Did the Reagan campaign make a deal with the Ayatollah?

[Democracyinkind]

39. Ah.. The famous "Bohemian Grove alibi"...

Yeah, that certainly could be the truth... To me, not the most convincing of alibis... Considering...

"But by the time that Congress undertook to investigate the October Surprise allegations, William Casey had long since passed away. Congressional investigators were unable to locate his passport for the period in question, and some relevant pages from his desk calendar were also missing. Investigators needed to determine which weekend Casey had been at the Bohemian Grove encampment, which lasts more than two weeks each summer. If Casey had been at the Grove July 26 and 27 of 1980, it would debunk an important element of the October Surprise allegations. But if Casey had been at the Grove the first weekend in August, it wouldn't prove the allegation, but the question would remain open. Investigators obtained records from the Bohemian Grove encampment, and Parsonage camp members were interviewed.

The House Task Force put Casey at the Grove the weekend of July 26 and 27, and the task force Chairman Lee Hamilton cited that alibi in his op-ed piece in the Sunday, January 24, 1993 New York Times titled "Case Closed." Hamilton wrote, "The task force did not locate Mr Casey's 1980 passport, and one of the three Casey 1980 calendars the task force did obtain - a looseleaf version - was missing a few crucial pages. But the absence of these materials did not prevent us from determining the whereabouts of Mr. Casey and others on dates when meetings were claimed to have occurred. Credible witnesses and corroborating documents showed Mr. Casey to be in California..." (Taking an opposite view on the op-ed page, former Carter administration official Gary Sick wrote, "...the report says Mr. Casey could not have attended a Madrid meeting the weekend of July 26-27 because he was at the Bohemian Grove outside San Francisco. Yet the committee's own evidence places him at the Grove the following weekend, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 3"

http://www.sonic.net/~kerry/bohemian/casey.html (article based on portions of Sick/Parry


My take:

The inquiry asks us to believe that Casey was at BH at a certain date. We do not have insight into what testimony (the talk is of "stubs", diaries, and witnesses) led them to that conclusion. There are two possible dates for Casey's BH sojourn, only one of which negates the Madrid meeting scenario (the question of whether there is any reason to believe that those took place is a different, albeit maybe more important one). Given the location of the testimony under discussion, skeptical (as well as paranoid) minds may not be convinced. On the other hand,, this might also just be one of those cosmic coincidences that seem to fuel most conspiratorial thinking.

I'd certainly enjoy the opportunity to have a look at the substance of the alibi itself. Wonder if it would convince me... Or if it would all be based on familiar names, friends of the family. I can't really make up my mind definitively without doing that. The Reagan campaign staff always seemed very creepy to me, more like an anti-Carter intel op than a regular campaign. Of course, creepiness is not evidence, so it all comes down to one weekend at the Grove, or not...