Iran's devastating weapon that no one talks about

[ThoughtCriminal]

I don't know with certainty that it exists. What if they have smoking gun evidence that the 1980 "October Surprise" deal with Reagan/Bush was real? Could it be used as blackmail against the administration to deter attack?

I imagine it would be used with great reluctance, since exposure of a deal might have serious negative reaction in Iran as well as the United States. But in the face of an attack, there might be little to lose.

October Surprise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise

I've never dug into the allegation enough to decide how much merit Gary Sick's book had.

[Wickerman]

1. Interesting thought

but I think by now most people know that Reagan (the Admin, not the man) had to be working behind the scenes. It would be a blip on the history screen and the comics would get some late night work out of it and then it would be forgotten. This country has become so confused about what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong that I don't think this would raise an eyebrow.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I read Sick's book years ago and found it compelling.

But, as another poster points out, by today's standards the mere queering of an election by making a corrupt deal with a foreign government to prolong a hostage crisis is pretty small potatoes.

[punpirate]

3. Gary Sick took a lot of...

... shit for his book. But, you should also look at Robert Parry's collected articles on the subject. Just go to:

http://www.consortiumnews.com

and search for the X-files. There will be about 15-20 articles on that time period.

From those, I think you'll find that knowledge of dealing with Reagan's people was very compartmentalized in the Iranian government. Not everyone in it knew of those meetings, and many of those that were purported to have engaged in those meetings may not be alive today.

Besides, it's old history and a different administration (albeit with a lot of the same players). I'm sure that if Iran thought there was any advantage in revealing that information, they would have done so already. Moreover, what would the response of the right wing be? They'd scream, "lies" and go on about their business.

Cheers.

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. Thanks for the link

The political impact might be stronger. We are talking about treason, and Dubya's dad. Mor important - in the context of fighting terrorism, it would be hard to find anything in modern history that did more to encourage it's use as a political tool.

A lot would depend on how strong the evidence was. Based on recent experience, If Rove knew it was coming out, I would expect some "forged" evidence to get leaked and then exposed. Nothing would be believed after that.

[punpirate]

5. As for it being a political tool...

... that's old news, too. We know, because of Iran-Contra, that the Reagan/Bush administration traded arms for hostages with Iran. But, the Congress and the courts have already decided that one--it's old history, too, and the major figures were protected.

One has to concentrate on this administration's actions--otherwise, the media just ignores it all. They will just dredge up all the old excuses (the senior Bush: "I was out of the loop on that one").

Now, if it could be proved definitively, yeah, it might hurt the Republicans in general, but it won't hurt Bush, Jr. (unless you can find evidence he was involved, and I don't know of that).

It was twenty-five years ago. About a third of the voting population have no direct memory of those events or that election.

Nope, I'm afraid if one wants to bring down Bush and the Republicans, it's going to have to be based on current events (and, lord knows, there's enough of those that are nasty and foul).

Cheers.

[wli]

6. they should just expose it now

They can expose more later if need be. I'm sure there are plenty of subsequent illegal arms sales to talk about.

[BlueJac]

7. Anything can be

We have been so dirty in the Middle East it is pathetic. Reagan had his deals with Saddam, we built bunkers and all that stuff. I would not doubt that Iran has dirt on us too. Maybe with the Shrub family. I saw GW holding hand with Saudi Royalty. The Whole things smell of camel dung!! :freak: