A Radical Electronic Resource OCTOBER SURPRISE FILE WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9, 1988 115 pm . An
From: New York On Line 212-852-2662
A Radical Electronic Resource
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OCTOBER SURPRISE FILE
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9, 1988 1:15 pm
. [An interesting note downloaded from Peacenet. Ed]
1980 Reagan-Bush Hostage Deal with Iran 8:54 pm Nov 6, 1988
Remember Dan Rather's embarrasing interview with Bush last
Spring/Summer where Rather came off as a bit of a rabid newshound while
Bush pretty much kept his cool? Remember the "documentary" cuts insert as
part of that interview regarding Iran/Contra, drugs, Rodriguez and Noriega,
et al and where were you Bush? That similar materials have not been
prepared re: October Surprise seems unlikely, but it's doubtful if CBS would
care to repeat the same kind of Bush Bashing after one black eye. CBS (and
the "liberal media") was left accused of presuming guilt.
I spoke with the CBS assignment desk in New York a few days ago and found
the person quite knowlegeable about the issue, who acknowledged the many
calls coming in from around the country. He emphatically denied existance
of any "documentary." He did acknowledge that CBS was investigating, "Why
do you think I know so much about it?" he replied. Well gosh, I wondered
aloud, has no one COMPILED the findings of your investigation.....? He did
indicate that CBS wanted to do an interview soon with Bush, and that there
had been talk of Dan Rather, a chance to mend fences, perhaps.
From what I've seen and heard, there is no "smoking gun." When Dan Rather
went after Bush with evidence before and no smoking gun, just hard
questions, he and CBS wound up with egg on face. Would CBS do that again,
without hard evidence from reputable sources, two days before the
election? Not likely, but they could at least report statements of court
transcripts, the LA Times articles, the lawsuit filed against Casey's estate
by former hostages, and the demonstrations.
Perhaps CBS's motivation to withold this story can be best understood from
the bottom-line of corporate and economic survival. Remember the recent
rumor of a Bush expose to have been published by the Wash. Post, which the
Post emphatically denied? The Stock market got real nervous, took a
significant dip and the Wall St. Journal blamed investor cold feet on the
rumor? It's clear that the speculative investor community would be more
comfortable with a Bush than Dukakis administration. If a major scandal hit
Bush just before the election, what would that do the economy, in terms of
inciting fear, and bursting the speculative bubble once and for all? What
would that shock do to the global economy? What would that do to the value
of CBS stock? CBS just avoided a leveraged buy out from Ted Turner a few
years ago.
It might be best to let justice and due process take it's slow course rather
than freak out the country at this point through shrill media charges and
risk crashing the economy. This issue is not going to go away and there will
very likely continue to be a strong Democratic Congress. Walsh's grand jury
weems to be investigating possible perjury from the Iran/Contra hearings,
and Oliver North's trial is yet to come.
Stay tuned for Act V of Macbeth, as the forest moves slowly towards
Dunsinane. Maybe Bush can't see it coming for the trees.
*********************************************************
SOURCE: ddulmage (peacenet)
1980 Reagan-Bush Hostage Deal with Iran 7:12 pm Nov 3, 1988
Hi Folks! Well, had an interesting talk with the sixty min. folks this
afternoon.
I called expecting a denial about there ever being any Oct. Surprise story.
But guess what.. they not only ack. it's existance, but apologized that they
would not be ready for this sunday. It's conv. that it won't be ready until
after the election, but at least their talking. Keep up the phone calls we
are having an effect. Good luck getting though the busy signals.
ha.. I love it!
Topic 4 Urgent: Call 60 Minutes
catboston 1980 Reagan-Bush Hostage Deal with Iran 10:13 am Nov 3,
1988
Call CBS --- NOW ----- to support the showing of a documentary on the
October Surprise in 1980. There is strong feeling that CBS 60 Minutes
really HAS prepared the story of Bush's alleged crime in 1980 to deal with
Iran to delay -- not deliver -- delay the release of 52 U.S. hostages held in
Tehran, in exchange for $40 million cash and $5 billion in arms later. The
60
Minutes operator who answered me at about 12:50 today said, "I agree [that
the story should come out]." I also pleaded for it "to come out before the
elections. The electorate deserves to hear of the crime BEFORE the
elections."
