#iran hostage crisis

[deadpresidents]

Is there any truth to the 1980 October surprise theory?

The New York Times published a story earlier this year where Ben Barnes -- a Republican supporter of Reagan's in 1980 who had once served as Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, and protege of former Texas Governor John Connally -- confirmed that the Reagan campaign absolutely encouraged Iran not to release the American embassy hostages before the election because Reagan would give the Iranians a better deal if he was elected President. Barnes admitted that he was present as Connally passed that message around while on a trip to the Middle East in order to get word to the Iranians. It's not exactly a smoking gun because virtually everyone seemingly involved in implementing the October Surprise is dead other than Barnes, but it's a weird thing for Barnes to lie about 45 years later, especially considering how close his relationship was with Governor Connally. Plus, we know that there were shady contacts between people in the Reagan Administration and Iran because of the Iran-Contra scandal.

I think there is definitely some truth to the theory, but I also believe that the Iranians were more than happy to spite President Carter by not releasing the hostages until literally the moment Reagan took the oath of office. The Iranians were still furious with the Carter Administration for letting the Shah come to the United States for medical treatment after he was forced to leave Iran as the Iranian Revolution exploded and Ayatollah Khomeini returned to become Supreme Leader. Carter had also helped broker the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, which also infuriated Iran and much of the Islamic world. Plus, Carter had ordered Operation Eagle Claw -- the failed attempt to rescue the hostages by force -- and that was seen as an act of war. So, the Ayatollah and leaders of Revolutionary Iran had no love lost for President Carter and weren't interested in doing him any favors before he left office.

The October Surprise that many people overlook is the one which took place in 1968 shortly before the Nixon vs. Humphrey election. When it looked like there might be some progress made in peace talks to bring the Vietnam War to a close, Nixon and his advisers got word to the South Vietnamese to hold off on working toward peace until Nixon was elected and could give them better terms. It was such an egregious act that LBJ actually told people around him that he felt Nixon had committed treason and that he had the blood of American soldiers on his hands for sabotaging peace talks. We even have the tapes of LBJ's phone calls after finding out about Nixon's actions where President Johnson straight-up says, "This is Treason!"

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Former President Jimmy Carter, who at 98 years old is the longest-lived American president, has entered home hospice care in Plains, Georgia, a statement from The Carter Center confirmed Saturday.

After a series of short hospital stays, the statement said, Carter “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”

The statement said the 39th president has the full support of his medical team and family, which “asks for privacy at this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”

Carter was a little-known Georgia Governor when he began his bid for the presidency ahead of the 1976 election. He went on to defeat then-President Gerald R. Ford, capitalizing as a Washington outsider in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that drove Richard Nixon from office in 1974.

Carter served a single, tumultuous term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, a landslide loss that ultimately paved the way for his decades of global advocacy for democracy, public health and human rights via The Carter Center.

The former president and his wife, Rosalynn, 95, opened the center in 1982. His work there garnered a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Jason Carter, the couple’s grandson who now chairs The Carter Center governing board, said Saturday in a tweet that he “saw both of my grandparents yesterday. They are at peace and — as always — their home is full of love.”

Carter, who has lived most of his life in Plains, traveled extensively into his 80s and early 90s, including annual trips to build homes with Habitat for Humanity and frequent trips abroad as part of the Carter Center’s election monitoring and its effort to eradicate the Guinea worm parasite in developing countries. But the former president’s health has declined over his 10th decade of life, especially as the coronavirus pandemic limited his public appearances, including at his beloved Maranatha Baptist Church where he taught Sunday School lessons for decades before standing-room-only crowds of visitors.

In August 2015, Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver. The following year, Carter announced that he needed no further treatment, as an experimental drug had eliminated any sign of cancer.

Carter celebrated his most recent birthday in October with family and friends in Plains, the tiny town where he and his wife, Rosalynn, were born in the years between World War I and The Great Depression.

