| Interestingly, the Boland Amendment was never contravened. The National Security Council was not named as an organization banned from aiding the Contras, and non- appropriated monies were used. The problem is that the National Security Council was never meant for operational use of this sort, which was more the province of the CIA. However, the CIA was explicitly banned. Of course, in general, had it not been for the violation of policy, however tenuously, in dealing with those who had a role in sponsoring the kidnapping of Americans, the political dynamics would have been quite different. The Administration lost a lot of water- carrying because of the perceived "arms for hostages" deal. Reagan, though, was right, to this extent: by dealing with presumed moderates in the regime, the connection to rewarding kidnapping was attenuated, and therefore quite possibly not obvious to him as presented........ |
