ex-President Carter's Operation Desert Claw sabotaged?

[9215]

We've all heard of October Surprise, what about Desert Surprise?


Carter's Operation Desert Claw sabotaged:
http://old.valleyadvocate.com/25th/archives/bushs_watergate.html

........The mission proved disastrous. At least two American helicopters crashed into each other in the desert long before they made it anywhere near Teheran. Eight Marines were killed. Carter looked ineffectual and frustration with the hostage crisis escalated.
Unfortunately, the operatives in charge of Desert Claw may not have been loyal to Carter -- or to the U.S. Carter held deeply alienated a broad range of CIA operatives by trying to clean up the Agency when he first came to power. Admiral Stansfield Turner, the tough but honest Navy man Carter put in charge at the CIA fired some 600 "spooks" soon after taking command. Many were deeply loyal to former Director George Bush and to the "Old Boy" network that serves as the Agency's true infrastructure.
That loyalty may have carried over to sabotage of Operation Eagle Claw. For the man who served as chief mission planner was none other than Richard Secord, who later surfaced as a major kingpin in the shady arms dealings between the Reagan White House and the contras of Nicaragua. A top staffer at a key base in Eagle Claw's catastrophic helicopter support operation was none other than the legendary Colonel Oliver North. Working closely with him as a logistical planner was Albert Hakkim, who later sat by Secord's side at the Congressional Iran-contra hearings and wept of his love for Oliver North.
As historian Donald Fried has put it "Precisely the people in the intelligence community commissioned to develop some kind of rescue for the hostages were those elements of covert action close to William Casey and hostile to Carter."
Casey, of course, later became Reagan's CIA chief. But higher up in the chain at the time of the failed rescue mission was Donald Gregg, a member of Carter's National Security Council who later surfaced as s high-level Bush operative. Gregg's close personal ties to Bush became a serious issue in light of his extensive dealings with key contra figures tied both to the Iran-contra scandal and illegal drug shipments coming from Central America. Gregg is now Bush's ambassador to South Korea...........

[Another Bill C.]

1. That whole hostage episode had the stink

of Republican collusion with the Iranians -- especially when it culminated with the release of the hostages on Reagan's inauguration day.

[9215]

13. Welcome to DU, we can always use

"another Bill C." :D

[tom_paine]

23. You got that right, Bill C.

I'm sure it was just a coincidence that Ollie North was in on the mission, too.

http://www.geocities.com/omegareport/Authors/04-Moore-g.htm

[Military Brat]

43. I sure smelled a skunk back then

And shouldn't we replace the noble elephant with a raised-tail skunk as the true symbol of the Republicannibal party?

[slaveplanet]

2. some quotes

"What we had not predicted was that a 78 year old man, an Ayatollah who had spent 14 years in exile, could forge together these forces and turn all of these volcanos into one immense volcano, into a national and real revolution." -- Stansfield Turner, Director of the CIA

Henry Kissinger blames the Iranian events on America's "hollow pursuit of the defense of human rights."

2/7/79Andrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, predicted that relations between the US and Iran will be on good grounds 2 years from now.

[Silverhair]

3. That operation was a disaster waiting to happen.

It didn't need to be sabotaged. It was a blunder from the start. Very bad planning.

[andym]

4. True, very bad planning

True, very very bad planning.

Btw, it helped seal Carter's doom.
His reputation before 1976 election:
"can do anything"

After the failed attack:
"completely ineffectual"
(in spite of Camp David's earlier perceived success)

The attack was the nail in his political coffin.
Reagan won as much because of the anti-carter vote
than any other reason.

[9215]

11. Could you provide some links, or details?

Thanks

[Silverhair]

22. Here you are...

http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id233.htm

"On April 21, Beckwith's 132-man team, who called themselves "Charlie's Angels," arrived at Egypt's Wadi Kena, the staging area for Operation Eagle Claw. Three days later the team flew to Masirah Island off the coast of Oman in two C-141 transport planes. From there they would fly in C-130s to Desert One, an advance staging area in the Dasht-e-Kavir region of Iran, 200 miles from Teheran, where they were to rendezvous with eight RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters dispatched from the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, located in the Gulf of Oman. The Sea Stallions would refuel at Desert One before proceeding with the Delta Force team to a location codenamed Figbar in the mountains 65 miles southeast of Teheran. The following night, the rescue team was to enter the Iranian capital in four trucks supplied by several agents who had recently entered the country posing as Europeans. While "Charlie's Angels" infiltrated the embassy and freed the hostages, the Sea Stallions would fly in, pick up the rescuers and the rescued, and deliver them to an abandoned airfield 35 miles outside of Teheran. If everything went according to plan, by then the airfield would be in the capable hands of an Army Ranger team. Transport planes would arrive there to take everyone out."

That mission was over complicated. Too many chances for things to go wrong, with no work arounds.

Here is another link:
http://www.specwarnet.com/miscinfo/eagleclaw.htm

Not every screw up requires a conspiracy.

[9215]

48. Thanks,

This is a technical description of the mission

I'd like your input on my post below (Holy blankety, blank)regarding Task Commander Vaught's comments.

[Old and In the Way]

5. Interesting.........

Why doesn't this surprise me? Would these guys have purposely sabotauged the mission? I really don't know. But I do know that Reagan-Bush did not want to have the hostages released before the election. The fact that they were released on the day Reagan took office really, really stinks.

Yeah, I totally believe that these players would put personal power before the good of the nation, that I have no doubt of.

[9215]

10. Here is an excerpt from a book I am/was

working on. I don't know if I want to try to get it published.....I want to live awhile longer.



...On January 20th, 1981 while Ronald Reagan was being sworn in as President of the United States the Federal Reserve Board pressed a button and released instantaneously several billion dollars from a bank in London to Iran and that is when the hostages were released. (A statement made on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives by the Head of the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Henry Gonzales to the 102nd Congress 2nd Session on 9/28/92 CR pp.9591)

Some people still claim that the 'October Surprise' did not happen.

