About two dozen witnesses " including former Iranian officials and international intelligence figures " have claimed the Republican contacts undercut Carter's hostage negotiations, though others insist that the initiatives were simply ways to gather information about Carter's desperate bid to free the hostages before the election. [For the most thorough account of the "October Surprise case, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege.]
The L'Enfant Plaza Mystery
One of the many unanswered questions about the October Surprise mystery revolved around a meeting involving Laurence Silberman and an Iranian emissary at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington in September or early October 1980.
Years later, an Iranian arms dealer named Houshang Lavi claimed to be the emissary who met with Silberman, Allen and Robert McFarlane, who was then an aide to Sen. John Tower, R-Texas. Lavi said the meeting on Oct. 2 dealt with the possibility of trading arms to Iran for release of the hostages " and was arranged by Silberman.
Silberman, Allen and McFarlane acknowledged that a meeting happened, but they insisted they had no recollection of the emissary's name nor who he was.
In 1990, I interviewed a testy Richard Allen about the meeting for a PBS Frontline documentary. Allen said he reluctantly went to the meeting, which he said was proposed by McFarlane. Allen said he took along Silberman as a witness.
"So Larry Silberman and I got on the subway and we went down to the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel where I met McFarlane and there were many people milling about. We sat at a table in the lobby. It was around the lunch hour. I was introduced to this very obscure character whose name I cannot recall. "
"The individual who was either an Egyptian or an Iranian or could have been an Iranian living in Egypt " and his idea was that he had the capacity to intervene, to deliver the hostages to the Reagan forces. Now, I took that at first to mean that he was able to deliver the hostages to Ronald Reagan, candidate for the presidency of the United States, which was absolutely lunatic. And I said so. I believe I said, or Larry did, ˜we have one President at a time. That's the way it is.'
"So this fellow continued with his conversation. I was incredulous that McFarlane would have ever brought a guy like this or placed any credibility in a guy like this. Just absolutely incredulous, and so was Larry Silberman. This meeting lasted maybe 20 minutes, 25 minutes. So that's it. There's no need to continue this meeting. "
"Larry and I walked out. And I remember Larry saying, ˜Boy, you better write a memorandum about this. This is really spaceship stuff.' And it, of course, set my opinion very firmly about Bud McFarlane for having brought this person to me in the first place.
˜Swarthy' Emissary
Allen described the emissary as "stocky and swarthy, dark-complected, but otherwise "non-descript. Allen added that the man looked like a "person from somewhere on the Mediterranean littoral. How about that?
Allen said this Egyptian or Iranian "must have given a name at the time, must have. But Allen couldn't recall it. He also said he made no effort to check out the man's position or background before agreeing to the meeting.
"Did you ask McFarlane, who is this guy? I asked Allen.
"I don't recall having asked him, no, Allen responded.
"I guess I don't understand why you wouldn't say, ˜Is this guy an Iranian, is he someone you've known for a while?' I pressed.
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