Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Bizarre maybe, but not unprecedented

The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto, linking to an opaquely sourced Saddam Hussein rumination about the Israel-Lebanon crisis:

Saddam supposedly goes on to offer a rather bizarre conspiracy theory about the U.S., Israel and Iran working in concert.

One element of the Iran-Contra scandal:

In summer 1985, Michael Ledeen, a consultant of Robert McFarlane, asked Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres for help in the sale of arms to Iran. The Israel government required that the sale of arms meet the approval of the United States government, and when it was convinced that the U.S. government approved the sale by Robert McFarlane, Israel obliged by agreeing to sell the arms. In July 1985, Israel sent American-made BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles to Iran for the release of Reverend Benjamin Weir; Weir was released. Despite the fact that arms were being sold to Iran, only Weir was released. This resulted in the failure of Ledeen's plan with only three shipments through Israel.

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