Deluge CBS now with a flood of calls. The telephone number is
212-975-2009.
source: cbaume
On Saturday, Nov 5, there will be a protest to call attention to what the
media has not been covering about Bush -- in particular, his connection to
drug running and sabotage of the 1980 election. A lot of people are deeply
disturbed that we could have a candidate for running for president who has
been involved in numerous illegal activities. The Saturday demonstration is
intended to provide an outlet in the means of airing some of the facts
surrounding Bush in the media.If enough people attend, we may get national
coverage.
Meet at U.N. Plaza at 11 a.m. John Stockwell has agreed to speak, and we
are working on getting other speakers. Pass the word as soon as possible
among your respective organizations.[Here is the text of an open letter and
24 questions that the Contragate Action Team of Boston is directing to the
press and media as part of our ongoing demonstrations to expose the 1980
October Surprise. The questions are the most piercing ones we could think of
that will tend to break through the veil of lies that the media and the
Establishment have erected. On noon on Tuesday, 1 November 1988, we
demonstrated in front of WNEV-TV, a CBS affiliate in Boston. We announced
who we are, what we are doing, and proceeded to read the letter and intone
the questions. After each question was read, a chorus of people shouted in
unison "Ask the Question!" After only two minutes a reporter rushed out of
the building to observe and interview us. Feel free to copy and use these
questions in your own demonstrations, and let's not let up until the whole
truth is out and we are well on the way toward controlling our own
government.]
The open letter:
With the exception of publications such as The Boston Globe,
The Boston Phoenix, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, In These Times,
and The Nation, the media in this country are not asking the key
questions related to whether George Bush made a deal with Iran to
delay the release of American hostages until after the 1980 election.
What is at stake here goes beyond ordinary campaign issues.
It is the integrity of the Constitution and the right of the people to
govern.
"DebateGate" established that Reagan and Bush tampered with
the electoral process. This alone, taken with accumulated evidence of
further high crimes, warrants immediate, comprehensive
investigation by the media.
We believe there is enough evidence to suggest that George
Bush will face impeachment, if elected.
Now is the time to find out the truth. History will hold you,
the media, responsible if you fail to ask these and other
questions:
[The questions:]
1. The 1987 Congressional Iran/Contra hearings asked about the U.S.
shipping arms after 1984 and why profits were being diverted to the
contras. That was the wrong question. The question should have
been, Why were we shipping arms to Iran at all?
2. Isn't it odd that the 52 hostages were released just 20 minutes
into the Reagan administration on Inauguration Day in 1981? How
did that happen?
3. Why did arms start flowing to Iran from Israel in 1981, when
there were no American hostages left in Iran?
4. Robert McFarlane told German reporter Martin Kilian that an
Iranian representative first approached Senator John Tower with a
hostage deal offer. If so, is it not strange that Tower should head the
first investigation charged with bringing the truth to the American
people about the Iran/Contra affair?
5. Former President Carter has stated that if asked by Governor
Dukakis, he would provide details to the media about controversial
issues about which he has personal knowledge. Why hasn't Governor
Dukakis asked Jimmy Carter for these details and brought them out?
6. Pierre Blai, a graduate student of 1980 campaign pollster Richard
Beal, claims the CIA funded an "October Surprise" analysis for the
Reagan/Bush campaign. Why the CIA? Can this be confirmed?
7. Retired U.S. Army Col. Charles Scott, the highest ranking military
person of the 52 hostages, has said of his and the others' release, "A
deal was done", basing his information on CIA contacts. Does he
confirm this?
8. What leverage does Manucher Gorbanifar hold over the U.S., that
allowed this quintessential liar to remain near the center of
U.S./Iran arms transfers even until the scandal had unraveled?
9. Why does Congress consider some secrets so sensitive that they
can't trust the American people with them, and hide them behind the
closed doors of "executive sessions"?
10. Why did Oliver North's friend, Donald Gregg, an assistant in
Democratic President Carter's National Security Council staff,
accompany the alleged mission of Republican George Bush to Paris in
October 1980? Isn't it curious that Gregg is now Vice President
George Bush's national security advisor?
11. If the charges of a hostage deal are false, then why is there no
evidence that George Bush, Donald Gregg, and William Casey were not
in Paris on October 19, 1980?
12. Boston Globe reporter Richard Higgins has reported that a Secret
Service representative claimed George Bush was in the U.S. during
the period 18-19 October 1980. Where is his documentation proving
this claim?
