Opposition forces blow up two bridges, including one used to ship supplies to salvadoran rebels. Irancontra and armsforhostages scandals after effects. Key figures in ciacrack cocaine scandal begin to come. One day in the early 1980s, wanda palacio watched a hercules cargo plane roll to a stop on the tarmac of barranquilla international airport, located in the andean foothills just off the azure waters of colombias northern coast. L inchiesta sullo scandalo irancontras inizio allo scopo di insabbiare le prove. Learn iran contra affair with free interactive flashcards. He also helped orchestrate a secret deal later known as irancontra to send arms through honduras to help the contras overthrow the sandinista government. When you hear of the irancontra scandal you mostly think of the hostage crisis that happened in tehran, iran. The irancontra conspiracy and coverup walsh, lawrence e.
The irancontra affair 19861987 the washington post. The sandinistas impose a state of emergency and crack down on the opposition while tightening press restrictions. Like his boss president ronald reagan, casey has a powerful cold war mentality and a love of covert operations. The cia planes brought guns, washing machines, gourmet food, and fancy furniture intto colombia and took drugs back to the u. Drug trafficking was a much less convoluted method of skirting the congressional ban on funding the contras, and the cias inspector general found that in the early years after congress cut off contra funding, the cia had alerted congress about the allegations of drug trafficking.
Irancontras article about irancontras by the free dictionary. Webbs series led to three federal investigations, none of. The cia, the contras, and the crack cocaine explosion. But the illicit armsforhostages deals did leak, and eventually u. Titled dark alliance, the series linked drug smuggling by ciatrained contras to the crack epidemic that has ravaged america. The irancontra affair was the product of two separate initiatives during the administration of president ronald reagan. The charges of cia involvement in contra cocaine trafficking were revived in 1996, when a newspaper series by reporter gary webb in the san jose mercury news claimed that the trafficking had played an important role in the creation of th e crac k cocaine drug problem in the united states. Caso iran con tra, populariz ed in iran as the mcfarlane affa ir, the iran contra scandal, or simply ir an contra, was a political scandal in the united states that occurred during the second term of the reagan administration. Non ce citta negli stati uniti che non sia stata colpita dallepidemia del crack.
Now the president is seen as hiding the truth about the hostages, the contras and arms shipments to iran. Israel would then sell the weapons to iran secretly, in exchange for the release of american hostages being held by an extremist terrorist group in neighbouring lebanon that supported the new iranian government who promptly took new hostages. An august, 1996, series in the san jose mercury news by reporter gary webb linked the origins of crack cocaine in california to the contras, a guerrilla force backed by the reagan administration that attacked nicaraguas sandinista government during the 1980s. Oliver north is sworn in july 7, 1987, before the congressional committee investigating the irancontra affair. The irancontra affair may be only part of a broader and previously undisclosed pattern of illegal activities by intelligence agencies during the tenure of ronald reagan and. Congress or violated the stated public policy of the government. Choose from 52 different sets of iran contra affair flashcards on quizlet. Through out 198586, the reagan administration was selling weapons to iran illegally in order to encourage iran to free hostages in the middle east. Your testimony on that point i think is demonstrably false. In 1985, while iran and iraq were at war, iran made a secret request to buy weapons from the united states. One of the most complicated and intriguefilled scandals in recent decades. A scandal from 1986 over secret deals to sell arms to iran and divert the proceeds to fund contra rebel forces in nicaragua. Im writing a paper on this in my ap us history course, and ive read a couple of long books on it. The monetary transfers were undertaken by nsc staff member lieutenant colonel oliver north with the approval of mcfarlanes successor as head of the nsc, rear admiral john m.
Cia involvement in contra cocaine trafficking wikipedia. Government operations were publicly exposed, potentially implicating reagan administration officials in illegal activities. The irancontra affair involved a secret foreign policy operation directed by white house officials in the national security council nsc under president ronald reagan. Cia director william casey introduces a plan to break the stalled armsforhostages deal with iran that has been moribund for over a month see late may, 1986. The irancontra affair american experience official. The contras are trained by argentineans and operated out of honduras. This in turn raises questions about his credibility in every other area from the raids on libya to the invasion of grenada, from the breaking of arms accords to the launching of. Mcfarlane sought reagans approval, in spite of the embargo against selling arms to iran. The coverup begins to crack a former cia official admits the agency lied about its knowledge of the secret plan to fund the nicaraguan rebels. Irancontra was an historical moment that reaches forwards and backwards in time to connect some of the key political players of the past 50 yearsand exposes the shadow government that has been in operation for decades. The irancontra affair popularized in iran as the mcfarlane affair, the irancontra scandal. How john kerry exposed the irancontra scandal and showed the.
The americans got around this by selling weapons to israel instead. North, oliver oliver north testifying at the irancontra. The cia, the contras and crack cocaine albion monitor. Contras, dirty money and cia december 19, 20 from the archive. Ronald reagans efforts to eradicate communism spanned the globe, but the insurgent contras cause in nicaragua was. The money from those weapons was funnelled to a rebel group the contras in nicaragua that was fighting the legitimatelyelected government of that country because we didnt like that governments policies. The cia, the contras, and the crack cocaine explosion gary webb. Irancontra summary executive summary in october and november 1986, two secret u. On this day in 1986, attorney general edwin meese revealed that, on white house orders, the proceeds of secret arms sales to iran were illegally diverted to fund the contras. You told the irancontra committee that you and bush never discussed the contras, had no expertise on the issue, no responsibility for it, and the details of watergatesized scandal involving nsc staff and the edwin wilson gang was not vice presidential. Also, the reagan administration had to somewhat dispose of.