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Since I started following politics I’d heard the term October Surprise but never knew where it originated
If this is true this is shady and unethical at best and at worse people should be in prison
Wonder what the world would be like today if Carter had won reelection
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Today, former president Jimmy Carteris in hospice care in Plains, Georgia, where he has just celebrated his 100th birthday. But even now, some 44 years after his presidency ended, he has not gotten his due.
Carter was defeated at the polls by Ronald Reagan in 1980, having been wrongfully characterised as a failed leader who allowed America to be humiliated by Iran.
In fact, he was the victim of a traitorous covert operation for which the Republicans were never held accountable. The real story has never been fully told.
In 1980, the term “October Surprise” first became widely used in reference to efforts to win the release of 52 American hostages incarcerated at the American embassy in Tehran.
Obtaining their freedom became a decisive factor in determining who would win the election – Ronald Reagan or Jimmy Carter.
At the time, of course, the Republicans were not even in power, so they had no authority to make any kind of deal at all with Iran.
Nevertheless, the Republicans secretly sent weapons to Iran, for which they demanded an extraordinary quid pro quo: they wanted the Islamic Republic to keep the Americans in custody until after the US presidential election.
That’s right: the Republicans were arming Iran, a terrorist state, in return for which they wanted Iran to prolong the captivity of American hostages.
Transgressive as the Republicans’ position seemed, there was a powerful logic behind it; if the hostages were released before the election, the thinking went, the patriotic fervour that ensued might well put Carter over the top.
But if the hostages were still imprisoned when America voted, Carter would be seen as the man who allowed America to become a pitiful, helpless giant.
As a result, the Reagan-Bush campaign induced Iran to keep the hostages until after the elections. Critics have characterised the deal as an act of treason, but however you parsed it, one thing was clear: the Republicans had put party before country.
In 1991, I investigated the October Surprise for Esquire. Immediately after my piece appeared, Newsweek hired me to continue the investigation.
But then, the conventional wisdom about the October Surprise made an abrupt U-turn.
Suddenly, the hottest story in the country was newly appraised as nothing more than a wacky conspiracy theory.
Newsweek ran three major stories saying the October Surprise never happened. The New Republic, The Washington Post and other organs of the mainstream press piled on.
All the sources were sleazy arms dealers and spies, con men and criminals, they said. Anyone who interviewed them – me, for example – was a gullible dupe who had been taken in by the tinfoil-hat brigade.
Reporters who continued to pursue it were discredited or marginalised – even sued, as I was, by former national security adviser Robert “Bud” McFarlane, for $10m. (I was tied up in court for years, but I eventually won.) Two congressional investigations fizzled out.
After the 1992 election, the whole subject was relegated to the dustbin of history. And for most Americans, the October Surprise of 1980 never happened.
But I knew otherwise. Even though the October Surprise was dead and buried for most people, I went back to it again and again. I travelled to Israel, Iran and France, where I interviewed high-level Israeli intelligence officials, Iran’s top arms procurement officer, and the former Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr.
When I started my new book, Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason that Stole the White House, I found even more material.
Robert Parry, an investigative reporter who was similarly fixated on the October Surprise, had discovered a trove of documents that had been discarded by the Congressional taskforce investigating the scandal. After he died, in 2018, his wife shared them with me……….
www.independent.co.uk
If this is true this is shady and unethical at best and at worse people should be in prison
Wonder what the world would be like today if Carter had won reelection
==============================
Today, former president Jimmy Carteris in hospice care in Plains, Georgia, where he has just celebrated his 100th birthday. But even now, some 44 years after his presidency ended, he has not gotten his due.
Carter was defeated at the polls by Ronald Reagan in 1980, having been wrongfully characterised as a failed leader who allowed America to be humiliated by Iran.
In fact, he was the victim of a traitorous covert operation for which the Republicans were never held accountable. The real story has never been fully told.
In 1980, the term “October Surprise” first became widely used in reference to efforts to win the release of 52 American hostages incarcerated at the American embassy in Tehran.
Obtaining their freedom became a decisive factor in determining who would win the election – Ronald Reagan or Jimmy Carter.
At the time, of course, the Republicans were not even in power, so they had no authority to make any kind of deal at all with Iran.
Nevertheless, the Republicans secretly sent weapons to Iran, for which they demanded an extraordinary quid pro quo: they wanted the Islamic Republic to keep the Americans in custody until after the US presidential election.
That’s right: the Republicans were arming Iran, a terrorist state, in return for which they wanted Iran to prolong the captivity of American hostages.
Transgressive as the Republicans’ position seemed, there was a powerful logic behind it; if the hostages were released before the election, the thinking went, the patriotic fervour that ensued might well put Carter over the top.
But if the hostages were still imprisoned when America voted, Carter would be seen as the man who allowed America to become a pitiful, helpless giant.
As a result, the Reagan-Bush campaign induced Iran to keep the hostages until after the elections. Critics have characterised the deal as an act of treason, but however you parsed it, one thing was clear: the Republicans had put party before country.
In 1991, I investigated the October Surprise for Esquire. Immediately after my piece appeared, Newsweek hired me to continue the investigation.
But then, the conventional wisdom about the October Surprise made an abrupt U-turn.
Suddenly, the hottest story in the country was newly appraised as nothing more than a wacky conspiracy theory.
Newsweek ran three major stories saying the October Surprise never happened. The New Republic, The Washington Post and other organs of the mainstream press piled on.
All the sources were sleazy arms dealers and spies, con men and criminals, they said. Anyone who interviewed them – me, for example – was a gullible dupe who had been taken in by the tinfoil-hat brigade.
Reporters who continued to pursue it were discredited or marginalised – even sued, as I was, by former national security adviser Robert “Bud” McFarlane, for $10m. (I was tied up in court for years, but I eventually won.) Two congressional investigations fizzled out.
After the 1992 election, the whole subject was relegated to the dustbin of history. And for most Americans, the October Surprise of 1980 never happened.
But I knew otherwise. Even though the October Surprise was dead and buried for most people, I went back to it again and again. I travelled to Israel, Iran and France, where I interviewed high-level Israeli intelligence officials, Iran’s top arms procurement officer, and the former Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr.
When I started my new book, Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason that Stole the White House, I found even more material.
Robert Parry, an investigative reporter who was similarly fixated on the October Surprise, had discovered a trove of documents that had been discarded by the Congressional taskforce investigating the scandal. After he died, in 2018, his wife shared them with me……….
How an ‘October surprise’ could change everything in the US election
It is the name of a sinister covert action that stole the White House more than 40 years ago... or so the story goes. Was Jimmy Carter’s defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980 evidence of dark forces poisoning American democracy, or a compelling conspiracy theory? Craig Unger is in no doubt it’s all...
www.independent.co.uk