13. It has been established that George Bush has lied on several
occasions regarding his role in the Iran/Contra affair. Arms dealer
and key eyewitness Richard Brenneke, testifying in Colorado, has
been repeatedly challenged on his credibility. Why should you
question the credibility of Brenneke, a possible liar, and not that of
Bush, a known liar?
14. In an interview on the MacNeil/Lehrer report in 1986, Richard
Allen mentioned a 53rd hostage, Cynthia Dwyer, adding that
President Reagan had said that if she was not released "the deal was
off". What deal?
15. Why, in an October 8, 1988, press release, did the California
Democratic Council demand answers to the hostage deal charges?
16. If it is true that George Bush and his aides made a deal with the
Iranians, then the Reagan/Bush administration has for 8 years been
subject to blackmail by the Ayatollah. Similarly, wouldn't the
Iranians favor a 1988 Bush victory, since a Bush administration
would also be subject to blackmail? What are the implications of
this?
17. What is at the heart of CIA involvement in the 1980
Reagan/Bush "October Surprise Working Group"?
18. William Casey, Richard Beal, Cyrus Hashemi, Jalal Al-din Farsi,
and Ayatollah Mohammed Baheshti, alleged parties to the 1980
October Surprise deal, all died sudden, mysterious deaths. Doesn't it
make you wonder?
19. In a telephone conversation with a member of the Contragate
Action Team of Boston, Gary Sick, principal Carter aide for Iran and
author of "All Fall Down", said he now finds merit in former Reagan
policy analyst Barbara Honegger's alllegations. If a responsible
government official says Honneger's charges "can't be dismissed"
does this not lend credibility to the much-maligned researcher?
20. On 31 October 1988 Terry Anderson, the longest-held hostage in
Beirut, said in a taped message, "I've been very close to being released
several times over the past two years. But each time it seems that the US
government uses its influence to stop any agreement of being made. and I
don't understand this..All that is necessary is that Mr. Reagan and Mr. Bush,
if he is elected, use their influence in a positive way, not a negative one,
with those who are trying to find a way out of this terrible
impasse...whichever candidate wins this election, remember an unyielding
refusal to deal with this matter is not going to make it go away."
Recognizing this is code from the Islamic Jihad, what is this "positive way"
and what "matter" is not going to go away? Are they talking about blackmail
here?
21. On the basis of new information, Los Angeles attorney James H. Davis in
October 1988 filed a legal motion to extend the time in a long-standing suit
on behalf of 15 of the 52 hostages. If the motion is upheld, the case (Belk et
al v the U.S.) will be entirely reheard. Davis added, "this is one of the
strongest circumstantial cases I have seen". If these hostages are getting
their day in court, why are they not getting their day in the press?
22. What is wrong with our society and our government that a group of
private citizens (Reagan and Bush) can make a deal using millions of dollars
out of an illegal slush fund, and can obligate $5 billion worth of U.S.
resources and still go unpunished?
23. How do you expect our Constitutional Democracy to survive when the
media don't ask the right questions and the Congress abdicates its
responsibility to impeach even the most flagrantly lawbreaking government
officials?
24. CBS: We know you have been investigating this story. Why don't
you broadcast a report before the 1988 elections?
We want to know.
The Contragate Action Team of Boston
P.O. Box 2151
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02238
Tel. 617-547-1912
The following is a front-page story by Doyle McManus,
that ran in the Los Angeles Times on October 25, 1988.
1980 Deal Alleged
Leads, Leaps of Faith in Hostage Tale
WASHINGTON- If this story turns out to be true, it would be the
most diabolical intrigue of the century: a secret deal in 1980
between Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini
to keep 52 American hostages imprisoned in Tehran until that
year's election day, thus sealing Reagan's march to the White
House.
And that isn't all. Since the unproven allegations of a
secret Reagan-Khomeini deal surfaced, a strange parade of gun-
runners and global schemers has come forward to offer new and
astonishing versions of the saga-- including a charge that Bush,
at a secret meeting with Iranian agents in Paris, agreed to pay
Tehran $40 million as part of the deal.
The story even has Jimmy Carter, the man who lost the
presidency to Reagan in 1980, intrigued. "He'd like to know
whether it's true," a spokesman said. Other devotees of the
saga have formed grass-roots committees and stages small
demonstrations in cities from Boston to Eureka, Calif., in
attempts to get attention from mainstream media.
