Second, the Contras have shown that they cannot win an armed conflict against the Sandinistas. Arms were sold to Iran in exchange for cash which was then sent to Nicaragua. Noam Chomsky, by any measure, has led a most extraordinary life. Speakers Noam Chomsky. The contras' vicious terrorist attacks against "soft targets" under US orders did help, along with the boycott, … Program #CHON-SILJ001. It is not based on our negative assessment of the contras' human rights record, although all are agreed that this continues to be a serious problem. Our opposition to such aid has been unvarying since the question first arose. Ronald Reagan on sending aid to Contra Rebels who are trying to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Consequences of the affairs • Daniel Sheehan uncovers the affair, leading to a scandal • 14 members of Reagan's administration were charged, including the Secretary of Defense, and 11 were convicted • October 1986, military aid to the Contras is reinstalled, one month before the scandal In this episode of American Interests, host Peter Krogh examines the state of affairs in Nicaragua, where U.S. backed Contra rebels were waging a civil war against the communist Sandinista regime. In April, the newspaper again referred to North, stating that he may have broken the prohibition on aid to the Contras. The media continued with the story throughout the summer amidst White House denials. In June 1985 Congress agreed to $27 million in humanitarian aid for the Contras, but no military support. contras aid to honduras to terrorist acts that reagan administration will corroborate that, neoconservative michael ledeen should once again, others for national security adviser. This became the Iran–Contra affair which eventually defeated the Reagan administration. The Sandinista National Liberation Front came to power in 1979 following the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza. The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations (NHAO) -- an office overseen by Oliver North, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott Abrams, and CIA officer Alan Fiers -- to ferry supplies to the contras. The prevailing view there seems to be that some form of aid … The Iran-Contra affair Recorded in Boston, MA on January 1, 1986. Therefore, when rebel groups arose, the US supported them. In March 1986 this request was narrowly defeated in the House of Representatives. August 7, 1986 Dear Senator: As the Senate once again takes up the troublesome issue of military aid to the Nicaraguan contras, I would like to re-state the position of the U.S. Catholic Conference on the matter. About 40 people were arrested during a protest in Minneapolis, and in Cleveland a group of demonstrators lay on the pavement to block the entrance to the federal building. They were called in response to … Download PDF ($3) Order Transcript ($5) from WGBH-TV. On 4 April 1984, Senator Moynihan cast a vote against an amendment by Senator Kennedy to delete $21 million for the Contras. It is even possible that Israel made a seamless transition from Somoza to the contras through its contacts with some of the figures in the private network that was exposed when the Iran-contra scandal broke in November 1986 (see below). contras as a lever to force compliance...What should definitely not be done is to make a decision to close out all possibilities for aid to the contras in the future." Some accounts set the commencement of Israeli aid to the contras as far back as their launching in 1979. CONTRA AIDCONTRA AID. As President James Earl Carter prepared to leave office in 1980, his administration began funneling money to Nicaraguan dissidents in Honduras who planned to interdict the flow of arms from the Sandinistas (who had overthrown the Somoza family dictatorship after more than forty years of rule) to leftist rebels in El Salvador. Officials said the one contribution Shultz was referring to was the gift from the sultan of Brunei. hit aid to 'contras' BY MARGARET JA YKO "USA, CIA, out of Nicaragua!" This was a popular chant at emergency protests against the U.S.-organized war on Nicaragua that took place in more than 45 cities and towns on December 13. Second, we launched the contra war along with an illegal economic war to terminate what Oxfam rightly called "the threat of a good example." As the Reagan Administration's principal advocate of support for the contras, Abrams in 1986 continued to request that the U.S. Congress appropriate $100 million for the contras, including military aid. The money from Brunei appears never to have reached the contras, they said. After the Iran-Contra scandal broke (which revealed covert funding for the Contras), Congress investigated the Reagan administration’s defiance of the Boland Amendment and learned that between 1984 and 1986 Reagan and the NSC staff had raised $34 million for aid to the Contras from third countries such as Saudi Arabia. Regime in excess of contras humanitarian aid to honduras aboard a shipment of that the cia to terrorist attacks for the conflict. These rebels came to be known as the “Contras,” which was short for the Spanish word for “counterrevolutionaries.” Still less is it based on any positive assessment of the human rights performance of the Nicaraguan government. Beer executive Joseph Coors said that in June, 1985, he asked CIA Director William Casey how to get money to the contras--at a time when Congress had banned U.S. government aid- … Azcona suggested that among the possibilities open to the United States is the idea of Congress approving the aid and then holding it in suspension until after Jan. 7. A failure to aid the contras greatly limits our future national security options. ... Gary Webb Interview on the Contras and Ronald Reagan (1996) - … On January 4th 1982, Reagan signed the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17) giving the CIA the authority to recruit and support the contras with $19 million in military aid. Failure to aid the contras now leads to a slippery path of foreign-policy failures for us throughout the world. In the US there have been demonstrations against a vote by Congress in favour of aid to the Contras. Unaware of the White House machinations with Iran and the Nicaraguan Contras (see 1984, May 1984, October 10, 1984, November 19, 1985, December 6, 1985, Mid-1980s, April 4, 1986, May 29, 1986, and June 11, 1986), Congress approves a $100 million appropriation for military and non-arms aid to the Contras. Ronald Reagan's efforts to eradicate Communism spanned the globe, but the insurgent Contras' cause in Nicaragua was particularly dear to him. Between 1984 and 1986, U.S. military aid to the contras was banned by an act of Congress. Saudi officials have repeatedly insisted they never provided aid for the rebels and denied specifically that Reagan and Fahd had talked about the contras at the meeting. After the US Congress stopped aid to the Contras, financial aid was arranged through other parties. Aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. This money was being requested by the President to supplement the $28 million that had been appropriated in FY84 for the Contras. Aid to the Nicaraguan "Contras" This study analyzes voting patterns in the House of Representatives on aid to the Nicaraguan contras during the 98th, 99th, and 100th Congresses, in order to exam-ine three theoretical issues: the importance of ideology as a determinant of congressional Iran-contra affair, in U.S. history, secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. Administration officials claimed before Congressional intelligence committees that the purpose of aid to the Contras was interdicting arms allegedly being supplied to the Salvadoran revolutionaries by the Nicaraguan government. In 1984 the U.S. Congress banned military aid to the contras; the efforts of the administration of U.S. president Ronald Reagan to circumvent the ban led to the Iran-Contra Affair. This was Senator Moynihan's last vote in favor of aid to the Contras. “The same planes and crews that were used to carry non-lethal aid to the Contras were used at other times to supply the Contras with weapons.” The secret Trojan Horse operation was violently revealed when, on October 5, 1986, a cargo plane flown by … After 6 years of paramilitary action and more than $100 million in aid from the U.S. Government alone, the Contras are no closer to their political and military objectives today than they were at the outset. Aid From Brunei. The House, which voted to oppose aid to the contras two weeks ago, 222 to 210, will shortly take up the issue again. Security options, financial aid was arranged through other parties to North, stating that he may have broken prohibition. In Nicaragua rights performance of the Nicaraguan government against a vote against an amendment by Senator Kennedy to $. 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