This film by Bill Moyers explains exactly how Ronald Reagan waged his own private war of Terrorism against the Government of Nicaragua against the Will of Congress and the Law.
Via The Latest
Today is Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday. We thought it might be a good thing to take a look the real Ronald Reagan, rather than the pantomime Reagan always being trotted out by conservatives. Here then is Bill Moyers excellent 1987 film on Reagan’s illegal terrorist war against the people of Nicaragua. Reagan funded his war by secret illicit arms sales to Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, all, absurdly, in the name of fighting Communism. In doing so he violated the law and acted in direct opposition to the will of Congress, subverting the constitution and creating a shadow government. And he is held up as a hero by so-called conservatives for it. We think that conservatives have a little difficulty distinguishing right from wrong & the good guys from the bad guys.
This film documents how Oliver North setup a secret accounts to funnel donations from private contributors such as Joseph Coors to buy missiles from the CIA and then sell them - at a profit - to the Contra.
The Contra's then used those used those weapons to wages a war of terror against women, children and schools in order to destabilize and undermine their government.
Another by-product of Reagan's creation of the Contras was their trafficking in Cocaine to help fund their operations which eventually led to the epidemic of Crack in the United States.
Reagan's defenders have long argued that San Jose Mercury News stories by the late Gary Webb have been discredited. That no CIA agents sold drugs on the streets of Los Angeles - but that isn't a claim made in the stories. In the end the CIA's own internal report confirms the key point in Webb's stories, that the Contra did traffic in drugs and the CIA was aware of that trafficking for at least two years before doing their legally required duty and informing the Justice Dept.
It is undisputed that individuals like Meneses and Blandon, who had ties to the Contras or were Contra sympathizers, were convicted of drug trafficking, either in the United States or Central America. There is also undeniable evidence that certain groups associated with the Contras engaged in drug trafficking.
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No DEA personnel stationed in Costa Rica during the mid-1980s could recall the CIA providing any information about Contras who might have been involved in narcotics trafficking. No DEA personnel stationed in Costa Rica during the mid-1980s who we interviewed recalled any instance of the CIA's asking the Country Office to refrain from investigating members of the Contra movement suspected of narcotics trafficking. Moreover, all DEA Country Attaches and agents interviewed by the OIG stated that, had they been asked to stop an investigation, they would have refused to do so and would have complained within the DEA.
The CIA OIG told us that the CIA personnel from the Costa Rica Station between 1981 to 1989 who it interviewed did not recall giving any information about narcotics trafficking by Contras to the DEA.
Based on a review of thousands of pages of DEA and CIA documents, interviews with DEA personnel stationed in Costa Rica during the 1980s, and CIA OIG's representations about the recollections of CIA personnel stationed in Costa Rica during the 1980s, we concluded that comparatively little information was exchanged between the CIA and the DEA pursuant to the MOU. However, we possess no information regarding any effort by the CIA in Costa Rica to prevent the DEA from learning about Contra or Contra-related trafficking, or to prevent the DEA from pursuing such matters.
Whether it was turn a blind eye to human rights abuses or drug trafficking the Reagan Administration - in the name of Anti-Communism - fostered an "No Holds Barred" and "Leave No Law Left Unbroken" atmosphere that still stains and taints the reputation and integrity of the United States to this day with Torture and Death Squads.
Was not Reagan's privitization of war a clear precursor to Murderous Actions of Blackwater/Xe in Iraq?
You have to go no further than the crazed "Shoot them in the Head" ranting s of Glenn Beck to see that the attitude that drove Reagan to invent and support the Contras lying to Congress and the American People in the process has not dimmed.
You can look no further than to the Tea Party and this particularly member, a former U.S. Marine and Nicarauguan immigrant who completely losses his mind in a in this crazed violent rant.
When the Tea Party calls Obama and Democrats "Socialists and Communists" - this is what they really mean. The Only Good Communists, is a DEAD Communists.
As Conservatives continue to deify Reagan today, and it is fair to admit that he did rekindle American confidence in itself and Hope for a better future just as President Barack Obama has done - we also need to remind them of how his endless set of compromises of his own often stated values did have real life consequences, and if we continued to be blinded by high minded rhetoric while ignoring the practical effects of actual policy - we will continue to go down this dark road in ways small an large.
Vyan