Cheney Confirms Iran-Contra Cover-Up

Cheney Confirms Iran-Contra Cover-Up

In an article by Stephen "W.W. Beauchamp" Hayes, former Vice President Cheney gripes extensively about the Obama administration. It's exactly what you'd expect. But what you might not expect is that Cheney (seemingly inadvertently) confirms that there was a massive cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal by the Reagan administration:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000%5C000%5C016%5C423awizv.asp?pg=1



Considering that two national security advisers (Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter) and the Secretary of Defense (Caspar Weinberger) were some of the "little guys" who were prosecuted for Iran-Contra, it's obvious who Cheney is talking about as hanging them out to dry: President Reagan and Vice President Bush.

Here's how Robert Parry describes the conclusions of Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh:



It really is considerate of Cheney to tell the truth about this. Here's an interesting story from Parry's book Lost History about how he saw firsthand the kind of thing Cheney may be reacting to:



It's nice when people at the highest levels of government confirm what everyone already knew, even if it takes a few decades.


more at:
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/002952.html

the gift that still keeps on giving.

Bush in Honduras committing crimes, giving the Contras $100 million taxpayer money illegally,
could not become the story of the day, no matter how cold it was in Florida!! Cover-up = Blow up!

The Iraq War wouldn't have happened.

Hell, we might already have a handle on global climate change.

So much evil could have been averted. I hope we don't have to say this again in another 20 years.

.

......... it would be easier to discover those who DON'T know where the bones of corruption are buried than to prosecute those that do. I mean, is there anyone here who doubts for a minute that the "players" in Washington don't know who's doing what? Or who did what to whom? A politician's art is "plausible deni-ability" and staying out of the path of lions, the dangerous ones, in their midst.

We have been hoodwinked over and over regarding "security" and "defense" and Dow Jones while the foxes have been racking up the hens since, at least, 1913 when the Federal Reserve was allowed into our treasury. All the trifling scandals, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Not-WhiteWater, yes, and even the 9/11 conspiracy pale before the mountains of power made available by multi-trillion dollar wars and "peace/pipe line brokering".

Do we really think some white knight can ride up and deliver us from this evil by imprisoning a few contemporary miscreants? How many out there think Obama is just such a knight? The guy who'll straighten things out and leave his legacy of hope to last for generations?

Well get clear. He cannot do that with out a lot of help. There's way too much for super-powerful people to lose if he succeeds. The shift in dynamics required to re-set our political stage begins in our hearts and minds. And, if need be, in our determination to sacrifice ourselves and/or our treasure. A unanimous, simultaneous uprising and nothing less or it will be the same-old-same-old as sure as gravity. A popular conspiracy to simply say NO to out of control, unexplained and unnecessary "defense" spending, to corporate profiteering at the expense of the environmental and economic future of our children, to mismanaging planetary politics through intra-continental intrigue, spying and meddling as we screw up the affairs of other countries. Places most of us are too ignorant of and disinterested about to even know where they are.
Stop paying insurance premiums. It's not a law, YET, that you're subject to any legal punishment if you don't have health care coverage. Those parasites would crumble in 2 months if they couldn't feed, monthly, on the paranoia of the general public. Most everyone would find they don't even need the coverage. Then, when we're in the driver's seat again, we can get universal health care and the term "health insurance" will become as anachronistic as "monarchy".

Then again, I may be the one that's naive.

...from the only inhabitable continent: Antarctica.

The same a-holes come back to do it again.

:(

outstanding in IranContra, Iraqgate, CIA drugrunning and BCCI.

Bush2 NEVER should have been possible. And a 9-11 event never should have been possible, either.

...and here on du. i think it is very likely that the dems are trying to avoid their own complicity in the nefarious ways of government. it is truly a can of worms.

We don't want the up and coming neocons to get a toe hold anywhere.

...and intentions. They rely on that "conspiracy theorist!" charge to work indefinitely, yet it's sinking like a stone boat. Even if an embarrassingly large % here don't want to face the truth about this govt, the global community is willing and capable of discerning shit from shinola.

and the bush admin went all out, committed so many abuses while in office that scandal fatigue allowed them to commit even more.

they counted on the fact that they had screwed up and damaged so much that the next guy (new admin) wouldn't be able to deal with it all. Like the arsonist that set so many fires to cover his tracks, the task becomes putting out the fires, not figuring who set them all. The focus on fighting the fires overrides the need to preserve the evidence to figure out who set them.

