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Two Illegal Schemes, One Basement: How Iran-Contra Worked
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Reagan White House secretly sold arms to Iran and funneled the profits to the Nicaraguan Contras — both illegal, both running out of a basement NSC office. This is the full story of how Iran-Contra actually worked, and why it remains the biggest scandal since Watergate.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Here's something worth sitting with. At the height of the Cold War, the United States government was secretly selling weapons to the Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran, a regime it publicly called a sponsor of terrorism, while simultaneously funneling the profits to a rebel army that Congress had explicitly made it illegal to fund.
To understand Iran-Contra you need to understand the two separate schemes that collided inside it. The first scheme involved Iran.
North ran this out of the NSC's offices with minimal documentation and maximum compartmentalization. His boss, National Security Advisor John Poindexter, knew what was happening.
When the operation began to unravel in late nineteen eighty-six, the response inside North's office was immediate. North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, began destroying documents.
Congress launched formal hearings in nineteen eighty-seven. The joint House and Senate committee hearings ran through the summer and became one of the defining political spectacles of the decade.
The Tower Commission delivered its report in February nineteen eighty-seven. Former Senator John Tower led the panel, with Edmund Muskie and Brent Scowcroft.
Iran-Contra established several things that remain relevant. The NSC is not a covert operations agency.
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