Bob Parry's excellent "The Bushes & the Truth About Iran"

Bob Parry was the AP reporter who broke the Iran-Contra story, and whose research for PBS and Newsweek into the 1980 "October Surprise" involving Bush Sr. sparked quashed-by-Hyde-and-Lee congressional investigations. Unknown forces then set out to destroy Parry's AP career and smear his reputation in the early 90s as a result. In 1995, Parry found classified Iran-Contra documents in a locked room in the basement of the Rayburn Building, boxed and abandoned. The country, unfortunately, was in the throes of the O.J. drama, whose year-long soap-opera coverage served to bury other explosive political revelations.

Parry's remarkable find and their significance were subsequently lost in the media din. Parry's July 21 Baltimore Chronicle article entitled "The Bushes & the Truth About Iran," however, brings those events back to the present.

Those historical facts – relating to Republican contacts with Iran’s Islamic regime more than a quarter century ago – are relevant today because an underlying theme in Bush’s rationale for war is that direct negotiations with Iran are pointless. But Bush’s own father may know otherwise. (...)

Upon taking office on Jan. 20, 2001, George W. Bush walled up the history even more by issuing an executive order blocking the scheduled declassification of records from the Reagan-Bush years. After 9/11, the younger George Bush added more bricks to the wall by giving Presidents, Vice Presidents and their heirs power over releasing documents.

But that history is vital today.

First, the American people should know the real history of U.S.-Iran relations before the Bush administration launches another preemptive war in the Middle East. Second, the degree to which Iranian officials are willing to negotiate with their U.S. counterparts – and fulfill their side of the bargain – bears on the feasibility of talks now.

Indeed, the only rationale for hiding the historical record is that it would embarrass the Bush Family and possibly complicate George W. Bush’s decision to attack Iran regardless of what the American people might want. (...)

Click on the title link above and read it all the way through.
TAGS: Iran, Iran-Contra, Memory Hole, Propaganda, Bush