IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIRThe United States foreign-policy scandal known as the"Iran-contra affair" came to public attention in November 1986... when President Ronald Reagan confirmed reports that the United States government had secretly sold arms to Iran. Reagan's excuse? that the goal was,"to improve relations with Iran, and not to obtain release of U.S. hostages held in the Middle East"... (although he later admitted that the arrangement had in fact turned into an arms-for-hostages exchange. ) Public outrage regarding dealing with a hostile Iran was widespread.Later in November, Att. Gen. Edwin Meese discovered that some of the arms profits had been diverted to aid the Nicaraguan "contra" rebels-- at a time when Congress had outlawed such financial aid.An independent special prosecutor, former federal judge Lawrence E. Walsh, was appointed to investigate the activities of those people involved in the arms sale, or contra aid, or both, including marine Lt. Col. Oliver North of the National Security Council (NSC) staff ( now an MSNBC pundit most recognized for his rabid critisism of Bill Clinton's sexual affair.) Reagan personally, appointed a "review board" headed by former Republican senator John Tower. The Tower Commission's report in February 1987 strongly criticized the president's "passive management style." In a nationally televised address and on March 4, Ronald Reagan could not dispute that judgment with a straight face. Select Congressional committees conducted joint televised hearings from May to August. The committees heard rather dubious evidence that "but a few members of the NSC staff,set Iran and Nicaragua policies and carried them out with secret private operatives, and that the few officials who knew about these policies lied to congress and others, and that the contras received only a small part of the diverted money." Former national security advisor John Poindexter stated that he personally authorized the diversion of money and withheld that information from the president. William J. Casey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who died in May 1987, was implicated in some testimony, but the extent of his involvement remained unclear. Special prosecutor Walsh continued his investigation. On Mar. 11, 1988, Poindexter's predecessor as national security advisor, Robert McFarlane, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of withholding information from Congress on secret aid to the contras. A year later McFarlane was fined the mere sum of $20,000 and given two years' probation. On Mar. 16, 1988, a federal grand jury indicted North, The trials were delayed by legal maneuvering that in part involved questions of releasing "secret" information by the Bush administration. |