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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (9465)	10/14/1998 2:56:00 PM
From: Charles Hughes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

>>> In October 1980 the Carter administration had declared that spare parts for U.S. military equipment could be sold to Iran if the U.S. embassy hostages were released promptly.<77> There was even talk among U.S. officials about pre-positioning some spare parts in Germany, Pakistan, and Algeria so that the Iranians could get the equipment as soon as possible.<<< We did have a negotiating stance about that. The Shah had purchased a number of older US fighters like F4s and F5s, I think. They had no spare parts for these, but in fact they could have purchased those from alternative suppliers, e.g. Israel. The fact is that this was equipment they had already had, and obsolete. Their was nothing obsolete about the TOWs and Stingers, which could shoot down our own craft. Now everytime one of our airliners goes down mysteriously we have to wonder if it is one of our old shoulder launched Stingers come back to haunt us. (Of course, we have given them to Bin Laudin's friends and other terrorists since then, in the 1980's during Afganistan, another Republican brainstorm which we are stealing dealing with fallout from.) >>> The amendment prohibited the use of the CIA in overthrowing Nicaragua's government. I believe the operation was shifted to the NSC to avoid this. <<< The CIA was involved throughout, but I don't think the amendment was that narrow in any case. You will recall some of our CIA contractors were shot down and one was captured, a side gunner and/or cargo guy I think? You will also recall the CIA assasination briefing book or training manual that became a scandal for a moment. Noriega was the CIAs guy as is well known, and so forth. So basically, they were involved throughout. The funny thing is, the CIA are a lot smarter than this. I think they were having to follow orders, even though the orders were crazy, which is something they loyally do all too well. One explanation for why they didn't short-circuit all this white House madness is that Casey was in charge at the CIA by then, and Casey had a brain tumor, as we know now, and brain tumors can make people do some very poorly judged things while appearing to be quite bright, even hyper-intelligent in some cases. >>>Weren't there three Boland amendments --- when the first one didn't work, they kept drafting new versions.<<< Congress kept trying to restrain the president until the Republican Senate was voted in. Please remember that the constitution gives the making of war to the Congress, and any warlike actions taken by the administration are by sufferance of congress, tacit acceptance. The congress didn't have the balls to take it to the supreme court and get it settled, was the problem. They were afraid of having a weak president in the face of the world, knowing the shambles that could make of the international scene. A problem the current republican congress seems willing, even eager, to overlook. Oh, but hey, I'm sorry, this is all dead history, of interest only to covert operations bufs and academics, and you guys want to talk about sperm, right? Cheers, Chaz