MOUNT DESERT, Maine — A Maine man who was held hostage in Iran for 444 days more than 30 years ago finally will receive as much as $4.44 million in compensation.
Moorhead “Mike” Kennedy, 85, a former State Department economist who lives in the town of Mount Desert, said Saturday that when he heard the news that he and the other former hostages would receive the full amount of compensation, he could hardly believe it.
“We were all cheering,” he said. “It wasn’t just the money. It was the recognition of what we’d been through.”
Kennedy and the other Americans taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 have fought for compensation for many years before President Barack Obama signed into law a spending bill Dec. 18 that included provisions for each of the 53 hostages or their estates, according to The New York Times. Other victims of state-sponsored terrorist attacks, such as the 1998 American Embassy bombings in East Africa, will be eligible for benefits, too.
The money will come from a $9 billion fine paid by Paris-based BNP Paribas bank for violating sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba.
The law allows the payment of up to $10,000 per day of captivity for each hostage, and spouses and children of hostages are authorized to receive a lump payment of as much as $600,000, according to The New York Times. Thirty seven of the hostages are still alive.
Kennedy told the BDN in a 2012 interview that other victims of state-sponsored terrorism have been allowed to sue the governments responsible in international court and have been compensated. But the agreement between the United States and Iran that resulted in the hostages being released in January 1981 explicitly prohibited them or their families from seeking such compensation.
He said that the former hostages found “very strong supporters” in some members of Congress, who worked to include the compensation in the $1.1 trillion budget bill. Those included Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, according to Kennedy.
“Finally, what I think got this bill through was that it was put in the very large budget authorization the president signed just before he went on holiday,” Kennedy said.
The former diplomat said that his ordeal being held hostage in Iran was terrible.
“I still occasionally have nightmares,” he said. “I went through about 18 months of post-traumatic stress disorder. As others have said, it was a perfectly awful experience.”
Kennedy had been up late the night before Iranian militants took over the embassy, analyzing Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power development. The next morning, as usual, he was wearing a coat and tie when one of the embassy’s military guards told everyone within earshot that they quickly had to take shelter. Hundreds of student protesters had gathered outside the compound and were starting to force their way inside.
“A Marine came down the hall shouting ‘Everyone upstairs! There’s been a break-in!’” Kennedy told the BDN in 2009.
He and some other Americans took refuge in a vault as protesters swarmed in but grew concerned that the building might be set on fire and so surrendered to the militants. A few days after the takeover, when a fellow hostage suggested to Kennedy that he could be more comfortable if he took off his jacket and tie, it sunk in that their detention might last for some time.
The embassy takeover occurred the day before Kennedy turned 49.
“I spent my 49th birthday tied up, blindfolded, and tied to a chair,” he said.
The nation was riveted by the Iran hostage crisis, which received widespread media coverage. Kennedy’s late wife, Louisa Kennedy, was one of the spokespersons for the families of hostages, and toward the end of the experience, she was on television nearly every night, he said.
Kennedy said that he will use the compensation money to put something away for his four sons. He also will use it to fly business class instead of coach.
“Getting closure after so many years — it’s a good feeling,” he said.
BDN writer Bill Trotter contributed to this report.