Bush Had Role in Escalating Iran-Iraq War, Magazine Says

Then-Vice President George Bush played a role in a Ronald Reagan Administration plan to escalate the Iran-Iraq War in an elaborate effort to free U.S. hostages held in Lebanon, the New Yorker magazine reported.

The publication says in its Nov. 2 issue, on newsstands this weekend, that Bush asked Jordan’s King Hussein and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak during a Middle East trip in the summer of 1986 to urge Saddam Hussein to bomb deep inside Iran.

The purpose of the supposed plan hatched by then-CIA Director William J. Casey was to force Iran to turn to the United States for missiles and other air defense weapons, the article said.

The magazine quoted a classified memo from an interagency committee of the Reagan Administration that refers to plans to have Bush relay the military advice.

There was no immediate reaction from the Bush Administration, but Bush has always maintained that he knew the government was seeking release of the hostages and that the White House had approved shipping arms to Iran. However, Bush has said he was basically “out of the loop” and did not realize until later the directness of the link between arms sales and hostages.

The article said Casey hoped that if Saddam aggressively used his air force, Iran would have a renewed need for U.S. weapons and would be forced to conclude the arms-for-hostage deals.

The New Yorker said Bush delivered the message to the two leaders, and that within 48 hours Iraq’s air force flew 359 missions and destroyed major oil facilities in Iran over the next few weeks.