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The relationship between the CIA and Bill Clinton's Arkansas had been strained, but the bust of Clinton's brother Roger and the main pivot of the money laundering operation, chief [[ADFA]] bond trader [[Dan Lasater]], on [[cocaine]] charges in 1985, caused CIA's decision to leave Arkansas and move the operation to Mexico. The shoot-down of Eugene Hasenfus on October 5, 1986 hastened CIA's exit. Not quite 30 days later a story was leaked to the [[Lebanese]] newspaper ''Al-Shiraa'' that the US sold arms to Iran. The narrative spin quickly became that a few weapons shipment deliveries to Iran over the previous 18 months had funded the Contra supply operation for the previous 5 and half years.
The relationship between the CIA and Bill Clinton's Arkansas had been strained, but the bust of Clinton's brother Roger and the main pivot of the money laundering operation, chief [[ADFA]] bond trader [[Dan Lasater]], on [[cocaine]] charges in 1985, caused CIA's decision to leave Arkansas and move the operation to Mexico. The shoot-down of Eugene Hasenfus on October 5, 1986 hastened CIA's exit. Not quite 30 days later a story was leaked to the [[Lebanese]] newspaper ''Al-Shiraa'' that the US sold arms to Iran. The narrative spin quickly became that a few weapons shipment deliveries to Iran over the previous 18 months had funded the Contra supply operation for the previous 5 and half years.
The first direct transfer of arms did not occur until May of 1986 when National Securuty Adviser Robert McFarlane and Lt.Col. Oliver North secretly delivered them to Teheran with a diplomatic note to the [[Ayatollah Kohmeini]] from President Reagan along with other gifts. Prior to this direct contact, some weapons had been delivered through Israeli surrogates, in an effort to foster goodwill and relations between Iran and Israel. But at the same time, President Reagan was accused of trading ''arms for hostages'', not ''arms for cash to support the Contras''. Only after the Hasenfus shoot-down occurred did the official story become Iranian arms sales supported the Contra war for 7 years.
This same contradiction in the narative was revisited in 2003 when the US invaded Iraq to oust [[Saddam Hussein]] and force regime change. A much publicized photo from 1982 of [[Donald Rumsfeld]] shaking hands with Saddam was circulated when Rumsfeld worked out an arms deal with Saddam in his war with Iran. Critics of the Reagan policy swallowed the CIA cover story hook-line-and-sinker, that arms sales to Iran had funded the Contra war, not Bill Clinton's Arkansas drug running operation.
After the delivery of shoulder launched TOW missiles to Iran, an assistant to Attorney General Ed Meese found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North documenting diversion of the proceeds of the sale to aid the Contras. After the discovery of the memorandum, President [[Ronald Reagan]] met with both houses of Congress to disclose their findings; he then asked for the appointment of an independent counsel.<ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 530''</ref>
After the delivery of shoulder launched TOW missiles to Iran, an assistant to Attorney General Ed Meese found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North documenting diversion of the proceeds of the sale to aid the Contras. After the discovery of the memorandum, President [[Ronald Reagan]] met with both houses of Congress to disclose their findings; he then asked for the appointment of an independent counsel.<ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 530''</ref>