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North in the Basement: The Architecture of Iran-Contra
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Oliver North ran one of the most audacious covert operations in American history from a White House basement — simultaneously violating two federal laws. This is the full story of how Iran-Contra was built, justified, and nearly buried.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
It's the fall of nineteen eighty-six. A marine lieutenant colonel is working late in the basement of the Old Executive Office Building, just steps from the White House.
To understand the scandal, you need to hold two separate illegalities in your head at once, because the operation violated two distinct laws simultaneously. The first involved Iran.
The people involved didn't think they were acting without reason. They had arguments, and they believed in them.
North was not the most senior figure involved. National Security Advisor John Poindexter sat above him.
When the operation became public in November of nineteen eighty-six, the president faced a direct and serious question. What did he know, and when did he know it?
Fawn Hall was Oliver North's secretary. When it became clear in late nineteen eighty-six that investigators were closing in, North began destroying documents.
The formal reckoning began in stages. The first came from the Tower Commission, a three-person panel convened by Reagan himself in December of nineteen eighty-six.
The congressional hearings in the summer of nineteen eighty-seven are where Iran-Contra became something more than a legal story. They became a cultural event.
The independent counsel appointed to investigate criminal conduct was Lawrence Walsh, a former federal judge. His investigation ran for eight years.
Iran-Contra wasn't just a policy scandal or a legal one. It was a stress test of constitutional structure, and the structure showed real weaknesses.
The scandal is often compared to Watergate because of its scale. Both involved a Republican White House conducting illegal operations.
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