Think the WTC scene, it was so extreme, so widespread, the fires burned so long that the focus was on putting out the fires and finding any survivors. Maintaining the evidence was not the focus, dealing with the dissaster was.

steer the sheeple away from even considering the possibility. Saint Reagan is unassailable, and so, apparently, are Darth Cheney and all the other criminals.

Don't underestimate the ignorance of the American populace due to the deliberate lies and propaganda put forth by Big media.

and much gratitude to Robert Parry for preserving the record even though it essentially torpedoed his career.

Cheny must be dragged kicking and screaming before a court in America then, hopefully a world court for crimes against humanity.

"Rep. Dick Cheney, R-Wyo., who was the ranking House Republican on the congressional Iran-contra committee."

Dickster made his bones long ago.

The guilty never learn to keep their mouth shut.

:kick:

Iran-Contra certainly puts his Vice Presidency into context. A trial jury probably wouldn't be allowed to hear about his earlier career in crime - might be too "prejudicial".

Pretty sad that we have to talk about the nation's highest elected officials in these terms, as if they were Mafia bosses. Or, worse.

Convictions, pardons, and reinstatements

Oliver North and John Poindexter were indicted on multiple charges on March 16, 1988.<53> North, indicted on 16 counts, was found guilty by a jury of three minor counts. The convictions were vacated on appeal on the grounds that North's Fifth Amendment rights may have been violated by the indirect use of his testimony to Congress which had been given under a grant of immunity. In 1990, Poindexter was convicted on several felony counts of conspiracy, lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, and altering and destroying documents pertinent to the investigation. His convictions were also overturned on appeal on similar grounds. Arthur L. Liman served as chief counsel for the Senate during the Iran-Contra Affair.

The Independent Counsel, Lawrence E. Walsh, chose not to re-try North or Poindexter. Caspar Weinberger was indicted for lying to the Independent Counsel but was later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.

In 1992 George H. W. Bush pardoned six convicted administration officials, namely Elliott Abrams, Duane R. Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George, Robert McFarlane, and Caspar Weinberger.



George W. Bush selected some individuals that served under Reagan for high-level posts in his presidential administration. They include:

* Elliott Abrams: under Bush, the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the National Security Council for Near East and North African Affairs; in Iran-Contra, pleaded guilty on two counts of unlawfully withholding information, pardoned.

* Otto Reich:<60> head of the Office of Public Diplomacy under Reagan.

* John Negroponte: under Bush, served as the Ambassador to Iraq, the National Intelligence Director, and the Deputy Secretary of State.

* Admiral John Poindexter: under Bush, Director of the Information Awareness Office; in Iran-Contra, found guilty of multiple felony counts for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence, convictions reversed.



Yep, they REALLY PAID THE PRICE FOR THEIR CRIMES: Poor little guys were REALLY LEFT OUT TO DRY.

as much as possible and can get away with, eight years under Bush and twelve years under Reagan & Bush Sr.

Because the republicans not only own the corporate media but wrap themselves tightly in the flag as if they are doing their filthy deeds for "patriotic reasons" when in fact it's always about power & money - IMPERIALISM!

And now the media says they want to keep a close eye on Obama...why, because he's a democrat...just as they scrutinized, lied and reported every bullshit thing on Clinton...Why? Because Clinton too was a democrat.

The "liberal" media tag was put in play years ago by pigman Limbaugh, it's been effective and the republicans have run with it ever since.....knowing it's ALL bullshit and that the republicans own and are heads & CEO's of the same corporate media they they try to convince is "liberal".

The key IS the media and how Democrats and Republicans are portrayed to manipulate popular culture. It continues today right before our eyes. The danger isn't Fox News, easily recognized as a pack of filthy lies, but the rest of the MSM that uses a degree of subtle coercion.

If he had been prosecuted and the whole story of his crimes allowed to come out, the Republican party would have been disgraced. The war criminals from the Bush regime began their careers in the Nixon White House.

I always did.
Then when shrub came along, and was so obviously out of his league, it occured to me Reagan was
much like him, only likeable, and so who was running Reagan?
Of course the irony now is that Poppy Bush set up his own son to be a puppet Prez.

in 83-4. One day I was speaking to Gov George Wallace and had told him how I was outted then tossed out of the Navy for being gay.
George piped up and said well that is the criminal way this lot of Rs work. They find one thing that is sort of objectionable and keep pounding on it till it becomes a very bad thing.
Then he said 'The Bush family are such big crooks. They make the mafia look like church deacons. That was a sort off subject. Then again looking back maybe it was poppy that wanted every queer out of the service not runnyraygun.
I believe you are correct that poppy was the power behind the dummys.

