American Conspiracies - Jesse Ventura [65]
Casey went to Spain in July and worked out arrangements to get arms to the Iranians from several locations in Europe, by way of Israel, once the hostages were freed.3 The equipment was worth billions and involved arms dealers, not to mention $40 million in bribes going to various individuals.4 Abol Bani-Sadr, president of Iran at the time, later wrote about the “secret deal” in two books.5 One of Khomeini’s nephews was supposed to present Iran with a proposal from Carter, but he instead returned home with one “from the Reagan camp.” Bani-Sadr was told that if he didn’t accept it, the Republicans would make the same offer to his radical rivals. “Lastly, he told me my refusal of their offer would result in my elimination.” Bani-Sadr said he first resisted and tried to get the hostages released right away—there had already been an official agreement with Carter done in Algeria—but, not surprisingly, Ayatollah Khomeini was working both sides of the street.6
A secret plan by the Carter administration for a second hostage rescue mission went operational in September. But it was leaked to Richard V. Allen, soon to be Reagan’s national security adviser. “Shortly thereafter, the Reagan-Bush campaign launched a major publicity effort warning that President Carter might be planning an ‘October surprise’ to obtain the release of the hostages prior to the election .”7
That fall, Cyrus Hashemi received a $3 million deposit arranged by a Houston lawyer who was associated with vice-presidential candidate Bush.8 Around that time came a meeting in Paris that involved Bush himself—although the U.S. government, and most of the media, would do their best to pretend it never happened. (Bush called it “that ugly little word-of-mouth rumor.”)
Playing their cards close to the vest, Iran’s leadership was saying it wanted either Reagan or Bush to personally put their John Hancock on a final agreement. On September 22, Iraq invaded Iran, which made Iran’s need for war equipment all the more urgent. A series of meetings ensued over five days at different hotels in Paris. Bush and Casey are said to have arrived at the Paris Hilton for a 90-minute discussion to cut the final deal on October 19. Secret Service spokesmen later claimed that Bush was in Washington that weekend, but their logs showed a missing 21 hours in his itinerary. There’s nothing from the time of a speech he gave on a Saturday night, until another speech that he arrived late for the next night, and other Secret Service documents show that he flew into National Airport at 7:35 PM on that Sunday.9 He left for Paris on a BAC-111 owned by one of the Saudi royal family, and returned on a fast SR-71 aircraft that the CIA loaned him.10
“At least five of the sources who say they were in Paris in connection with these meetings insist that George Bush was present for at least one meeting. Three of the sources say that they saw him there.”11 Ari Ben-Menashe, an ex-member of Mossad Israeli intelligence, said he’d been part of an advance team working with the French in arranging the meetings.12 CIA contract agent Richard Brenneke testified under oath that he’d seen Bush, along with NSC official Donald Gregg, in the French capitol that weekend.13
There was also an investigation overseen by Sergey V. Stepashin, who later became Russia’s prime minister. On January 11, 1993, he had a sixpage report translated by the American Embassy in Moscow and forwarded to Congress. At the Paris meeting, the Russians independently learned, “R[obert] Gates, at the time a staffer of the National Security Council in the administration of Jimmy Carter, and former CIA director George Bush also took part.”14
Robert Gates, eh? Well, that brings us right up to the present. Gates came in to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary under Bush-II, late in 2006, and Obama decided to keep him there. If truth be known, Gates has a shady history as a career intel guy. In 1991, there were accusations he brushed aside that he’d had a secret role in arming both sides in the Iran-Iraq War.