Iran-Contra affair

The Iran-Contra Affair (also sometimes called Iran-gate) was the result of an arms deal between the United States, Iran and the Nicaraguan Contras, an anti-communist guerilla group operating against the Marxist government of Nicaragua. Essentially, arms were sold to Iran against an international embargo which was spearheaded just years earlier by the United States. The proceeds from this arms sale were then used to purchase additional arms for the Contras operating in the mountains of Nicaragua.

While the foreign policy of the United States is explicitly the purvue of the President, Congress nonetheless retains the power of the purse. President Reagan wished to actively oppose Soviet and Cuban fomenting violent Marxist revolution in Central America and their active material support of the communist regime of Daniel Ortega and the Nicaragua Sandinistas. The Boland Amendment however, forbid the use of any US federal funds to overthrow the Nicaraguan communist regime. Sources of funding were sought elsewhere.

CIA Director William Casey masterminded an arrangement through private, non-governmental entities and international arms sellers to raise funds and arm the Contras. A splitoff policy followed to sell arms to Iran in its war with Saddam Hussein which it was badly losing. Arms sales to Iran also hopefully would improve US-Iranian relations which hit a low and broke off during the Carter administration.

Mena Arkansas

The Mena Airport in Arkansas became the logistical point for implementation of US Central American policy. On 5 October 1986 a transport aircraft delivering weapons to the Nicaraguan Contras was shot down by a surface-to-air shoulder launched missile. Two U.S. pilots and a Nicaraguan radio operator died while Eugene Hasenfus, the "kicker" responsible for pushing cargo out of the aircraft, survived. The aircraft was carrying "60 collapsible AK-47 rifles, 50,000 AK-47 rifle cartridges, several dozen RPG-7 grenade launchers and 150 pairs of jungle boots". The plane had been owned by Barry Seals and based in Mena, Arkansas.

The scandal was first discovered by an assistant to Attorney General Ed Meese, who found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, which documented the diversion of funds to 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.

In the opinion of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who investigated the affair, under the Arms Export Control Act such sales to foreign powers not deemed under the term of the act friendly are illegal. Payments to the Contras from the proceeds of private sales, while not illegal, in the opinion of critics were considered highly unethical. Later such arrangements were made explicitly illegal by the Boland amendment to the Federal Appropriation Bill. The independent counsel's opinion alleged that the Reagan administration set about misleading congressional inquiries and may have withheld some documents.

The week after the story was blown open by media outlets in the wake of midterm congressional elections after Democrats retook the Senate in November 1986, President Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were transferred to Iran, but he claimed they were not part of an exchange for hostages. In a speech in March 1987, he acknowledged that the arms were in fact exchanged for hostages, saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages." The Reagan administration cooperated with the investigation, and no wrongdoing was ever proven. Reagan later stated in his autobiography that, "until Ed Meese uncovered North's memorandum, I had not heard a whisper about funds being channeled from the Iranian arms shipments to the Contras, and I would have not approved of it if anyone had suggested it to me....Yes, I believed in helping the Contras; but no one, including the President, is above the law."

Michael Ledeen was an early player in the affair, and eventually arranged for arms sales to Iran though the Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar. John Poindexter later resigned, but returned to work under George W. Bush's administration. Oliver North was also a major player in the affair and was called upon to testify before Congress and was questioned for a number of days. His strong answers in the face of Congressional grilling led him to become a type of folk hero at Congress's expense. Caspar Weinberger was indicted, and pardoned by George H.W. Bush.

See also

• Clinton body count

Sources

• The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions, December 1997