Elvis » Wed Nov 20, 2013 12:55 pm wrote:There was a book from (as I recall) the 1980s titled
October Surprise -- it's not the Gary Sick book, and not the Barbara Honeggerbook;
I now think this might have been one of Robert Parry's books. At the time my friend recommended and loaned the book to me (mid-late '90s?---I can't quite recall, but before I was into the Internet), I knew about Gary Sick's book (1991), so right away I checked the author: not Gary Sick, but as I think back, "Parry" looks
very familiar.
I had never heard of Parry, now he's better known for his great reporting
and founding Consortium News.
So -- I'm sorry if I sent anyone on a goose-chase for a book that is after all readily available. I figure it was some version or edition of either this:
Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery (1993, 330pp)
http://www.amazon.com/Trick-Treason-Oct ... urprise%22or this:
The October Surprise X-Files: The Hidden Origins of the Reagan-Bush Era (1996, 138pp)
http://www.amazon.com/October-Surprise- ... urprise%22The latter is the more likely subject and title, but at 138 pages too short; I'm sure the book I read was thicker, more like the 330 pages of "Trick or Treason."
The book I read had no dustjacket, so I can't compare cover art. On the hardcover spine cover were the large, all-capitals words "OCTOBER SURPRISE," leading me to think of the title as simply, "October Surprise."
Now I'll have to get my hands on those books and look for the passages that somehow stuck with me. One was again in Scotland with the Scottish machinist: the spooky team who had forced his cooperation seemed to be led by a woman, who, after the 'agreements' were signed in the machinists living room, said, with an air of accomplishment, something like,
"Well, it looks like we'll be selling missiles to Saddam." Ring any bells for anyone?
It seems like there was so much 'background' in the book, maybe much of it was out of context for me at the time; I don't seem to have retained much that I can now attribute specifically to that book. I do remember thinking, as I read it, "When do we get to the actual part about the Reagan team's arms-for-delayed release-of-hostages scheme that we think of as the October Surprise?" The book never seemed to get there, though I feel sure I read it to the end; whichever book it was, I need to read it again.
As far as that October Surprise goes, I just recently read
Casey, the William Casey biography by Joseph Persico (1990), and while Persico couldn't
prove it (as I once saw GHW Bush very slyly challenge reporters to do), you can't escape the impression that he
knows they did it. Overall it's a pretty good bio---actually a good profile of the human being William Casey---but there's no mention of BCCI.