Keeping a Curious Bush Secret

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Keeping-a-Curious-Bush-Sec-by-Robert-Parry-110812-279.html

More than three decades ago, on Oct. 19, 1980, then-Republican vice presidential candidate George H.W. Bush supposedly took an afternoon trip to visit a family friend in Washington, an alibi that could prove he could not have traveled secretly to Paris for treacherous meetings with Iranians.

But Bush's White House in 1992 -- and his presidential library now -- have refused to release the name of this alibi witness or even the address where Bush allegedly went. The insistence on keeping this secret has just been reaffirmed by Debra Steidel Wall, deputy archivist of the United States.

So, rather than release what theoretically should be a fact the Bush Family would want out -- proof that the elder George Bush did not engage in secret talks with Iranians behind President Jimmy Carter's back regarding 52 Americans then being held hostage in Iran -- the U.S. government is saying that only a costly federal court lawsuit can dislodge this historical detail.

Or, perhaps the reason that this secret has been so zealously guarded for so long is that Bush never took the afternoon trip, that it was just part of a cover story to conceal his mission to Paris, and that the host -- if questioned -- would discredit Bush's alibi.

More at the link --

[smokey nj]

1. Kick!

[Octafish]

40. Trick or Treason!

...by Robert Parry

updates at: October Surprise X-Files

FTIIMI: America's Fishiest First Family

[FreakinDJ]

2. Which begs the second question

Who Tipped off the Iranians the Special Forces were coming

[Zywiec]

3. How were the Iranians tipped off?

The special forces mission was aborted before they ever saw any Iranians.

[WinkyDink]

7. Ollie North provided false weather conditions.

[SpiralHawk]

17. Thanks a steaming pantload, Ollie (R)

Why does Ollie North and his Republicon cronies always act against America?

[Enthusiast]

24. Because they're patriots!

:patriot: :eyes:

[Zywiec]

36. With all of the services having their own meteorologists

why would anyone listen to Ollie North about weather conditions?

[WCGreen]

4. Tipped off a sandstorm.....

[Zywiec]

5. Is that like the Karl Rove weather machine?

LOL

:rofl:

[WinkyDink]

8. Yeah, it's a laff-riot.

[sabrina 1]

42. People died, you think that's funny?

And US President was betrayed. That's generally called treason. Hopefully one day we will see justice for that treason perpetrated by the same suspects who always seem to be involved in undermining this country because up to now, they have been let off the hook for their crimes.

[formercia]

21. A very Big Fireball

This is second-hand from the former mistress of the Mission Commander:

The Helos landed at an improvised Air Field called Desert One to refuel, as they didn't have the range to make it to Tehran and back,
C-130 Transports, carrying Fuel Bladders also landed. The pilots of the Helos were told to Ground-Taxi up to the planes, in turn, to refuel. One of the pilots decided to lift off slightly to get out of the Sand, lost his orientation and flew into one of the Planes, setting off a huge fire. The Mission Commander then ordered the Mission aborted and the survivors piled on to the remaining Aircraft and abandoned the remaining Helos and equipment to the Iranians.

[Enthusiast]

25. Sounds like an operation within an operation.

Sorry, I will never believe anything else. They were and remain Republican filth.

[formercia]

39. There were people on the Ground setting up the Airfield

2 Weeks before the operation

It even had Landing Lights so the Aircraft could find the Runway, and a 'Control Tower', such as the Military use in such situations.

That's the info from the pilot who took the crew in. Iran had no idea what was going on.

[Enthusiast]

45. There was a Bush fascist insider somewhere.

Of this, I have no doubt.

[UTUSN]

6. K&R #24. And here are the solid bits of proof:

*************QUOTE*************

from p. 3 of the link:

.... There were other bits and pieces of corroboration about the Paris meetings.

A French arms dealer, Nicholas Ignatiew, told me in 1990 that he had checked with his government contacts and was told that Republicans did meet with Iranians in Paris in mid-October 1980.

A well-connected French investigative reporter Claude Angeli said his sources inside the French secret service confirmed that the service provided "cover" for a meeting between Republicans and Iranians in France on the weekend of Oct. 18-19. German journalist Martin Kilian had received a similar account from a top aide to intelligence chief deMarenches.

