George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart of Skull and Bones. But Potter Stewart died in
1985.
Finally Secret Service logs show that Bush arrived at the Capitol Hilton to speak before
the Zionist Association of America at either 7 PM or 8:12 PM, depending on which
Secret Service records are consulted. [fn 42]
If Bush had flown to Paris by private or military jet and returned the same way, or if he
had returned by the Concorde or some other type of commercial jetliner, there would
have been ample time for him to proceed to Paris and participate in the consultations
described. There is another intriguing possibility: during this same period of 24 hours,
Iranian Prime Minister Ali Rajai, an adversary of Bani-Sadr and puppet of Khomeini,
was in New York preparing to depart for Algiers after consultations at the United
Nations. Rajai had refused all contact with the Carter, Muskie and other US officials, but
he may have been more interested in meeting Bush or one of his representatives.
Between October 21 and October 23, Israel despatched a planeload of much-needed F-4
Phantom jet spare parts it Iran in violation of the US arms boycott. Who in Washington
had sanctioned these shipments? In Teheran, the US hostages were reportedly dispersed
into a multitude of locations on October 22. Also on October 22, Prime Minister Rajai,
back from New York and Algiers, announced that Iran wanted neither American spare
parts nor American arms. The Iranian approach to the ongoing contacts with the Carter
Administration now began to favor evasive delaying tactics. There were multiple
indications that Khomeini had decided that Reagan-Bush was a better bet than Carter, and
that Reagan-Bush had made the more generous offer.
Barbara Honegger, then an official of the Reagan-Bush campaign recalls that "on October
24th or 25th, an assistant to Stephan Halper's 'October Surprise' intelligence operation
echoed William Casey's newfound confidence, boasting to the author in the operations
center where [Reagan-Bush Iran watcher Michel] Smith worked that the campaign no
longer needed to worry about an 'October surprise' because 'Dick [Allen] cut a deal." [fn
43]
On October 27, Bush campaigned in Pittsburgh, where he addressed a gathering of labor
leaders. His theme that day was Iranian attempt to "manipulate" the outcome of the US
election through the exertion of "last-minute leverage" involving the hostages. "It's no
secret that the Iranians do not want to see Ronald Reagan elected President," Bush lied.
"They want to play a hand in the election-- with our 52 hostages as the 52 cards in their
negotiating deck." It was a "cool, cynical, unconscionable ploy" by the Khomeini regime.
Bush asserted that it was "fair to ask how come right now there's talk of releasing them
[the hostages] after nearly a year." His implication was that Carter was the one with the
dirty deal. Bush concluded that he wanted the hostages "out as soon as possible...We
want them home and we'll worry about who to blame later." [fn 44]
During the first week of December, Executive Intelligence Review reported that Henry
Kissinger "held a series of meetings during the week of November 12 in Paris with