Nobody disputes that (future National Security Advisor) Richard Allen, (also future National Security Advisor) “Bud” MaFarlane, and (future federal Appeals Court Judge) Lawrence Silberman met with “an Iranian official” on October 2, 1980 at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel. At least, none of those three named individuals dispute it. None of the three individuals can agree on who they met with or what was discussed. No notes survive from the meeting.
cite 1
cite 2
(Superfluous jab: “Bud” McFarlane’s curious memory lapses also cropped up in relation to his deep involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, his suicide attempt upon exposure, and his testimony afterward.)
There are “dozens” of eyewitnesses and participants who claim that a series of meetings between Republican officials occured in Paris between October 15 and October 20, 1980. While two or three eyewitnesses claim that George Bush was seen there, it is generally agreed that this is a red herring. There is plenty of evidence to show that Bush was in Washington and Connecticut during those dates. Bush’s near-proven absence from the alleged Paris meetings is often disingenuously held up as proof that the entire thing never happened. That argument continues to ignore the dozens of people who claim that it did.
I have yet to see anyone explain away the far greater number of witnesses who claim that (future CIA Director) William Casey was present at those alleged meetings. The Free Republic article cited above artfully dodges the issue by citing a number of appointments that Casey had on the 20th, but offers nothing about his whereabouts prior to that date. Richard Allen, the gentleman who has trouble remembering exactly what he was doing in a hotel room with an Iranian man three weeks previously, has no trouble recalling that Casey called him in DC at 7:30 am on the 20th, and carefully notes that it was a local call. How, exactly, he knows it was a local call in the days before caller I.D. is unexplained.
In addition to the supposed Paris meetings, Casey is also alleged to have met with two Iranian arms dealers in Madrid, Spain in late July, 1980. The Free Republic article above triumphantly notes that while the arms dealers’ aliases appear on the register of the hotel in which they claim to have met, along with the exact name of one of Casey’s aides, Robert Gray, Casey himself was all of ninety minutes away by plane at a conference in London, where he was delivering a paper on OSS activities in France in World War II. (Gray fully acquitted himself in the eyes of the Free Republic by showing that his passport was not stamped. Despite my illusions to the contrary, I guess I was home during the holidays in 1999. After all, my passport isn’t stamped, either.)
cite 2, again
The argument keeps coming down to this: people who have been accused, and proven, of dealing with Iranians, setting up elaborate illegal arms operations, and lying under oath claim that this incident didn’t happen, and they attempt to discredit those who claim it did by showing that those individuals were running elaborate illegal arms operations and lying. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to prove anything when the people you’re dealing with are willing to prevaricate, feign no recollection, and destroy evidence, all hallmarks of the much better documented and undisputed Iran-Contra affair. One of the reasons why Iran-Contra was proven beyond doubt was because those jokers involved were government officials and therefore under close scrutiny. In 1980 those same people were under no such restrictions.
Whatever can be plausibly denied about the October Suprise, the character of the individuals alleged to be involved cannot: they (i.e. Casey and McFarlane) have already proven themselves to be fully capable of doing such things. But because everyone involved is untrustworthy to some extent, it forces the accusers into a “prove you didn’t do it” stance, a far shakier position than being able to make them admit that they did.
The Reagan Republicans wouldn’t have it any other way.
