Word: scandale
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After eleven weeks of testimony from 28 witnesses, the congressional committees probing the Iran-contra affair finally heard from the investigator who brought the scandal to light and the official who presided over the White House staff while the ill-conceived policy was unfolding. Neither Attorney General Edwin Meese nor former Chief of Staff Don Regan did much to shake the devastating portrait that has emerged from the hearings of a secret foreign- policy apparatus run amuck and key officials more concerned with pulling together a convincing alibi than getting to the bottom of the tangled tale...
...bland composure, Meese's description of the "fact-finding" mission left the impression of an incurious, if not downright obtuse, investigator who failed to keep notes of crucial interviews with key players in the scandal or follow up on hints that laws might have been broken. In amiable tones, he told of how on Nov. 23 he confronted National Security Council Aide Lieut. Colonel Oliver North with a memorandum describing the diversion to Nicaraguan rebels of profits from Iranian arms sales. He did not ask North if the President had approved...
Meese explained his failure to take notes during meetings with many of the key figures in the scandal by claiming that he was engaging only in "casual conversations" and not trying to gain "great amounts of information." One such chat occurred at the home of Director of Central Intelligence William Casey, whom North has depicted as a sponsor of the diversion scheme, just hours after the incriminating memo was found. Meese insisted that he did not discuss the transfer of funds to the contras with Casey. The Attorney General described a laid-back talk about the diversion with Vice Admiral...
Meese's inability to recall details of crucial meetings and conversations that took place while the scandal was breaking failed to sway some members of the committee. When Maine Senator George Mitchell, a Democrat, said he found some of the Attorney General's statements "very difficult to accept," Meese came close to losing his temper. "What I have told you is the absolute truth of what happened," he said, "and so if there's any question in your mind, I want to get that settled right now." Mitchell shrugged and retorted, "I just said it's hard to accept...
...president of United Cable, the nation's eighth largest operator: "We do not see their audiences growing. They're staying relatively flat." One evangelist cracks, "I was in West Irian on the island of New Guinea, and even some of the Stone Age people are familiar with the PTL scandal. That's how far it has gone...