http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise_conspiracy_theory
It predated Iran-Contra, though the principals involved overlapped considerably. After decades of relentless searching around a meticulously expunged record, it has now been established that Reagan campaign officials--the very same ones involved in Iran-Contra--quite probably did meet with Iranian officials to
delay the release of 52 Americans being held hostage in Teheran. The Carter Administration was working furiously to secure the release of the hostages before the election; Reagan officials appear to have instead negotiated
the fucking opposite of a hostage release, timed to hold the Americans in captivity for another 100 days, the remainder of Carter's term.
"Bud" McFarlane in particular developed the same memory problems he had during the Iran-Contra investigations, the ones that instantly turned into a suicide attempt when it was revealed that Reagan-era emails were copied and saved in a way with which the co-conspirators were unfamiliar.
However, because the October Surprise was (yet another) election theft attempt by Republican campaign officials, not yet government officials, and the documentary trail was deliberately destroyed,
and Reagan-era officials and their lackeys continue to fight this story tooth and nail with a vehemence that only treason could fuel, it has not been "proven" in the eyes of silly people who cannot rationally conclude that the cover-up itself is all the evidence one needs to know that a crime occurred. The cover-up definitely exists. That's all we really need to know, and probably most of what we can know.
Journalist Robert Parry has
been on the case for nearly thirty years now, and has produced documentary evidence to show meetings between McFarlane and Iranians, and more recently uncovered evidence that Bill Casey did indeed meet with Iranians in Europe.
Every explanation Reagan officials offered was a lie built upon the fragmentary evidence available at the time, and virtually all of them have since proven to be untrue.
In hindsight, with the scandal firmly book-ended by Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, both of which were but a watery prelude to the undiluted evil of the Bush the Stupider Era, it seems silly to doubt it happened anymore. The results and what the alleged co-conspirators did afterward allow us now to conclude that the train sure as hell went into that tunnel, and sure as hell came out the other end.
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