Word: contra
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...also true that the candidates persist in being evasive about questionable episodes in their past. In Bush's case, it is what he knew as Ronald Reagan's Vice President about the Iran-contra scandal. His continued claim that he was "out of the loop" or "excluded from key meetings" when this murky, subterranean scheme was being hatched in the upper echelons of the Reagan Administration has been constantly challenged, notably by a 1987 memo dictated to an aide by former Secretary of State George Shultz...
After Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-contra and the Gary Hart indiscretion, it is hard to make a case against the public's right to know. But not impossible. Candor is necessary when it really matters, and little more than a nuisance when it doesn't. At the moment, people are unsure which is which. A lie may be a defensive response to an unwarranted invasion of privacy. The oddity that Oprah and Phil and Geraldo can attract guests willing to confess anything on TV does not oblige everyone else to bare all when asked...
...interview on the Iran-Contra scandal, Reagan insisted he never traded arms for hostages. Well, he admitted, it did appear that arms were traded for hostages. Finally he returned to his original denial...
...look around us today, we find nothing but Kissinger-style diversionary tactics which are meant to scare the American public into silence and blur our moral obligations. President Bush seems shocked that we want to know about his arms deals with Iraq, his possible complicity in the Iran-contra scandal, his rush for a land war against Saddam Hussein and any number of other issues which question his judgment as president. When he criticizes the media for hyping issues "the American people" care nothing about, he is in fact imagining a silent majority, telling us what we want to know...
After 5 1/2 years and $30 million, Iran-contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh is calling it a day. He announced that after eight guilty pleas and convictions, he will present no more cases to the grand jury. Walsh still plans to prosecute former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and ex-CIA spy chief Clair George. But barring unforeseen evidence, the rest are off the hook...