The Carter Center last year marked 40 years of promoting its human rights agenda. The Center has been a pioneer of election observation, monitoring at least 113 elections in Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989.

In perhaps its most widely hailed public health effort, the organization recently announced that only 14 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in all of 2021, the result of years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa. That’s a staggering drop from when The Carter Center began leading the global eradication effort in 1986, when the parasitic disease infected 3.5 million people. Carter once said he hoped to live longer than the last Guinea worm parasite.

Carter was born Oct. 1, 1924, to a prominent family in rural south Georgia. He went on to the U.S. Naval Academy during World War II and pursued a career as a Cold War Naval officer before returning to Plains, Georgia, with Rosalynn and their young family to take over the family peanut business after Earl Carter’s death in the 1950s.

A moderate Democrat, the younger Carter rapidly climbed from the local school board to the state Senate and then the Georgia Governor’s office. He began his White House bid as an underdog with outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. He connected with many Americans because of his promise not to deceive the American people after Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia.

“If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your President,” Carter said often as he campaigned.

Carter, who came of age politically during the civil rights movement, was the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South, before the region shifted quickly to Reagan and the Republicans in subsequent elections. He governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role.

Carter’s foreign policy wins included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Carter also built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy.

At home, Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres in Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and non-whites to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second-highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993.

Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat.

For years after his loss, Carter largely receded from electoral politics. Democrats were hesitant to embrace him. Republicans made him a punchline, caricaturing him as a hapless liberal. In reality, Carter governed more as a technocrat, more progressive on race and gender equality than he had campaigned but a budget hawk who often angered more liberal Democrats, including Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts Senator who waged a damaging primary battle against the sitting President in 1980.

Carter said after leaving office that he had underestimated the importance of dealing with Washington power brokers, including the media and lobbying forces anchored in the nation’s capital. But he insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term.

And years later, upon his cancer diagnosis as a nonagenarian, he expressed satisfaction with his long life.

“I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015. “I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.”

[o-the-mts]

It’s also a reminder that contrary to the fairytale the public is being fed by many of these same sources, US politics and the GOP were far from bastions of decency and righteousness until the dastardly Donald Trump came along and messed everything up. It was Reagan, the Republican president most often cast these days as Trump’s polar opposite, who carried out something close to treason to win an election, before carrying out a host of other crimes and outrages as president. Everything in our scandal-filled times is, sadly, part and parcel of decades of US political tradition.

Once Dismissed as Absurd, Ronald Reagan’s “October Surprise” Is Now Confirmed as True

[agentfascinateur]

Code Pink's Medea on where things stand

🩷

[thenerdcantina]

The House on Sun Street by Mojgan Ghazirad: Book Review

Moji is a young girl living in Tehran, Iran. She and her younger sister Mar Mar love spending time with their grandfather Agha Joon, listening to the fascinating stories in One Thousand and One Nights. But it is 1979, and Iran is on the brink of a tumultuous revolution to overthrow the monarchy. With her home and family in danger, Moji unknowingly views history in the making. A cultural and…

[icedsodapop]

This is so foul

Red carpets may be a chance to talk up current projects while wearing high-wattage fashion, but they’re also an opportunity for stars to express their support for vital issues — that’s why viewers of Sunday’s 2024 Golden Globe Awards are seeing some attendees wearing yellow ribbons at tonight’s ceremony.

J. Smith-Cameron of Succession and John Ortiz of American Fiction are among the stars who have arrived sporting a yellow ribbon to show support for the roughly 130 hostages who are still being held in captivity by Hamas since the terrorist organization attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The symbolic effort was organized by Bring Them Home, an Israeli hostage advocacy organization that has been working behind the scenes to supply the ribbons, and is being coordinated by Ashlee Margolis, founder of Beverly Hills-based branding agency The A List. While the Israeli hostages are the main focus of the effort, the hostages reportedly represent 30 nationalities.

