Help needed on Iran/Contra question

[intheozone]

Can someone help me answer a question for my son. He needs two reasons why Reagan sold arms to Iran. I think one reason was that Reagan needed the proceeds to fund the Contra fighters. Does anyone know the other reason?? :think: :think: :think:

[Syrinx]

1. As I understand it,

The criminal enterprise was intended to facilitate the release of American hostages in the middle east, and to fund the contras.

[intheozone]

2. Yes, you could be right, I forgot about the hostages.

Was that part of the deal cut to get the release of the hostages at the very moment that Reagan was being sworn into office?

[salin]

3. The deals were LONG after the US / Iran hostage

crisis that we most often remember (1980) - I remember connections (at the time) to hostages - but am not sure which or where - but it is not related to the hostages held in Iran at the end of Jimmy Carter's tenure in office. The arms trading began a number of years later (I believe AFTER congress made it illegal to provide support to rebels (contras) in Nicaragua.)

[Bucky]

4. These were the hostages in Lebanon

Islamic thugs were kidnapping Americans and Brits left and right around Beirut in 1980s. Because hostages cost his predecessor his job, Reagan was very concerned with the impact that the hostages on his watch would be used against him.

[salin]

9. That is the connection I was forgeting

there was not only the Beirut bombings that caused concerns but hostage taking in Lebanon.

Wonder if Adnon Kashogi was involved in the "trading"... he seems to show up in an awful lot of these situations.

[a_lil_wall_fly]

10. Adnan Khashoggi was one the main players that brought in...

a couple Iranians(Manucher Ghorbanifar and croonies) that had a hand in this subject.

[Syrinx]

5. well, supposedly it was about other hostages

Held in Beirut, I think. But I think it was actually payback for the Iranians NOT releasing their hostages before the '80 election.

[Octafish]

6. Possibly related.

There were several diplomats, educators and other Americans, including a CIA agent, kidnapped by Islamic radicals in Lebanon. These were backed largely by Syria and Iran. The US Government's hearings into Iran-Contra affair documented that there was big concern in the Reagan-Bush White House to rescue these hostages.

The largely unknown and forgotten story is the one regarding the release of the 80 Americans held hostage. It seems days after the inauguration of Pruneface in 1981, Israel began shipping arms to Iran. The US resupplied Israel for all its shipments.

The reason may have been revealed by Richard Allen, Reagan's disgraced National Security Advisor. The guy was interviewed on McNeil-Lehrer during 1986, just after Ed Meese revealed he had "discovered" illegal arms sales to the terrorist Khomeini regime, from which profits were diverted to illegally fund the terrorist Contra army killing women and children in a democratically administered Nicaragua.

Anyway. Allen pretty much admitted that the Reagan team had been dealing with the Ayatollah from Day One. He said that Reagan was furious when he “learned” that the Iranians were going to keep a woman hostage who had been hospitalized during the hostage’s 444-day ordeal.

Allen recalled Reagan stating: “Tell them the deal is off.”

Today I still recall my jaw hitting the floor. What convinced me that PBS was part of the BFEE is that McNeil, I think, failed to ask: “What deal?” That would have won him a Peabody.

[RainDog]

7. The Contras, not Iran, were the big deal

...although the United States armed BOTH Iran and Iraq when they were at war with each other, while slightly favoring Iraq in order to keep them one up on Iran...but the reason we sold arms to both sides was because we wanted to them to continue to fight each other to weaken both of their states and to keep them preoccupied.

Reagan was convinced that Latin America was going to become the big commie threat to democracy in America if those nations were allowed to choose leaders who were not military dictators, etc.

If these nations were allowed to control their own resources, they might not allow American corporations and banks to control their economies.

The move against the left-leaning governments in Latin America also made sure Reagan scored big points with an important voter base in South Florida...the Cubans who still stew about The Bay of Pigs, and also the McCarthyite faction of the right wing who saw a commie behind every attempt at progressive reform.

Reagan needed lots of money to fun guerillas on multiple fronts, including the ones that Klaus Barbie, called The Butcher of Lyon for his nazi activity during WW 2 in France, wanted to train as "the new SS" while he was in Argentina to use in Bolivia. In Argentina, Reagan's allies merely resorted to drugging people and throwing them out of airplanes over the open seas.

Along with selling arms to Iran, Reagan smuggled drugs from Latin America to the United States (so much for Nancy's war on drugs...) to fund the Contras.

I would recommend that you go to Robert Parry's site The Consortium Online. Parry was one of the reporters who broke the story and he has lots of good articles on his site.

[intheozone]

8. Thanks, and thanks to everyone else

for responding. I knew I count on the people at DU for the answer(s). You guys impress the hell out of me with all your knowledge. It is no wonder this place is so damn addicting! :loveya: