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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alexandermf who wrote (75449)	3/7/2000 11:26:00 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Let me review Iran/Contra: hostages were held in Lebanon by a group under Iranian sponsorship. On the premise of reaching out to moderates in the Iranian regime, the Reagan Administration sold arms to the Iranians. If things went well, the idea was that the moderates would use their good offices to ultimately intercede with the hostage takers. Meanwhile, proceeds from the sale were diverted to the Contras during a period when Congress had cut off funding, and forbidden U.S. intelligence agencies from continuing it.Technically, I might add, the National Security Council was not covered by the ban, so the diversion violated the spirit, but not the letter, of the law, which was probably unconstitutional. Before litigation could proceed, the matter was resolved with the resumption of congressional funding of the Contras. Thus, the primary issue became the "arms for hostages" aspect, which may have violated policy designed to discourage terrorism by denying any chance of profit. Strictly speaking, though, we did not deal with the hostage takers, but with the sponsoring regime, and not even that, but mainly with the moderate faction, which is why it made sense for Reagan to resist the characterization of "arms for hostages". However, in the end, it was unwise on just that ground. Now, how are we connecting all of this with what we were earlier discussing?..............