The choice of yellow is rooted in the origins of the symbol. Yellow ribbons became a popular emblem of support during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when 52 Americans were held in captivity in Tehran for 444 days. Worn on lapels and seen on front porches and trees across the U.S., the yellow ribbon became the most widely used symbol of bringing the hostages safely home.

It's to support US imperialism, pure and simple.

- mod sodapop

[jewreallythinkthat]

How can Israel be allowed to exist after citizens literally rioted over the fact that IDF soldiers might be punished for raping a prisoner? And after government officials defended that rape? Not to mention those who repeatedly blocked aid going into Gaza with no punishment.

Hi Nonnie.

Firstly, thanks for actually posing this as a question rather than just hurling abuse at me.

So, having extremists in a country - both civilians and in government - does not mean that a country has no right to exist. We literally have had fascist riots in the UK (caused by the English Defence League) the past few days based around misinformation which have targeted mosques and these are horrific but do not mean the UK should be dissolved. Expecting a country which does things that are bad, or has horrific fascists in government to be dissolved as punishment is not only nonsensical but also never going to happen. It's an ideological purity position which does nothing to help anyone.

Additionally, you never see anyone saying Iran should be dissolved for torturing women to death for wearing the hijab incorrectly, or hanging people who say things the regime doesn't like; you don't see people say the USA should be dissolved because lawmakers tried to stop aid going to Ukraine and ICE were putting children in cages and tormenting asylum seekers and immigrants. You cannot hold Israel to a higher standard than other countries.

In terms of what I've seen about the rape of prisoners, it's fucking horrific. It's unconscionable and must be condemned unequivocally - no ifs, no buts. This is a especially important topic to me personally as a man who has been sexually assaulted. The government ministers protecting them are far right extremists. They are awful people and I hope one day, soon, they will face severe consequences for their actions. The same goes for the civilians who tried to protect the perpetrators.

Those blocking aid should be punished for it. The aid situation is actually really quite complicated despite what a lot of online sources they to portray it as. The Standing Together food convoys being blocked was pretty much a manufactured issue by ST refusing to comply with rules about declaring and clearing aid so it could be sent in. They knew it would be blocked and they did it anyway. (There is a post about this from an ex member of ST which is around somewhere and I'll link back here if I find it).

The nationalist extremist citizens blocking aid are despicable however if they are saying "no aid in until our hostages come out" do you understand why they might take that viewpoint? I do not agree with it but I certainly can see why people might get to that position. I appreciate the whole of Gaza is in crisis however I can understand why people may see this as their only way to protest and try and force Hamas to release hostages (unfortunately it seems like Hamas cares even less about the lives of the average Palestinian than they do about the average Israeli.)

The fact that Hamas also steels aid, there are literal videos of this happening and Hamas attacking starving Gazans trying to get the food, and this goes ignored by so many people does not help. Now I would say that if 90% of the aid is stolen by Hamas, at least 10% gets through and that's better than nothing in my opinion but at the same time, if no one is condemning the aid being stolen and in some cases sold back to Gazans at huge prices to make more money for Hamas, then whats the point in trying to have a civil conversation.

If someone refuses to see that there are Terrible People on both sides, people who really showcase how low humanity can sink, then how can sustainable peace ever be achieved for Israelis and Palestinians.

[atavist]

A filmmaker was producing a documentary series on the Iran hostage crisis. Then her father went missing overseas. “Held Together,” issue no. 141 from The Atavist, is now available. Two authors, one incredible story.

On almost every trip through the city, our security team had been wary of men in white cars. The significance of the color was hard to decipher—maybe it indicated undercover police—but their worry was intense and constant. When looking for a spot to launch the drone over Al Mabani, for instance, they’d abandoned several options after white cars were seen nearby.

