Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

User talk:Bargainhunter

2009-12-03T16:52:59Z

Bargainhunter:

The reader must be able to access the reference from the New York Times without having to pay for access, or creating an account. Since you cited the Times as having cited the Congressional tesimony, I suggest you provide the actual report from Congress. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 11:45, 3 December 2009 (EST)

Done. Thank you!

Iran-Contra affair

2009-12-03T16:50:45Z

Bargainhunter:

The '''Iran-Contra Affair''' (also sometimes called '''Iran-gate''') was the result of an arms deal between the [[United States]], [[Iran]] and the Nicaraguan [[Contras]], an anti-communist guerilla group operating against the [[Marxist]] government of [[Nicaragua]]. Essentially, arms were sold to Iran against an international embargo which was spearheaded just years earlier by the United States. The proceeds from this arms sale were then used to purchase additional arms for the Contras operating in the mountains of Nicaragua.

The scandal was first discovered by an assistant to Attorney General [[Ed Meese]], who found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel [[Oliver North]] that documented the diversion of funds to the Contras. After the discover of the memorandum, President [[Ronald Reagan]] met with both party's of Congress to disclose their findings; Reagan then asked for the appointment of an independent counsel<ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 530''</ref>.

In the opinion of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who investigated the affair, under the Arms Export Control Act <ref> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode22/usc_sup_01_22_10_39_20_II.html </ref> such sales to foreign powers not deemed under the term of the act friendly are illegal. <ref> http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm </ref> Payments to the Contras from the proceeds of private sales, while not illegal, in the opinion of critics were considered highly unethical. Later such arrangements were made explicitly illegal by the [[Boland amendment]] to the Federal Appropriation Bill. The independent counsel concluded that the Reagan administration misled congressional investigators and withheld documents: "large volumes of highly relevant, contemporaneously created documents were systematically and willfully withheld from investigators by several Reagan Administration officials" and "following the revelation of these operations in October and November 1986, Reagan Administration officials deliberately deceived the Congress and the public about the level and extent of official knowledge of and support for these operations."<ref>http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm</ref>

The week after the story was blown open by media outlets in the wake of midterm congressional elections after [[Democrats]] retook the Senate in November 1986, President Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were transferred to Iran but he claimed they were not part of an exchange for hostages. In a speech in March of 1987, he acknowledged that the arms were in fact exchanged for hostages, saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages." <ref>http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/historicspeeches/reagan/irancontra.html</ref> The Reagan administration cooperated with the investigation, and no wrongdoing was ever proved. Reagan later stated in his autobiography, "until Ed Meese uncovered North's memorandum, I had not heard a whisper about funds being channeled from the Iranian arms shipments to the Contras, and I would have not approved of it if anyone had suggested it to me....Yes, I believed in helping the Contras; ''but no one, including the President, is above the law''." <ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 542''</ref>

[[Michael Ledeen]] was an early player in the affair, and eventually arranged for arms sales to Iran though the Iranian arms dealer [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]]. John Poindexter later resigned and later worked in [[George W. Bush]]'s administration. Oliver North was also a major player in the affair and was called upon to testify before Congress and was questioned for a number of days. His strong answers in the face of Congressional grilling led him to become a type of folk hero at Congress's expense. [[Caspar Weinberger]] was indicted, and pardoned by [[George H.W. Bush]].

==Sources==
*[http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/ch04p2.htm The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions], December 1997

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Iran]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:United States Political Scandals]]

Iran-Contra affair

2009-12-03T16:49:17Z

Bargainhunter:

The '''Iran-Contra Affair''' (also sometimes called '''Iran-gate''') was the result of an arms deal between the [[United States]], [[Iran]] and the Nicaraguan [[Contras]], an anti-communist guerilla group operating against the [[Marxist]] government of [[Nicaragua]]. Essentially, arms were sold to Iran against an international embargo which was spearheaded just years earlier by the United States. The proceeds from this arms sale were then used to purchase additional arms for the Contras operating in the mountains of Nicaragua.

