Me, Mr Hashemi and another person - I do not want to mention his name - left Tehran for Qom to pay a visit to Imam Khomeini and ask him what we should do with the [American] spies. We wanted to know if we should release them or keep them, especially because there was a serious quarrel in the interim government over what we had to do with them. When we went to Imam Khomeini and my companions told him about the situation and what the foreign radio reports, America and government officials said. His Eminence paused for a moment and asked a simple question: "Are you afraid of America?" We said that we were not afraid. "Then keep them," he said. We felt that this man himself did not at all fear the superficial and material glory of this superpower which was armed with everything. His courage and his disregard for the material power of the enemy originated from his shrewd personal fearlessness. Shrewd fearlessness is different from silly and ignorant risk-taking. For example, both a child and a strong person are not afraid of strong people or ferocious animals. All the same, people make mistakes in their evaluation of their own power, and there are some aspects of power that they fail to observe.
(The anecdote was told in a meeting with the members of the Expediency Council's secretariat.)