In an affidavit Attorney Paul D. Wilcher sent to newly appointed Attorney General Janet Reno a short time after Gonzales statement reads:

'... The October Surprise treason refers to the top secret trip then-Vice Presidential candidate and former CIA Director George Bush (along with a planeful of some 25 to 30 other top CIA covert operatives-including a handful of prominent Republican and Democratic senators and Congressmen) took to Paris on the weekend of October 18th and 19th', 1980. While in Paris, Bush secretly met with representatives of the Ayatollah Khomeini, paid them bribes in the amount of $40 million dollars, and promised to deliver to the man an additional $5 billion in arms (the shipments of these arms began flowing even before the election), in exchange for the Iranians agreement NOT to release the 52 American hostages they held in Tehran until after the November 4th, 1980, US Presidential elections-in order to guarantee the humiliation and defeat of President Jimmy Carter in the election- and in order to cement the CIA;'s lock on the White House for the next 12 years under George Bush. The Reagan and Bush Administrations and most recently the Congress-- in separate House and Senate October Surprise investigations in 1992- have tried to tell us that the October Surprise NEVER happened- that Bush and his CIA cronies NEVER made this secret trip to Paris on October 18th and 19th, and that NO secret deal with the Iranians was ever struck. But that simply in NOT true- as the 16 covert operatives referred to below will demonstrate in their forthcoming testimony. They will even produce a video tape to prove both the "October Surprise" treason and George Bush's participation in it -beyond all shadow of any doubt.'

The body of Mr. Wilcher, attorney at law, age 46 was found 3 weeks later sitting on the toilet in his apartment; cause of death 'unknown'. (Octopus, pp.88-89).

[yella_dawg]

19. Is that the Henry Gonzales

that got well and truly toasted in a nasty sex scandal about that time?

[9215]

21. Yea, that's him.

But that's the case with all dems.

[doppledang]

61. ummm...

So he never produced the evidence that proved even the Democratic-controlled committee was in on it.
:tinfoilhat:

[Octafish]

67. Funny you should say that. Here's what happened...

Although I didn't write this, I remember the case well. The DEMs like Lee (9-11 co-chair) Hamilton were doing all they could to bury these stories. BTW, what were you doing back then, doppedang?

Democrats' Bipartisan Folly

By Robert Parry
February 19, 2001

In marked contrast to the continuing Republican investigations of President Clinton, the Democrats eight years ago cooperated with Republicans in shutting down substantive inquiries that implicated President George H.W. Bush in a variety of geopolitical scandals.

At that time, the Democrats apparently felt that pursuing those inquiries into Bush’s role in secret contacts with Iran – both in 1980 and during the Iran-contra affair – and getting to the bottom of alleged CIA military support for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the mid-1980s would distract from the domestic policy goals at the start of the Clinton presidency.

SNIP...

Lawrence Walsh’s Iran-contra investigation was still alive, although Bush had dealt it a severe blow in December 1992 by pardoning six Iran-contra defendants. That move blocked the Iran-contra cover-up trial of former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and the possible incrimination of President Bush himself.

SNIP...

Privately, some of Walsh’s investigators had come to believe, too, that the Republican contacts with Iran in 1980 had been the precursor to the later Iran-contra arms sales in 1985-86. One investigator told me that otherwise the fruitless Reagan-Bush arms payoffs to Iran in the mid-1980s made little sense.

CONTINUED...A GREAT RESOURCE, THE CONSORTIUMNEWS...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/021901a.html

[elfin]

6. Don't mess with the spooks

Hey Chimp, are ya listening?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. The word from...

A former Air Force Fighter Wing commander was that it was sabotaged and comprimsed for political gain. The command and control frequencies were used, by the perpetrators, to issue conflicting commands to the mission.

He said that the mission was attacked by Soviet Air to Mud Frogfoot fighters, thus causing the destruction in the pictures.

[ArkDem]

45. The damage in the pictures looked like it

was caused by a TBM Avenger, coincidence? Maybe not.

[berry]

8. I have always wondered about this, along with the Oct surprise.

This is a GREAT find!! About a year ago, in relation to PNAC, I was googling a lot for info about Richard V. Allen, but never came across this. Allen is one of the inner circle of PNACkers. Also the info on Donald Gregg is welcome--his voice carries a lot of weight on Korean matters since he was ambassador to S Korea. (It makes me wonder if some people aren't given ambassadorships so that that job on their resume will give them a credibility on issues that other parts of their employment history would not.)

So 2000 wasn't the first coup. Well, I knew that--but needed reminding. And come to think of it, Carter and Clinton were treated with similar contempt (and worse).

That Gregg was probably a mole in the Carter administration makes one wonder about some of Clinton's people. I always did wonder why Clinton had a Republican as Sec'y of Defense--did he think it was necessary politically, to ward off criticism from the right? Or was pressure applied? Of course, that was out in the open. One does wonder who may have been quietly sabotaging things. Still, the Desert Claw fiasco (if it really was sabotage) and the secret deal with the Iraqis are BIG crimes. Was there anything comparable during Clinton's time? Are there any questions about the Blackhawk Down disaster? (Not that there can't be simple foul-ups, but with these guys anything seems possible.)

[9215]

9. Good stuff

I think we will find that Clinton's foreign policy and attempts to get OBL where sabotaged as well, to make Clinton look, well, like Carter looked. We can even go back to another democrat: Kennedy's problems with the CIA.

My understanding is that Poppy Bush was recieving daily reports from the CIA all through the 90's, but I have been unable to prove it.

It would be interesting if Frontline did something on this. Like interview some of Carter's officials and pinpoint possible traitors who later worked for the Bush fascists.

[mlawson]

27. I always thought it was sabotaged, as well.

After all how could THAT many things go wrong??? Ronnie and the repooks and the MILITARY had everything to gain from the disaster.

But I remember realizing, as the footage rolled by that evening: Carter is doomed. Ronnie will almost certainly be president now... Horrible.

[grannylib]

12. Lack of support for Carter was shameful

This would not surprise me in the least; I suspected a plot as soon as it happened, because there was NO credit to Carter for having tried, just vilification for having failed, and it hit soon and hard after the incident.

Amazes me that the "Christian right" would reject a man who:
= was a lifelong church member
= taught Sunday school
= led Bible study
= served honorably in the military
= was faithfully married to the same woman
= who practiced what he preached

in favor of:
= some dweeb who claimed Christian values but never went to church on a regular basis (claiming while in the White House that it posed a "security risk" to the other worshipers...but who had no problem having all the manhole covers along his coronation parade route welded shut so that he could display himself in glory to his loyal subjects)
= the husband of a woman who used astrologers to guide their lives
= a divorced man
= a man from Hollywood (long bashed as a liberal bastion)
= made propaganda films for the military (and confused his military movie roles with his real life....sheesh)

[leftofthedial]

14. I have an acquaintance who was involved in that mission

an ex-Delta Force guy. He and I worked together 10 years ago or so, shortly after he got out of the service. He said the mission was sabotaged.