Sometimes-Wild Rumors
There are some serious problems with these charges. First,
there isn't a shred of independently confirmed evidence to
support them; the allegations rest on a morass of tantalizing
leads, leaps of faith and sometimes-wild rumors. Second, some
of the purported witnesses contradict each other over details,
and several have made statements that are simply not credible.
Third, of course, spokesmen for President Reagan and Vice
President George Bush hotly deny that any of the stories are
true.
"It's absolutely false-- a pure fabrication," Bush
spokesman Steve Hart said.
But the denials have done little to stop the spread of
rumors and tall tales about purported secret operations during
the 1980 campaign. And beneath the tangle of allegations
remains a set of intriguing circumstances-- and a few genuine
knots of mystery:
--Three men from the 1980 Reagan campaign, including later
National Security Advisor Robert C. McFarlane, did meet with a
self-described Iranian agent during the campaign to discuss the
fate of the U.S. hostages in Tehran; none of the three can
recall the man's name or find their notes of the meeting.
Negotiations Cooled Off
--According to former Carter Administration officials, the
Iranian government's interest in a negotiated settlement to the
hostage crisis did seem to cool off at about the same time; the
hostages were not released, in fact, until Reagan's inauguration
day.
--And senior officials in the new Reagan administration did
quietly authorize Israel to sell military equipment to Iran soon
after, in the spring of 1981.
None of that, however, quite adds up to a convincing case
that Reagan actually made a secret deal with Khomeini. And the
Reagan aides who were purportedly involved angrily dismiss the
allegations as absurd.
"It's goofball stuff," said Richard V. Allen who was
Reagan's chief foreign policy adviser during the 1980 campaign.
"It comes from Mars....It's nothing but a fascinating hodge-
podge of lies."
Nevertheless, some otherwise sober people say they, too,
are beginning to wonder whether something strange was going on
in that other election campaign, eight years ago.
"There obviously is no smoking gun here," said Gary Sick, a
former National Security Council official who worked on the 1980
hostage negotiations for Carter. "But there's an accumul;ating
body of circumstantial evidence....I used to pooh-pooh these
charges," Sick said. "I don't do that any more."
+++
The story is called the "October Surprise". The name is
taken from the fear that gripped the 1980 Reagan campaign that
Carter would make a sudden deal with Iran to free the 52
Americans then held hostage in Iran-- and thus reverse Reagan's
surge toward victory at the polls. Reagan's men organized an
intelligence network to seek information about the Carter
Administration's plans, and an "October Surprise Group", chaired
by Allen, met to work out possible responses to a hostage
release.
In September of 1980, Khomeini sent an envoy to West
Germany to open hostage negotiations with U.S. officials. The
chief of the American delegation was then-Deputy Secretary of
State Warren Christopher, now a prominent Los Angeles lawyer.
"The first meetings were very promising," Christopher
recalled in an interview. Christopher met with Khomeini's son-
in-law, Sadegh Tabatabai, who presented a set of relatively
moderate demands: a U.S. commitment to refrain from military
intervention in Iran, unfreeze Iranain assets in the United
States and aid in returning the wealth of the late Shah to Iran.
Christopher said Tabatabai also asked for delivery of some
$350 million in weapons and other military equipment that the
shah had bought but that remained in U.S. warehouses. "I
discouraged it, and it never came back onto the table,"
Christopher said.
Invasion by Iraq
One week later, Iran was invaded by the army of neighboring
Iraq. The war interrupted Tabatabai's negotiations with
Christopher; not until November 2 did Iran come back with a
precise proposal for freeing the hostages-- too late to prevent
Carter from going down to defeat on November 4.
"It is an interesting question why the promising meetings
we had in September ended so abruptly," Christopher said. "The
conversations were really quite encouraging, and it was a
letdown when they did not continue. But I've always felt that
the outbreak of the war seemed a sufficient explanation."
In the interim, Khomeini's government formally dropped its
demands for weapons as part of the deal. That seemed strange to
Gary Sick, the NSC's Iran expert at the time. "I thought it was
amazing," he said last week. "They were at war, after all. One
of the things they would definitely want, we thought, was the
military equipment they already owned."
