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Iran-Contra Affair

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The '''Iran-Contra Affair''' (also known as '''"Irangate"''') was a mid-1980s political scandal in the United States. US President President Ronald Reagan's administration sold arms trade arms to Iran, an avowed enemy. At the time, Americans were being held hostage in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a militant Shi'a Islam Shi'a organization loyal to Ruhollah Khomeini Ayatollah Khomeini.

Discovery and scandal
While not accomplishing the intended purpose of releasing the hostages in Lebanon, the aborted deal caused political strife in the United States when the details became public knowledge. The Lebanon Lebanese magazine ''Ash-Shiraa'' exposed the arrangement on 3 November 1986. This was the first public reporting of the weapons-for-hostages deal. The operation was discovered only after an Eugene Hasenfus airlift of guns was downed over Nicaragua. The scandal was compounded when on November 21, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall shredded pertinent documents. United States Attorney General US Attorney General Edwin Meese on November 25 admitted that profits from weapons sales to Iran were made available to assist the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. On November 26 President Reagan, faced with mounting pressure from Congressional Democrats and the media, announced that as of December 1 former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft would serve as members of a Special Review Board looking into the matter; this Presidential Commission (United States) Presidential Commission became known as the Tower Commission. At this point, President Reagan said he had not been informed of the operation. The Tower Commission implicated North, Poindexter, United States Secretary of Defense Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and others. It did not determine that the President had knowledge, although it argued that the President ought to have had better control of the National Security Council staff. The Congress of the United States U.S. Congress issued its final report on 18 November, 1987, which stated that the President bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides and his administration exhibited "secrecy, deception and disdain for the law." Oliver North and John Poindexter were indicted on multiple charges on March 16, 1988. North, indicted on nine counts, was initially convicted of three minor counts, although the conviction was later vacated upon appeal on the grounds that North's Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution Fifth Amendment rights may have been violated. The violation was said to be the indirect use of his testimony to Congress which had been given under a grant of immunity. Poindexter was convicted on several felony counts of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and altering and destroying documents pertinent to the investigation. His convictions were also overturned on appeal on similar grounds as North's. The Independent Counsel, Lawrence E. Walsh, chose not to re-try North or Poindexter. Weinberger was indicted for allegedly lying to the Independent Counsel, but was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush.

Public admission
Faced with undeniable evidence of his involvement in the scandal, Reagan expressed regret regarding the situation on national television on March 4, 1987. In his speech, Reagan stated that his previous assertions that the US did not trade arms for hostages were incorrect. However, he added that he believed what he did was right, and understood how the American people might not think the same way. Reagan survived the scandal, and would see his approval ratings return to previous levels.{{fact}}

Contra-drug links
Sen. John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra-drug links concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems." [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB113/index.htm] Kerry was suspicious of North's connection with Manuel Noriega, Panama's drug-baron. According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Noriega who had previously worked for the CIA from 1950 to 1986, and who he had personally met. In August of 1996, the ''San Jose Mercury News'' published Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance", a 20,000 word, three-part investigative series which alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and that drug profits were used to fund the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras. Webb never asserted that the CIA directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras, but he did imply that the CIA were aware of the transactions (Webb's 1999 book, ''Dark Alliance'', substantiated these allegations with copious references). On December 10, 2004, Gary Webb was found dead. While acknowledging that the two fatal shots that had entered through the back of his head was unusual, coroner Robert Lyons determined that it was suicide. It subsequently became known that Webb had been suffering from clinical depression for many years, though this information was ascertained only after the fact.

Significance: The separation of powers
The Iran-Contra Affair is significant because it brought many questions into public view that continue to resonate today: *Does the President have unconditional authority to conduct foreign policy over the objection of Congress of the United States Congress and the law laws it passes *Can the President approve selling arms to a foreign nation without Congress of the United States congressional approval *What information does the President have to provide to Congress of the United States Congress and when should that information be supplied *What information does the President have to provide the American people *Can the President present factually incorrect information to the American people about key foreign policy initiatives if he believes his motives are just *What authority does the Congress of the United States Congress have to oversee functions of the executive branch *Does funding for foreign policy initiatives have to be approved by the Congress of the United States Congress *Who defines the entire spending budget and who regulates it *Is the provision of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 1978 Ethics in Government Act that creates the position of independent counsel answering to the Attorney General, constitutional *What role does the Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court have in deciding conflicts between the legislative branch and executive branch *How much support is America entitled to provide to armed opposition forces seeking to replace governments with ones more sympathetic to the United States Most, if not all, of the constitutional and ethical questions are still unresolved. On one view, it appears that if the legislative and executive branches do not wish to work together, there are no legal remedies. These unresolved issues were again in the public eye during the Presidency of George W. Bush, who selected some individuals implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal for high-level posts. These include: *Elliott Abrams (under Bush the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the National Security Council for Near East and North African Affairs; in Iran Contra, found guilty on two counts of unlawfully withholding information) *Otto Reich *John Negroponte (under Bush, the National Intelligence Director) *Admiral John Poindexter (under Bush Director of the Information Awareness Office#Public criticism of the Information Awareness Office Information Awareness Office; in Iran Contra found guilty of multiple felony counts for conspiracy (crime) conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence)

See also
*Gary Webb *Barry Seal *Orlando Letelier *Operation Condor *Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme's 1986 murder *"Landslide: The Unmaking of the President 1984-1988" by Doyle McManus and Jane Mayer - a carefully documented narrative of one aspect of the second presidential term of Ronald Reagan. Primarily includes a painstakingly detailed history of the Iran-Contra Scandal. *Nicaragua v. United States, indictment by the International Court of Justice

External links

- Condensed article outlining Iran-Contra
- Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters
- Why Bush Sr.'s 1991 Gulf War? To Protect Iranian Islamism ''Historical and Investigative Research'' 2005 Francisco Gil-White.
- Analysis of Israeli involvement in the affair
- Iran-Contra timeline
- American hostages timeline
- Extract of NSDD-138 (PDF) National Security Archive
- NSDD-207 (PDF)
- http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB113/index.htm Category:American political scandals Category:Anti-communism Category:Cold War Category:History of foreign relations of the United States Category:History of Iran Category:History of Nicaragua de:Iran-Contra-AffÃ¤re fr:Affaire Iran-Contra id:Skandal Iran Contra he:×¤×¨×©×ª ×?×™×¨×?×Ÿ-×§×•× ×˜×¨×?×¡ nl:Iran-contra-affaire ja:ã‚¤ãƒ©ãƒ³ãƒ»ã‚³ãƒ³ãƒˆãƒ©äº‹ä»¶ no:Iran-Contras-skandalen fi:Iran-Contra-skandaali sv:Iran-contras-affÃ¤ren zh:ä¼Šæœ—é—¨äº‹ä»¶ see Iran-Contra Affair see Iran-Contra Affair This is a list of people, places, and organizations that were involved, or highly-suspected to be involved in the Iran-Contra Affair. Category:American political scandals

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