idk, my take on it, at least from Gary Webb's book Dark Alliance, is that North did a lot of this either totally independent of Regan or with very little oversight.
I edited, should have said Reagan/Bush. It was them, imo. I find it hard to believe North could do so much without something being leaked to the Oval Office.
Bush also went on to pardon those indicted/convicted. Hmm...
The latter: that was one of the biggest complaints against groups like the CIA, during that time period. They had too much freedom and little to no accountability. That's largely where the congressional and public backslash against the CIA came from (in the 80s and early 90s): shit like the Iran-Contra Affair.
Smells of a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory. I did not know that Bush (Sr.) did that.
Bush's last controversial act in office was his pardon of six former government employees implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal on December 24, 1992, most prominently the former secretary of defense, Caspar Weinberger. Weinberger had been scheduled to stand trial on January 5, 1993, for allegedly lying to Congress regarding his knowledge of arms sales to Iran and concealing 1,700 pages of his personal diary detailing discussions with other officials about the arms sales.
I'm not sure he would have had to sneak. I get the impression Reagan was like "fight the commies in Nicaragua" and gave North the power he needed to do it.
Didn't realize Bush was a former CIA director, however North worked through his own people. There are stories in Dark Alliance where Webb describes CIA operatives who had no idea about North's operations with the Contras (though, admittedly, these aren't the director).
idk, my impression was always that it was North's baby, regardless of how much Reagan knew.
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Jul 6th, 2012 11:23 PM