Christopher is less impressed by the apparent oddity. "The
issue of weapons stayed on the table only briefly," he said. "I
think they were just testing us."
In any case, serious negotiations over the hostages'
release did not get started until after Reagan won the election,
and the 52 Americans were not actually freed until a few minutes
after the new President took office on January 20, 1981.
Jimmy Carter had negotiated the hostages' release, but it
was Ronald Reagan who welcomed them home.
+++
(seventeen paragraphs trashing Barbara Honegger and Bani-Sadr)
(eleven paragraphs describing Allen-Silberman-McFarlane meeting
with the "mysterious Middle Easterner" and their mutual memory
loss about this encounter)
(twenty paragraphs trashing Richard Brenneke and his testimony)
+++
The controversy, however shaky its roots, is unlikely to go
away.
On Monday, (that would be October 24) a Los Angeles lawyer
who sued the federal government and the Khomeini regime on
behalf of 13 of the Tehran hostages announced he is now
preparing a suit against the estate of Casey, against the 1980
Reagan-Bush campaign-- and possibly against Bush as well.
The lawyer, James H. Davis, said he believes the Reagan
campaign may have violated the law by seeking a private deal
with Iran, and probably also undercut the position of the Carter
Administration's negotiators-- and that may have prolonged his
clients' ordeal.
"The result to my clients was they were not only kept
longer, 2 1/2 months longer... but it also hobble our
negotiators in dealing with Iran," Davis said.
"Once we file, we will at least have the power to subpoena
these people to get their sworn testimony on what happened,"
Davis said. "Won't that be interesting?"
Staff writers William C. Rempel in Los Angeles, Michael Ross in
Cairo and Rone Tempest in Paris also contributed to this story.
+++
source: caulkins
Story that appeared in the Rocky Mountain Times on October 2,
1988; By Sue Lindsay
Ex-CIA man ties Bush to 1980 hostage talks
A former CIA operative has told a Denver federal judge that
then-vice presidential candidate George Bush was flown to Paris
during the 1980 campaign to discuss the release of 52 American
hostages held in Iran while Jimmy Carter was president and
seeking re-election.
A spokesman for Vice President Bush denied the allegation that
Bush flew to Paris. "It's absolutely untrue, a pure
fabrication," said spokesman Steve Hart. "He was on the campaign
trail at that time as the vice presidential nominee for the
Reagan-Bush ticket."
The Carter administration was unable to win release of the
hostages - they were released hours after Ronald Reagan was
inaugurated.
The former CIA operative, West Coast arms dealer Richard J.
Brenneke, testified that he was present at meetings in Paris on
Oct. 19, 1980, attended by Bush and then-Reagan campaign chairman
William Casey, who became Reagan's CIA director.
Brenneke testified that others at the meeting were Donald Gregg,
who later became Bush's national security adviser; Richard Allen,
national security adviser to Reagan; a representative of Hashemi
Rafsanjani, one of Khomeini's lieutenants and later speaker of
the Iranian Parliament; arms dealer Cyrus Hashemi; Manucher
Ghorbanifar, an Iranian citizen with ties to the prime minister's
office; and Robert Banes, of France.
Brenneke's testimony came during a closed hearing before U.S.
District Judge Jim R. Carrigan on Sept. 23. The Rocky Mountain
News obtained a court order to unseal the records of the hearing
and obtained a copy of the transcript yesterday.
Brenneke testified that Bush and Casey were flown to Paris by
Aurora gold dealer Heinrich Rupp, who says he was a CIA
contractor. Rupp was convicted of bank fraud Sept. 15 in a case
involving the failure of Aurora Bank in 1985.
"On the 19th of October, Mr. Rupp brought Mr. Bush, Mr. Casey and
a number of other people to Paris, France, from the United
States, for a meeting with Iranian representatives," Brenneke
said.
Rupp has declined to be interviewed. However, a source close to
Rupp says Rupp has given a slightly different account. According
to this source, Rupp says he flew Casey from Washington National
Airport to New York in a BAC 111 jet, where they met a Grumman
Gulfstream executive jet carrying Bush, and both planes continued
to Paris.
Brenneke's testimony came in connection with efforts by Rupp's
attorney to have Rupp released on bond until final sentencing.
The judge has ordered Rupp to have a psychiatric evaluation
before a final sentence is assessed.