The scandal was first discovered by an assistant to Attorney General [[Ed Meese]], who found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel [[Oliver North]] that documented the diversion of funds to the Contras. After the discover of the memorandum, President [[Ronald Reagan]] met with both party's of Congress to disclose their findings; Reagan then asked for the appointment of an independent counsel<ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 530''</ref>.

In the opinion of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who investigated the affair, under the Arms Export Control Act <ref> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode22/usc_sup_01_22_10_39_20_II.html </ref> such sales to foreign powers not deemed under the term of the act friendly are illegal. <ref> http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm </ref> Payments to the Contras from the proceeds of private sales, while not illegal, in the opinion of critics were considered highly unethical. Later such arrangements were made explicitly illegal by the [[Boland amendment]] to the Federal Appropriation Bill. The independent counsel concluded that the Reagan administration misled congressional investigators and withheld documents: "large volumes of highly relevant, contemporaneously created documents were systematically and willfully withheld from investigators by several Reagan Administration officials" and "following the revelation of these operations in October and November 1986, Reagan Administration officials deliberately deceived the Congress and the public about the level and extent of official knowledge of and support for these operations." <ref>http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm</ref>

The week after the story was blown open by media outlets in the wake of midterm congressional elections after [[Democrats]] retook the Senate in November 1986, President Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were transferred to Iran but he claimed they were not part of an exchange for hostages. In a speech in March of 1987, he acknowledged that the arms were in fact exchanged for hostages, saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages." <ref>http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/historicspeeches/reagan/irancontra.html</ref> The Reagan administration cooperated with the investigation, and no wrongdoing was ever proved. Reagan later stated in his autobiography, "until Ed Meese uncovered North's memorandum, I had not heard a whisper about funds being channeled from the Iranian arms shipments to the Contras, and I would have not approved of it if anyone had suggested it to me....Yes, I believed in helping the Contras; ''but no one, including the President, is above the law''." <ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 542''</ref>

[[Michael Ledeen]] was an early player in the affair, and eventually arranged for arms sales to Iran though the Iranian arms dealer [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]]. John Poindexter later resigned and later worked in [[George W. Bush]]'s administration. Oliver North was also a major player in the affair and was called upon to testify before Congress and was questioned for a number of days. His strong answers in the face of Congressional grilling led him to become a type of folk hero at Congress's expense. [[Caspar Weinberger]] was indicted, and pardoned by [[George H.W. Bush]].

==Sources==
*[http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/ch04p2.htm The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions], December 1997

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Iran]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:United States Political Scandals]]

Iran-Contra affair

2009-12-03T16:45:03Z

Bargainhunter:

The '''Iran-Contra Affair''' (also sometimes called '''Iran-gate''') was the result of an arms deal between the [[United States]], [[Iran]] and the Nicaraguan [[Contras]], an anti-communist guerilla group operating against the [[Marxist]] government of [[Nicaragua]]. Essentially, arms were sold to Iran against an international embargo which was spearheaded just years earlier by the United States. The proceeds from this arms sale were then used to purchase additional arms for the Contras operating in the mountains of Nicaragua.

The scandal was first discovered by an assistant to Attorney General [[Ed Meese]], who found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel [[Oliver North]] that documented the diversion of funds to the Contras. After the discover of the memorandum, President [[Ronald Reagan]] met with both party's of Congress to disclose their findings; Reagan then asked for the appointment of an independent counsel<ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 530''</ref>.

In the opinion of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who investigated the affair, under the Arms Export Control Act <ref> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode22/usc_sup_01_22_10_39_20_II.html </ref> such sales to foreign powers not deemed under the term of the act friendly are illegal. <ref> http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm </ref> Payments to the Contras from the proceeds of private sales, while not illegal, in the opinion of critics were considered highly unethical. Later such arrangements were made explicitly illegal by the [[Boland amendment]] to the Federal Appropriation Bill. The independent counsel's opinion alleged that the Reagan administration set about misleading congressional inquiries and may have withheld some documents.

