Word: colonel
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What? No smoking gun? Does this whole wrenching affair boil down, then, to an unbridled colonel's renegade sense of duty and an enigmatic admiral's faulty notions about where the buck stops...
...political accountability that is at the heart of American democracy. The authorizations and findings required for the Iranian arms deals either were never sent to the proper officials or were destroyed and conveniently forgotten. Gunrunning to the contras was handled by a network of ragtag profiteers coordinated by a colonel on the National Security Council staff. And the President was, or so his aides say, deliberately shielded from knowledge of the diversion of funds to keep him from being damaged if the operation came to light...
...have had incredible leaks from discussions with closed committees of the & Congress," charged Lieut. Colonel Oliver North in his testimony before the Iran-contra committees. Later, former National Security Adviser John Poindexter complained that divulging secrets "has become an art form in this city to help influence policy." One reason the Reagan Administration conducted the Iran-contra operations so secretly was its fear that if Congress learned of the activities, it would go public with them and create a national furor...
...paper one morning last week, coffee cups rattled and bleary eyes widened. There, across two columns at the top of Page One, was an extraordinary mea culpa: A CORRECTION: TIMES WAS IN ERROR ON NORTH'S SECRET-FUND TESTIMONY. Two days earlier the Times had reported that Lieut. Colonel Oliver North testified that the late CIA Director William Casey wanted to use the profits from arms sales to Iran to set up a covert-operations fund that would be kept secret from Ronald Reagan. In fact, North testified only that the President was unaware of the talks about the account...
...testimony before the congressional committees investigating the Iran-contra affair, Poindexter insisted he and he alone gave final approval to Lieut. Colonel Oliver North's proposal to take profits from U.S. arms sales to Iran and divert them to the Nicaraguan rebel forces. He claimed to have exercised this authority without ever telling the President, so as to protect Reagan from the "politically volatile issue" that subsequently exploded on them. "I made the decision," Poindexter declared in an even, matter-of-fact tone. "I was convinced that the President would, in the end, think it was a good idea...