Why did Reagan get credit for freeing the American hostages in Iran?

[bubba_fett]

I've heard people defending Reagan saying that there was news footage of the hostages being released side-by-side with Reagans swearing in. But if he's being sworn in, how could he have any presidential authority?

I'm too young to really remember this (I'm 25), but the popular opinion about the issue seems to be that Reagan deserves credit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had the impression that Carter was trying to release them through peaceful negotiations, while Reagan just gave the terrorists all the weapons they wanted so he could soak up the spotlight.

[BootinUp]

1. It was a complex deal

Involving Israel. So I don't think we have ever heard a first hand account of the negotiations. Maybe someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Kremer]

4. I'm 34 and remember clearly

the hostages being released as reagan was being sworn in! There were even rumors that their release was delayed a bit to make sure Reagan was in office and that Carter couldn't get the credit/limelight. It is true however that Reagan parted the Red Sea, created man, wrote the ten commandments and it was also recently revealed that Jesus was not really the son of god. Turns out Reagan is the son of god and the messiah! Wow, I'm glad I got my history clear. Didn't Reagan invent the wheel and the cure for polio too? I may be a little off on those last two.

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Right. The credit belongs to Bush Sr, William Casey and their

October Surprise.

If you're unfamiliar with the story, check out the October Surprise archive at Consortium News:

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

[Octafish]

7. MB's right. Reagan paid for it.

To sink Jimmy Carter's presidency, the turd Poppy and his treasonous CIA - MI-Complex brethren PAID the Ayatollah to hold the hostages until after the 1980 election. Several credible books have examined the question, including "Trick or Treason" by Robert Parry of Consortium News, "October Surprise" by Capt. Gary Sick (USN, ret) of the National Security Council staff, and "My Turn to Speak: Iran, the Revolution and Secret Deals with the US" by Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr, former president and foreign minister of Iran.

And people wonder if there's a BFEE?

[Eric J in MN]

3. an accusation against Reagan is that his campaign

An accusation against Reagan is that before he was elected, his campaign told the Iranians that if they CONTINUE to hold the hostages until the inauguration, the Reagan administration would give the Iranians weapons.

Reagan replied that his campaign told the Iranians to release the hostages right away.

Even if Reagan was telling the truth, it's dubious for the campaign of someone not even elected yet to negotiate with a foreign government.

The US has one President at a time, and such negotiations undermined the Carter administration.

[TolstoyAndy]

5. More than dubious

Eric J said: "it's dubious for the campaign of someone not even elected yet to negotiate with a foreign government"

I believe it's more than dubious - isn't it treason? (Of course treason only applies to little people and Dems, but still...)

I believe the story is that George H. W. Bush dropped out of sight for three days or so in October 1980, and went to Paris to negotiate with the Iranians.

Naturally, the pilot of the plane that took him there killed himself.

Reagan is not an affable hands-off manager - he is up to his eyeballs in pure evil.

[pretzel4gore]

9. KAL 007 KAL 007 KAL 007 KAL 007!

it showed the bfee they could put over anything (even 3 jets driven into highly symbolic targets).....and the news media was so controlled they get away with it....
reagan famously said that 'government is the problem, not the solution' yet this former male model/rape suspect could be elected TWICE despite the fact few liked him (outside the bushit media) and racist right...
KAL 007 was so preposterous that its 20th anniversary passed last fall w/out a peep, aided by a busybody society running after whatever CNN/Faux steering them.
Wellstone (like Jesus) died in vain: our society is morbidly stupid vicious and deserving of nothing but extinction...

[ET Awful]

6. I've actually heard one Freeper say . . .

that the hostages were released because the Iranians weren't scared of Carter, but they were terrified of Reagan. . .LOL . . . leave it to a Freeper to come up with something like that.

[mlawson]

14. Oh, hell, the media used to say that!!

During Ronnie's protracted honeymoon, when the media were all google eyed in fucking LOVE with him. It almost became a 'truism', and to this day, Dems may be paying for it politically.

[loudnclear]

8. Because the media let him.. The agreement was made by Carter but

the repugs and Iranians made a deal to not actually release them until Reagan was sworn in.

[baldguy]

10. That's what he paid Bill Casey for.

And that's what Bill Casey, and later Ollie North, paid Iran for.

[9215]

11. I think Reagan should get credit for the hostage release

on his inauguration.



<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?




Maybe it was because of this:

...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)

[IranianDemocrat]

12. Carter did the ACTUAL work.

But they waited for Reagan's inauguration to release the hostages to give reagan credit, partly because Carter was a supposed friend of the Shah and they didn't want to be portrayed as giving in to Carter.

[Sallyrat]

13. Reagan should never get the credit for the hostages release

goggle "October Surprise" and you'll see how Bush, sr. met secretely with Iran rep. in Rome and pulled off the release after the election...(the election was also stolen)....remember how when Carter would go up in the polls, the Arabs in Iran would march in Iran and beat the chains on their backs? This went on nightly as the news programs would ram this down the American viewers throats.....the oil cartel and bushies were behind this all the way......they would show these marches every nite until Carter would start falling in the polls...it was obvious.....