Iran is another textbook of double standard in international affairs

The Iran-Contra gate undermined the second term of the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

His government circumvented the arms embargo on Iran in order to free American hostages held during the civil war in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a paramilitary organization with strong ties to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution.
The scheme was modified by the daring Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North who started working at the National Security Council in late 1985. A portion of the money raised from weapon sales had to fund the Contras, a paramilitary organization fighting the Communist regime of Nicaragua. Briefly, that complex operation aimed the release of American hostages, and the overthrow of a Communist regime in the backyard of U.S.A.

The Boland amendment

As liberals were rooting for the revolutionary Sandinista government, they were enraged that the CIA carried out acts of sabotage against their ally. Representative democrat from Massachusetts Edward Boland authored the amendment banning U.S assistance to the rebels for overthrowing the Nicaraguan government, but the Sandinista National Liberal Front had himself overthrown the Somoza dynasty in 1979. For a reason beyond my understanding, Ronald Reagan signed the Defense Appropriation Acts 411 voted by the House of Representatives, which went back over the Boland amendment.

The leak of the weapons-for-hostages deal

On November 3, 1986, the weapons-for-hostages deal was revealed in the Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa after a leak by Medhi Hashmani, a senior official in the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. The affair, which was referred indifferently as Irangate or Contragate by liberal media, was so much amplified that Ronald Reagan had to justify his conduct on national television on November 13. However, the scandal did not wane after his humiliating contrition in front of cameras. The New York Times accused Oliver North of shredding documents. North justified his act for protecting the lives of intermediaries in the arms deals with Iran and Nicaragua. He was right. Medhi Hashmani was executed in Iran. Some observers found the coincidence of his leak and the subsequent prosecution highly suspicious.

The purge

National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigned. Reagan fired Oliver North, and announced the creation of an investigation led by John Tower. The Tower commission, which delivered a 200-page report on February 26, 1987, criticized the President for not “properly supervising his subordinates or being aware of his actions.” The democratic-controlled United States Congress issued a similar report in November stating that the President “did not know what his national security advisers were doing,” and his administration had “secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law.”

Ten officials and a businessman were indicted by the Justice Department. Here is the list:

1. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger
2. National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane
3. Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams
4. Chief of C.I.A’s Task force in Central America Alan Fiers
5. Chief of Covert Operations of CIA Claire George
6. National Security Advisor Oliver North
7. Oliver North’s secretary Fawn Hall
8. National Security Advisor John Poindexter
9. Senior official of CIA Duane Clarridge
10. Air Force general Richard Secord
11. Businessman Albert Hakim

To conclude that political scandal, which ended only after the departure of Ronald Reagan from the White House, the iconic journalist Bob Woodward chronicled the role of the CIA in channeling dirty money from Iran to Nicaragua. (1)

The secret airlift of $400 million in cash in an unmarked cargo plane to Tehran is not making a fuss in the banana republic of Obama

On August 3, 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama government secretly organized that transfer of cash to Iran. Swiss Franc and Euro notes were stacked on wooden pallets in an unmarked cargo plane.

After the Islamic revolution, Iranian assets in US banks were frozen in an escrow account. After the nuclear deal concluded with Iran in January, the Obama government had to return that money to Iranians with an interest rate of $1.3 billion covering that period of 36 years. “It is a good deal to the American taxpayer because Iranian negotiators wanted $7 billion in interest payments,” said the State Department spokesman John Kirby.

the Obama fallacy

Obama explained in his conference, “The reason that we had to give them in cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran that we couldn’t send them a check and we could not wire the money.” His allegation is contradicted by the Treasury Department, which has wired $848.000 to Iran, in July 2015, in order to settle an old litigation over fossils. It is also known that the U.S. government wired $9 million to Iran, in April, in exchange for 32 tons of heavy water, which could be used to make a plutonium bomb. Why did the Obama administration hide that payment in cash?

The cash-for-hostages deal

Strangely, the $400 million in cash was shipped to Tehran the same day as American hostages were released. One of the hostages reported that they were not allowed to leave the country until the arrival of another plane, which was an allusion to the cargo ferrying the cash.

Iran has abducted more Americans since Obama pays in cash. The reason America policy has prohibited paying ransoms to terrorists is that it only encourages them to take more hostages. Terrorism-related sanctions are in place because Iran remains a state sponsor of terrorism. The coincidence of the release of American hostages and the shipment of cash has prompted critics to characterize it as a ransom. Cornered, Obama said it was a “manufactured outrage!” His rejoinder implies that outrage is only genuine when it is vociferated by his coterie. It is another disturbing sign of self-righteousness that only affects liberals.

The deferential silence of media

The international outrage caused by the weapons-for-hostages deal of the Reagan government contrasts sharply with the deferential silence surrounding the cash-for-hostages deal made by the Obama government. Both governments aimed to free American hostages through illegal channel but only one has been vilified, judged, and condemned.

There is nothing new under the sun of self-righteous liberals who have a lasting monopoly over the media, which is referred as the fourth power in modern democracy. Is it not time that a maverick president breaks this monopoly of information in order to restore the democracy?

© Bernard Martoia for Dreuz.info.

Note

(1) “Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987” Bob Woodward by Simon & Schuster