As early as 1987, Iran's ex-President Bani-Sadr had made similar claims about a Paris meeting, and Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe claimed to have been present outside the meeting and saw Bush, Casey and other Americans in attendance.

Finally, the Russian government sent a report to the House Task Force, saying that Soviet-era intelligence files contained information about Republicans holding a series of meetings with Iranians in Europe, including one in Paris in October 1980.

"William Casey, in 1980, met three times with representatives of the Iranian leadership," the Russian report said. "The meetings took place in Madrid and Paris."

At the Paris meeting in October 1980, "former CIA Director George Bush also took part," the report said. "The representatives of Ronald Reagan and the Iranian leadership discussed the question of possibly delaying the release of 52 hostages from the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran."

Requested by Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, who was in charge of the lackadaisical congressional inquiry into the October Surprise mystery, the Russian report arrived via the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in January 1993. But Hamilton's task force had already decided to dismiss the October Surprise allegations as lacking solid evidence. ....

*************UNQUOTE*************

[UTUSN]

9. It is disgusting for the media to gush over Poppy about how honorable and decent he is!1

Poppy BUSH has always gotten away with throwing a hissy fit when he’s confronted by tough questions, like why his five sons got to pillage the public funds (Jeb with suitcases of cash on planes with Cuban partners pillaging Medicare; Neill getting bailed out in his Savings & Loan scams). (His answer to that one: "My boys have a right to make a living!1")

What is absurd is that these jokers think the truth will never be known. But Dems appear to have cowardice and “bi-partisan compromise” in their DNA. This article says Rep. Lee HAMILTON agreed to eliminate the one investigator with all the guts and proof from the inquiry and led a “lackadaisical” committee investigation and didn’t pursue the Russian report with the proof.

[eleny]

10. +1

I recall hearing that Poppy made a quick visit here to Denver to meet with a wealthy friend. It was right after little Neil's S&L fiasco. I wondered then if Pops was here to smooth something over. Neil had already hightailed it out of town.

That episode crushed the real estate market here for many years. The Bushes are real bastards who I wouldn't trust even if I had my two eyes on the lot of them.

[lpbk2713]

12. 41 MUST be honorable and decent.

After all, they named an aircraft carrier after him.


:sarcasm:

:puke:

[Rex]

14. He sure did!

The Grimm Reaper Sr. finally got his own death machine! Fuck him!

[MsLeopard]

20. And Obama gave him the Medal of Honor

Again. :puke:

Edit: typo

[Octafish]

41. He gets choked up at funerals.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3029417

[Enthusiast]

27. Crime family........nt

[Liberty Belle]

11. or maybe he went to see his mistress...

My brother used to work in DC and said it was common knowledge Bush Sr had a honey in the State Dept.

[upi402]

13. Kick

For the rule of law
:patriot:

[onethatcares]

15. and the land where all men are created equal

:patriot:

back at ya.

[SpiralHawk]

16. Republicon OCCULTISM against America. As usual.

[WinkyDink]

23. Exactly. The hold-over from, shall we say, Prescott's Pals?

[Tennessee Gal]

18. Of course Poppy was involved in the October Surprise.

Traitorous behavior. I have always believed that.

This link provides a wealth of information: Archive The October Surprise Mystery

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

[GeorgeGist]

19. If the secret got out, I predict that mainstream America wouldn't really care.

Seriously.

[Motown_Johnny]

22. Did you miss the exchange over Iran in the (R) debate?

video here where Santorum says Iran has been at war with us since 1979

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAXBevBcwHU

the quote is at just about 2:58



Then it is followed up with Paul saying we have been at war with Iran even longer than that



So Reagan/Bush giving arms to a country we were at war with just might be something people would care about (not that it is accurate but it is a good talking point).

[coalition_unwilling]

30. It's even more insidious than that. In 1985 (at the height of the

Iran-Iraq War), Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld to Saddam Hussein's Iraq as a special envoy to pave the way for America to re-establish relations with Iraq and provide it with military intel about Iranian troop deployments.

So, at the same time we're providing arms to the Iraninas (the infamous 'arms for hostages' quid pro quo that was the precursor to Iran Contra) . . . at the exact same time we're providing critical military intelligence to Iraq.

