peace.

Mohammad Ali (Beruz) has visited his hometown Tehran many times since he came to the University of California at Berkeley for college. Tehran is a progressive developing city with extensive modernization.  Iran is evolving, with an overwhelming majority of young people trying to develop an Islamic country, which is also a Republic.

Now is not the time for attacks by the U.S. on Iran rather it is the time for both countries to understand and forgive the past. Our two countries have long mutual histories, and Persian empires go back to the dawn of civilization. Iran and the U.S. share the traditions of our many European immigrants, religions with common origins, and ethnic and historical links.

Our two countries should be friends. We need to understand the past, but then put the past aside. Colonialism is history. Iran is a very young country with an ancient past. Iran is also a growing, energetic, and technological country with hope for the future. Iran wants to be respected as a sovereign and independent nation.

This is the story of our travels. We hope you enjoy the trip

CHAPTER I

BAD DAY IN A NEW COUNTRY

It was a beautiful summer day. I looked out of my hotel room window, overlooking Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Mountains—calm blue waters surrounded by mountains that still had signs of snow on their peaks.

Firuzeh was still asleep. I sat down on the chair looking out from the window and whispered to myself that heaven must be like this, thinking of how blessed I was to be sitting here. The craving for coffee interrupted my daydream. I asked Firuzeh if she wanted any, and she mumbled, half asleep, that being a good husband means that you should know better than to ask. I nodded, heading out of the room and walking toward the Hyatt lounge. As I entered the room, I noticed that everyone was gathered around the TV. CNN was on. As I got closer, I couldn't believe my eyes.  A U.S. Navy ship had just shot down an Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf.

The plane was going across the Gulf inside an airway and was a scheduled flight with 290 people on board! I had left Iran years ago, when I was 17, to go to college in the U.S. Though I no longer had any family or many friends in Iran, I still visited Tehran from time to time.

The tragedy of so many innocent lives lost—killed—for no reason dampened my happy mood. How could such a thing happen?

I listened to the reporters and the people chatting in the Hyatt lounge. Like me, they questioned how such a thing could happen. Some thought that it must have been a military airplane attacking a navy ship. Otherwise, they reasoned, the U.S. Navy ship would not have shot it down. Maybe it was disguised as an airliner to enable it to get close to attack the navy ship. Others talked about how this event in the Straits of Hormuz would affect the price of oil and the economy.

I was lost in a sea of emotions—somewhere in between sorrow for the families seeing the bodies of their loved ones being fished out of the water and concern over how it would affect the war between Iraq and Iran which had already gone on for eight years and claimed a million lives. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq had strategically invaded Iran to seize land just after Iran’s 1979 Revolution when the country appeared to be weak. This vulnerability was the result of the disorganization of their army and the disintegration of the Shah's forces.

At first, the tide of war heavily favored Saddam and he succeeded in occupying part of Iran. Now, Iran was threatening to invade and occupy part of Iraq. How would this tragedy affect the war?

Overwhelmed by the horrible images on the TV screen and the different thoughts going through my mind, I lost all track of time. I only returned to the moment when Firuzeh tapped my shoulder, wondering what happened to her coffee.

I pointed to the TV, and she was as shocked and horrified as I was. We stayed in the lounge for over two hours. Eventually, we walked down to the beach and tried to relax and enjoy our vacation, but it was impossible. We could not escape those images. The dead people on the TV were people from our home country. How could this happen?

By mid-afternoon, we decided to head back to San Francisco. On our way back, this tragedy was all I wanted to talk about. How could we find out what really happened? What would be the response of the Islamic world?  How would this disaster affect relations between Iran and the U.S.? Firuzeh and I were trans-cultural—maybe there was something we could do to help. We loved both countries. Finally, Firuzeh snapped and told me to stop talking about it. I stopped talking, but kept thinking about what I could do.

The next morning, I picked up a copy of the Chronicle. The airline disaster was all over the news, but none of the reports made sense. Some senators claimed that the airplane was filled with dead bodies from a morgue to make it seem like the navy ship shot down an actual airliner. The administration claimed that the airliner was making a kamikaze suicide attack on the navy ship and was shot down at the last minute in defense. Vice