George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

ack to vice presidential candidate George Bush in a dinner meeting held at the Alibi
Club. It is certain from the evidence that there were negotiations with the Mullahs by the
Reagan-Bush camp, and that Bush was heavily involved at every stage.
In early September, Bush's brother Prescott Bush became involved with a letter to James
Baker in which he described his contacts with a certain Herbert Cohen, a consultant to the
Carter Administration on Middle East matters. Cohen had promised to abort any possible
Carter moves to "politicize" the hostage issue by openly denouncing any machinations
that Carter might attempt. Prescott offered Baker a meeting with Cohen. Were it not fot
the power of the Brown Brothers, Harriman/Skull and Bones networks, George's brother
Prescott Bush might have become something likt the Billy Carter of the 1980's.
In September-October 1980 there was a meeting at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in
Washington among Richard Allen, Bud McFarlane, Laurence Silberman of the Reagan-
Bush campaign and a mysterious Iranian representative, thought to be an emissary of
Iranian asset Hashemi Rafsanjani, an asset of US intelligence who was becoming one of
the most powerful mullahs in Khomeini's entourage. The Iranian representative offered a
deal whereby "he could get the hostages released directly to our campaign before the
election," Silberman recalls. Allen has claimed that he cut this meeting short after twenty
minutes. Allen, McFarlane, and Silberman (later named a federal judge) all failed to
report this approach to the White House, the State Department, or other authorities.
On September 22, Iraq invaded Iran, starting a war that would last until the middle of
1988 and which would claim more than a million lives. The US intelligence estimate had
been that Khomeini and the mullahs were in danger of losing power by the end of 1980
because of their incompetence, corruption, and benighted stupidity. US and other western
intelligence agencies, especially the French, thereupon encouraged Iraq to attack Iran,
offering the prospect of an easy victory. The easy victory" analysis was incorporated into
a "secret" CIA report which was delivered to the Saudi Arabian government with the
suggestion that it be leaked to Iraq. The real US estimate was that a war with Iraq would
strengthen Khomeini against reformers who looked to President Bani-Sadr, and that the
war emergency would assist in the imposition of a "new dark ages" regime in Iran. An
added benefit was that Iran and Iraq as warring states would be forced vastly to increase
their oil production, forcing down the oil price on the world market and thus providing
the bankrupt US dollar with an important subsidy in terms of the dollar's ability to
command basic commodities in the real world. Bani-Sadr spoke in this connection of "an
oil crisis in reverse" as a result of the Iran-Iraq war.
President Bani-Sadr, who was later deposed in a coup d'etat by Khomeini, Rafsanjani,
and Beheshti, has recalled that during this period Khomeini decided to bet on Reagan-
Bush. "So what if Reagan wins," said Khomeini. "Nothing will really change since he
and Carter are both enemies of Islam." [fn 39]
This was the time of the Reagan-Carter presidential debates, and Casey's operation had
also yielded booty in this regard. Bush ally and then Congressman David Stockman