[9215]

15. Did he give any details of why he thought this?

Thanks for the input.

[leftofthedial]

51. spurious people involved, who were not part of the team

but who were interjected into the operation at the last minute. No one knew who they were. And disastrous last-minute changes in plans, as I recall.

[9215]

16. Carter booted Poppy as CIA head like Kennedy did Dulles

Russell Bowen ex-OSS officer in his book 'Immaculate Deception',).


...Soon the CIA was knee deep, at the operations level, in heroin, opium, marijuana and LSD: cocaine would come later. In the '50's, fearful that the Soviets were getting a leg up on mind-control drugs, the CIA, through its notorious MK-Ultra and MK-Delta projects, unloaded hundreds of millions of tabs of LSD on unaware Americans, many of them university kids. (This an a In the '60's during the Vietnam War, the CIA collaborated with Southeast Asia's heroin smuggling generals and the opium growing tribesman of the Golden Triangle: the stories of the CIA's Air America planes taking dope to market are legend.


...Through all these years there was, as Nixon once memorabley put it, "alot of hanky panky" between the CIA and its underworld assets and allies, many of whom were importing increasing amounts of heavy drugs into America. ....

....Intimately and subtley involved in this "hanky panky" has been the fine hand of George Bush: in the early 60's as a CIA operative, in the late 70's as the CIA director; Reagan drug czar in the 80's and Commander in Chief in the 90's.....

....The Agency was so effective at protecting its contra-resupply network of narco-trafficers during the '80's that two assistant U.S. attorneys in Miami in charge of drug prosecutions, R. Jerome Stanford and Richard Gregorie, resigned in frustration....

.....When Nixon first declared war against drugs in October of 1969 and made the CIA the chief drug intelligence agency, the result was that by 1971 more thatn 100 CIA-trained Cuban exiles, under cover of narcotics enforcement, were functioning as a White House goon squad; that experiment terminated in Watergate....

PHASE ONE: 1971-77. Bush is brought into the War on Drugs by Richard Nixon and appointed to the White House Cabinet Committee on International Narcotic Control....the CIA uses the opportunity to put its agents into deep cover in the DEA and taste the forbidden fruit of domestic operations. ...There are also indications of a wink and nod for traffickers bringing drugs into the United States who financially support Latin Americandeath squads that murder leftists by the thousands.

...In the mid-'70s, Congress and the Justice Department attempted to crack down on the CIA covert operatives known endearingly as "cowboys," but Bush as CIA director from 1976-77 blocked and stonewalled every investigation, leaving the cowboys unscathed.

1977-80 Jimmy Carter's CIA director, Adm. Stansfield Turner, purges the cowboys in the worst bloodletting in agency history: more than 800 covert operators are fired. Even Gen. Noriega is taken off the payroll.

PHASE TWO: 1980-88. The angry cowboys sign up in droves for the Bush-for-President, then the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1980 by doing to his campaign what the CIA did to Allende's Chile....

....Bush is put in charge of Reagan's War on Drugs....

...Noriega is put back on the payroll...

[Silverhair]

17. No, Bush v.1 didn't go to Iran.

At the time Bush was in a campaign. His every day was accounted for by the reporters that follow candidtates around everywhere they go. his eery minute cana be accounted for, reliably by many different members of the press pack.

According to that book, I don't remember the title or author anymore, Bush was supposed to have hopped an SR-71 and zipped over to Iran and back. It doesn't work that way. An SR-71 flight has to be planned well in advance and have numberous tankers at various midpoints to go from the U.S. to Iran & back. And the Iranian site would need the service equipment & technicians to put the SR-71 back in the air again. It isn't like jumping in & turning the key.

This does not mean that I support Bush or Reagan, but it doesn't mean that I am not going to try to accuse them of the impossible. However, I am talking to conspiracy theorists and I realize that for them it is an article of religiouslike faith for which no evidence is strong enough.

[9215]

20. LINKS!

All of what you say is interesting but you need to back it up with links.

[Silverhair]

26. I think everybody know that he was in a campaign.

Look, we all know how a modern presidental campaign works. We all know the press follows the candidates around everywhere they go. I don't have to provide a link for that.

The burden of proof is on the conspiracy theorists to come up with some time when Bush v.1 was away for long enough to fly to Iran & back. That's a long flight. No "Star Trek" beaming here, we are talking about a long time.

I found the title of the book I referenced: It was "October Surprise" by Gary Sick. I remember from the time that it was a big news story with Dems calling for investigations & that the charge was the Bush v.1 had secretly flown to Iran in an SR-71.

Here is a link to some info on the SR-71:
http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/sr-71~1.htm

The comments about it needing advance planning, air-to-air refueling, and specialized ground handling equipment, and it NOT being a "jump in & turn the key" will be obvious to anybody that knows anything about very high performance aircraft.

[Minstrel Boy]

30. Bush's whereabouts and October Surprise

The weekend of the Paris meeting was Oct 18-19, 1980.

Here's Robert Parry:

In June 1992, the bipartisan House task force, chaired by the ever-accommodating Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., did as Bush wished. The task force cited partially censored Secret Service records which seemed to back Bush up. Those records indicated that Bush arrived home in Washington on Saturday night, Oct. 18, 1980. Then, on Sunday morning, he went to the Chevy Chase Country Club in the morning and, along with his wife Barbara, visited someone's residence in the afternoon, the records indicated. The name of the afternoon host was deleted.

The Secret Service documents were regarded as strong evidence of Bush's innocence. But the counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Spencer Oliver, challenged the accuracy of the Secret Service records and criticized "the failure of the administration to cooperate with the October Surprise probe."

In a six-page report listing "unanswered questions," Oliver noted that "the administration has refused -- for nearly two years -- to turn over to Congress the complete Secret Service records for that weekend." And Oliver added, "at least one of the two Secret Service supervisors who has been made available has lied to investigators in an interview."

Oliver noted that Secret Service supervisor Leonard Tanis had told congressional investigators that he recalled taking Mr. and Mrs. Bush to the Chevy Chase club for a brunch with Supreme Justice Potter Stewart and his wife on Oct. 19. But none of the other Secret Service agents on the Bush detail remembered any such trip.