The week after the story was blown open by media outlets in the wake of midterm congressional elections after [[Democrats]] retook the Senate in November 1986, President Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were transferred to Iran but he claimed they were not part of an exchange for hostages. In a speech in March of 1987, he acknowledged that the arms were in fact exchanged for hostages, saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages." <ref>http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/historicspeeches/reagan/irancontra.html</ref> The Reagan administration cooperated with the investigation, and no wrongdoing was ever proved. Reagan later stated in his autobiography, "until Ed Meese uncovered North's memorandum, I had not heard a whisper about funds being channeled from the Iranian arms shipments to the Contras, and I would have not approved of it if anyone had suggested it to me....Yes, I believed in helping the Contras; ''but no one, including the President, is above the law''." <ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 542''</ref>

[[Michael Ledeen]] was an early player in the affair, and eventually arranged for arms sales to Iran though the Iranian arms dealer [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]]. John Poindexter later resigned and later worked in [[George W. Bush]]'s administration. Oliver North was also a major player in the affair and was called upon to testify before Congress and was questioned for a number of days. His strong answers in the face of Congressional grilling led him to become a type of folk hero at Congress's expense. [[Caspar Weinberger]] was indicted, and pardoned by [[George H.W. Bush]].

==Sources==
*[http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/ch04p2.htm The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions], December 1997

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Iran]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:United States Political Scandals]]

Iran-Contra affair

2009-12-03T16:42:58Z

Bargainhunter:

The '''Iran-Contra Affair''' (also sometimes called '''Iran-gate''') was the result of an arms deal between the [[United States]], [[Iran]] and the Nicaraguan [[Contras]], an anti-communist guerilla group operating against the [[Marxist]] government of [[Nicaragua]]. Essentially, arms were sold to Iran against an international embargo which was spearheaded just years earlier by the United States. The proceeds from this arms sale were then used to purchase additional arms for the Contras operating in the mountains of Nicaragua.

The scandal was first discovered by an assistant to Attorney General [[Ed Meese]], who found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel [[Oliver North]] that documented the diversion of funds to the Contras. After the discover of the memorandum, President [[Ronald Reagan]] met with both party's of Congress to disclose their findings; Reagan then asked for the appointment of an independent counsel<ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 530''</ref>.

In the opinion of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who investigated the affair, under the Arms Export Control Act <ref> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode22/usc_sup_01_22_10_39_20_II.html </ref> such sales to foreign powers not deemed under the term of the act friendly are illegal. <ref> http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm </ref> Payments to the Contras from the proceeds of private sales, while not illegal, in the opinion of critics were considered highly unethical. Later such arrangements were made explicitly illegal by the [[Boland amendment]] to the Federal Appropriation Bill. The independent counsel concluded that the Reagan administration mislead congressional inquiries and withheld documents: "large volumes of highly relevant, contemporaneously created documents were systematically and willfully withheld from investigators by several Reagan Administration officials; and following the revelation of these operations in October and November 1986, Reagan Administration officials deliberately deceived the Congress and the public about the level and extent of official knowledge of and support for these operations," the report stated.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/29/reviews/iran-transcript.html</ref>

When the story was blown open by media outlets in the wake of midterm congressional elections after [[Democrats]] retook the Senate in November 1986. The following week President Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were transferred to Iran but he claimed they were not part of an exchange for hostages. In a speech in March of 1987, he acknowledged that the arms were in fact exchanged for hostages, saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages." <ref>http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/historicspeeches/reagan/irancontra.html</ref> The Reagan administration cooperated with the investigation, and no wrongdoing was ever proved. Reagan later stated in his autobiography, "until Ed Meese uncovered North's memorandum, I had not heard a whisper about funds being channeled from the Iranian arms shipments to the Contras, and I would have not approved of it if anyone had suggested it to me....Yes, I believed in helping the Contras; ''but no one, including the President, is above the law''." <ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 542''</ref>

