From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive Auto-Poster)
Subject: THE OCTOBER SURPRISE -- "The Verdict is Treason (part 1)
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 06:41:08 GMT


    The purpose of this Faustian pact, Brenneke said, was to prevent
    an "October Surprise" -- the release of the hostages prior to the
    November elections -- thereby ensuring President Carter's defeat
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    During the 1988 presidential campaign, Brenneke had publicly
    accused Gregg of directing the Contra resupply effort out of Vice
    President Bush's office.  After assuming the presidency, Bush
    nominated Gregg to become the US ambassador to South Korea.
    Gregg's Senate confirmation hearings began on May 12, 1989, the
    same day Brenneke was indicted.  The charges effectively prevented
    senators from raising Brenneke's accusations during the
    confirmation process.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Furthermore, the Bush administration showed no real interest in
    taking Brenneke to trial.  In fact, the prosecution offered
    Brenneke a deal that would keep him out of jail in exchange for a
    guilty plea.  Despite having no money and suffering from a severe
    heart ailment, Brenneke refused the government's conditions.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Being broke, however, Brenneke was forced to rely on the
    government to pay the expenses of his witnesses.  It was up to the
    court, therefore, to determine which witnesses were necessary to
    his defense.  Judge Malcolm F.  Marsh--a Reagan appointee--had no
    trouble determining that Carter, Bani- Sadr, and Robert McFarlane
    were not.
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            ============================================= 
             T h e   V e r d i c t   i s   T r e a s o n 
            ============================================= 
                  by David Armstrong and Alex Constantine 
                       Z Magazine, July/August 1990 
                               [excerpts] 

==================================================================
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Z Magazine, // 150 W Canton St., // Boston MA 02118 // (617)236-5878 
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[Z is a project of the nonprofit Institute for Social & Cultural Change]
==================================================================


     The May 4 acquittal of Richard Brenneke, the self-proclaimed CIA
contract agent accused of lying to a federal grand jury about the 1980
Reagan-Bush campaign's efforts to delay the release of 52 American
hostages then held in Iran, has cast a long shadow over Washington.
Despite the modicum of attention the case has received in the
mainstream press, its true implications-namely "treason," "perjury,"
and "impeachable offenses"- have yet to be fully addressed.

     Brenneke's story bears repeating.  On September 23, 1988,
Brenneke, a Portland, Oregon, property manager and arms dealer,
voluntarily testified at the sentencing hearing of his "close friend,"
Heinrich Rupp, a gold dealer and former-Luftwaffe pilot who had been
convicted of bank fraud in Colorado.  During closed-door testimony
before Judge James R. Carrigan, Brenneke told the Denver court that
both he and Rupp had worked for the CIA on a contract basis since
1967, including flying planes for Air America, the CIA-owned front
company in southeast asia.  Moreover, Brenneke testified that Rupp
believed he'd been "doing something the [CIA] asked him to do" when
the fraud was committed.

     To support his claim, Brenneke swore that both he and Rupp had
been employed by the CIA to assist in covert operations on numerous
occasions.  One of these clandestine adventures, according to
Brenneke, was a midnight flight to Paris in 1980.

               ======================================= 
               T h e   O c t o b e r   S u r p r i s e 
               ======================================= 

     In his Denver deposition, Brenneke testified that on the night of
October 18, 1980, Rupp flew Reagan-Bush campaign director William
Casey from Washington's National Airport to the Le Bourget Airfield
north of Paris for a series of secret meetings.  According to
Brenneke, it was at these meetings--held on October 19 and 20, at the
Waldorf Florida and Crillon hotels--that members of the Reagan-Bush
campaign secretly negotiated an "arms-for-no-hostages" deal with
representatives of the Ayatollah Khomeini.  The purpose of this
Faustian pact, Brenneke said, was to prevent an "October
Surprise"--the release of the hostages prior to the November
elections--thereby ensuring President Carter's defeat.  For their
part, the Iranians allegedly received $40 million with which they
could purchase badly needed American-made weapons and military spare
parts for their war against Iraq.