Tanis's story then fell apart when Mrs. Bush's Secret Service records were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request and showed her going not to the Chevy Chase club that morning, but to the C&O Canal jogging path. Stewart was dead by 1992, but his widow also denied that she had brunch with the Bushes that morning. The Chevy Chase alibi had collapsed.

That left the afternoon trip which showed both Bushes going to visit an unidentified friend at a redacted address. The Bush administration flatly refused to give any more information to the House task force, unless it agreed never to interview the alibi witness and never to release the name. Amazingly, the task force accepted the administration's terms. The congressional investigators never spoke with the mysterious host and never asked if George Bush indeed was with Barbara Bush that afternoon.

Much more here:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/xfile10.html

[doppledang]

62. huh?

How did the out-of-power party arrange for the required secret-service coverup?

[Octafish]

63. Good one. Poppy was DCI and the sugar daddy of the wet teams.

They ALL backed the guy, even if he was gone from power. From Tarpley and Chaitkin's "George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography":

Chapter XVIII: CAMPAIGN 1980

EXCERPT...

One leading bastion of the Bushmen was predictably David Atlee Philip's AFIO, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Jack Coakley was a former director and Bush's campaign coordinator for Virginia. He certified that at the AFIO annual meeting in the fall of 1979, he counted 190 "Bush for President" buttons among 240 delegates to the convention.

During the course of the 1984 Debategate investigation, a number of Bush campaign activists were depositioned about possible abuses in the course of this campaign. Most revealing was the sworn statement of Angelo Codevilla, a former naval intelligence officer who was a fixture for a number of years on the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Under questioning by John Fitzgerald, who was acting as counsel for the House subcommittee chaired by Rep. Don Albosta, Codevilla responded:

I am aware that active duty agents of the Central Intelligence Agency worked for the George Bush primary campaign. However, I cannot now remember some of these persons and I am not at liberty to identify others by names or positions because to do so would compromise their cover. (fn 11)

But before signing this as an affidavit, Codevilla crossed out "am aware" to "have heard" in the first sentence. In the second sentence, he cancelled "identify others" and put in "discuss these rumors." Active intelligence community officers who might have worked for the Bush campaign while still drawing their federal payroll checks were likely to have been in violation the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.

CONTINUED...

http://www.tarpley.net/bush16.htm

BTW: A hearty welcome to DU, doppeldang! I'm happy to see your interest in national security affairs!

EDIT: Woops! Typo.

[9215]

39. You continue to state the plausible as the impossible

The comments about it needing advance planning, air-to-air refueling, and specialized ground handling equipment, and it NOT being a "jump in & turn the key" will be obvious to anybody that knows anything about very high performance aircraft.

None of these factors preclude the possibility or even the feasibility of Bush doing this flight.

Here is somehting to chew on:



In an affidavit Attorney Paul D. Wilcher sent to newly appointed Attorney General Janet Reno reads:

... The October Surprise treason refers to the top secret trip then-Vice Presidential candidate and former CIA Director George Bush (along with a planeful of some 25 to 30 other top CIA covert operatives-including a handful of prominent Republican and Democratic senators and Congressmen) took to Paris on the weekend of October 18th and 19th', 1980. While in Paris, Bush secretly met with representatives of the Ayatollah Khomeini, paid them bribes in the amount of $40 million dollars, and promised to deliver to the man an additional $5 billion in arms (the shipments of these arms began flowing even before the election), in exchange for the Iranians agreement NOT to release the 52 American hostages they held in Tehran until after the November 4th, 1980, US Presidential elections-in order to guarantee the humiliation and defeat of President Jimmy Carter in the election- and in order to cement the CIA;'s lock on the White House for the next 12 years under George Bush. The Reagan and Bush Administrations and most recently the Congress-- in separate House and Senate October Surprise investigations in 1992- have tried to tell us that the October Surprise NEVER happened- that Bush and his CIA cronies NEVER made this secret trip to Paris on October 18th and 19th, and that NO secret deal with the Iranians was ever struck. But that simply in NOT true- as the 16 covert operatives referred to below will demonstrate in their forthcoming testimony. They will even produce a video tape to prove both the "October Surprise" treason and George Bush's participation in it -beyond all shadow of any doubt.

The body of Mr. Wilcher, attorney at law, age 46 was found later sitting on the toilet in his apartment, cause of death 'unknown'. (Octopus, pp.88-89).

[Minstrel Boy]

25. Fly to Iran? No one's claiming Bush flew to Iran.

Some witnesses say he was at a Paris meeting. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. "October Surprise" doesn't hinge upon Bush's presence in Paris, but it most certainly was no surprise to Bush.

...

It is here that the story of illegal dealings with Khomeini intermediaries by Reagan campaign officials begins. Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus of The Washington Post were the first to report that one such meeting took place in Washington, DC. It was held Oct. 2 at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. Reagan campaign participants were Richard Allen, subsequently the Reagan administration's first national security adviser; Marine Lt. Col. Robert (Bud) McFarlane, then an aide to Senator John Tower but subsequently also a Reagan administration national security adviser; and Allen aide Lawrence Silberman, who apparently set up the meeting and who presently is a judge on the Federal Court of Appeals in the national capital. A shadowy Iranian Jewish arms dealer, Hushang Lavie, says he was the Iranian principal. Allen says he was not, but that he has forgotten the name of the Iranian they met. Silberman and McFarlane wouldn't discuss the matter with the "Frontline" producers. All three Americans maintain, however, that they have lost any notes they made during or after the meeting.

Sick and the "Frontline" producers say that long before the meeting in the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel there were others, starting in early March of 1980, involving Reagan campaign manager William Casey, a former OSS operative and, subsequently, Reagan's first director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Casey's first meeting was in Washington, DC's Mayflower Hotel with two Iranian arms dealers, Cyrus and Jamshid Hashemi. The brothers, who also were involved in the Iranian dealings with the Carter administration, said Casey made it clear he wanted to prevent Carter from gaining political advantage from freeing the hostages.

Cyrus Hashemi subsequently reported some of this to the CIA before his sudden death in 1986, three months after cooperating with US Customs agents in a sting operation in which Israelis, Europeans and Americans were arrested on charges of conspiring to sell arms illegally. Jamshid Hashemi told Sick and the "Frontline" producers, however, that, after the Mayflower meeting, Casey and an unnamed US intelligence officer met Mehdi Karrubi, now speaker of the Iranian parliament, in Madrid in late July 1980, promising arms and to unfreeze Iranian assets if release of the hostages were delayed until after the election. The same threesome, Jamshid Hasherni said, met again in Madrid several weeks later, and at that meeting Karrubi agreed to cooperate with the Reagan campaign about the timing of the hostage release.

