Defense Secretary Nominee Gates Advocated Bombing Nicaragua

[Bjorn Against]

WASHINGTON — Robert M. Gates, President Bush's nominee to lead the Pentagon, advocated a bombing campaign against Nicaragua in 1984 in order to "bring down" the leftist government, according to a declassified memo released by a nonprofit research group.

The memo from Gates to his then-boss, CIA Director William J. Casey, was among a selection of declassified documents from the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal posted Friday on the website of the National Security Archive, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ .

<snip>

"It sounds like Donald Rumsfeld," said National Security Archive Director Thomas S. Blanton. "It shows the same kind of arrogance and hubris that got us into Iraq."

In the memo, Gates noted he was advocating "hard measures" that "probably are politically unacceptable."

Indeed, Blanton said, Gates' advocacy of military strikes against Nicaragua was extreme.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1125-04.htm

We need to send a message to Bush: WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THOSE WHO WANT TO BOMB COUNTRIES AND KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT POSE A DIRECT THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES. DEMAND THAT THE GATES NOMINATION IS REJECTED.

[On the Road]

1. In 1984?

Right after they introduced democratic elections?

Let me guess -- Gates is behind the red scare over Sandanista bombers being able to reach Brownsville, Texas. Exactly what he wanted to do to them.