     Brenneke testified that he had participated in the last of the
three Paris meetings, working out the details of the cash and weapons
transactions.  Also present at this meeting, Brenneke said, was
William Casey, who was eventually appointed Reagan's CIA director.  It
was in that latter capacity that Casey masterminded the
arms-for-hostages deal with Iran that would eventually be known as the
Iran-Contra scandal.

     Also in attendance at this remarkable meeting, according to
Brenneke, was Donald Gregg, a CIA liaison to President Carter's
National Security Council.  Gregg, a CIA operative since 1951, later
became National Security Advisor to Vice President George Bush, and is
currently the US ambassador to South Korea.

     A third member of the American delegation in attendance at the
Paris meetings, Brenneke told the court, was then-vice presidential
hopeful George Bush.  A month after his Denver testimony, Brenneke
wrote a letter to Judge Carrigan amending his statement.  In the
letter, Brenneke explained that he had no first hand knowledge of Bush
being in Paris, but had been told by Rupp that Bush had been spotted
on the tarmac at Le Bourget.  When questioned on this point during his
trial, Brenneke replied: "I simply repeated what I was told.... I
disbelieved it then, and I disbelieve it now."

            ============================================= 
            B r e n n e k e ' s   D a y   i n   C o u r t 
            ============================================= 

     Eight months after his sworn statement in Denver, the US Justice
Department charged Brenneke with five counts of making "false
declarations" to a federal judge.  The indictment alleged that
Brenneke had knowingly lied when he said that both he and Rupp had
worked for the CIA.  The government also charged that Brenneke had
concocted the entire story about Bush, Casey, Gregg and the "October
Surprise" deal.

     Speculation at the time held that the indictment may have been
timed to avoid political embarrassment.  During the 1988 presidential
campaign, Brenneke had publicly accused Gregg of directing the Contra
resupply effort out of Vice President Bush's office.  After assuming
the presidency, Bush nominated Gregg to become the US ambassador to
South Korea.  Gregg's Senate confirmation hearings began on May 12,
1989, the same day Brenneke was indicted.  The charges effectively
prevented senators from raising Brenneke's accusations during the
confirmation process.

     Furthermore, the Bush administration showed no real interest in
taking Brenneke to trial.  In fact, the prosecution offered Brenneke a
deal that would keep him out of jail in exchange for a guilty plea.
Despite having no money and suffering from a severe heart ailment,
Brenneke refused the government's conditions.

     Brenneke's trial began on April 24, in federal district court in
Portland, Oregon.  Brenneke's attorney, Michael Scott, the brother of
Rep.  Patricia Schroeder, D-Colorado, had originally planned to
subpoena a star- studded list of witnesses for the defense.  Among the
notables were former President Carter and former Iranian President
Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, both of whom have stated that they were aware of
the Reagan-Bush campaign's hostage negotiations prior to the 1980
election.

     Being broke, however, Brenneke was forced to rely on the
government to pay the expenses of his witnesses.  It was up to the
court, therefore, to determine which witnesses were necessary to his
defense.  Judge Malcolm F.  Marsh--a Reagan appointee--had no trouble
determining that Carter, Bani- Sadr, and Robert McFarlane were not.
In fact, of the 24 potential witnesses presented by Brenneke lawyers,
only five were deemed "necessary."

     Government prosecutor Thomas O'Rourke, the US attorney in Denver,
suffered under no such burden.  At taxpayers' expense O'Rourke
assembled an impressive roster of government witnesses.  Eldon Hatch,
a CIA personnel specialist, testified that after thoroughly searching
the agency's files he could find no employment records for either Rupp
or Brenneke.  Under cross examination, however, Hatch admitted that
Rupp had been trained by Inter- Mountain Aviation, a CIA proprietary.
Hatch, a 31-year CIA veteran, also acknowledged that the agency had
maintained "files" on both Rupp and Brenneke.  Defense witness Frank
Snepp, a former CIA agent and critic of the Agency, later testified
that CIA contract agents were often listed in "Soft files" that
"existed only in a clandestine part of the agency and were not shared
with personnel because the [agent's] situation was so sensitive.

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