American Conspiracies: on War & Peace
George W. Bush:
OpEd: Tortured prisoners to connect al-Qaeda & Saddam
The 9/11 Commission report states that "the Bush Administration repeatedly tied the Iraq War to 9/11. The panel finds no al-Qaeda-Iraq tie." Bush then did some backpedaling, saying: "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated
between Saddam and al-Qaeda. We did say there were numerous Intelligence contacts that took place in Sudan in the mid-1990s." But one prisoner, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, was tortured in 2002 until he'd agreed to say that al-Qaeda was linked to Saddam.
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.161
Mar 9, 2010
Jesse Ventura:
1980: Carter's failure on Iran hostages let Reagan win
The Incident:
On the same day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president, January 20, 1981, Iran released the American hostages it had been holding in our embassy there for 444 days.
The Official Word:
The timing was coincidental.
My Take:
Reagan's people had cut a deal with Iran to keep the hostages beyond the presidential election, to ensure that President Carter's negotiations with Iran failed and that he lost to Reagan.
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.104
Mar 9, 2010
Jimmy Carter:
1980: Planned second Desert Storm, after first one failed
problem was muted somewhat as an issue owing to the paucity of reasonable alternative plans, the erratic nature of a succession of Iranian governments, and fears generated by Iranian threats to punish or kill the hostages. Much of the 1980
presidential campaign was played out under the cloud of the hostage problem. The hostages were finally released on Jan. 20, 1981. Their freedom was obtained in exchange for concessions that included the unfreezing of Iranian assets in the United States.
but otherwise thought this seemed fair enough. Meantime, the Reagan campaign was busy monitoring Carter's every move on this.
A secret plan by the Carter administration for a second hostage rescue mission went operational in September. But it was leake
to Reagan's national security adviser. "Shortly thereafter, the Reagan-Bush campaign launched a major publicity effort warning that President Carter might be planning an 'October surprise' to obtain the release of the hostages prior to the election."
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.105-106
Mar 9, 2010
Richard Nixon:
OpEd: Panicked on Pentagon Papers because of CIA exposure
He know how to use the carrot and the stick," he wrote. "We're stronger than the Communists, so they were willing to negotiate. Force is what they understand.
And that's why it is difficult for me to understand now, when everybody knows bombing finally got a cease-fire agreement, why people are still criticizing his foreign policy."
FitzGerald, "the talented author of 'Fire in the Lake' [who] was the daughter of the late Desmond FitzGerald, a former deputy of the CIA. The CIA saw his liberal daughter's friendship with
Ellsberg as a threat, and worried that it might lead to the exposure of operations that the CIA hoped would remain state secrets" [including about Castro, Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK].
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p. 82-83
Mar 9, 2010
Robert Gates:
OpEd: armed both sides in the 1990s Iran-Iraq War
Gates came in to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary under Bush-II, late in 2006, and Obama decided to keep him there. If truth be known, Gates has a shady history as a career intel guy. In
1991, there were accusations he brushed aside that he'd had a secret role in arming both sides in the Iran-Iraq War. Witnesses in the Middle East said this had included Saddam Hussein getting hold of cluster bombs and material for chemical weapons.
Later, a sworn affidavit by one of Reagan's National Security Council guys said that when Iran was gaining the upper hand in the spring of 1982: "The CIA, including both CIA Director Casey and Deputy Director Gates, knew of, & assisted in the sale of non
U.S. origin military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to Iraq." It was also in 1982 when the U.S. kindly removed Iraq from its list of terrorist states.
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.107
Mar 8, 2010
Page last updated: Dec 12, 2018