A Third Set of Meetings

There have been many reports about a third set of meetings, between Oct. 15 and Oct. 20, in various Paris hotels. Because literally dozens of witnesses claim knowledge of these meetings, details as to the participants vary. Most agree, however, that Casey was involved. Some claim involvement by CIA agent Donald Gregg, then a Carter administration national security aide and subsequently Vice President George Bush's chief of staff. Gregg, now US ambassador to Korea, says he was on vacation at a Delaware beach throughout the time period involved. He refused to be interviewed by the "Frontline" producers.

Much more here:

http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0591/9105011.htm

[berry]

28. Wasn't it a question of Bush elder going to Paris? not Iran?

Surely a hop to Paris could've been managed more discretely than you suggest would have been the problem getting to Iran. I have no way of knowing if he went to Paris or not. But it hardly seems impossible to have arranged that--as well as cover for the short absence. The scenario offered in the Advocate article--in which the Iranians were unwilling to trust to a plan that did not force the Americans to pledge their good faith--seems plausible, though certainly not proven just by making the suggestion.

The question seems to be--what information is out there on this question? Probably a lot, but not gathered together. (Or maybe it is--I haven't read the book quoted just above.)

[Silverhair]

29. Slipp[ing away from reporters in a presidental campaign???

In a modern POTUS campaign, during the actual campaign,after the convention, it is impossible to slip away. Every second the press is there. And Bush v.1 started his campaign early, and if memory serves me correctly, he even won the first primary.

It is up to the accusers to find a time that wasn't accounted for.

Also, does anybody here remember Carter's economy???????? The guy had 17% inflation and 9% unemployment!!!!! Is it remotely possible that the general public didn't like that kind of economy? What kind of hell would we be giving Bush v.2 if he had that kind of economy right now???? I remember the campaigns. While Reagan did talk about the need to rebuild our military quite a bit, most of his attacks on Carter were for the economy.

No matter what party is in, if the economy is bad in an election year, they lose.

[Minstrel Boy]

31. Bush's alibi fell apart, and he refused further cooperation

with the House task force unless it agreed to never interview the alibi witness (see my post #30 for the cite).

Is that enough for you to stop with the "Star Trek" and "beaming up" quips?

[Silverhair]

34. It didn't fall apart.

Newsweek, Nov 11, 1991. They don't have an online archieve so you will have to go to a library.

The seve page article by John Barry with help from editors and correspondents in New York, London, Paris, Jerusalem, Moscow, Bonn, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles, said that the scandal was a hoax.

[Minstrel Boy]

36. well, that's it then. case closed

:eyes:

Why is it so important for you to exhonerate Bush? All you can offer up in his defence is this, and you think we're naive?

Here are some articles by Robert Parry, author of the best Iran/Contra book, Lost History. I don't know what your mysterious Newsweek article has, but all of these articles were written long after 1991, which was before Barbara Bush's Secret Service records had been obtained and Leonard Tanis had recanted Bush's alibi.

First, Parry's Amazon bio:

"Robert Parry, an award-winning investigative journalist, broke many of the stories now known as the Iran-contra affair, including the first story about Oliver North's secret network and the first story about Nicaraguan contra-cocaine trafficking. While working for The Associated Press, Newsweek and PBS Frontline, Parry covered the political intrigue of Washington and international hotspots from Iran to Haiti, from Israel to Nicaragua."

http://www.consortiumnews.com/1990s/consor13.html

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story49.html

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/CloudsOverGeorgeBush.html

[Silverhair]

37. We don't need to get laughed at and seem loony.

We have plenty to use against Bush without paranoid conspiracy theories. When we make a false accusation against a Bush, it weakens our other accusations. Similar to the boy crying wolf thing. Attack Bush for the real things, and leave the crazy conspricay stuff alone.

[Minstrel Boy]

38. "loony...crazy conspiracy..."

Give it a rest with that kind of talk, will you? This is - or was - a legitimate inquiry, which warranted a House Task Force investigation and put Bush under a cloud he has not been able to explain away. And if you can't recognize these questions as legitimate because it smacks of - perish the thought - "conspiracy", then you may have trouble recognizing the value of questions yet to arise.

[tinanator]

66. but you are

if you think that citation refutes what is nearly common knowledge, or somehow voids Parry's discovery of unreleased records (including a cancelled check, THE smoking gun) then somebody's sanity is seriously in question. I would be mighty gratified if you saw the light here and joined the enlightened. Or is that not in your mission statement?

[berry]

32. Certainly you can bring in the economy--

though that is rather changing the subject. I suppose it could even be asked (if we were very, very paranoid) if some GOP plan was working to sabotage that too.... At least one could imagine tools like plunge protection not being employed to help Carter. But I won't go there. You're quite right that the economy was looking terrible--which makes one wonder why they were so desperate to get the "insurance" that an arms-for-hostages deal would give them. Maybe they feared that the revulsion against Nixon would keep them out of office for a loooong time if they didn't do something drastic. I don't know.

As for the point in question--getting away for 48 hours from a campaign, it's good to remember that in 1980 Bush was the VICE-Presidential candidate, and it's not entirely impossible that attention could be taken off him for a short time. Not for a Pres. candidate, maybe, but v-p? possible.

Anyway, without calendars and schedules and specific dates alleged, this is pointless speculation. But I do trust journalists like Pincus to do their homework. And he has reported allegations that certainly should have been looked into. If they weren't, well--the Reagan WH could claim "national security" as an excuse to keep everything under wraps. And they did have the WH. And winners write their own history--or try to.

[Silverhair]

33. I remember an article, but it very old.

I can't remember the reference and I'm not going to do the research. But when all of this was in the papers I remember some article showing an accounting of all of Bush v.1's time, and every day was accounted for and verifiable.

When talking to conspiracy theorists I am reminded of one of the old elephant jokes from my younger years.

Q: Why do elephant paint their toenails red?
A: So they can hide in apple trees.

Q: Have you ever seen an elephant hide in an apple tree?
Responce: No.
Q-Response: They hide real good don't they?