Now, about halfway to the restaurant, there were suddenly white cars all around us. Our driver wheeled into the thick of Sunday evening traffic to turn around, then floored it, intending to dash back to the hotel. We didn’t get far. In a roundabout below an overpass, there was a crash to the right side of the van. We came to a stop.

“They’ve got guns,” Mea said.

[lamajaoscura]

Reagan Allies Sabotaged Carter With US Hostage Release Delay: Witness – Rolling Stone

[mariacallous]

Six years ago, the Syrian regime conquered the southern province of Daraa, popularly known by millions of Syrians as the “cradle of the revolution.” That military victory represented a pivotal moment for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. After all, it was the last time the regime captured a sizable swath of opposition territory, and in doing so in July 2018, its impunity was laid bare for all the world to see. On paper, Daraa had been designated a “de-escalation zone” after months of intensive international diplomacy in which the United States had played a central role.

Despite that protected status, regime forces with heavy Russian military assistance proceeded to besiege Daraa; shell it to rubble; and after weeks of brutal violence, coerce it into surrendering. Washington’s most reliable umbrella of opposition allies, the Southern Front, was abandoned—advised to surrender by U.S. officials. Since then, the regime’s status has never been in question, as international actors have methodically backed away, fatigued and disinterested. Since that decisive moment, as far as many were concerned, Assad had won and Syria’s crisis was over, its effects contained.

In truth, Assad never “won,” —he merely survived, thanks to the consistently strong support of Russia and Iran, but also to that international disengagement. In the years since, the world’s interest in working to resolve Syria’s debilitating crisis has completely evaporated. In Washington today, the mere suggestion of doing anything more on Syria in policymaking circles draws exasperated gasps and sarcastic laughs, not attention.

And yet, in many ways, the situation in Syria is worse than it’s ever been. There are clear and sustained signs of an Islamic State recovery; a multibillion-dollar regime-linked international drugs trade; and ongoing geopolitical hostilities involving Israel, Iran, Turkey, Russia, and the United States. The regime’s grip over areas under its control has never looked more frail and unconvincing.

Southern Syria offers a notable example. Six years after bombing the cradle of the revolution into submission, Assad’s rule in the south is fraying at the seams.

While Assad and his Russian sponsor intended for the south to embody a stabilized Syria that was “cleansed” of opponents, the region has been the most consistently unstable anywhere in Syria since 2018. As documented by Syria Weekly, at least 47 people have been killed in Daraa and Suwayda provinces between mid-June and mid-July alone, in a torrent of daily assassinations, ambushes, raids, and kidnappings and hostage executions. Daraa in particular is the embodiment of lawlessness and chaos.

Beyond the crippling disorder, former opposition fighters and other local armed factions in the regime-held southern provinces of Daraa and Suwayda have grown increasingly bold in challenging the regime’s abuses in recent weeks. From mid-June to mid-July, armed fighters—most of them former opposition—have kidnapped at least 25 Syrian military officers in retaliation for the regime’s arbitrary arrest of civilians from their areas. The hostages have then been successfully used as leverage to force the regime into releasing the civilian detainees. Never before has the regime been so consistently challenged and forced to submit.

Local armed factions that on paper are considered “reconciled” have now also taken to launching direct attacks on the Assad regime’s military checkpoints and buildings in retaliation for abuses. For example, when a Syrian woman from the Daraa town of Inkhil was detained while trying to renew her passport in Damascus on July 10, former opposition fighters in Inkhil launched coordinated attacks on three regime checkpoints and the local intelligence headquarters. When regime forces fired back, including with mortars and artillery, local fighters ambushed a regime armored vehicle arriving as reinforcement, destroying it with rocket-propelled grenades. Later that day, the woman was released.

Next door in the province of Suwayda, where locals have now held more than 330 days of consecutive protests demanding Assad’s downfall, regime forces unexpectedly established a new security checkpoint at the main entrance to the provincial capital on June 23. Within hours, at least six local armed factions had mobilized and launched attacks on regime positions, engaging in 48 hours of heavy fighting that drew in regime reinforcements from Damascus.

