The Bushes and the Truth About Iran

[Kefka]

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2006/092106PARRY.html

Having gone through the diplomatic motions with Iran, George W. Bush is shifting toward a military option that carries severe risks for American soldiers in Iraq as well as for long-term U.S. interests around the world. Yet, despite this looming crisis, the Bush Family continues to withhold key historical facts about U.S.-Iranian relations.

Those historical facts – relating to Republican contacts with Iran’s Islamic regime more than a quarter century ago – are relevant today because an underlying theme in Bush’s rationale for war is that direct negotiations with Iran are pointless. But Bush’s own father may know otherwise.

The evidence is now persuasive that George H.W. Bush participated in negotiations with Iran’s radical regime in 1980, behind President Jimmy Carter’s back, with the goal of arranging for 52 American hostages to be released after Bush and Ronald Reagan were sworn in as Vice President and President, respectively.

 

[Ogami]

The evidence is now persuasive that George H.W. Bush participated in negotiations with Iran’s radical regime in 1980, behind President Jimmy Carter’s back, with the goal of arranging for 52 American hostages to be released after Bush and Ronald Reagan were sworn in as Vice President and President, respectively.

They've got to be kidding. This was discredited back in 1992. The Wilkepedia entry says it best:

After 12 years of news reports looking into the alleged conspiracy, both houses of the US Congress held separate inquiries into the issue, and journalists from sources such as Newsweek and The New Republic looked into the charges. Both Congressional inquires, as well as the majority of investigative reports, found the evidence to be insufficient.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise_conspiracy

What baffles me is how any sort of conspiracy with Iran could have benefitted Reagan. He stomped Carter because of Carter's clear failure in the economy, and his foreign policy, the hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan come to mind. In fact, Carter's main failure with Iran was letting the Shah's regime fall and unleashing upon the world the most violent Islamic movement in our lifetimes. That's not a minor failure! Yet now we have Carter going around (especially in foreign countries) talking about Bush's mideast "failures". Well, he's certainly an expert on them.

-Ogami