[Minstrel Boy]

35. so you're saying that

an old article you can't remember and which you aren't going to look up answers all the questions?

I don't see how that's possible.

Bush's record for the period was that he remained at home except for a trip with Barbara to the Chevy Chase club for a brunch with Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and his wife, and a private visit to a friend Bush refused to identify.

The House task force found that none of the Secret Service detail remembered the Chevy Chase trip except for supervisor Leonard Tanis. (Steward had died in the interim, but his widow denied meeting the Bushes for brunch.) And Tanis's story fell apart when Barbara Bush's Secret Service records were obtained, which showed her going someplace else entirely that morning. Tanis then recanted.

That left the private visit. Bush refused to reveal the name of his alibi if the Task Force intended to question. Finally, the task force, headed by Lee Hamilton, agreed to accept a Secret Service compromise in which the task force was given the name of the person visited in the afternoon but prohibited from ever interviewing the witness or divulging the person's identity (!)

After accepting the strange compromise and never questioning the alibi witness, Hamilton's task force agreed to clear Bush in an interim report issued on July 1, 1992.

The Secret Service records had both Bushes making the private visit, and some Democrats suggested the records had been altered, as they had been for the Chevy Chase trip, to include George and give him cover.

But Mr Bush wouldn't lie, would he, Silverhair?

[Eloriel]

56. Oh, I love google

Trying to relocate a bookmark I used to have. Here it is:

http://old.valleyadvocate.com/25th/archives/bushs_watergate.html

But by October of 1980, one thing was clear: If the hostages were released prior to the election, Carter would be re-elected. If not, Ronald Reagan would win. All major polls -- including one by the primary Republican pollster, Richard Wirthlin -- showed a 10 percent swing on just that issue.

In early October, word spread through the world media that Carter had negotiated a deal for the hostages' release. It was widely believed that he had agreed to unfreeze some $4 billion in assets claimed by the deposed Shah, and to supply spare parts to the American-made arms inherited by the Ayatollah Khomeini's revolutionary regime. The hostages were due home by mid-October, in ample time to assure Carter's re-election.

Then, mysteriously, the deal was off. The hostages weren't coming home after all. What happened?



Also found this which I thought was interesting:
Chronology (Sourced) - http://www.skepticfiles.org/socialis/octsurpr.htm


Eloriel

[9215]

64. Oh, Boy! Were those assets "unfrozen" on Reagan's inaugaration??

See my post # 10

...On January 20th, 1981 while Ronald Reagan was being sworn in as President of the United States the Federal Reserve Board pressed a button and released instantaneously several billion dollars from a bank in London to Iran and that is when the hostages were released. (A statement made on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives by the Head of the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Henry Gonzales to the 102nd Congress 2nd Session on 9/28/92 CR pp.9591)

All we need to know is who ordered that release. It is almost certainly assets held over from the Shaw's era.

[9215]

65. I'd like to hear what the coincidence theorists think

about the fact that Iranian assets were frozen by Carter and then released on Raygun's inauguration.....the first day he had authority as POTUS to approve such things. This is a strong indication of some prior arrangement with the Iranians by the Repugs. Was the quid-pro-quo the arms later sent to Iran in addition to the unfreezing of the assets--a better deal than Carter offered? :wtf:

[jobycom]

55. Bush was in Paris. The trip was to Spain. Another Bin Laden link, btw

For a long time it was claimed the Salam bin Laden, Usama's older brother and W's business financer, was the pilot who flew HW to Spain from Paris for the secret meeting.

To clarify what's known, and what isn't: Bush was in Paris. The reps from Iran were in Spain. The report of the trip is circumstantial, so far, based on the evidence that has been made public. Anything beyond that relies on speculation.

Not saying I don't believe it happened, just clarifying what we know and what we don't.

There was a report that Salam bin Laden, who died in a small plane crash in 1988 in Garden Ridge, TX, died in the very plane used to carry HW to the meeting in SPain. It was later shown that the types of planes were different. Salam lived here in Marble Falls, TX, and used the airfield out of Garden Ridge for his hobby flying. Some claim that the plane was seen to suddenly veer down and to the right, into some powerlines, and claim that Bin Laden was too familiar with the airport to have accidentally struck the power lines. But they are close enough to the field that if he did an accelerated stall while climbing (not hard to do), his plane may have dove right into them.

Don't know. Just an interesting aspect of the story.

[jobycom]

57. Here's another insider story from a friend of mine

He was not on the mission (way too young) but was a Special Ops pilot who knew several people who were. Knew them well. His story is that there was a coverup, but not what everyone thinks.

There were several military units that had never worked together involved in this operation. They were too uncoordinated, and they had terrible intelligence. The refueling that led to the crash was supposed to take place on an abandoned hiway, but when they landed in the middle of the night, the hiway was full of traffic. They began stopping the traffic as the helicopters refueled. In one case one of his friends had to fire a missile through a bus engine because the driver was too scared to stop. No one was killed.

What caused the crash was a horrible human blunder. I don't want to go into it because I'm not sure I'm supposed to, but one of the refueling techs did something stupid-- as a result of not being used to the type of aircraft they were using-- and caused two helicopters to collide as they were refueling. The military knew this would be horrible both for the soldier who made the mistake, and for the military brass for not planning better, and created the clogged air filter story as cover.

Can't vouch for the story. I can vouch for my friend. He had high level clearance, was in an elite group, and is very smart and observant, and not very trusting of official stories. He's also a liberal Democrat, so he would have no reason to be protecting anyone here. I'm sure he knows people on the mission that have told him the story he told me, and that he felt he could trust them. Of course, like all third hand stories, I'm not sure it's true, just that my friend believed it.

He also was privy to some high level classifieds concerning the October Surprise, and swears that there is incontravertible evidence that would even convince US that it did NOT happen. Bush did not make that trip. He wouldn't say what the evidence was, but I have no doubt that it convinced him, and he's a skeptic. The only hint I got was that his info was more connected to the Iranian side than ours. He swears that Khomeini hated Carter and devised the plan of holding back the hostages to cost him the election, without any encouragement from Bush or Reagan.

Again, not sure I'm convinced he's right, but since there are so many other stories out here, thought I'd throw this in as a counterpoint.

[mandyky]

18. I was in the service at the time

Lots of equipment was in bad repair and broke down and crashed. After the incident was resolved I met a few guys involved and they confirmed equipment failure was a big part of the failure of the mission.

