Bush Family and Iran

An interesting read from Robert Parry who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek.

The Bushes & the Truth About Iran by Robert Parry
September 21, 2006

"Having gone through the diplomatic motions with Iran, George W. Bush is shifting toward a military option that carries severe risks for American soldiers in Iraq as well as for long-term U.S. interests around the world. Yet, despite this looming crisis, the Bush Family continues to withhold key historical facts about U.S.-Iranian relations.

Those historical facts – relating to Republican contacts with Iran’s Islamic regime more than a quarter century ago – are relevant today because an underlying theme in Bush’s rationale for war is that direct negotiations with Iran are pointless. But Bush’s own father may know otherwise.

The evidence is now persuasive that George H.W. Bush participated in negotiations with Iran’s radical regime in 1980, behind President Jimmy Carter’s back, with the goal of arranging for 52 American hostages to be released after Bush and Ronald Reagan were sworn in as Vice President and President, respectively.

In exchange, the Republicans agreed to let Iran obtain U.S.-manufactured military supplies through Israel. The Iranians kept their word, releasing the hostages immediately upon Reagan’s swearing-in on Jan. 20, 1981.

Over the next few years, the Republican-Israel-Iran weapons pipeline operated mostly in secret, only exploding into public view with the Iran-Contra scandal in late 1986. Even then, the Reagan-Bush team was able to limit congressional and other investigations, keeping the full history – and the 1980 chapter – hidden from the American people.

Upon taking office on Jan. 20, 2001, George W. Bush walled up the history even more by issuing an executive order blocking the scheduled declassification of records from the Reagan-Bush years. After 9/11, the younger George Bush added more bricks to the wall by giving Presidents, Vice Presidents and their heirs power over releasing documents."

Read all at link above.

The secrecy of documents has been reported in the news I've heard, but the in-depth analysis, well let's say, it's just not done. It's sort of like getting clues all the time, but no follow-up. These stories involve time and patience, something that is are in our society of fast food, fast fun, immmediate gratification. I'm as guilty as anyone. But I do have one principle in mind when I hear and see things: I'm not hearing and seeing the whole thing-- ever. Therefore, I'm always asking why. Thanks to all the people who live seeking out what is beneath the surface of events. So many of us do not know, but what is worse, so many of us don't know that we don't know and yet have such strong opinions about what we see and believe.

All these things cannot change what is true, WHAT IS. Thank goodness what "is" is not subject to that which seems to be. That is why you may have a peace that passeth understanding, even in the midst of chaos. It is not that you cannot see the seeming, or be aware of it and it's affects on those around you, but you are not subjected to it, or a victim of it, it having no undo influence on your inner peace.

me in the EE