DON BELL REPORTS

A WEEKLY COMMENTARY

Year Twenty-Seven ... Number Thirteen ... March 28, 1980

Table of Contents

THE IRANIAN CRISIS REVISITED

The democratic leader, James Earl Carter, was losing his popularity rapidly and needed to score a success if he were going to stay in power. If a summit meeting could be called, a seeming success could be arranged. Accordingly, called to Camp David were Begin of Israel and Sadat of Egypt. The signing of a treaty was staged at its conclusion, and Carter's popularity rose appreciably, but only temporarily. With a national election coming up in just a little more than a year, something dramatic -- and more enduring -- had to be arranged. Iran and its deposed Shah could become centers for a controversy that could be stretched out for months, perhaps a year. For assembling many of the pertinent facts concerning the arrangement we are indebted to Governor Harold Stassen, perennial candidate for the Republican nomination. Addressing a gathering at the Capital Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on March 5, he said and we quote:

Not mentioned by Gov. Stassen was the Communist Connection. According to the Daily Telegram of London, those militant "students" who have been holding the U.S. Embassy in Tehran along with the 50 kidnapped Americans, are all members of an elite corpos of Soviet agents. The corps is 1,000 strong and was trained at a cost of $150 million. The account cites as its source, the former chief of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, General George Keegan.

Then there is the strange story of the roundup of Iranians in the U.S. on the 14th of November, the Justice Department began checking up on Iranian student visas, preparatory to a wholesale deportation of illegal aliens. The Justice Department says it checked up on 56,979 Iranian "students" in the U.S., found 6,898 of them "deportable." But it seems that the only Iranians who left the U.S. did so voluntarily. According to UPI and the New York Times News Service, between Nov. 14, 1979 and March 4, 1980, 2,964 Iranians left the U.S. and 11,079 entered the United States. Verne Jarvis of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) says this total of incoming Iranians included 2,306 students, 467 persons on business visas, 5,641 on visitor's visas, 2,789 were permanent-resident aliens, others were unclassified. UPI on March 27 reported that about 50 more Iranians are entering the U.S. every day, and that since Nov. 14, 1979, as many Iranians had entered the U.S. as had entered in the four preceding years. In other words, since the crisis began, Iranian immigration has increased by 400%. Moreover, nobody seems to know just how many of those incoming "students" are Communist-trained for making bombs and for fieldstripping a hand-held machine gun. Another inspector said: "I just about have to have the guy admit to me he is a terrorist before I can do anything."

Remember the Trilateral dictum: "In a democracy .. political leaders in power need to score successes if they are going to stay in power." Carter scored a success when he arranged the Israeli-Egyptian Treaty. But the success was shortlived. He scored a success with the Iranian crisis, but no progress was made and that began to pall. To relieve the boredom induced by inaction, the Soviets obliged by staging the Afghanistan invasion. This provided an opportunity for "rhetorical aggression." Carter threatened, sent a naval unit into the Indian Ocean, hinted at war and called for a draft registration. However, almost immediately the media announced that it would be impossible for us to fight, and win, a war in the Persian Gulf. So, the Soviets murdered Afghani partiots by the tens of thousands while protests from abroad began to cease.

The Camp David Summit, the Iranian Crisis, and the Afghan Atrocity would have been sufficient to keep Carter's popularity rating high enough to insure his stay in the White House for another four years. Except that there was the diplomatic faux pas: Carter offended the Zionist lobby. Forced to keep on as good terms as possible with the oil-producing Arab States, Carter & Co. approved a pro-Arab, anti-Israel resolution in the UN. It seemed necessary to divert attention from the Israeli giff, and secure another "seeming success in foreign policy." So, Hamilton Jordan was sent to Panama. U.S.N. & W.R.'s "Washington Whispers" of March 31 commented rather enigmatically: "Whatever Hamilton Jordan is doing about the Iran hostages or other crises, he is keeping it a secret even from other senior White House aides. Noting that Jordan has been absent from most staff meetings he is supposed to lead, an associate admitted 'It's a mystery to me what he does.' It wasn't a mystery, though; Jordan was in Panama making arrangements for a revival of the Iranian Crisis which would make it front-page news again -- this to Jimmy Carter's political benefit. First came rumors that the deposed Shah was going to move. It might be to Mexico, or the Bahamas, but certainly not back to the U.S. Then came the news bulletin: the Shah was on his way to Egypt, where Sadat would welcome him with open arms and armed protection for the rest of the Shah's life.