[Minstrel Boy]

24. Plane crash killing Portuguese PM linked to October Surprise

Sa Carneiro, Portugal's popular leader, died in a mysterious plane crash in Lisbon in 1980, alongside his defence minister and five others. Relatives of the crash victims have long rejected the official verdict of accidental death, and maintain that a senior Portuguese army officer ordered the bombing. Now, a former Portuguese government minister claims to have uncovered new evidence showing that the bombing was carried out to prevent public disclosure of clandestine US weapons shipments to Iran conducted with the help of Portuguese army officers.

...

The extent of the alleged Portuguese connection in the scandal has never been previously revealed. However, in a book to be published next week, it is revealed that - just before he died - Portugal's defence minister obtained documents from Middle East diplomats detailing the involvement of Portuguese officers in the operation. Incriminating papers showing the extent of the trade through Portugal were in Amaro da Costa's possession when his plane exploded and crashed into the Lisbon suburb of Camarate, killing everyone on board, including the prime minister. Among them are said to have been profiles of Portuguese army officers, and details of shipments passing through the ports of Lisbon, Set£bal and Leixäes. Costa, said a source, was 'eliminated because he was getting into dangerous territory.' They are also believed to have shown the theft of arms from NATO stocks for its annual 'Reforger' exercise - staged to prepare for an attack on Europe by Soviet bloc forces - and shipments from US bases via Portugal that included HAWK missiles stowed on board Israeli El Al airliners by Mossad secret agents. Other papers may, it is believed, may have shown how fake end-user certificates were obtained in Turkey to disguise some of the shipments as plumbing equipment and medicines.

Amaro da Costa is said to have originally stumbled across the murky dealings after discovering the existence of a 'slush fund' originally set up by the Portuguese army to finance clandestine operations during its colonial wars in Africa, which had ended 6 years previously, now used as a 'petty cash' account to facilitate transactions. Amaro da Costa reportedly told colleagues that he was 'profoundly worried' about the documents' contents. Portugal's former Ambassador to the US, Hall Themido, recently told in his memoirs how the American secret service made a top-secret approach to the Portuguese government itself , asking it to allow arms destined for Iran to pass through its borders.

Moreover, a US Congressional inquiry in the mid-1980s found evidence that Lisbon's airport was used in the undercover movement of missiles from the US to Iran by Oliver North, the 'Contragate' scandal figure later jailed for his role in diverting profits from the trade to fund the right-wing rebel army in Nicaragua. A commission of inquiry by Portuguese MPs last year concluded that Amaro da Costa's discoveries were the probable motive behind his assassination. It discovered that a large sum was transferred from the 'slush-fund' to an unidentified account shortly before the crash, and found traces of bomb explosives on fragments of the plane.

Much more from this Portuguese paper, Dec 16, 2000:
http://www.the-news.net/sacarneiro.htm

[9215]

40. Excellent find

This is going into the file.

One of these days somebody who knew something is going to get some hard evidence out before they die. Another plane crash killing a crucial witness.

[9215]

41. Holy blankety blank!!

The Task Commander for this operation said he wanted it to fail!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=638484#638997

I'm still working on verifying this. He said this in the last day or so.

[JackRiddler]

42. Hold on to your hat - Boykin apparently in Eagle Claw

1980: Delta Force operations officer on the April 24-25 Iranian hostage rescue attempt (Operation Eagle Claw).

Bio of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin
Source: William M. Arkin, NBC News military analyst
http://www.msnbc.com/news/980885.asp?0cb=-313186886

Also of immediate interest from same source:

1992: Col. Boykin is commander of the initial eight-man Delta team sent to Colombia on July 26 to hunt down Pablo Escobar (Lt. Col. Gary Harrell is one of the officers involved in the mission; now Brig. Gen. Harrell, commander of special operations in Iraq.)
14 April 1993: Col. Boykin, together with Brig. Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker (currently chief of staff of the Army) meets with Attorney General Janet Reno to discuss Waco planning.
1993: Somalia; commander of the Oct. 3-4, 1993, raid in Mogadishu, Somalia, to grab clan leaders of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Wounded by a mortar round.

So Boykin was in Eagle Claw... and commanded Mogadishu! And was in on Waco, too. Jesus Christ, indeed.

NOTE: Mogadishu I am certain had no need of being sabotaged. The sound of U.S. helicopters coming in was all that thousands of people in Mogadishu needed as a cue to grab whatever weapon was at hand and go for it. The battle lasted 18 hours and there were a minimum of 500 Somali dead.

I am even more skeptical of Osama Bin Laden's claim to have been behind this "attack" on the American forces. Typical of this bastard to take personal credit for what thousands of Somalis did. For me, proof enough that Osama sees part of his job as glomming on to false credit for any attack on American interests, anywhere.

[Minstrel Boy]

44. very interesting

It's as though these characters have grown so cocky, they can finally boast about their crimes.

This stuff bears a lot more study.

[9215]

47. Or, maybe, hopefully, they are losing it.

It is eery how close in time to my post here that Vaught would blurt something like this out. I wonder if they are watching DU close?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

49. everything i had in my files , address book and favorites on aol were

just totally wiped out...erased....gone...not even 20 minutes ago...2 years worth of reseach files and logged sites just since partisipating in this thread :tinfoilhat: ..my entire address book gone...i am so LIVID!

[9215]

50. I hope you backed the files up!

If you get this message before you have turned your computer off since the problem keep it on and consult a techy. They may be able to retrieve stuff.

Are you talking about your hard drive being erased?

Sorry to hear it. That is a big loss.

I've been hacked and had my files stolen then sent to various politicians with a virus attached. The same thing happened to Mike Ruppert. I network information via computer and hard copy so no loss is irretrievable. An attack on your computer could have resulted from something you were researching. I know someone who got hacked when she entered "Plan Afghanistan+Plan Columbia" but that was a few years ago.

Take care,
9215

[9215]

46. Hot damn!!

Thanks for this.

I wondered what would happen when I dredged up this old stuff.

This guy Vaught was reacting to Boykin's earlier statement to the Somali warlord:

"my penis is, uh, er, uh, er, uh bigger than your god"

He said this at a Sunday service yesterday. A DU'er witnessed Vaughts comments about wanting to see Operation Eagle Claw fail.

I have now found out that Vaught was not "professionally" qualified to do the job. Or at least "the job" according to Carter's plan.