In other words, we were aiding both sides to fight one another to a bloody stalemate.

If you think people in the Middle East are not aware of this moral abomination, of this perfidy, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

[PatSeg]

26. Seriously

You are so right. Many don't remember or don't really understand what happened. It was just SO long ago and most people probably wouldn't care anymore.

[gateley]

37. I'd sadly have to agree. nt

[sofa king]

28. I think Parry has busted the October Surprise open.

His series of articles lately is based upon the discovery of a memo in the Bush the Smarter Presidential records stating that William Casey had, in fact, gone to Madrid when he went to his deathbed claiming he didn't.

Think of the ramifications of that: the Era of Saint Ronnie was inaugurated by secretly negotiating a deal to keep fifty Americans in captivity for an extra 100 days, in order to steal an election by swinging public opinion against President Carter.

That's a hangin' offense, one that directly led to a thousand others over the past thirty years. I sure hope Robert Parry has a dead-man's switch....

[SpiralHawk]

29. Yup. But it is akin to a tree falling in the corporate woods...

[sofa king]

31. Yes, very sad.

What bothers me the most is that these arguments almost always devolve into authority-sniping instead of consideration of the evidence uncovered. Americans are so conditioned to trust what authorities tell them that when those authorities are discovered to be gaming the table, people simply ignore it.

Confusion works. Lying works. Destroying evidence works. And everything we've lost over the past three decades is the direct result of that pattern of deception.

A hundred million Americans are now eight weeks away from starvation, and scarcely a damned one of them understands why. They'll die not knowing.

[SpiralHawk]

33. "100 million Americans are 8 weeks away from starvation?" - Huh?

what's that statement all about?

[sofa king]

35. We can't distribute the food we have without gasoline...

...and over the past 30 years, the food distribution network has been completely taken over by a corporate owned, for-profit infrastructure that will instantly cut off deliveries to anyplace too far away, too difficult to reach, too wracked by violence to approach, or politically expedient to deny.

So the moment there is a major disruption in the flow of refined fuels, the clock starts ticking for about one-third of all Americans, by my own best guess.

But it's mostly paranoid hyperbole! That's how I do.

[blm]

32. KGB documents from that era backs the report, as well. US media downplayed or ignored that tidbit.

The KGB documents were revealed in the late 90s, iirc. Corporate media, always there to protect BushInc.

[Citizen Worker]

34. Barbara Honegger's book, October Surprise, reveals much of Reagan/Bush pre-election traitorous acts

and she was a policy analyst in the Reagan White House.

[SpiralHawk]

50. Excellent Book. October Surprise (R) -- against America

[gateley]

38. You know, it makes one want to give up. If we were to pursue this,

or any other outrage, and the government actually prosecuted, it would be one transgression among countless, and current treacherous acts are continuing to take place all the time. What's the analogy? Something about stomping out little fires while the forest is ablaze, or something like that.

[cherokeeprogressive]

43. He flew on an SR-71 didn't he? That's what I read. There's even videotape of it somewhere. n/t

[Brother Buzz]

46. That's what Russbacher, the pilot, claimed

The Blackbird was employed for the return flight only.

[CanonRay]

44. This to me is when we started to lose the rule of law.

This heinous crime went unpunished, as did, largely, the Iran-Contra scandal. Now we have a vast array of offical crimes being uninvestigated and unpunished.

[LiberalEsto]

47. Maybe he was having a tryst with Phyllis Schlafly

or some other female right wing hornet

[YankmeCrankme]

48. As much as I believe Bush and Reagan's team could of done this, I have one nagging doubt.

Why haven't the Iranians ever said anything about this? I can understand at the time, they were getting something for something, but what about a few years later when the US shot down their airliner? You'd think they would want to do something against the US, maybe try to humiliate Reagan and I think coming out that they sabotaged the hostage situation for Carter would have looked very bad even if Reagan was popular and it would have sunk Bush's presidential ambitions, one would think.

So, why haven't the Iranians ever disclosed any dealings with Reagan or Bush?

[AntiFascist]

49. Why would they want to reveal to their own people...

that they had been dealing with the "The Great Satan"?