By June 25, the regime had been forced to back down, reverting the heavily fortified checkpoint into a post with no local authority. Such a direct challenge to regime security policy was remarkable, particularly for a province that never fell under opposition control.

That incident generated considerable regional attention, highlighting the regime’s capitulation. This may explain why one of the most prominent anti-regime armed group leaders in Suwayda, who had commanded many of the above-mentioned attacks, was assassinated in his home at dawn on July 17. Murhaj Jarmani, who went popularly by Abu Ghaith, was shot in the head through his living room window by a hit man equipped with a silencer. His wife had been in their home, but never even heard the shot.

During the same month-long time period, local armed groups in southern Syria have also kidnapped four regime intelligence operatives accused of a variety of abuses, including murder, torture, and organized crime. All four were themselves tortured, forced to confess to their crimes on camera, and then executed—their confession videos then disseminated locally and on social media. On top of that, the right-hand man of Daraa’s infamous military intelligence chief Luay al-Ali was assassinated in the heart of the provincial capital on July 13. The target, known commonly as Abu Luqman, had reportedly overseen nearly a decade of torture in Daraa’s largest detainee holding and interrogation facility.

Insights like these offer a glimpse into the true reality of regime rule in the 14th year of Syria’s crisis. Far from consolidating control, Assad’s authority appears to be crumbling. Meanwhile, the regime continues to fail in its intermittent effort to challenge a resurgent Islamic State. In the past month alone, at least 69 regime security force personnel have been killed in near-daily Islamic State attacks across Syria’s central desert. And that’s amid a month-long regime “clearance operation” against the jihadi group. Meanwhile, Assad’s senior advisor Luna al-Shibl died on June 3 in a mysterious car crash that some believe was an inside job, while a core backbone of the regime economy, Mohammad Bara Qaterji, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on June 15. And so much more.

Despite facing a regime so notorious for stopping short of nothing to eradicate opposition, the people of southern Syria appear to have had enough. From Suwayda’s nearly year-long popular uprising to the recent trend for local fighters to directly challenge regime abuses and security policy, this does not look anything like a resolved crisis, but rather an evolving and potentially escalating one, once again.

[girlactionfigure]

Israel Waits on the Edge of War

Israel has been in crisis mode for two weeks, waiting for a promised attack from Iran. At the same time, the Biden-Harris administration is trying to force Israel to accept a cease-fire agreement with Hamas. How are these things related?

The US administration is heavily invested in stopping the Gaza war and preventing Israel from obtaining full security control over Gaza both for domestic political reasons, and in order to advance its long-term goal of unifying the Palestinian territories under the control of single authority that can be a candidate for statehood.

The US has no leverage over Hamas, so the approach is to apply pressure to Israel, its client state, and to Iran, which is concerned that the US does not interfere with its progress toward nuclear weapons, which is currently at an advanced stage.

Pressure on Israel is multifaceted, including both carrots and sticks. The carrots are promises of future military aid and protection against attacks from Iran and its proxy Hezbollah. The sticks include slowdowns in delivery of promised munitions and threats to abandon Israel in the event that the war blows up into a major regional conflict. There is also the continuing political activity against PM Netanyahu, including various forms of support for his domestic opponents.

To Iran, the administration promises further sanctions relief and protection against a possible Israeli attack on her nuclear facilities.

At this point, the US has warned the Iranian regime against carrying out its planned revenge attack against Israel or allowing its various proxies, especially Hezbollah, from doing anything that might cause Israel to abandon the negotiations for a cease-fire deal. It has moved military assets into the region to back this up. The Iranians seem to have accepted the American demand. It is in their interest to avoid a confrontation with Israel now, before their nuclear umbrella unfolds, and while Israel is at peak readiness. In addition, the likely cease-fire arrangements will constitute a victory for the Iranian-led “axis of resistance.”