[[Michael Ledeen]] was an early player in the affair, and eventually arranged for arms sales to Iran though the Iranian arms dealer [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]]. John Poindexter later resigned and later worked in [[George W. Bush]]'s administration. Oliver North was also a major player in the affair and was called upon to testify before Congress and was questioned for a number of days. His strong answers in the face of Congressional grilling led him to become a type of folk hero at Congress's expense. [[Caspar Weinberger]] was indicted, and pardoned by [[George H.W. Bush]].

==Sources==
*[http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/ch04p2.htm The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions], December 1997

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Iran]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:United States Political Scandals]]

Iran-Contra affair

2009-12-03T16:41:39Z

Bargainhunter:

The '''Iran-Contra Affair''' (also sometimes called '''Iran-gate''') was the result of an arms deal between the [[United States]], [[Iran]] and the Nicaraguan [[Contras]], an anti-communist guerilla group operating against the [[Marxist]] government of [[Nicaragua]]. Essentially, arms were sold to Iran against an international embargo which was spearheaded just years earlier by the United States. The proceeds from this arms sale were then used to purchase additional arms for the Contras operating in the mountains of Nicaragua.

The scandal was first discovered by an assistant to Attorney General [[Ed Meese]], who found a memorandum written by Lieutenant Colonel [[Oliver North]] that documented the diversion of funds to the Contras. After the discover of the memorandum, President [[Ronald Reagan]] met with both party's of Congress to disclose their findings; Reagan then asked for the appointment of an independent counsel<ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 530''</ref>.

In the opinion of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who investigated the affair, under the Arms Export Control Act <ref> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode22/usc_sup_01_22_10_39_20_II.html </ref> such sales to foreign powers not deemed under the term of the act friendly are illegal. <ref> http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm </ref> Payments to the Contras from the proceeds of private sales, while not illegal, in the opinion of critics were considered highly unethical. Later such arrangements were made explicitly illegal by the [[Boland amendment]] to the Federal Appropriation Bill. The independent counsel concluded that the Reagan administration mislead congressional inquiries and withheld documents: "large volumes of highly relevant, contemporaneously created documents were systematically and willfully withheld from investigators by several Reagan Administration officials; and following the revelation of these operations in October and November 1986, Reagan Administration officials deliberately deceived the Congress and the public about the level and extent of official knowledge of and support for these operations," the report stated.

When the story was blown open by media outlets in the wake of midterm congressional elections after [[Democrats]] retook the Senate in November 1986. The following week President Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were transferred to Iran but he claimed they were not part of an exchange for hostages. In a speech in March of 1987, he acknowledged that the arms were in fact exchanged for hostages, saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages." <ref>http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/historicspeeches/reagan/irancontra.html</ref> The Reagan administration cooperated with the investigation, and no wrongdoing was ever proved. Reagan later stated in his autobiography, "until Ed Meese uncovered North's memorandum, I had not heard a whisper about funds being channeled from the Iranian arms shipments to the Contras, and I would have not approved of it if anyone had suggested it to me....Yes, I believed in helping the Contras; ''but no one, including the President, is above the law''." <ref>''An American Life, The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan, pg. 542''</ref>

[[Michael Ledeen]] was an early player in the affair, and eventually arranged for arms sales to Iran though the Iranian arms dealer [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]]. John Poindexter later resigned and later worked in [[George W. Bush]]'s administration. Oliver North was also a major player in the affair and was called upon to testify before Congress and was questioned for a number of days. His strong answers in the face of Congressional grilling led him to become a type of folk hero at Congress's expense. [[Caspar Weinberger]] was indicted, and pardoned by [[George H.W. Bush]].

==Sources==
*[http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/ch04p2.htm The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions], December 1997

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Iran]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:United States Political Scandals]]