Hermening, who ran for Congress twice as a Republican, added: "When I saw his photographs he looked like one of the guards. I do not remember him brandishing any weapons. But I do believe he was one of those leading the interrogations."
Other former hostages said in television interviews today that they also remembered Ahmadinejad as one of their captors after seeing video footage and photos of him from news coverage of the Iranian election.
After several former hostages came forward, federal agencies today began investigating, examining pictures of the hostage-takers and calling in former captives for interviews.
However, Ahmadinejad's office in Tehran vehemently denied the former hostages' assertions. Separate denials also came from two of the embassy takeover's top student organizers, both of whom are considered reformers opposed to Ahmadinejad's election.
"Even if 52 hostages say he was interrogating them, they're either lying or making it up," said Abbas Abdi, one of the former organizers, in a telephone interview from Tehran. "He didn't do it. He wasn't among them at all, for sure."
Iran's president-elect might have come through the U.S. Embassy compound as "many other students came in," Abdi said, speaking through an interpreter. "But he wasn't among the embassy students at all. He was definitely not a member of the students" who organized the seizure.
Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, who for years has acknowledged being the senior mastermind of the takeover, also said Ahmadinejad was not among the leaders.
"The leaders are all well known," he said. "Everybody knows them, and he was not among them."
Iranian officials noted that the three top leaders each represented a major university that belonged to the Office for Fostering Student Unity. Ahmadinejad attended the Science and Industry University, which was not among those universities and is located in a far eastern part of the sprawling Iranian capital.
Since the stunning election upset last week in which Ahmadinejad scored a landslide victory, the Bush administration has ratcheted up its criticism of the theocracy. The State Department Wednesday called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of Akbar Ganji, an Iranian journalist who has challenged Iran's leaders and advocated reform.
"Ganji's courageous efforts to investigate extra-judicial killings by Iranian security forces and his commitment to free speech and democratic government have earned him the respect of many around the world," a statement said.
The administration expressed concern about Ganji's lack of legal representation and his health, saying that "his mistreatment in prison is a serious violation of fundamental human rights."
This week the administration reissued a $5 million reward for three Lebanese who have been indicted for the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847 to Beirut. U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem was tortured and murdered during the ordeal and his body dumped on the Beirut airport tarmac.
One of the alleged lead hijackers is Imad Mugniyah, a member of Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization who has traveled frequently to Iran, according to U.S. officials.
Although the allegations against Ahmadinejad have stirred bad blood over the hostage crisis, some analysts pointed out that many of the former Iranian militants who participated in it have become reformers.
Among them is Asgharzadeh, a former city council member who urged students to "invite all the hostages to return to Tehran" as guests, not hostages, of the Islamic Republic. "Today we invite all the hostages to return to Tehran," he said at the 1998 commemoration of the takeover. "Today we have a new language for the world. We defend human rights."
Mohsen Mirdamadi, another top ringleader, became the chairman of Parliament's foreign relations committee in the late 1990s, at the height of the reform movement. He urged rapprochement with the West, including the United States.
Washington Post staff writer Karl Vick in Istanbul and special correspondent Mehrdad Mirdamadi in Tehran contributed to this report.