Vaught is for real: http://www.afa.org/magazine/jan1999/0199desertone.asp

The immediate question was how to get Delta close enough to do its job. Directing the planners who were trying to solve that riddle was Army Maj. Gen. James Vaught, a veteran of three wars, with Ranger and airborne experience but no exposure to special operations or multiservice missions. Because of the need for extreme secrecy, he was denied the use of an existing JCS or service organization. Vaught had to assemble his planning team and the joint task force that would conduct the mission from widely scattered sources.

[KittyWampus]

52. I Believe They Sabotaged Clinton's Attempt To Kill Bin Laden

It's said that when Clinton tried to bomb bin Laden... Osama escaped by a matter of minutes.

My theory is that someone in intelligence loyal to the BFEE warned Osama.

They needed Osama to create turmoil in the ME and it's against their religion to allow a Democratic President to have any military success.

Heck, they later tied Clark's hands and then stabbed him in the back when he dared succeed in Kosove.

[Minstrel Boy]

53. What's more, Clinton maintained attack subs

within range of Osama's bases which could fire on short notice of his precise location. Three times Clinton received high grade intel of Osama's location and that he'd be remaining long enough to get the missiles there. Each time Clinton wanted to fire, and each time George Tenet advised against it. One of the first acts of Bush upon taking office was to pull the subs back and end the mission.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

54. From what I was told about that operation...

...the sand covers for the helicopter turbine intakes had also been left on board the ship. That was a major red flag to me because it was the sandstorm season in Iran. I was also told about the conflicting orders and the so-called "new additions" to the team that nobody else seemed to know about.

In 1980, I was the senior Naval Gunfire Liaison Officer for the division-plus Marine Amphibious Force. Our staff was headquartered at that time at Camp Pendleton, CA. We were assigned to an operation in 1980 that was code-named "Gallant Knight", an operation of the Rapid Deployment Force that was the fore-runner of Desert Storm. This operation was much more than just a simple exercise. In addition to my staff responsibilities, I was also a plane-load commander responsible for 140 military personnel and their gear. We were to take off from the continental U.S. and, after one or more refuelings, land at Bandar-e Abbas in the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz <http://www.sitesatlas.com/Maps/Maps/606.htm> to meet up with our prepositioned supply ships steaming up from the Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia.

Here's a quick background on the RDF from "The History of Iran: The United States and Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988": <http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/united_states_iran_iraq_war1.php>

Excerpt:

"'The Carter administration began the formation of a Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) to project U.S. military power into the Gulf region. Originally proposed in 1977, the planning did not make much progress until after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The fundamental purpose of the RDF was always, in the words of Carter's National Security Adviser, 'helping a friendly government under a subversive attack';<42> nevertheless, to justify the RDF the Soviet threat had to be magnified. Accordingly, Carter spoke in apocalyptic terms about the strategic significance of the invasion of Afghanistan, even though U.S. military experts were aware that a 'thrust through Afghanistan would be of marginal advantage to any Soviet movement through Iran or the Gulf.'<43>

In 1980, the Army conducted a gaming exercise called 'Gallant Knight' which assumed an all-out Soviet invasion of Iran. The Army concluded that they would need 325,000 troops to hold back the Soviet colossus. According to a former military affairs aide to Senator Sam Nunn, the Army deliberately chose this scenario to guarantee that immense forces would be required.<44> And though an RDF of this size might seem unnecessarily large for combating Third World troublemakers, the Pentagon noted that in the mid-1980s Third World armies were no longer 'barbarians with knives.' The U.S. could no longer expect to 'stabilize an area just by showing the flag.'"<45>

Additionally, we flew to Ft. Bragg, NC, to wargame our planned invasion of Iran. Each branch of the military was represented by the actual staffs involved in the operation, to include each of the major commands suc as the Marine Amphibious Force, the 82nd Airborne, and the 101st. One of the scenarios with which we were presented was the hypothetical enactment of a Soviet-Iranian mutual defense treaty dating from 1926. We were told that as soon as we landed in Iran the Soviets would come across the northern border of Iran with ten armored divisions. It became obvious that under these conditions, the only way we could even earn a draw with the Soviets was by using tactical nukes. The alternative was to be killed or taken prisoner.

Years later, Jack Anderson wrote a column which strongly implied that the Soviet scenario was actually a very real possibility, something that was not conveyed to us in 1980. The article went on to state that Carter made the final decision not to invade Iran because of the posibility of nuclear escalation beyond the use of the previously mentioned tactical nukes.

[9215]

58. Some more good information

"the new additions". I wonder who they were?

Wonder if they got promotions during the Reagan era.

[Patriot_Spear]

59. You left out Ollie North...

Second in command of the operation on the Intel side- coincidence? ...yeah, right.

[Octafish]

60. Plus the "retired" brass...

That "put in a call" to GOP headquarters should there be sudden troop transfers and ship movements. It seems there are enough traitors to fill up every bed in the federal penal system. No problem: We can round up enough Citizen's Grand Juries to prosecute 'em.

[Octafish]

68. The Ladies' Room Secrets: No wonder Bush wants Arafat D-E-A-D.

They tell no tales.

The Ladies' Room Secrets

By Robert Parry

WASHINGTON -- After its release on Jan. 13, 1993, the House task force report on the October Surprise controversy quickly hardened into historical concrete. Its conclusion that there was "no credible evidence" to support the allegations of Republican sabotage in the 1980 Iran hostage crisis won acclaim across the political spectrum.

Columnist David Broder lauded Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., the task force chairman, as the "conscience of Congress" for repudiating the accusations of GOP wrongdoing. No one, it seemed, examined the quality of the investigation or listened to the few dissenting voices.

But in the months following the task force's findings, more foreign leaders in positions to know told other Americans that there was more to the October Surprise story than the task force found. Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasir Arafat informed American journalist Richard Fricker that senior Republicans had traveled to Beirut in 1980 seeking avenues to the Iranian leadership.

In a May 1993 videotaped interview in Tel Aviv, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was asked "was there an October Surprise?" and he responded "of course, it was." In another interview, retired Israeli General Yehoshua Saguy, who was head of Israeli military intelligence in 1980, said Prime Minister Menachem Begin claimed American approval for Israel's secret 1980 weapons shipments to Iran. But the approval had not come from President Carter, who had angrily objected to the shipments when he learned of them.

CONTINUED TREASON...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/xfile2.html