Iranian Newspaper Wants Capt. Rogers Held, Tried

Navy Capt. Will Rogers III, former commander of the guided-missile cruiser Vincennes, should be arrested and ordered to stand trial in Iran for shooting down a civilian airliner over the Persian Gulf last year, an Iranian newspaper has suggested.

The radical daily newspaper Abrar made the suggestion after the Iranian parliament unanimously approved a bill this week creating a law giving it the power to arrest Americans anywhere and put them on trial.

The action came amid growing anti-U.S. passions in Iran as the 10th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran approaches. On Saturday, protesters plan to burn 160 American flags outside the old embassy compound.

Rogers, who now is a Navy instructor in Point Loma, declined to comment on the threat of prosecution in Iran for his order aboard the Vincennes to shoot down the Iranian airliner.

“I really don’t have any comment on that,” he said Wednesday. “I haven’t talked to the NIS (Naval Investigative Service) about that yet, so I don’t know what it all means.”

The NIS was providing Rogers full-time security protection this year, after his wife, Sharon, barely escaped injury when her van exploded in March.

Cmdr. Matt Dillon, a Navy spokesman in San Diego, also declined to discuss the ramifications of the Iranian law.

“It would not be appropriate for us to discuss security measures as they apply to any individual or organization,” he said.

But Rep. Bill Lowery, a close friend of the Rogers family who has been outspoken against terrorism on U.S. soil, lashed out against Iran for threatening American lives. He noted that the United States has already offered condolences to Iran for Rogers’ mistaken order to shoot down the airliner, which claimed 290 lives.

“There’s a big difference between an international terrorist act or state-sponsored terrorism and a mistake for which our nation apologized and offered compensation,” the Republican congressman from San Diego said. “I find the Iranian threats offensive.”