Although the precise terms of the latest deal as proposed by the Americans, Qatar, and Egypt are not public, we know that the first stage will include return of only some hostages (not including soldiers and possibly other males), a cease-fire of about six weeks, and a release of a number of Hamas terrorists in Israeli prisons. Issues in dispute include whether Israel will keep forces on the border between Gaza and Egypt, in the “Netzarim corridor” that separates the northern and southern parts of the Gaza strip, and in a security zone on the Gazan side of the border with Israel. The number and identity of the terrorists to be released in return for hostages is also an issue, and where they will be released. Hamas demands include that no Israeli forces may remain anywhere in Gaza, that the cease-fire will be extended as long as negotiations continue, and that the released prisoners include some of the most dangerous terrorists. Hamas also is demanding international aid to rebuild (in effect, to reconstitute itself as a military force).

Among the consequences of any agreement that even comes close to meeting Hamas’ conditions will be that Hamas remains in power, and strengthens itself in Palestinian politics. Terrorism in the territories and in the rest of the country can be expected to increase with the release of prisoners; and the international investment and presence in Gaza will deter Israel from periodically “mowing the grass” in Gaza. Israeli residents of the western Negev will soon face renewed threats from Gaza in the form of rocket fire and even incursions.

It is probable that only a mass release of thousands of convicted terrorists will bring home the male prisoners and soldiers that remain alive. It’s hard to imagine the chaos that this would bring. In the area of information warfare, the survival of Hamas will be presented (not incorrectly) as a massive victory and will encourage the other members of Iran’s “axis of resistance.”

In the next few days, the Israeli government will have to decide whether to take the deal that is being demanded by the US and by the opponents of PM Netanyahu. Israelis are being told by their media that this will “bring the hostages home” and end the fighting in the north as well as in Gaza. In fact, it will bring fewer than half of the hostages home. Iran and Hezbollah will not be deterred from continuing their attacks in the north; and it’s likely that American diplomacy will be brought to bear to protect them from Israel as well. The tens of thousands of Israelis that are internal refugees today from the north and south will not be able to safely return to their homes.

It’s true that two right-wing parties that are part of Netanyahu’s coalition have threatened to quit if the government agrees to a disadvantageous deal. Unfortunately the result of this would only be that the Opposition will support the deal and it will pass. Netanyahu’s coalition will be castrated and elections will soon follow.

Those in Israel who see the removal of Netanyahu as PM as a higher priority than the defeat of her enemies are idiots at best and traitors at worst. Our future here depends on our ability to stand up to American pressure, to defeat Hamas and keep security control of Gaza, and to successfully prosecute the coming war against Iran and her proxies. No political objective is more important than this.

[nobrashfestivity]

Jack Kirby and Mark Englert. , Black light Posters for Lord of Light

Lord of Light is a sci-fi novel by Roger Zelazny published in 1967, and it inspired a plan to make a grandiose science fiction movie based on the novel, whose sets would become a permanent science fiction theme park in Aurora, CO. Comic book illustrator Jack Kirby was tapped to create the set illustrations alongside screenwriter Barry Geller, but the project was scrapped in 1979, and the black and white illustrations just sat there looking cool.

Then, the CIA found an opportunity to use them and the screenplay in Operation ARGO during the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979. The script and illustrations were renamed “Argo,” and six escaped US diplomats joined a fake team of filmmakers who were supposedly scouting locations in Iran for their science fiction movie. Even the Islamist Iranian government thought these illustrations were impressive, and the diplomats made it out of the country successfully.

Heavy Metal Magazine released a very limited run of blacklight posters exclusively for the attendees of the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, using Kirby’s artwork with coloring done by Mark Englert. The August 2015 issue of Heavy Metal also featured a spread on the artwork. Man, would I love to create a lava-lamp-lit, velvet-draped UV dope cave with these covering the walls! Check out the full collection of posters below!

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