From: dave mankins Date: Fri, 25 Jan 91 23:00:35 EST To: gary%ke4zv.uucp@Think.COM, harelb@dartvax.dartmouth.edu Subject: Re: Words Bush doesn't want you to hear (or read) Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.desert-shield,alt.activism In-Reply-To: <2024@ke4zv.UUCP> References: <1991Jan22.031358.26004@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts Cc: In article <2024@ke4zv.UUCP> you write: >In article <1991Jan22.031358.26004@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> harelb@cabot (Harel Barzilai) writes: >> >>I would be happy to supply anyone with further documentation. Among >>the files I have are: >> >>lib/covert/iran-contra/breneke >>Article "The Verdict Is Treason" re: recent, additional evidencd that >>Reagan-Bush in 1980 cut a deal with Iran to delay the release of U.S. >>hostages (to avert an "October Surprise" by Carter, a release of the >>hostages, winning him the election) in exchange for supplying Iran >>with weapons for its war against Iraq > >Of course the fact that Iran/Contra was *six years* later doesn't mean >anything does it? Seems the Iranians were mighty patient for their >payoff. Sheesh! The Iran/Contra affair was a separate incident. Indeed, some fairly level-headed people speculate that Ed Meese's panic in the early days of the Iran/Contra unravelling was caused by fear that the earlier deal would get exposed. The hard facts, what few there are, are these: There were shipments of US arms to Iran as early as March 1981 (two months after the Reagan administration took office). We know this because one of those shipments crashed in Turkey. The explanation was that it was the Israelis who were shipping the arms, though Reagan administration acquiesence in this clear violation of our agreements with Israel is difficult to understand. Secondly there were new US weapons in use by Iran in the Iran-Iraq war in 1984. These are mentioned in passing in a book called _Danziger's Travels_, a story of a Britisher who hitch-hiked from Istanbul to Peking, through Iran and Afghanistan, in 1984. He got picked up by a truck-driver dead-heading back from the front, who told him he'd just delivered a truck-load of new US weapons. ``How is that? I thought the US was embargoing arms to Iran.'' ``I don't know how it happens, but it says `Made in USA' on the crates.'' I'd think nothing of this anecdote, but the book was published a year before Iran-Contra broke. Pretty slim pickings. In addition, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence for the story --- Vice Presidential candidate Bush, Donald Gregg, one of Bush's top advisors, and Ronald Reagan's campaign manager (William Casey) *did* disappear for a few days around October 20th, 1980 just two weeks prior to the election. I bet the Brenneke stuff alluded to above discusses that. Brenneke, a former CIA pilot, claims to have flown Bush, Gregg, and Casey to Paris to clinch the deal with some high-level Iranians (it was necessary for Bush to go because the Iranians *didn't believe* they were really talking to someone in authority in the Reagan campaign). And the Iranians DID pull an about-face on American negotiators at that time. Brenneke was tried for libelling Bush's advisor by spreading this story. The jury not only found Brenneke innocent, but went on to say they found the government's case against him laughable (Gregg testified about the sunny day he and his family spent at the beach, and Brenneke produced a meteorologist who testified that it was rainy and grey at the beach that day). It does seem wierd that Gregg couldn't at least produce a newspaper clipping about a speech Bush gave that day. A disaffected Reagan campaign staffer claims she heard a top Reagan staffer dance through the campaign headquarters singing, ``There won't be an `October Surprise', Casey's cut a deal!'' The President of Iran at the time (Banisadr, now in exile in Paris), said that he believes that there was some kind of negotiating going on behind HIS back. Some of President Carter's top advisors during the Iran hostage crisis, after years of skepticism, have come to believe that something like this happened, too. And some of the hostages whose release was delayed an extra three months seem to believe the story. I don't know. It's not an outrageous story in light of the later developments of Iran-Contra and Noriegagate. It's certainly well within the capabilities of William Casey, for whom covert activities were an entertainment. And the 1988 campaign proved that George Bush was no man to let principles stand in the way of ambition. So it's possible. -- david mankins (dm@think.com)