But Iran Contra set the template both 1) for disabling Congressional oversight with no repercussions, and 2) for cover-ups executed through in-your-face obfuscation, chest-thumping denials, and media-enabled mis-direction. (Cue the airhead TV presenter types who now completely dominate the airwaves.)

More from the Gipper, as reported by Paul Slansky:

During the course of our secret discussions, I authorized the transfer of small amounts of defensive weapons and spare parts for defensive systems to Iran… These modest deliveries, taken together, could easily fit into a single cargo plane… We did not -- repeat -- did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we. -- President Reagan claiming that the arms for hostages swap wasn’t really a swap because we didn’t give them too much stuff, and besides, the stuff we did give them hardly counts as weapons

Reagan concluded:

All these reports are quite exciting, but as far as we're concerned, not one of them is true.



I love the "as far as we're concerned."

Here’s the list of weapons shipments to Iran:

▪ August 20, 1985. 96 TOW anti-tank missiles

▪ September 14, 1985. 408 more TOWs

▪ November 24, 1985. 18 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles

▪ February 17, 1986. 500 TOWs

▪ February 27, 1986. 500 TOWs

▪ May 24, 1986. 508 TOWs, 240 Hawk spare parts

▪ August 4, 1986. More Hawk spares

▪ October 28, 1986. 500 TOWs

Must have been one big-ass cargo plane.

Neocon buddy Saddam Hussein was, of course, non-plussed that the United States was now supplying the Iranians - with whom Iraq was at war - when we were also simultaneously supplying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons to Iraq. Perhaps partly to help make it up to him, the United States would soon launch operation Earnest Will to flag Kuwaiti oil tankers as US ships, so that the US Navy could escort them through an Iranian blockade -- in exchange for a Kuwaiti commitment to loan some of the $ billions from keeping their oil exports afloat to Iraq to keep financing their side of the war.

A few years later, Hussein had a thought: rather than repay those $ billions in loans to the Kuwaitis, it would be a lot easier to just annex the country (and he apparently thought he had a wink from the US to do this - "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts"). This, of course, led to George Bush I's Top-Gun moment (though Poppy lacked a Karl Rove to dress him up in a flight suit).

Anyway, back to Reagan's November 13 heart-to-heart with the nation. In the weeks that followed, Attorney General Ed Meese was on the case and launched an internal investigation. John Poindexter and Oliver North would soon get their shredders going 24-7 to try to destroy as much evidence as possible about the illegal operations. (Johnny would later re-imerge in the context of "Total Information Awareness.")

Meese's boys just weren't quick enough to beat the shredders. Go figure.

However, on November 25, Meese would admit that profits from the weapon sales were being sent to right-wing Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Aiding the Contras was an explicit violation of Congressional mandate / US law.

That set off Congressional inquiries and the Tower Commission leading to all kinds of circus and some gripping television ( “I am not a potted plant!”).

But absolutely no fucking accountability.

Of course, covert Reagan Administration contacts with Iran were not exactly new.

And William Casey and the boys were busy little beavers throughout the 1980s, outsmarting themselves repeatedly, and essentially creating Al Qaeda along the way.

But when you reflect on Bush White House officials laughing at the law and Congressional oversight, and the ways that the Obama Administration continues to blithely operate above the law today – with top-secret “findings” to justify our actions, top secret courts, endless drone attacks in Pakistan (presumably justified by those top-secret findings), and enormous “black” budgets – recognize that the most important antecedent that made it all possible was the Iran Contra operation, and the astonishing fact that none of the major engineers of hijacking US foreign policy - and effectively shredding the US Constitution - was ever held accountable.

