Word: contras
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...cavernous Senate Caucus Room two years ago, a misty-eyed Marine Lieut. Colonel Oliver North dazzled millions of TV viewers. Imposing in his sharply creased uniform and Viet Nam combat ribbons, he confidently minimized his role in the Iran-contra scandal, insisting, "I was authorized to do everything that I did." Last week in a Washington federal courtroom, a more subdued North, now a blue-suited civilian with graying hair, took the witness stand and tried to convince twelve jurors that he had been merely a gofer, dutifully carrying out policy set higher in the White House. Surprisingly, the Government...
...courtroom to testify on his behalf, North took the burden of his criminal defense upon himself. A risky move, it exposes him to cross-examination by the federal prosecutors and leaves him liable to a possible perjury charge if he contradicts his earlier testimony before the Iran-contra committees. Soft- spoken and earnest, he admitted lying to Congress as well as altering documents. But always, he insisted, he was following the orders of his White House superiors. In yet another melodramatic but memorable statement, he declared, "I felt like a pawn in a chess game being played by giants...
Shortly before North took the stand, the defense read to the jury an extraordinary 42-page "admission of facts," disclosing that secret efforts to provide support for the Nicaraguan contras involved not only North but also Ronald Reagan, former Secretary of State George Shultz, CIA Director William Casey and, most important, George Bush. The court paper was supplied by the staff of independent counsel Lawrence Walsh with the approval of Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. It had been drawn up to satisfy North's attorney, Brendan Sullivan, who had fought for months for the right to use classified documents to demonstrate...
...document describes the then Vice President as assuring the government of Honduras that it would be well rewarded if it would continue to harbor contra camps on its territory and funnel military supplies to the rebels. Bush visited Tegucigalpa on March 16, 1985. According to the evidence, he told Honduran President Roberto Suazo Cordova that the U.S. would carry out a promise from Reagan to increase and expedite military and economic aid in return for this help...
...also appears that Reagan was not as befuddled a president as his advisers and the media had us believe. From the time the Iran-Contra scandal broke in the fall of 1986 until Reagan left office in January. the Reagan Administration insisted that the president had no knowledge of the diversion of taxpayer funds to the Contras. The fault, said the Tower Commission, lay not in the president, but in his hands-off "management style," thereby absolving him of personal responsibility for the scandal...