Results: a complete revival of the Iranian Crisis. Officials in Iran returned to the original line, that the American hostages would not be released until the Shah and his money had been returned to Iran. Again came the threat that the hostages might be tried as spies. Then a reiteration of the pledge that nothing would happen until after the new parliament had been elected and seated. Then came word that the election had been delayed. So, it seems that the resuscitated Iranian Crisis, for whatever it's worth politically to Jimmy Carter and his Trilateral bosses, will continue until just before election day, Nov. 4th.

There is one special feature about this created and then "born again" Iranian crisis that should not be overlooked. It gave, and gives, Jimmy Carter a good excuse for not hitting the campaign trail along with Kennedy and Brown. More importantly, he had the promise of all the leading Republican candidates that they would not criticize Carter's foreign policy activities. All agreed that the man in the White House was in charge and that he must not be criticized, and even supported in whatever he decided to do about Iran and the hostages. But the tide has turned at long last. Now Carter is being openly condemned for his cowardly, do-nothing attitude. The opening gun was fired in the U.S. Senate on March 19, 1980, by Senator Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican who is being mentioned as a possible running-mate for Governor Reagan. Sen. Lugar rose and delivered a fifteen-minute address (Congressional Record for March 19, pages S 2602-2604). Here are important passages which are excerpted from that address.

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... I will state today on the floor of the Senate what I have stated privately in closed session to Secretary Vance and his associates in the early days of the crisis. It is my view that, through its actions, the Government of Iran, in effect, declared war on the United States of America. The Government of Iran has not only endorsed the kidnapping of American diplomats, the seizure and occupation of the American Embassy, and the defiance of centuries of diplomatic law and current diplomatic censure, but has, in fact, used this aggresion abundantly for further political consolidation. The United States has, in effect, been in a condition of war with Iran for 137 days. We must act on the basis of reality and not wishful thinking. With the possible exception of the freeze on Iranian Government financial assets in American banks (which was to the benefit of the Rockefeller cartel - Ed.), the Carter administration has given the Iranian Government, through delay, policy zigzags, and ineffectual followthorough, substantial reasons to persist in the policy of holding our hostages .. fewer than 35 militant (Iranian) students have been deported, with the vast majority showing general indifference to any threats of .. deportation .. our anger will not substitute for reasoned action.

I call upon the President to request and for the Congress to grant authority to intern all Iranian diplomats remaining in the United States .. I call upon the President to make certain that all trade with Iran including food exports, oil purchases, spare parts, economic expertise, and all the rest be suspended, totally and immediately .. I call upon the President to enter into immediate consultation with our allies about preparations for an effective blockade of Iran, and plans for effective mining of Iranian harbors with mines that could be retrieved after release of the hostages ... We are past the point of setting deadlines. We must now prepare to do those things which Iran and the world will understand .. Finally, I call upon the President to terminate and the Congress to affirm such termination of all headings, studies, or inquiries into alleged despotism in Iran in recent yeras or for past centuries. The issue is an aggressive act by Iran against our Embassy and our citizens .. Iran has taken upon itself the status of an enemy of our Nation. We did not ask Iran to commit aggression. There is no basis for friendship with Iran until our hostages have been returned safely.

I call upon the President to prepare in the coming weeks for all contingencies of military action which may be required to free the hostages and to ask Congress for appropriate declarations of support in planning policy and funding. Our country demands new leadership to end the long night of Iranian captivity. That leadership must come now, from you, Mr. Carter, because you are our President and we deserve a better effort.

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There as nothing new in what Sen. Lugar said. He simply repeated what most Americans thought and what many Americans said nearly five months ago. At that time the people first reacted much as Americans must have reacted when U.S. Marines stormed the shores of Tripoli in 1803 to rescue American hostages. But then there was a President Jefferson: and now there is a President Carter. The comparison seems odious. But so would be a comparison of the citizenry of then and now. For when Carter proclaimed a policy of "restraint" almost everyone agreed. Other elected officials refused to oppose or criticize Carter because "he is our President."

Now that same policy of conciliation and restraint is being proposed again and the majority may agree. Senators Javits and Church propose a "White Paper" be drawn up and sent to the Ayatollah. This would be a concession to Iranian demands that the United States admit to crimes committed against Iran before Carter & Co. arranged for the ex-Shah's exile. Church proposed, Javits seconded, and Secretary of State said "I have no objections to this plea of 'guilty as charged by Ayatollah Khomeini!' on the part of the United States of America!" Will this Nation accept this further humiliation? Or is there yet a spirit of Stephen Decatur in our midst?

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