In the Iran initiative, President Reagan chose to proceed in the
utmost secrecy, disregarding the Administration's public policy
prohibiting arms sales to nations supporting terrorism. He also chose
to forgo congressional notification under the National Security Act
and the Arms Export Control Act.2 Having bypassed accountability to
Congress, the President failed either to establish an effective system
of accountability within the Administration or to monitor the series
of activities he authorized.3 Working in a climate of extreme secrecy
and operating without accountability, National Security Adviser John
M. Poindexter, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North of the National Security
Council staff and others associated with the initiative invited
criminal acts including profiteering on the Iranian arms sales, the
diversion of some of those proceeds to aid the contras, destroying
documents, and lying to Congress to cover up their criminal
activities.

2 See discussion on ``The Iran Hostage Initiative, 1985-1986'' later
in this chapter.

3 In his written answers to interrogatories requested by Independent
Counsel and the Grand Jury, Reagan stated that he did not monitor the
details of the Iran arms sales and had no specific knowledge of such
key matters as North's role or Secord's role. The President said he
did not authorize any profits from the sale of arms to Iran and that
he was unaware that there were excess proceeds and that some of them
were diverted to aid the contras.

When the Iran initiative was exposed on November 3, 1986, the
President convened a series of meetings with his top national security
advisers and permitted the creation of a false account of the Iran
arms sales to be disseminated to members of Congress and the American
people.4 These false accounts denied the President's knowledge and
authorization of the initial sales from Israeli stocks of U.S.-made
TOW and HAWK missiles to Iran in August, September and November of
1985. Attorney General Edwin Meese III and others were concerned that
those sales violated the Arms Export Control Act and the National
Security Act of 1947.5 Previously withheld notes by participants in
the November 12 and November 24, 1986, meetings constituted evidence
of an effort to cover up the true facts of the President's
authorization of the 1985 Iran arms sales. But the discovery of the
notes by Independent Counsel came too late to investigate effectively
and to prosecute the false statements involved.6 The passage of time,
claims of dimmed recollections and the running of the statute of
limitations protected the underlying acts.



On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 23:48:34 GMT, David wrote:

Reagan is largely responsible for the mess we're in today.

Reagan nurtured the Mujihadeen, including Osama. Reagan gace Saddam
the chemical weapons he used on the Kurds.

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/

Ronald Reagan did a lot of damage.

On 06 Jun 2004 01:12:10 GMT, at (CRUSH THE
LEFT) wrote:

Ronald Reagan. The man who defeated Soviet Communism (no wonder liberals hate
him). May he rest in peace.

So long, Sir. We will continue your fight against the marxist left. And we will
win.