25th, an assistant to Stephan Halper's 'October Surprise' intelligence operation echoed William
Casey's newfound confidence, boasting to the author in the operations center where [Reagan-BushIran watcher Michel] Smith worked that the campaign no longer needed to worry about an 'October (^)
surprise' because 'Dick [Allen] cut a deal." [fn 43]
On October 27, Bush campaigned in Pittsburgh, where he addressed a gathering of labor leaders.
His theme that day was Iranian attempt to "manipulate" the outcome of the US election through texertion of "last-minute leverage" involving the hostages. "It's no secret that the Iranians do not he
want to see Ronald Reagan elected President," Bush lied. "They want to play a hand in the
election-- with our 52 hostages as the 52 cards in their negotiating deck." It was a "cool, cynical,
unconscionable ploy" by the Khomeini regime. Bush asserted that it was "fair to ask how come
right now there's talk of releasing them [the hostages] after nearly a year." His implication was thatCarter was the one with the dirty deal. Bush concluded that he wanted the hostages "out as soon as
possible...We want them home and we'll worry about who to blame later." [fn 44]
During the first week of December, Executive Intelligence Review reported that Henry Kissinger
"held a series of meetings during the week of November 12 in Paris with representatives ofAyatollah Beheshti, leader of the fundamentlist clergy in Iran." "Top level intelligence sources in (^)
Reagan's inner circle confirmed Kissinger's unreported talks with the Iranian mullahs, but stressed
that the Kissinger initiative was totally unauthorized by the president-elect." According to EIR, "it
appears that the pattern of cooperation between the Khomeini people and circles nominally in
Reagan's camp began approximately six to eight weeks ago, at the height of President Carter'sefforts to secure an arms-for-hostages deal with Teheran. Carter's failure to secure the deal, which a (^)
number of observers believe cost him the November 4 election, apparently resulted from an
intervention in Teheran by pro-Reagan British circles and the Kissinger faction." [fn 45] These
revelations from EIR are the first mention in the public record of the scandal which has come over
the years to be known as the October surprise.
The hostages were not released before the November election, which Reagan won convincingly.
That night, according to Roland Perry, Bush said to Reagan, "You're in like a burglar." Khomeini
kept the hostages emprisoned until January 20, the day of the Reagan-Bush inauguration, and let the
hostage plane take off just as Reagan and Bush were taking their oaths of office.
Whether George Bush was personally present in Paris, or at other meetings with Iranian
representatives where the hostage and arms questions were on the agenda, has yet to be
conclusively proven. Here a thorough and intrusive Congressional investigation of the Carter and
Reagan machinations in this regard is long oveorigins of the Iran-Iraq war, which set the stage for the more recent Gulf crisis. But, quite apartrdue. Such a probe might also shed light on the (^)
from questions regarding George Bush's presence at this or that meeting, there can be no doubt that
both the Carter regime and the Reagan-Bush campaign were actively involved in dealings with the
Khomeini regime concerning the hostages and concerning the timing of their possible release. In the
case of the Reagan-Bush Iran connection, there is reason to believe that federal crimes under theLogan Act and other applicable laws may have taken place.
George Bush had now grasped the interim prize that had eluded him since 1968: after more than a
dozen years of effort, he had now become the Vice President of the United States.
Return to the Table of Contents
NOTES:
- Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus, "At CIA, a Rebuilder 'Goes With the Flow,'" Washington
Post, August 10, 1988.