"The Cheney-Rumsfeld Cabal Deception" (SourceWatch)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Cheney-Rumsfeld_Cabal_Deception

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

They HAVE to pay for their crimes or we are morally culpable for them too.

The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On (The National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 210)
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB210/index.htm

Return of the Iran-Contra crew (Old American Century page)
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/bushco/bushcontra.htm

"Firewall: Inside the Iran-Contra Cover-up" by Robert Parry (Consortium News archived article)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story34.html

yesterday, a rebroadcast of the Senate hearing with Sen.Mikulski and Sen. Shelby.questioning A.G. Holder.Sen. Shelby kept trying Holder to admit that Extraordinary Rendition was used by the Clinton Administration. It was very disturbing that Holder didn't have an answer to give Shelby, even though he was working in the A.G. Office at that time. There must be an explanation, if true, why didn't the Bush people jumped on this early on? That would have ended the Republican rap on torture immediately.

to use national security classifications to conceal crimes.
Poppy was the DCI that greatly expanded the use of the secrecy contracts.

For that matter, why is he not on death row? Covering up treason is punishable by death, I believe.

.n/t

Thanks for the post, kpete.

Actually, those who followed the Iran-Contra hearings know that Rep. Dick Cheney said publicly, back then, that there was a large cover-up. The numerous criminal convictions that resulted from investigations documented that, beyond any question.

The democrats in the House and Senate made a deal going into the hearings, however. They were not going to go after President Reagan, despite the evidence they had from the beginning, which showed that he had committed offenses that should definitely have resulted in impeachment. The reason? Because they claimed the nation could not endure another scandal that destroyed a presidency.

Obviously, what the nation could not endure, if it were to remain a Constitutional democracy, was to avoid dealing with a cancer on the executive branch. Not impeaching Reagan meant not confronting the role of VP Bush. Not confronting Bush the Elder's lead role meant not impeaching him. And, of course, he went on to serve as president, and pardon his friends.

Cheney learned well: have a figure head serve as president, and insist that impeaching him would damage the nation. This served to protect the VP, who was running the show. Sound familiar?

NOT MY idea of service!

finger raised at the US public though, was Ollie North being praised as a "hero" for going against and around the will of the Congress.

And where was there sufficient outrage then? :boring: :thumbsdown:


"Not impeaching Reagan meant not confronting the role of VP Bush. Not confronting Bush the Elder's lead role meant not impeaching him. And, of course, he went on to serve as president, and pardon his friends.

"Cheney learned well: have a figure head serve as president, and insist that impeaching him would damage the nation. This served to protect the VP, who was running the show. Sound familiar?"

Thank you for scribing this criminal (current) history so elegantly, H2O Man. :pals:

the "threats." These came on two levels. First, the public was told it was "too dangerous a time" to have the ball & chain of a Constitutionally-mandated process. (Sound familiar?) There were bad guys in Iran (who the republicans were arming), elected governments in Central America, and never forget the dangers posed by Grenada.

On the private level, republicans were warning democrats in DC that if they went after Reagan, the republicans would try to destroy any democratic administration that followed.

And, cleverly, IMPEACHING Clinton over stupid BS they knew would not end in a conviction made the whole Impeachment process, sigh, another side show, boring, AGAIN?.... it has almost killed it. By crying wolf, Impeachment has become banal. The Repugs think they can yell, "Revenge for Clinton!" and it will instantly become tedious whether people believe it's revenge or not.

But hopefully torture will be such a vile subject, people will want those who approved out...for a long time.

in comments here when impeachment was called for.

:toast:

:evilfrown:

For those with the time and inclination to review this shameful episode, http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_24.htm">Charles Hill's notes are a great place to start. There you find smoking guns such as this:
And other relics from the memory hole. Such as whether or not Poppy Bush was "out of the loop" with "no operational role," as he whined to Dan Rather (and has probably by now even convinced himself about).



Of course, it took criminal pardons of his co-conspirators -- and the last batch of "look forward" Dems -- to keep the public/electorate in the dark. And the nation moving toward the dark side.

--

Remember them? The scapegoats of Abu Ghraib? Little people who went to prison for treatment YOU AUTHORIZED! Wouldn't an honorable man offer to trade places and serve out their jail terms?

