The Consortium News has the story A CIA Hand in an American ‘Coup’? by Robert Parry.

It has taken six decades for the CIA to formally acknowledge that it undertook a coup against Iran’s elected government in 1953, but the spy agency might never concede that some of its officers joined in a political strike against a sitting U.S. president in 1980, yet that is what the evidence now indicates.

This story would be absolutely unbelievable were it not for the fact that it is confirming what anybody with a brain suspected in 1980.  The Iranians released the U.S. hostages just as Ronald Reagan was sworn into office after he defeated Jimmy Carter and after they had held the hostages for over a year.  What sane person who was not a Republican would have chalked that up to coincidence.  There was even a Congressional investigation, which this story explains was subverted by the CIA, The Reagan administration, and George H. W. Bush himself.  Remember that George W. Bush, the son, wondered why “they” hate us.  He thought it was for our freedom.  I wonder if the CIA let him in on the secret?

It’s a good thing they never put Ronald Reagan’s face on Mount Rushmore.  After the facts become known about what he did before and after his election, they would have had to erase him from the monument. Do you think that negotiating with the enemy to the detriment of the sitting President would come under the Constitution’s definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors”? How about if the conspiracy and coverup continued while the perpetrator was in office?

Think of the implications for what the Republican Party and the CIA may be doing to President Obama.  Also remember this as we gear up for a war with Syria.  And remember what part Israel played in the plot to get rid of Carter.

I found it hard to isolate (see) all the links in the above quoted article to follow them up. For your and my convenience, I have extracted those links in the quotes below:

a secret CIA document

key evidence was hidden

internal doubts were suppressed.

[For details on the case, see Robert Parry’s America’s Stolen Narrative and Secrecy & Privilege.]

Beach noted in a “memorandum for record” dated Nov. 4, 1991. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Second Thoughts on October Surprise.“]

Americans meeting with Iranians in Paris in October 1980. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Key October Surprise Evidence Hidden.”]

on May 14, 1992, a CIA official ran proposed language past

The CIA’s persistent document-production delays finally drew a complaint

In a June 18, 1992, cable from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul

In a June 24, 1992, letter to White House counsel Boyden Gray

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his new book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). For a limited time, you also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.

Talking Points Memo has the article Colin Powell Calls Zimmerman Verdict ‘Questionable’ (VIDEO) which shows the following video:

The TPM headline trivializes what Powell has to say. His take on Egypt and Syria was much more important than what they chose to headline. It’s not whether or not you agree with what he has to say about many of these issues, but that he invites you to think rationally about what you can and cannot accomplish.

I just wish that Powell did not have such a strong sense of loyalty or unwillingness to rid himself of a decision he made early in life that he cannot divorce himself from the Republican Party. Whatever his reasons for clinging to the Republican Party and not shifting to some other party, it would be enlightening to hear what they are. Perhaps it is one of these factors that led him make his U.N. speech about Iraq that I hope he rues.