Brenneke has testified about illegal funding of the Contras
before the Tower Commission, named by President Reagan to look
into arms sales to Iran. Congressional Iran-contra investigators
also have questioned Brenneke.
Earlier this year, Brenneke told a Senate foreign relations
subcommittee that security adviser Gregg was the Washington
contact for a contra arms-supply operation that began in 1984 and
was bankrolled with drug money.
Brenneke testified that Rupp has worked for the CIA since 1957;
flew planes for Air America, a CIA front; and was working for the
CIA in 1980.
"The purpose of the meetings was to negotiate not only for the
release of the hostages then being held at the United States
Embassy in Teheran, but also to discuss, if the negotiations were
successful, the terms ... (of) how we would go about satisfying
everybody involved," Brenneke testified.
"In the end, agreement was reached, and the logisitics of
transferring $40 million for the purchase of weapons was worked
out."
Brenneke said the meetings took place Oct. 19 and 20 at the
Crillon Hotel and at the Hotel Florida in Paris. He said Bush
was in Paris less than 24 hours, and that Casey went on to
Frankfurt after the meetings.
Rupp and Brenneke's claims come as allegations are circulating
that a Reagan campaign committee, the so-called October Surprise
committee, monitored Carter's efforts to release the hostages and
entered into independent talks.
The Reagan campaign feared that release of the hostages before
the election would allow Carter to be re-elected.
Bush's campaign records show he was in Philadelphia on Oct. 18
and met with newspaper editors at 1:55 p.m. That was followed by
an appearance at Widener University and a speech in Delaware
County, Pa., at 8:40 p.m.
He was scheduled to go to Washington that night and had nothing
scheduled Oct. 19 until an evening speech before the Zionist
Organization of America in Washington.
Campaign records indicate only what Bush was scheduled to be
doing, not whether he actually made the appearances.
News stories written in 1980 confirm that Bush spoke at Widener
University on Oct. 18 and to the Zionist Organization the
following evening but do not account for the intervening 24
hours.
Former President Jimmy Carter has said in interviews that he had
reports since late summer 1980 that the Reagan campaign was
dealing with Iranians to delay release of American hostages.
Former Iranian president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, now in exile in
France, has said he first learned that Khomeini was considering a
secret deal with the Reagan-Bush campaign in late September,
1980. He says he understood the meeting took place during the
last two weeks of October 1980.
*********************************************************
[The following announcement was downloaded from Peacenet.
Editor's caveat: I checked with Jo-Anne Scott on the source of her
news and it transpires that the source is at least third-hand
(friend of a friend), hence NYOL accepts no responsibility for
the veracity of this story]
source: jscott Jo-Anne Scott (Peacenet)
There is a report that CBS News is sitting on a documentary
Bush election team in 1980 made a secret trade with Iran.
The U.S. public need this information. Please distribute
some version of the following flyer during the next week;
calls to CBS are already getting some action!
EVIDENCE MOUNTS THAT BUSH BRIBED IRAN TO WIN ELECTION
DID YOU KNOW?
To win the election in 1980, Reagan/Bush made a deal with Iran
to hold up the release of American hostages?
That a CIA contract operative has sworn under oath in a Denver
court that Bush headed these secret negotiations with Iran in
Paris on Oct. 21, 1980?
The Reagan/Bush camp used CIA operatives to spy on the Carter
Administration, steal Carter's briefing book in order to cheat in
the debate, and steal top secret documents in order to undermine
hostage negotiations.
The American hostages were released Jan. 21, 1981 -- at the
exact moment Ronald Reagan was taking the oath of office for the
Presidency of the United States? Only two months later, the first
shipment of arms left for Iran.
CBS KNOWS...
But they're squashing the story. A tenured White House source has
confirmed that an investigative report on these events was to be
televised the night before the last Presidential Debate -- but
conservative CBS officials censored the story.
Call CBS and other major media to demand that this information be
released to the public. Ask 10 other people to do the same. Also
contact local radio stations and talk shows and give the CBS
number. CALL NOW, time is running out!
CBS will deny this story but it has been confirmed by reliable
sources.
