From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive Auto-Poster)
Subject: THE OCTOBER SURPRISE: Aug. '91: Congress to Investigate...
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 06:21:22 GMT


   House Minority Leader Bob Michel immediately denounced the
   investigation when the Congressional Democratic leaders made their
   announcement. ``I think we're going to be wasting an awful lot of
   money on a charade here,'' he said. ``People back home don't give
   two hoots about it, what happened 10 years ago. Jimmy Carter lost
   the election.''
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Not that we want a white-wash investigation for
fear of public reaction to this scale of Treason...

    Foley said Monday that both he and Mitchell ``accept the statement
    of President Bush that he neither participated in or had any
    knowledge of such contacts, of such alleged contacts.'' White
    House

...but pre-judgements like this certainly don't hurt
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


[From PeaceNet's oct.surprise confernece]
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Subject: CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE 'OCTOBER' 
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/* Written 10:32 am  Aug  6, 1991 by christic in cdp:christic.news */ 
/* ---------- "CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE `OCTOBER'" ---------- */ 
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SENATE AND HOUSE WILL INVESTIGATE `OCTOBER SURPRISE' ALLEGATIONS 

Christic Institute, Tuesday, August 6, 1991 

Senate and House committees will investigate charges that Ronald 
Reagan's Presidential campaign negotiated secretly with Iran to 
keep American hostages in captivity until after the 1980 election. 

The House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee will organize separate investigations, House 
Speaker Thomas S. Foley and Senate Majority Leader George J. 
Mitchell announced on Monday. 

The two leaders said they had ``no conclusive evidence of 
wrongdoing,'' but that ``the seriousness of the allegations and the 
weight of circumstantial information compel an effort to establish 
the facts.''  

The New York Times reported that Congressional officials said the 
investigation would begin in earnest after Labor Day.  

The House and Senate panels will both have the power to subpoena 
witnesses and documents. The two groups have not decided how they 
will coordinate their separate investigations or if joint public 
hearings will be conducted at a later stage.  

[Evidence of the alleged 1980 negotiations is examined in a new 
video, ``Playing Politics with American Lives,'' distributed by the 
Christic Institute. It includes highlights of a mid-June 
Congressional symposium featuring investigative journalists, 
political analysts and representatives of a group of formal 
hostages who have demanded an investigation. Details on this 
resource are included in a separate posting to this news group.] 

The White House has been sending out mixed messages on the prospect 
of a formal investigation. President Bush has ridiculed the 
charges, but said last month he would welcome an inquiry. ``The 
President has always said that if there is legitimate evidence and 
a real reason for an investigation, then they ought to get to the 
bottom of it,'' White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater told 
reporters on Monday. ``But if it's just a political witch hunt of 
some kind, then it's foolish.'' 

House Minority Leader Bob Michel immediately denounced the 
investigation when the Congressional Democratic leaders made their 
announcement. ``I think we're going to be wasting an awful lot of 
money on a charade here,'' he said. ``People back home don't give 
two hoots about it, what happened 10 years ago. Jimmy Carter lost 
the election.'' 

House Speaker Foley reportedly was reluctant to go ahead with an 
investigation of charges that the Republicans, in effect, ``stole'' 
the 1980 election from the Democrats. However, Foley said he became 
``convinced that these persistent rumors which have gone for so 
long and have occupied the attention of the news media both here 
and abroad indicate that the inquiry should be taken.'' 

The Washington Post reported today that the speaker was 
``eventually worn down by other House Democrats and the emotional 
pressure created by eight of the former hostages, who came to 
Washington in June and called for a congressional investigation.'' 

Foley said Monday that both he and Mitchell ``accept the statement 
of President Bush that he neither participated in or had any 
knowledge of such contacts, of such alleged contacts.'' White House 
sources have circulated three conflicting alibis about George 
Bush's activities on Oct. 19, 1980, when some sources have charged 
he was in Paris for a meeting with Iranian officials. 

The House investigation will be coordinated by a bipartisan working 
group chaired by Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, Democrat of Indiana, who  
co-chaired the Congressional probe of the Iran-contra scandal. He 
is chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and 
the Middle East. Members of Hamilton's working group will be 
announced in September. 

The Senate's investigation will be led by Sen. Terry Sanford, 
Democrat of North Carolina, who chairs the Foreign Relations 
Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Other members 
of the subcommittee are Democrats Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New 
York, Charles S. Robb of Virginia, Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and 
Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania, and Republicans James Jeffords of 
Vermont, Larry Pressler of South Dakota and Frank Murkowski of 
Alaska. 

According to today's edition of the Washington Post, Democratic 
leaders were warned by lawyers that an investigation will be 
complicated. Many 1980 campaign records no longer exist and Iranian 
officials who reportedly participated in the hostage negotiations 
may be unwilling to cooperate with an investigation in the United 
States. The chief figure accused of direct involvement in the 
secret talks--former Reagan campaign Chair and C.I.A. Director 
William J. Casey--died in 1987. 

The Post reported that the investigating committees are expected to 
seek documents from the Reagan Library, the Secret Service and 
Casey's family. 

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Andrew Lang             151251507 CHRISTIC                    telex 
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