23 Feb 22
@suzianne saidI've heard of the Iran-Contra scandal. Thousand Young mentioned paying off Iran to sabotage a political opponent, which is a different matter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair
https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/thehearings.php
https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/iran-contra-affair
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-issues-final-report-on-iran-contra-scandal
https://www.umbc.edu/che/tahlessons/pdf/historylabs/Oliver_North_an_faculty:RS13.pdf
@sh76 saidI know you're not a cultist, but surely you can tell the difference between specific policy criticism and disloyal opposition, right?
Yeah; former Presidents never ever ever rip the foreign policies of current administrations.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2513387&page=1
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/jimmy-carter-trump-peace-plan-middle-east/index.html
"The new U.S. plan undercuts prospects for a just peace" ...
... compared to what was said by Trump and Pompeo is very different. They are siding with Russia and Putin. These fellows have whipped their base into such a rage against the libturds they would literally rather be Russian than Democrat.
24 Feb 22
@athousandyoung saidI have zero expertise in what’s happening in Ukraine so I’ll defer to those who do. Unfortunately, we’re about to see a whole slew of uninformed COVID pundits pivot from providing their non-expert pandemic commentary to spitballing about war and foreign policy.
Reagan paid off Iran to humiliate Carter…nothing new here
25 Feb 22
@wildgrass saidTrump just repeats stuff he hears from the experts he talks to like Henry Kissinger. Trump is just a parrot who want people to think he is an expert.
I'm pretty sure it's legal (although it shouldn't be). Putin could launder through dozens of other organizations if Trump stopped fellating him, though, so if Putin wants to be referred to as a genius by a prominent US politician he knows who to call.
Maybe Putin is a genius, but I think it is more likely he has good advisors who are very competent.
26 Feb 22
@metal-brain saidPutin's either a genius or he has genius advisors? Is there a third option?
Trump just repeats stuff he hears from the experts he talks to like Henry Kissinger. Trump is just a parrot who want people to think he is an expert.
Maybe Putin is a genius, but I think it is more likely he has good advisors who are very competent.
26 Feb 22
@Metal-Brain
MAYBE Putin is a genius. Going out on a limb there casting aspersions on your boss.
27 Feb 22
@sonhouse saidIt's weird. There are so many examples of Trump saying ONLY nice things about Putin. At CPAC "of course he's smart" while he's invading a sovereign European country and the entire rest of the western world supports Ukraine.
@Metal-Brain
MAYBE Putin is a genius. Going out on a limb there casting aspersions on your boss.
Yikes. You've seen a lot of Republicans condemning Putin but so far they've been silent on Trump-ster.
27 Feb 22
2 edits
@vivify saidIt's known as Reagan's "October Surprise" e.g.
Link? I don't doubt you, just never heard of this.
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/ronald-reagan-october-surprise-carter-iran-hostage-crisis-conspiracy
Basically Reagan agreed to ransom the hostages IF Iran waited to free them until after the election. The day of his election the hostages were freed and Reagan unfroze a bunch of Iranian financial assets and/or sent them weapons.
27 Feb 22
3 edits
@suzianne said
He's no doubt referring to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_theory#Chronology
It is now very clear that there were two separate agreements, one the official agreement with Carter in Algeria, the other, a secret agreement with another party, which, it is now apparent, was Reagan. They made a deal with Reagan that the hostages should not be released until after Reagan became president. So, then in return, Reagan would give them arms. We have published documents which show that US arms were shipped, via Israel, in March, about 2 months after Reagan became president.
— Former Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr
Writing again in 2013 in The Christian Science Monitor, Banisadr reiterated and elaborated on his earlier statements:
I was deposed in June 1981 as a result of a coup against me. After arriving in France, I told a BBC reporter that I had left Iran to expose the symbiotic relationship between Khomeinism and Reaganism. Ayatollah Khomeini and Ronald Reagan had organized a clandestine negotiation, later known as the "October Surprise", which prevented the attempts by myself and then-US President Jimmy Carter to free the hostages before the 1980 US presidential election took place. The fact that they were not released tipped the results of the election in favor of Reagan.
Two of my advisors, Hussein Navab Safavi and Sadr-al-Hefazi, were executed by Khomeini's regime because they had become aware of this secret relationship between Khomeini, his son Ahmad, the Islamic Republican Party, and the Reagan administration.
January 20, 1981: Hostages are formally released into United States custody after spending 444 days in captivity. The release takes place just minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president.
Not a coincidence.