CBS Laurence Tisch (Pres.) 212/975-4321 CBS News212/975-4114
NBC212/664-4444New York Times212/556-1234
ABC212/887-7777Time Magazine212/206-6000
THIS INFORMATION MUST GET OUT IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
>From "An Election Held Hostage" by A. Hoffman & J. Silvers,
Playboy Oct. 1988:
[A ] commanding body of evidence and testimony has recently
surfaced that suggests that members of the 1980 Reagan-Bush
campaign secretly pursued openings to Iran as early as September
1980, two months before the election. On at least two occasions,
emissaries of Ayatollah Khomeini met with Reagan advisors. The
Iranians allegedly offered to detain the American hostages past
Election Day, humiliating Carter and ensuring a Reagan victory.
Given the speed with which the Reagan Administration approved arms
sales to Khomeini, the testimony of several Iranian dignitaries
and the fact that a similar arms-for-hostages pact was made later,
there is every reason to suspect the Reagan campaign capable of
cutting a deal.
...[The Reagan/Bush camp] had informants at the CIA, the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA), the NSC, even inside the White House
Situation Room. Moreover, those informants had security clearances
ranging from "Confidential" to "Eyes Only" ....The Reagan team was
not above paying for information. The informant who allegedly
delivered Carter's debate papers to Casey was paid $2860,
ostensibly for research papers that he apparently never prepared.
While those bits and pieces were undoubtedly useful to the Reagan
campaign, its primary concern was getting data on the hostages.
Here, too, the quality and quantity of its espionage was
exceptional. Between official State Department briefings, leaks
and their purchases, Reagan advisors may have known as much about
the crisis as the President. "Top Secret--Eyes Only" and
"Secret/Sensitive" documents from the U.S. embassy in Teheran were
found in Ronald Reagan's personal campaign file. Reagan said he
didn't know how they got there.
...There is no doubt that in the last weeks of the campaign,
Reagan-Bush campaign members successfully undermined Carter's
diplomatic efforts.
...Bani-Sadr (exiled former President of Iran) first learned that
the Ayatollah was considering a secret deal with the Reagan-Bush
campaign in late September 1980. Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of
Khomeini's key advisors, was sending a secret emissary to the
United States to assess the political situation and try to arrange
a more lucrative settlement than the one the White House was
offering him. It was that emissary, Bani-Sadr claims, who
contacted McFarlane and later met Allen and Silberman in
Washington.
Rather than reject the envoy, as Allen and Silberman claim,
Bani-Sadr insists that Reagan's campaign advisors embraced his
basic plan. Before returning to Iran, the envoy had other meetings
with senior Reagan advisors. "They agreed in principle that the
hostages would be liberated after the election," says Bani-Sadr,
"and that, if elected, Reagan would provide significantly more
arms than Carter was offering.
**********************************************************
Source: catboston Mon Oct 24 14:01 PDT 1988
We need your help! The CONTRAGATE ACTION TEAM OF BOSTON
is about to take out an ADVERTISEMENT in the NEW YORK TIMES
to launch a day of NATIONAL GRASSROOTS DEMONSTRATIONS
to publicize George Bush's involvement in the 1980 October Surprise,
wherein BUSH and his aides cut a deal with Iranian radicals to DELAY
THE RELEASE OF 52 U.S. HOSTAGES until after the 1980 elections.
If we can send a check soon enough, we can get an ad in
Friday's New York Times. The ad will read something like this:
========================================================
NATIONAL CALL FOR DEMONSTRATIONS
DID GEORGE BUSH STEAL THE 1980 ELECTIONS BY DELAYING THE
RELEASE OF U.S. HOSTAGES?
DEMONSTRATE NOVEMBER 1, 1988, 4:30 TO 6:30 P.M.
AT ALL 50 STATE BUSH HEADQUARTERS.
CALL YOUR LOCAL ACTIVISTS AND MAKE THIS EVENT HAPPEN.
WE DEMAND TO KNOW THE TRUTH BEFORE ELECTION DAY!
WHERE WAS GEORGE ON OCTOBER 18-19, 1980?
============================================================
The advertisement will be about 2" by 2" and will cost $700. Could
you please help us with funds? If 20 people would pledge only $35
each in the next few hours we can send a check to the NYT in time.
Send your pledge to me by electronic mail at catboston, and I will
keep a countdown going in the PeaceNet conference
"carnet.irancontra." We need YOU! Thanks.
Peace.
