Word: bushing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Behind the scenes, the Administration was working in a crisis mode. In private Bush described himself as going through "the most difficult time of my presidency," and by week's end the strain in his face was pronounced. To save Cicippio, the State Department set up a round-the-clock hostage task force, while the White House launched a diplomatic rescue effort that one U.S. envoy called "a full-court press on everybody we know." Characteristically, the President worked the phone with the heads of state of most European allies and nations in the Middle East -- with the notable exception...
...Bush was also considering a military response. About three dozen U.S. warships were dispatched toward Lebanon and Iran. Iran was notified that as the paymaster of the Hizballah, it would be held responsible if any American hostages were harmed. Through a variety of conflicting leaks, the Administration let it be known that if Cicippio was killed, the President was prepared to order an air strike against suspected terrorist bases...
...Tehran was being offered carrots as well as sticks. Through acquaintances like Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid, Bush offered the possibility of a "constructive relationship" with Iran. The U.S. overtures to Iran went "well beyond the current situation with the hostages," said a senior White House official. Another official said that once the hostage crisis is settled, the U.S. will be willing to discuss renewed "trade and commerce," as well as possibly freeing $4 billion in frozen Iranian assets...
...Bush's strongest card with the Iranians may be his contacts with Algeria, whose intercession helped win the release of the American hostages in the U.S. embassy in Iran. Algeria's Ambassador to Beirut, Khaled Hasnawi, helped negotiate the stay of execution, using Algerian intelligence officers as his mediators with the kidnapers...
...next day Iran was still holding to the line that it had no connection to the hostage takers. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted an unidentified foreign ministry official as saying Iran had refused a Bush message about the hostages sent via a third country. "Since the content had nothing to do with Iran," the news agency quoted the official as saying, "the message was not accepted." Tehran's denials were contradicted by an Israeli intelligence report claiming that Obeid had confessed that Hizballah's terrorist activities were directed by the Iranian embassies in Beirut and Damascus...