MINORITY REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580027-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: October 3, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580027-2
MINORITY REPORT.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
r. Samuel Johnson, that gruesome old Tory, never
said "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoun-
drel." At least not in the sense attributed to him.
Johnson was staunch for Church and King and
wrote a stupid and sulfurous defense of Royal policy in the
thirteen colonies (adding for good measure that the colo-
nists should be "grateful for everything we give them short
of hanging"). The opponents of Good King George, the
Hanoverian tyrant, mustered under the banner of "John
Wilkes and Liberty" and called themselves Patriots. John-
son refused to dine where any member of the Patriotic fac-
tion might be found, and had to be tricked into a social
meeting with Wilkes by James Boswell. Hence the birth of
the famous observation, one of the few that is known to al-
most all editorial writers and, inevitably, misconstrued by
them.
Apart from-its having been said by-Johnson, and thus hal-
lowed by a sort of tradition{ the remark-owes its sufvival and
resonance to the fact that it elicits a genuine emotional rec-
ognition. There is something scoundrelly about the chau-
vinist and the jingoist. As a general rule, besides trying to
evoke base and tribal feelings, the flag waver is also trying to
change the subject. Look at the false and shifty features of
G. Bush as, almost vomiting with insincerity, he reaches for
the flag and for the uninspiring jingle that goes with it. That
he is trying to touch the nerve of atavism is sure. But what
subject is he trying to change?
I think that is I were G. Bush, I, too, would weave myself
a flag and try to vanish within its folds. In the latest phase
of his career he has been the chief patron, financial and po-
litical, of the infiltration of foreign dictators into the Ameri-
can political process. While Marcos still flourished, Bush
was the Philippine candidate. He was and is the Panama-
nian candidate. He is the candidate of the Sultan of Brunei.
He was, while the murdering, torturing junta still thrived
and lent a hand in the training of the contras, the Argentine
candidate. He is the South African candidate. Through his
backdoor lobbying for an Awacs-brokered hike in the oil
price, he became the Saudi Arabian candidate. For eight
years he has been the vacuously grinning doormat across
which despots of every stripe have been ushered into those
rooms in Washington from which the trusting electorate are
excluded. So of course he goes to the trusting electorate with
hand on heart and pledge on lips. Wouldn't you?
If the trusting electorate ever suspected that George Bush
became the candidate of all those other dictators by being
the Iranian candidate, it might take more than a swiftly
woven Old Glory to save the Bush tush. So far, the national
Newsweek
Time
U.S. News & World Report
-Mt 4110M I
_P Z
Date 3 O C.4 88
media have resolutely refused. to ask Bush a single question
about the 1980 "October surprise" hypothesis: the argu-
ment that the Reagan-Bush campaign made a backstairs
deal with Khomeini, promising Iran arms in return for the
continued humiliation of Carter on the hostage issue.
Talking of the humiliation of Carter, do you remember
that he once said he lusted after other women in his heart?
If you do, it is because the entirety of the media leapt upon
an interview that he incautiously gave to Playboy. But pick
up the current edition of Playboy and you will find a far
more revealing piece of journalism. "An Election Held
Hostage," by Abbie Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers, is the
longest summary of the prima facie case for the "October
surprise" hypothesis that has yet appeared in print.
There is some especially intriguing material about Bush's
role in the murky operations directed by Meese and Casey
during the 1980 campaign. As the House committee investi-
gating the matter concluded, back in the days when all we
knew was that Carter's briefing book for a presidential de-
bate had been stolen:
As the documents and witness statements show, Reagan-
Bush campaign officials both sought and acquired non-
public Government and Carter-Mondale information and
materials.
Among those were "Top Secret-Eyes Only" papers from
the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, found in Meese's files and
passed to then-candidate Reagan, who countersigned for
their receipt. Both Reagan and Meese said they had no
memory of, or explanation for, these acquisitions. Ruling
on this_in a motion for a nro for in the case (a motion de-
feated after n ar hyster? is l exertio on the part of Meese's
Justice Department). Judge Harold Greene of she U q.
District Court sternly criticized "an information gathering
which uses
former agents of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A."
The only thing wrong with the judge's statement was the
word "former." Active-duty C.I.A. men also participated in
what campaign manager William Casey called "anintel-
ligence operation." But among the former ones w eY_
C.I.A. director of security Robert Gambino a Bush col-
league who gave Casey a helping hand. Prescott Bush,
George's brother, was also found using his informal con-
tacts to pass confidential government information on the
hostages to the Reagan-Bush campaign.
CONTINUED
Page 3O.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580027-2
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580027-2
a.
We know that the Republicans sought to undermine
Carter by denying him a hostage release. We know they put
together a plan, using unauthorized men and means, to try
to achieve this. We know that they met with Iranian envoys
in October 1980. And we know that from then on both the
Reaganites and the Khomeini forces behaved more like allies
than they let on. Doesn't this warrant a few questions, as
soon as we can get this pledge business settled?
No doubt it will be said that Abbie Hoffman is not main-
stream enough to be "noticed." But Carter's interviewer on
the lust issue was the admirable Robert Scheer. And Scheer
(whose fine collection of pieces, Thinking 7kna Fish, Talk-
ing Death, is imminent) used to be editor of Ramparts.
Come to that, we wouldn't know about the Iranian connec-
tion at all if it wasn't for "that rag in Beirut." If the Iranian
candidate gets to November without being asked about his
most breathtaking coup, then the fabled American press
will have allowed him the real last refuge of the scoundrel,
which is silence.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580027-2