-Caveat Lector-
Preview paragraphs:
Between 1991 and 1993, Bill Clinton secretly made contact
within Iran through non-government intermediaries, [looking for
evidence to implicate George Bush in the 1980 election's "October
Surprise"] sources said.
On several occasions [before his presidential campaign]
Clinton received information from Iran on allegations that the
1980 Reagan-Bush campaign sabotaged then-President Carter's
attempts to free 52 American hostages held by Iranian militants.
Senior Iranian leaders from President Rafsanjani's inner circle
have repeatedly claimed that vice presidential candidate [CIA
director] George Bush and Reagan campaign director [CIA director]
William J. Casey negotiated with Iran behind Carter's back.
Tending to believe those claims, Clinton demanded that
Teheran supply hard evidence before he would consider action to
reopen investigations into this historical issue, sources said.
But the Iranians balked at going beyond oral assurances that
the allegations were true.
One source said the first Clinton overture to Iran on the
October Surprise subject dated back to the transition period
after the 1992 elections. An intermediary was dispatched to ask
the Iranian government about these allegations during a time when
incoming Democrats were trying to sort out Reagan-Bush Middle
East policies.
The fact-finding initiative reportedly had the support of
several key administration officials, including Vice President Al
Gore (who had favored a formal Senate investigation of these
charges in 1991) and deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott.
______________________________________________________________
BILL CLINTON'S SECRET DEALINGS WITH IRAN
By Robert Parry
from The Consortium, May 12, 1996
Copyright (c) 1996 The Consortium
WASHINGTON -- Several times since his election in 1992,
President Clinton has sanctioned secret indirect contacts with
high-level Iranian officials, for fact-finding or to explore
areas of possible cooperation, according to sources close to the
process.
These discreet initiatives have been part of Clinton's
circumspect policy toward Iran whose radical Islamic government
has damaged the last three American presidents. Attuned to the
political risks, Clinton has approached all dealings with Iran
cautiously. Yet, he still finds himself embroiled in an
election-year controversy because of his "green light" to an
Iranian arms supply line to Bosnia's Muslims.
Sen. Bob Dole has accused Clinton of a duplicitous policy
that permitted violations of an international arms embargo and
gave Iran a political foothold in eastern Europe.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich plans to create a special panel
to investigate what he called Clinton's "reckless policy."
Gingrich warned that "inviting Iran into Europe could have
disastrous results for America."
But the Clinton administration has defended the policy as
legal, arguing that the President did not seek Iran's help and
only ordered a "look-the-other-way" reaction to the arms
shipments. In effect, the Clinton policy allowed Bosnia's
Muslims to defend themselves against the better-equipped Serbs
and to achieve a rough military parity. On another track,
Clinton pressed negotiations for a peace settlement to end the
bloody civil war.
Secret Contacts
Acquiescence to the Iranian weapons pipeline, however,
appeared to break a Clinton policy of consistent hostility toward
the Islamic government for its alleged support of international
terrorism.
But secretly, Clinton has countenanced periodic contacts
with Iran through non-government intermediaries, sources said.
On several occasions, for instance, Clinton has received
information from Iran on the long-standing allegations that the
1980 Reagan-Bush campaign sabotaged then-President Carter's
attempts to free 52 American hostages held by Iranian militants.
Carter's failure to free those hostages contributed to Ronald
Reagan's landslide victory in November 1980. The hostages
finally were released minutes after Reagan took the oath of
office on Jan. 20, 1981.
Though allegations of Reagan campaign interference had come
from a variety of individuals and officials in Europe and the
Middle East, GOP leaders have emphatically denied the so-called
October Surprise charges. In Washington, the charges are
normally treated with derision by both government officials and
the news media.
But sources involved in Clinton's Iranian contacts told The
Consortium that senior Iranian leaders from President Ali Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani's inner circle repeatedly have confirmed that
Republican operatives did negotiate with Iran behind Carter's
back. The Iranians have specifically implicated then-vice
presidential candidate George Bush and then-campaign director
William J. Casey in these initiatives, the sources said.
Although tending to believe those Iranian claims, Clinton
has demanded that Teheran supply hard evidence before he would
consider any formal action to reopen investigations into this
historical issue, the sources said. But the Iranians balked at
going beyond oral assurances that the allegations were true.
One source said the first Clinton overture to Iran on the
October Surprise subject pre-dated his Inauguration. During the
transition period after the 1992 elections, this source said an
intermediary was dispatched to ask the Iranian government about
the allegations as the incoming Democrats tried to sort through
the Reagan-Bush Middle East policies. The fact-finding
initiative reportedly had the support of several key
administration officials, including Vice President Al Gore (who
had favored a formal Senate investigation of these charges in
1991) and deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott.
