How Reagan/Bush committed a felony and got away with it

[Q]

Firewall: Inside the Iran-Contra Cover-up
By Robert Parry (1997)

WASHINGTON -- In crucial ways, Watergate, the signature scandal of the 1970s, and Iran-contra, the signature scandal of the 1980s, were opposites. Watergate showed how the constitutional institutions of American democracy -- the Congress, the courts and the press -- could check a gross abuse of power by the Executive. A short dozen years later, the Iran-contra scandal demonstrated how those same institutions had ceased to protect the nation from serious White House wrongdoing. Watergate had been part of a brief national awakening which exposed Cold War abuses -- presidential crimes, lies about the Vietnam War and assassination plots hatched at the CIA. The Iran-contra cover-up marked the restoration of a Cold War status quo in which crimes, both domestic and international, could be committed by the Executive while the Congress and the press looked the other way.

That Iran-contra reality, however, is still little understood for what it actually was: a victory of weakness and deceit over integrity and courage. On one front, the Washington media wants to perpetuate the myth that it remains the heroic Watergate press corps ofAll the President's Men. On another, the national Democratic establishment wants to forget how it crumbled in the face of pressures from the Reagan-Bush administrations. And, of course, the Republicans want to protect the legacy of their last two presidents. Those combined interests likely will lead to very few favorable reviews of a new book by a man who put himself in the way of that cover-up -- Iran-contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh. In a remarkable new book, Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-up, Walsh details his six-year battle to break through the "firewall" that White House officials built around President Reagan and Vice President Bush after the Iran-contra scandal exploded in November 1986.

For Walsh, a lifelong Republican who shared the foreign policy views of the Reagan administration, the Iran-contra experience was a life-changing one, as his investigation penetrated one wall of lies only to be confronted with another and another -- and not just lies from Oliver North and his cohorts but lies from nearly every senior administration official who spoke with investigators. According to Firewall, the cover-up conspiracy took formal shape at a meeting of Reagan and his top advisers in the Situation Room at the White House on Nov. 24, 1986. The meeting's principal point of concern was how to handle the troublesome fact that Reagan had approved illegal arms sales to Iran in fall 1985, before any covert-action finding had been signed. The act was a clear felony -- a violation of the Arms Export Control Act -- and possibly an impeachable offense.

Though virtually everyone at the meeting knew that Reagan had approved those shipments through Israel, Attorney General Edwin Meese announced what would become the cover story. According to Walsh's narrative, Meese "told the group that although McFarlane had informed Shultz of the planned shipment, McFarlane had not informed the president.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story34.html

[Brucey]

1. The public doesn't know diddly about this...

the media has ignored it, schools barely touch it, and it is too complex for the average person to get it. Sad.

[RichM]

4. Very true. The same applies for the S&L scandal -- a massive looting

that US taxpayers footed the bill for, yet hardly anyone understands (or cares) where responsibility for the crime lies.

A little thought about these 2 things -- the S&L's, and Iran-Contra -- shows how rotten our media & government have been FOR A LONG TIME. It didn't just start with the stolen election.

[seventhson]

2. And IMHO Kerry helped the coverup. It is ONE reason I do NOT trust Kerry

Nowhere is Bush hardly even mentioned in Kerry's "investigation" reports of Iran-Contra-Cocaine-CIA and BCCI or its conclusions.

Kerry let the Bush team WALK.

Could it be...?

[ShaneGR]

3. North walked the perp line for them

Another example of just how maniachal the right-wight wing really is. When their leaders are on the chopping block, a lot of them will willingly fall on the sword.

[Q]

6. It's not much of a 'fall'...

...if you become a millionaire afterwards.

[RichM]

5. Note what Parry says about the role played by the Democrats -

"On another (front), the national Democratic establishment wants to forget how it crumbled in the face of pressures from the Reagan-Bush administrations..."

This, too, has been going on for a long time. Democratic cowardice is nothing new.

[rock]

7. The Law does not act automatically

It takes people to enforce it, particularly the Constitution. People are, well, self-centered.