>>>You mean conspiring with terrorists to have them keep US hostages longer than the terrorists intended is not a crime? Really?
>>>
>>>Can't you do better than that? Usually you make better academic (if trivial and unsubstantiated) arguments to try to support whatever you are blaming the US government for.
>>
>>If Iran-Contra affair left no trace on him, why would this? And why would anyone investigate a happy ending? It doesn't matter at all whether it was a crime or not, what matters is how far were the investigations allowed to go.
>>
>>No, it must be the devious, cunning Persians who must have insisted on releasing the hostages on inauguration day, so to make it look like the new incumbent had a deal with them, cast a shadow of doubt... they surely knew how it would be spun in the media once it saw the light of day. Yeah, right.
>
>There was a Senate Investigative Committee who did a full investigation, however there was not sufficient evidence to support the charge. I'm with you on this one, and you know why. Also, as much as I think Reagan was good for this country, he was a politician with a VP from the CIA. And, let's not forget how much the CIA loved Carter...remember his calling the CIA a 'disgrace?'

Which is actually pretty mild considering what the CIA called Carter {s}

When the real history of the "Iran-Contra" affair (which involved the release of hostages in Lebanon held by Hezbollah, Iran's client, not the embassy hostages) is written some day I think a lot of people are going to be surprised. I believe it is a case-study on just how complex that world is and how different things can be from the way they appear.

As to the Iranian hostage release ( have not extraneous knowledge on this - just analyzing the article you just alluded to ) : If Reagan (i.e. Casey) had a back-channel going to Iran isn't it just possible the idea was not to delay the hostage release, but to make it happen - i.e. the arms would be to release the hostages and the deal could only be made after Reagan and Casey had the authority to do so. The scenario Carter wants investigated is based on the supposition that the Iranians were about to release the hostages while Carter was still in office which I find unlikely.