While praising Bush, McCain lies about Reagan
Holly Shelves
May 15, 2008

Senator John McCain has weighed in on remarks President Bush made in Israel this week about appeasement. McCain said “the president is exactly right” in his comments, which came as no big surprise.

He went on to discuss the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1980 to drive his point further: “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’

This is an interesting and troubling point for McCain to bring up. This is because, according to numerous sources,* Reagan’s people did negotiate with the Iranians during this crisis. And, since the hostages were released on the day Reagan took office, this means Reagan’s negotiations were made while Carter was still in office.

Then there was Reagan's Iran-Contra Scandal during which Iranians took even more U.S. citizens hostage. Reagan offered the Iranians arms in exchange for the hostages' release.

So McCain is either confused here; or he is a liar. Reagan not only negotiated with the Iranians; the “carrots” with which he was negotiating were illegal ones. And to top that off, Reagan’s negotiations served to subvert the negotiations Carter was trying to make at the time, which is a treasonous thing to do.

*Gary Sick: National Security Council official during Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations

*Abolhassan Bani-Sadr: President of Iran during the hostage crisis

*Admiral Gunther Russbacher: Office of Naval Intelligence, CIA; piloted plane to Paris for secret meetings

*Barbara Honegger: Reagan campaign, Reagan Administration staffer

*Richard Brenneke: Arms dealer

*Ernest Backes: Banker who oversaw a $7 million transfer on January 16, 1980 for the liberation of the hostages