Mullahs Want a Deal
The Iranians promptly confirmed the suspicions about
Republican interference in 1980, but the two sides seemed to be
speaking past each other. While the Democrats wanted information
about the history of U.S. relations with Iran, the Iranians
wanted economic concessions from the United States, especially
release of the billions of dollars in Iranian assets still frozen
from the 1979-81 hostage crisis.
"The mullahs never give anything for free," commented one
source who participated in the early Clinton-Teheran contacts.
But the new Clinton administration refused to offer any quid
pro quo. Indeed, many senior Clinton officials opposed any
contacts with Iran until Teheran renounced terrorism. So, the
initial communications dragged on inconclusively for several
months before collapsing in early March 1993.
That early dialogue was quickly replaced by tougher
anti-Iranian rhetoric. Secretary of State Warren Christopher
sharply criticized the Islamic government for its support of
international terrorism as he developed what was called the
"dual containment" policy against Iran and Iraq.
However, some officials in the Clinton administration
continued to advocate limited contacts with Iran to identify
possible areas of cooperation, such as restraining the Iranian
nuclear program or collaborating in some areas against terrorism.
In 1994, the Iranians also renewed indirect contact with the
Clinton administration over the lingering historical question of
1980. Iranian officials reasserted that the October Surprise
suspicions were true, but again failed to hand over supporting
documentary evidence.
(The Clinton White House declined to respond to written
questions from The Consortium about the sources' descriptions of
the secret communications.)
Hard Feelings
Some of the deep-seated suspicions toward Iran felt by
American policymakers, including Christopher, are rooted in the
bitter experiences of presidents Carter, Reagan and Bush as they
tried to cope with the revolution that toppled the Shah of Iran
in 1979 and unleashed Islamic challenges against other pro-U.S.
leaders in the strategic region. Since 1979, U.S. dealings with
Iran's radical Islamic government -- whether to punish it or
collaborate with it -- have ended badly.
When American diplomats were seized as hostages in November
1979, President Carter first sought to negotiate their release
and then launched an ill-fated military rescue attempt.
In the 1980 campaign, Bush and other Republicans alleged
that it was CARTER who planned an October Surprise, a last-minute
release of the hostages for political gain. However, Carter
failed to free the hostages and lost the election.
Shortly after Reagan took office, his administration began
its own indirect relations with Iran, first acquiescing to
Israeli military shipments and eventually authorizing secret
American weapons deliveries. Some money from those shipments in
1985-86 was diverted to finance the contra rebels fighting
leftist-ruled Nicaragua.
When those clandestine arms shipments were exposed in fall
1986, they sparked the Iran-contra scandal. In the 1988
campaign, Vice President Bush won the White House only after
fending off allegations of his Iran-contra role by insisting that
he was "out of the loop."
Despite the sting of the Iran-contra scandal, sources said
Bush tried to develop his own secret relationship with Iran for
both political and strategic reasons.
After taking office in 1989, Bush released $560 million in
frozen Iranian assets, a decision that raised congressional
eyebrows and was never fully explained.
Then, in the early 1990s, Bush's national security team
reportedly enlisted Iranian help in gaining the freedom of other
American hostages held by Islamic militants in Beirut. But the
Iranians apparently were disappointed that Bush made no
additional concessions to them. One source close to this
initiative said Bush was always nervous that his collaboration
with Iran would be exposed.
Bush remained jittery as he sought re-election in 1992. At
two news conferences, he brought up the October Surprise issue in
response to unrelated questions and demanded that he be publicly
cleared of any suspicions. A House task force complied with
Bush's demand, but other witnesses continued to link Bush to
that story.
Bush also stonewalled continued inquiries about his alleged
Iran-contra role. He extracted a commitment from Iran-contra
special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh to delay an in-depth interview
with Bush until after the 1992 election.
But on the Friday before the election, Walsh released a new
indictment of former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.
The supporting documents included records disproving Bush's
"out of the loop" line. The disclosures crippled Bush's
last-minute drive to overtake Clinton, who hung on to win by five
percentage points.
After the election, Clinton concentrated on economic issues.
But the real history of U.S. policies toward Iran and other
Middle East countries remained a mystery to many Democrats.
Because so some of the Reagan-Bush actions bordered on criminal,
the Republicans did not leave behind a complete accounting.
The absence of a reliable history led some Clinton insiders
to seek answers through the unorthodox approach of posing
questions to foreign governments in the Middle East. One of
those channels reached into the Iranian hierarchy with queries
about the origins of Reagan-Bush contacts with the Islamic
government.
Now, three years later, it is ironically the Republicans'
turn to demand fact-finding about Clinton's policy toward Iran.
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
