Word: contra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ollie's salesmanship provided the opportunity for long-demoralized contra backers at the White House and State Department to mount a new campaign for aid. As a Washington Post/ABC News poll indicated that public support for military aid to the contras rose to 43% on July 15, from 29% on June 1, White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called North's testimony "helpful." President Reagan echoed North in his weekly radio commentary. "The American people are tired of the off-on again policy in Central America," he said...
...contras' efforts in the field have also given a boost to their cause. The Administration says the rebels have put nearly 15,000 soldiers inside Nicaragua, up from 5,000 last December. Last week the contras announced that 500 soldiers attacked and overran a strongly held Sandinista garrison at San Jose de Bocay in north-central Nicaragua. Although the Defense Ministry in Managua announced fewer casualties and a much less successful assault than contra leaders claimed, the insurgents said it was their biggest victory since the rebellion began six years ago. Contra military progress could help swing moderate lawmakers...
...opponents remain confident that Congress will refuse to renew the funding. "Even after six days of Ollie North, there is still no clear majority in favor of contra aid," said Michigan Congressman Dave Bonior, chief deputy Democratic whip. "I think we have an excellent chance of cutting off aid." Predictions of a complete cutoff were widespread last fall when it was first learned that the Administration had been circumventing congressional restrictions on support for the rebels. But lawmakers now admit that any new aid package must be considered apart from the scandal. "With North's testimony, there's obviously...
...North's complaint that Congress has been a fickle patron of the rebels. One compromise may be to approve continued economic aid for Central American democracies but with a lower amount of military aid than the President requests. Another would be to approve "phase- out" funds to pay for contra resettlement. "Nobody's talking about no money," said Democratic Congressman David Obey of Wisconsin, another opponent. "It is going to be difficult to shut off the contras...
...much, at least according to Poindexter's testimony. Yet now that most of the evidence is in, the more basic questions about responsibility have become even more troubling. The Iranian arms deals and covert contra supply operations, dubious enough on their own, were part of a larger, even more insidious pattern: the establishment of a runaway foreign policy that relied on lies and deceptions to function outside the rule of law. Could the buck for such an apparatus really have stopped with John Poindexter...