The Iran-Contra scandal of the late 1980s was precursor to today’s “deep state” politics. The Reagan White House, in cahoots with the CIA, organized a conspiracy to bypass Congressional restrictions on U.S. aid to contra rebels in Nicaragua. It was an unconstitutional and illegal scheme that resulted in dozens of criminal indictments, including charges against...
Tag: <span>Iran-contra</span>
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Elliott Abrams ‘Cabaled Quietly’ to Spring a CIA-Connected Drug Trafficker
Surely, this is just another “loony left” headline about Elliott Abrams, the administration’s point man on Venezuela, whom some say has been unfairly pilloried on Capitol Hill. If you read this September 1986 National Security Council email, written by NSC staffer Oliver North, you’ll see the headline is not over-stated but factually precise and faithful...
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Why the CIA Loved the Late George H. Bush
Last month, 19 senior CIA officials, current and former, signed a statement lauding the late president George Bush, who served as CIA director for one year. The agency put out a complimentary “unclassified” video about his service to the agency. Langley’s Twitter feed featured 11 straight days of photos and anecdotes about Bush’s warm relationship...
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Bush Ran a Secret National Security Team as VP, Says Seymour Hersh
The veteran investigative reporter writes that George H. Bush, as vice president, ran a covert operations team in the early 1980s that even the CIA didn’t know about. As a former CIA director, Bush had the experience to oversee activities. Hersh says the vice president’s team ran 35 counterterrorism, counternarcotics and assassination operations between 1981...
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The Legacy of Bush’s CIA Pardons
When I first came to Washington in the 1980s, one of the first stories I reported on regularly was the Iran-contra scandal. As vice president, the late George Bush was in the thick of it. In the fall of 1986, while working as an editor at The New Republic magazine, I commissioned a story by...