Wow! What a post! If there ever is a DU Hall of Fame this post belongs in it. :wow: :wow:

IranContra, Iraqgate, CIA drugrunning and BCCI matters.

BushInc didn't get away with it because of the few HONEST Dem lawmakers in the senate and congress who worked for years to uncover these illegal operations - they got away with it because of the few DISHONEST Dem lawmakers who used their power to PROTECT BushInc and undermine the truthseekers in their own party.

...this ought to be interesting since Shitstain Shoots-Guy-In-Face is now taking aim at Poopy. Guess the former is feeling strong about this faceoff. Should be mighty interesting.

Had our government lived up to its responsibilities under the Constitution to fully investigate and hold responsible those directly involved in Iran/Contra we likely would not have suffered G.H.W.Bush and G.W.Bush.

The decision to "look forward", and not do the hard work of investigating and punishing those officials(presidents included) who violated the law, almost always leads to future reoccurences of the most egregious conduct that offends the Consitution.

if anyone wonders where the mercs suddenly popped out of, just look at the 80s Cold War: America supported mujahedeen and death squads, and Americans fought for Apartheid S.Af. in Angola. That's also when the "we're fighting terrorists" meme cropped up: the next Ultimate Evil to battle against. All sorts of goons mingled under Reagan: Ríos Montt, Botha, Savimbi, RENAMO, Zenawi, the Haitian juntas, the mujahedeen, bin Laden, Zia ul-Haq, Chun Doo-hwan, Taiwanese anti-Communists, CANF, Ariel Sharon, the Argentinean junta, Pinochet--plus the Khmer Rouge and Ferdinand Marcos.
Since the 50s, "National Security" has eroded democracy: decisions are made in secret, and mounting numbers of Americans believe that if something's secret, it should remain secret (glauben, volgen, kämpfen!). Millions objected to the Church Committee, Counterspy magazine, Agee, Watergate, and Iran-Contra. Ford's pardon of Nixon is praised--even on DU--as having averted civil war (or something equally stupid): what it really shows is that many Americans have no place for accountability in their vision of America. They might even agree that acconutability is mere vengefulness, much as opposition to HMOs is a jealous punishment of those who've virtuously stinted themselves and "got" good jobs giving them health insurance.
The Powers That Be see total equivalency between supporting a local nationalist movement and hiring secret policemen to overthrow a democracy or popular leader--they're both "imperialism," the first "Soviet/totalitarian" and the second "for the sake of the Free World." There was bipartisan agreement that leftism and revolution were BAAAD. Therefore, Inouye could scold Ollie North by saying that he was a DIRTY LENINIST!: his weaselly activities had embraced "one of the most important tenets of communism and Marxism--the ends justify the means." As a cynical crypto-Commie, North was thus anti-American, and leftism was safely expelled from the Land of Picket Fences and Apple Pie. Michael Schudson characterizes this as seeing deliberative democracy as potentially dangerous...
After 1989-91, the superpower (technically, the only superpower since 1944, since the USSR was more like three Germanies stuck together, with nukes: the Cold War was ridiculously one-sided after 1952, mostly US hegemony vs. local nationalism) found itself adrift. To the chagrin of "realists," US foreign policy was done under the aegis of "humanitarianism," though this included fabricated atrocity stories like Kuwaiti preemies hitting the floor. Clinton was hounded over ridiculous affairs, inadvertently making the Dems circle the wagons around him and not criticizing him for things like taking a cleaver to welfare or letting the party drift to the right under the DLC.
In 2000, Gore won, but was left hanging by Congress as he pled for anything to slow the process. "Justice" Kennedy later admitted that he was, like two days away from voting for Gore. After 2000, it was firmly decided by both parties that actually participating in democracy (e.g., by running, like Nader, the Great Satan) was a degenerate, sinful activity that endangered lives. "Moderation" was the watchword, and it carried the US Flag into Iraq, whereupon Washington's orgy of torture, wiretapping, and murder REALLY took off. 2004 saw a war supporter defeat the rather-leftist champion and become the sacrificial victim for his fellow coffin-jacker (just don't ask him about it!). 2006 saw impeachment go off the table, despite a quality of leadership not seen since Somoza bombed his own cities or Caligula threw his parties. 2008 saw two respectable "moderates" fight to see who'd triumph over Saul Tigh and Gov. Squeaky Fromme and be the first to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, threaten Somalia a little more, reward Wall Street for all it's done to America, and keep accountability firmly off the table.