Word: buttons
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Button account was disclosed by a key player in the scandal, Iranian- born Businessman Albert Hakim. He handled the financial side of the Iran- contra "enterprise," while North took care of the political end and retired Air Force Major General Richard Secord, a business partner of Hakim's, oversaw operations. "I intended to profit from my activities," said Hakim. "I never made any pretense about that fact." And profit he did. The enterprise made a total of $14.9 million from its transactions; $8 million of those profits were frozen in bank accounts after the scandal broke...
North also stood to benefit from Hakim's generosity. On May 20, 1986, a few days before North and other U.S. representatives flew to Tehran, Hakim established the Button account. (The name Belly Button, Hakim said, was the result of a joke about North. He did not elaborate.) Hakim told the congressional committees that the $200,000 was a "death benefit" for North's wife and four children. Knowing that U.S. officials are forbidden by law to accept outside contributions, Hakim says he did not inform North of the account...
Though North returned safely from Tehran, the Button account remained open. Last fall, Hakim claims, he attempted to get some of the money to North's wife Betsy. Hakim's financial adviser, Willard Zucker, met with "Mrs. Belly Button" in Philadelphia and told her that an anonymous admirer of her husband's "wishes to help out with the university and educational expenses of the children." Zucker and Betsy North discussed an abortive plan to funnel money to the Norths through their relatives...
...economic forecaster, Greenspan has had his share of hits and misses. In early 1986 he predicted a year-end unemployment rate of 6.6% and was right on the button. In December 1984, though, Greenspan estimated that in 1986 inflation would be running at a 6.8% rate. In fact, prices increased 1.1% last year...
...report left unclarified the central mystery: Why had the Stark not taken prompt action to defend itself when an Iraqi plane's radar locked on to it? According to the Navy, the Stark's antimissile weapons were "operational," meaning they could have been activated by the push of a button, but no button was pushed...