Reply #52: Not in a million years or for a million bucks.

[Octafish]

October Surprise refers to the 1980 efforts by members of the Reagan-Bush campaign to avoid the release of Americans held hostage by Iran and hurt Jimmy Carter’s re-election chances.

There is evidence that members of the Reagan-Bush camp met with representatives of the government of Iran in Washington DC. There are allegations that Bill Casey and George Bush flew to Paris to meet with Iranian higher-ups. The end result is that Iran held the hostages until the minute Pruneface was sworn in.

The story makes sense when one considers that months later, the Reagan-Bush administration gave Israel the OK to send US weapons and spare parts to the Iranians, who were locked in a war with Iraq.

There are several excellent books on the October Surprise available by Barbara Honegger, Gary Sick, Abolhassan Bani Sadr, and Robert Parry.

BTW: One of the people who met with Iranian middlemen in Washington is former Judge Lawrence Silberman, the fellah appointed by George W Bush to head the commission charged with finding out why there were no WMDs in Iraq when US intelligence said there were. Small world.

Here’s a good overview:

http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0591/9105011.htm


Here’s a link to ConsortiumNews.com’s excellent work:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/xfile.html