Paul, felt deeply strengthened by the visit. It gave him the courage to face the unknown future. Father Williams granted them absolution for their sins before he left. Bill still did not know whether he would get out of the jail alive, but now he felt prepared to face death.
Iran exploded into revolution on Friday, February 9, 1979.
In just over a week Khomeini had destroyed what was left of legitimate government. He had called on the military to mutiny and the members of Parliament to resign. He had appointed a 'provisional government' despite the fact that Bakhtiar was still officially Prime Minister. His supporters, organized into revolutionary committees, had taken over responsibility for law and order and garbage collection, and had opened more than a hundred Islamic cooperative stores in Tehran. On February 8 a million people or more marched through the city in support of the Ayatollah. Street fighting went on continually between stray units of loyalist soldiers and gangs of Khomeini men.
On February 9, at two Tehran air bases--Doshen Toppeh and Farahabad--formations of homafars and cadets gave a salute to Khomeini. This infuriated the Javadan Brigade, which had been the Shah's personal bodyguard, and they attacked both air bases. The homafars barricaded themselves in and repelled the loyalist troops, helped by crowds of armed revolutionaries milling around inside and outside the bases.
Units of both the Marxist Fedayeen and the Muslim Mujahedeen guerrillas rushed to Doshen Toppeh. The armory was broken open and weapons were distributed indiscriminately to soldiers, guerrillas, revolutionaries, demonstrators, and passersby.
That night at eleven o'clock the Javadan Brigade returned in force. Khomeini supporters within the military warned the Doshen Toppeh rebels that the Brigade was on its way, and the rebels counterattacked before the Brigade reached the base. Several senior officers among the loyalists were killed early in the battle. The fighting continued all night, and spread to a large area around the base.
By noon on the following day, the battlefield had widened to include most of the city.
That day John Howell and Keane Taylor went downtown for a meeting.
Howell was convinced they would get Paul and Bill released within hours. They were all set to pay the bail.
Tom Walter had a Texas bank ready to issue a letter of credit for $12,750,000 to the New York branch of Bank Melli. The plan was that the Tehran branch of Bank Melli would then issue a bank guarantee to the Ministry of Justice, and Paul and Bill would be bailed out. It had not worked quite that way. The deputy managing director of Bank Melli, Sadr-Hashemi, had recognized--as had all the other bankers--that Paul and Bill were commercial hostages, and that once they were out of jail EDS could argue in an American court that the money had been extorted and should not be paid. If that happened, Bank Melli in New York would not be able to collect on the letter of credit--but Bank Melli in Tehran would still have to pay the money to the Iranian Ministry of Justice. Sadr- Hashemi said he would change his mind only if his New York lawyers told him there was no way EDS could block payment on the letter of credit. Howell knew perfectly well that no decent American attorney would issue such an opinion.
Then Keane Taylor thought of Bank Omran. EDS had a contract to install an on-line computerized accounting system for Bank Omran, and Taylor's job in Tehran had been to supervise this contract, so he knew the bank's officials. He met with Farhad Bakhtiar, who was one of the top men there as well as being a relative of Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar. It was clear that the Prime Minister was going to fall from power any day, and Farhad was planning to leave the country. Perhaps that was why he was less concerned than Sadr-Hashemi about the possibility that the $12,750,000 would never be paid. Anyway, for whatever reason, he had agreed to help.
Bank Omran did not have a U.S. branch. How, then, could EDS pay the money? It was agreed that the Dallas bank would lodge its letter of credit with the Dubai branch of Bank Omran by a system called Tested Telex. Dubai would then call Tehran on the phone to confirm that the letter of credit had been received, and the Tehran branch of Bank Omran would issue the guarantee to the Ministry of Justice.
There were delays. Everything had to be approved by the board of directors of Bank Omran, and by the bank's lawyers. Everyone who looked at the deal suggested small changes in the language. The changes, in English and Farsi, had to be communicated to Dubai and to Dallas; then a new telex had to be sent from Dallas to Dubai, tested, and approved by phone with Tehran. Because the Iranian weekend was Thursday and Friday, there were only three days in the week when both banks were open; and because Tehran was nine and a half hours ahead of Dallas, there was never a time of day when both banks were open. Furthermore, the Iranian banks were on strike a good deal of the time. Consequently a two-word change could take a week to arrange.
The last people who had to approve the deal were the Iranian central bank. Getting that approval was the task Howell and Taylor had set themselves for Saturday, February 10.
The city was relatively quiet at eight-thirty in the morning when they drove to Bank Omran. They met with Farhad Bakhtiar. To their surprise, he said that the request for approval was already with the central bank. Howell was delighted--for once something was happening ahead of time in Iran! He left some documents with Farhad-- including a signed letter of agreement--and he and Taylor drove farther downtown to the central bank.
The city was waking up now, the traffic even more nightmarish than usual, but dangerous driving was Taylor's specialty, and he tore through the streets, cutting across lanes of traffic, U-turning in the middle of freeways, and generally beating the Iranian drivers at their own game.
At the central bank they had a long wait to see Mr. Farhang, who would give approval. Eventually he stuck his head out of his office door and said the deal had already been approved and the approval notified to Bank Omran.
This was good news!
They got back into the car and headed for Bank Omran. Now they could tell that there was serious fighting in parts of the city. The noise of gunfire was continuous, and plumes of smoke rose from burning buildings. Bank Omran was opposite a hospital, and the dead and wounded were being brought in from the battle zones in cars, pickup trucks, and buses, all the vehicles having white cloths tied to their radio antennae to signify emergency, all hooting constantly. The street was jammed with people, some coming to give blood, others to visit the sick, still others to identify corpses.
They had resolved the bail problem not a moment too soon. Not only Paul and Bill, but now Howell and Taylor and all of them, were in grave danger. They had to get out of Iran fast.
Howell and Taylor went into the bank and found Farhad.
'The central bank has approved the deal,' Howell told him.
'I know.'
'Is the letter of agreement all right?'
'No problems.'
'Then, if you give us the bank guarantee, we can go to the Ministry of Justice with it right away.'
'Not today.'
'Our lawyer, Dr. Emami, has reviewed the credit document and wishes to make some small changes.'
Taylor muttered: 'Jesus
Farhad said: 'I have to go to Geneva for five days.'
Forever was more likely.
'My colleagues will look after you, and if you have any problems just call me in Switzerland.'
Howell suppressed his anger. Farhad knew perfectly well that things were not that simple: with him away, everything would be more difficult. But nothing would be accomplished by an emotional outburst, so Howell just said: 'What are the changes?'
Farhad called in Dr. Emami.
'I also need the signatures of two more directors of the bank,' Farhad said. 'I can get those at the board meeting tomorrow. And I need to check the references of the National Bank of Commerce in Dallas.'
'And how long will that take?'
'Not long. My assistants will deal with it while I am away.'
Dr. Emami showed Howell the changes he proposed in the language of the credit letter. Howell was happy to agree to them, but the rewritten letter would have to go through the time-consuming process of being transmitted