Please send you pledge checks
to Contragate Action Team of Boston
PO Box 2151
Cambridge MA 02140
Thanks
**********************************************************
Declaration of WHERE-WAS-GEORGE? Day on October 19, 1988
Recent, shocking, well-documented revelations about George Bush's
whereabouts and activities on October 19, 1980, call for
extraordinary measures by concerned citizens now. Investigators,
using eyewitness reports, news stories, and their own investigations,
have pieced together allegations of unspeakably heinous acts by
George Bush and the Reagan 1980 election team. The charges are
that Bush, William Casey, and others negotiated with top officials of
the Iranian government in Paris, France, on or about 18-19 October
of 1980. Bush conveyed $40 million, it is alleged, to the Iranians and
promised to deliver to them $5 billion worth of arms if the
Republicans should be elected, in exchange for delaying the release
of the 52 hostages until after the November elections. As we all
know now, the hostages were actually released under highly
dramatic circumstances on Inauguration Day in January 1981. The
implications of these allegations are enormous, and they transcend
partisan politics.
For years these allegations have been circulating, but since 1986
they have been most compellingly presented on hundreds of radio
talk shows across the United States by Barbara Honegger, a former
policy analyst for the Reagan-Bush 1980 election campaign.
According to George Bush's own campaign records, his whereabouts
is not accounted for from between 11 and 12 P.M. (Eastern Time) on
October 18, 1980, until an early evening appearance in Washington,
D.C., on October 19. Other accumulated evidence is staggering, and to
date there has been no rebuttal from the Bush campaign in spite of
repeated invitations for dialogue. WHERE WAS GEORGE? We want the
truth. Citizens must demand to know the answers to the following
questions:
WHERE WAS GEORGE BUSH on 18-19 October, 1980?
If he was in Paris, was he negotiating with the Iranians for release of
the hostages? Was he transferring money to them and promising arms for
hostages?
To get at these and other answers, Contragate Action Team of Boston
is calling for a National Countdown to Noon on 19 October 1988, the
8th anniversary of the Paris meeting, climaxing by converging on
every Bush Campaign Headquarters in the land and demonstrating to
demand the truth.
Concerned citizens are asked to organize actions in your state and
town in the next two weeks; advertize WHERE-WAS-GEORGE? Day;
picket campaign events; call talk shows; and telephone friends,
contacts, and your politicians to force this issue to the forefront.
Organize write-ins to Rep. Peter Rodino, Chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee to open a full investigation of the charges, and
to grant subpoena power to the ongoing Conyers Commisson which is
already working on related matters.
For list of materials, tapes, and press packets contact Ms. Barbara
Honegger, P.O. Box 51332, Pacific Grove, California, 93950.
For national coordination and sharing of ideas on WHERE-WAS-
"George? Day, send electronic mail to us at catboston, or write CAT
Boston, P.O. Box 2151, Cambridge MA 02238.
**********************************************************
Contributed by Alex Winter
Oct. 3, 1988
The Sunday Rocky Mountain News reports in a copyrighted
story based on sealed Denver Federal Court testimony
obtained by court order that a former CIA agent has linked
Bush to negotiations in Paris with the Iranians on a deal
to stall hostage release until after the 1980 elections.
"A former CIA operative has told a Denver federal judge
that then-vice presidential candidate George Bush was
flown to Paris during the 1980 campaign to discuss the
release of 52 American hostages held in Iran while
Jimmy Carter was president and seeking re-election ..."
....
"In the end, agreement was reached and the logistics of
transferring $40 million for the purchase of weapons was
worked out.
....
"Brenneke said the meetings took place Oct. 19 and 20 at
the Crillon Hotel and at the Hotel Florida in Paris. He
said Bush was in Paris less than 24 hours and that Casey
went on to Frankfurt after the meetings.
...
"Rupp and Brenneke's claims come as allegations are circulating
that a Reagan campaign committee, the so-called October
Surprise Committee, monitored Carter's efforts to release
the hostages and entered into independent talks.
...
"The Reagan campaign feared that the release of hostages
before the election would allow Carter to be re-elected ...
...
"Former President Jimmy Carter has said in interviews that
he had reports since late summer 1980 that the Reagan
campaign was dealing with the Iranians to delay release
of the American hostages."
- From Rocky Mountain News, Sunday, Oct. 2, 1988
" Ex-CIA man ties Bush to 1980 Hostage Talks"
by Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mt. News Staff *C* 1988 Denver Publishing Co.
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank