harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu (Harel Barzilai) (06/10/91)
"President Carter has also stated that his Administration had
received 'reports since late summer 1980 about Reagan campaign
officials dealing with Iranians concerning delayed release of the
American hostages.'"
"In effect the jury believed Brenneke and said the American
government officials were lying. This verdict and its
implications of treason were virtually ignored in the American
national press."
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T H E O C T O B E R S U R P R I S E
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By John Carnduff and Edward C. Corrigan
Z magazine, June, 1991
==================================================================
Z is an independent, progressive monthly magazine of critical thinking
on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the United
States. It sees the racial, sexual, class, and political dimensions
of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving
contemporary circumstances; and it aims to assist activist efforts to
attain a better future.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Subscriptions: One Year $25; Two Years $40; Three Years $55
Z Magazine, 150 W Canton St., Boston MA 02118, (617)236-5878
[Each issue of the magazine is about 110 pages -- no advertisements]
==================================================================
THE FOULEST dirty trick" in American political history, according to
U.S. syndicated columnist Mike Royko, has finally surfaced in the
pages of the North American mainstream press. On April 15, 1991,
former U.S. National Security Council staffer Gary Sick published a
New York Times opinion piece and appeared on network and public TV as
prelude to the release of his new book on the Reagan administration's
re]ations with Iran. The book includes discussion of the "October
Surprise" which threatens to make the Watergate scandal look tame.
October Surprise was the name that the Reagan-Bush campaign gave to
the event they feared most -- an eleventh hour release of the 52 U.S.
hostages held by Khomeini's Iran in the weeks before the November 1980
election. Freedom for the hostages before the election would create a
wave of euphoria that would propel President Carter into a second term
in the White House.
Led by William Casey, the Republican campaign was anxious to prevent
Carter from capitalizing on the release of the 52 hostages and
established two special teams to contain the threat. William Casey,
chief of American covert operations against Germany during World War
II and later appointed by Reagan as Director of the CIA headed one
team. Richard Allen who served as Richard Nixon's foreign policy
coordinator in the 1968 election and was appointed by Reagan to chair
the National Security Council headed the other special group.
As Barbara Honegger, a worker at the Reagan-Bush national election
headquarters, reported, in the closing weeks of the campaign the
anxiety over the threat of an October Surprise evaporated. Honegger
was told "We don't have to worry about an October Surprise. Dick cut a
deal." Dick was Richard Allen.
The "deal" involved a delayed release of the 52 hostages in return for
arms Iran needed to fight its war with Iraq. October Surprise has been
subject to considerable discussion in the Alternative Press since the
story first broke when Honegger and Jim Naurekas wrote an article for
In These Times in June 1987. Honegger has since written a book
_October Surprise_ that has yet to be reviewed in the North American
mainstream press.
In 1987 the first published reference to the scandal was made by
Mansur Rafizadeh in his book _Witless_ referring to a CIA conspiracy
to delay the release of the 52 American hostages and steal the
election from Carter. Rafizadeh is the former U.S. chief of SAVAK --
the Shah of Iran's secret police.
One-time CIA operative Richard Brenneke has also charged that William
Casey and others from the Reagan-Bush campaign team cut a deal with
the Iranians in October 1980 at a Paris meeting. These claims were
made at a sentencing hearing for Heinriech Rupp who has since said he
was the pilot who flew Casey and other Reagan loyalists to Paris where
the October Surprise deal was finalized. Rupp also places George Bush
at the Paris meeting.
Rupp was charged with bank fraud in a CIA connected collapse of a
Savings and Loan and Brenneke testified on his behalf. Brenneke was
later charged with perjury with respect to his allegations over the
October Surprise deal. Richard Allen and others testified against the
conspiracy theory. May 4 1990 Brenneke was acquitled of the perjury
charges. In effect the jury believed Brenneke and said the American
government officials were lying. This verdict and its implications of
treason were virtually ignored in the American national press.
[ C o n t i n u e d . . . ]harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu (Harel Barzilai) (06/10/91)
"The October Surprise theory not only explains why the 52 hostages
were released the very afternoon Ronald Reagan took his oath as
President in January 1981 [...] The Congressional hearings into
the scandal failed to examine why U.S. arms flowed into Iran three
years before there were either Western hostages [..] or moderates
in Teheran. [...] That U.S. arms were made available to Iran in
the early 1980s in violation of American law is well documented...
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh has documented
that Richard Allen was involved in a similar conspiracy during the
1968 American presidential election [...]
=======================================
T H E O C T O B E R S U R P R I S E
=======================================
By John Carnduff and Edward C. Corrigan
Z magazine, June, 1991
==================================================================
Z is an independent, progressive monthly magazine of critical thinking
on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the United
States. It sees the racial, sexual, class, and political dimensions
of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving
contemporary circumstances; and it aims to assist activist efforts to
attain a better future.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Subscriptions: One Year $25; Two Years $40; Three Years $55
Z Magazine, 150 W Canton St., Boston MA 02118, (617)236-5878
[Each issue of the magazine is about 110 pages -- no advertisements]
==================================================================
[ C o n t i n u e d . . . ]
Mansour Farhang, who served as Iran's ambassador to the United Nations
during 1980 argued strenuously for the early release of the hostages
and believed a deal was imminent. However, Farhang reports that there
was an extraordinary change in the attitude of the ruling mullahs in
Teheran and that from October 1980 they were no longer afraid of a
Reagan election victory. Farhang at the time wondered what new element
could have changed the stance of the mullahs on a release of the
hostages to Carter.
Abolhasan Bani-Sadr, president of Iran at the time of the hostage
crisis, and who worked towards an early release, also charges that a
secret deal was made over the fate of the hostages that undercut both
his authority and that of President Carter.
John Anderson, who ran as an independent in the 1980 U.S. presidential
election said he was approached by Iranians offering to release the
hostages to him as president in exchange for munitions. Anderson
reported these overtures to the Carter State Department who encouraged
him to keep in contact and report back.
Richard Allen also has admitted to meeting Iranians in Washington in
the first two weeks of October 1980. Allen was offered an arms for
hostage deal but claims to have forgotten with whom it was he met, the
specifics of the conversation and the notes he made. Allen did not
report this meeting to the State Department.
President Carter has also stated that his Administration had received
"reports since late summer 1980 about Reagan campaign officials
dealing with Iranians concerning delayed release of the American
hostages."
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh has documented that
Richard Allen was involved in a similar conspiracy during the 1968
American presidential election. At the time President Johnson was
desperately trying to get peace talks underway to end the Vietnam War
and thereby improve the election chances of the Democratic
presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey. According to Hersh, Allen and
the Nixon campaign team promised the Thieu regime in Saigon a better
deal if they killed the peace talks and sabotaged the Democratic
campaign. Thieu withdrew from the talks.
The October Surprise theory not only explains why the 52 hostages were
released the very afternoon Ronald Reagan took his oath as President in
January 1981 but also addresses many questions left lingering from the
Iran/Contra scandal and the testimony of Oliver North. The
Congressional hearings into the scandal failed to examine why U.S.
arms flowed into Iran three years before there were either Western
hostages held by Shiite militias in Lebanon or moderates in Teheran
with whom the Reagan administration could expect to improve relations.
That U.S. arms were made available to Iran in the early 1980s in
violation of American law is well documented. An Argentine turbo-prop
plane crashed along the Turkish-Soviet frontier on July 18, 1981,
laden with American arms en route from Israel to Iran.
Ariel Sharon, then Israeli defense minister, disclosed to the
Washington Post in 1982, that, with the knowledge of senior American
administration officials, Israel had shipped arms to Teheran. Moshe
Arens, then Israeli ambassador to the United States has confirmed
these statements. It was also reported in the Washington Post at the
start of the Iran/Contra scandal in November 1986 that Secretary of
State Alexander Haig had approved the sale of $10 to $15 milliion
worth of arms to Iran via Israel in early 1981.
Given the importance of the allegations surrounding the October
Surprise and the implications for the U.S. political system and the
American judiciary and the fact that the information comes from a wide
range of sources, the silence on this explosive issue raises
disturbing questions. This failure says as much about the North
American media and U.S. legal system as it does about the men who
control the levers of power in Washington. (Z)