Salon: How John Kerry Exposed the Contra-Cocaine Scandal

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/25/contra/print.html

<>In early 1986, the 42-year-old Massachusetts Democrat stood almost alone in the U.S. Senate demanding answers about the emerging evidence that CIA-backed Contras were filling their coffers by collaborating with drug traffickers then flooding U.S. borders with cocaine from South America.

The Reagan administration did everything it could to thwart Kerry's investigation, including attempting to discredit witnesses, stonewalling the Senate when it requested evidence and assigning the CIA to monitor Kerry's probe. But it couldn't stop Kerry and his investigators from discovering the explosive truth: that the Contra war was permeated with drug traffickers who gave the Contras money, weapons and equipment in exchange for help in smuggling cocaine into the United States. Even more damningly, Kerry found that U.S. government agencies knew about the Contra-drug connection, but turned a blind eye to the evidence in order to avoid undermining a top Reagan-Bush foreign policy initiative.

The Reagan administration's tolerance and protection of this dark underbelly of the Contra war represented one of the most sordid scandals in the history of U.S. foreign policy. Yet when Kerry's bombshell findings were released in 1989, they were greeted by the mainstream press with disdain and disinterest. The New York Times, which had long denigrated the Contra-drug allegations, buried the story of Kerry's report on its inside pages, as did the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. For his tireless
efforts, Kerry earned a reputation as a reckless investigator. Newsweek's Conventional Wisdom Watch dubbed Kerry a "randy conspiracy buff."

But almost a decade later, in 1998, Kerry's trailblazing investigation was vindicated by the CIA's own inspector general, who found that scores of Contra operatives were implicated in the cocaine trade and that U.S. agencies had looked the other way rather than reveal information that could have embarrassed the Reagan-Bush administration. Even after the CIA's admissions,the national press corps never fully corrected its earlier dismissive treatment. That would have meant the New York Times and other leading publications admitting they had bungled their coverage of one of the worst scandals of the Reagan-Bush era.

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[Senior citizen]

1. President Kerry WILL regain the respect of the world for U.S.

And he'll do it the old-fashioned way--by prosecuting criminals.

[sangh0]

2. *kick*

I'm surprised the conspiracists aren't posting in this thread. They've been particularly active in the last few days, yet they show no interest in this part of the issue, though they have shown interest in how Kerry's advisors signed a document that was NOT written by the PNAC

[InfoMinister]

4. Haven't Kept Up With PNAC and Kerry Campaign

I remember people saying that people connected to Kerry signed a letter sent out by PNAC that was about Russia. From what I understood the letter was something that a lot of people would actually agree with. The problem is it's from PNAC or so they said.

So I guess it was a lie.

[sangh0]

6. Yes, it was a lie

and I would suggest that, if you're interested in these things, you check out who spreads those lies, and who vouches for them.

[jdj]

3. thanks for posting

this is the most freaking confusing part of U.S. history for me, I don't know why, but I have a hard time linking the coke and the contra and iran and the hostages, it drives me mad.

[H2O Man]

8. It was a long and complicated series of crimes.

And a number of different interests, even within America, were involved. There were attempts to pay ransom in various forms for the release of hostages being held in Lebanon; weapons sales to Iran; illegal weapons supplied to the Contras; and huge amounts of sales of cocaine and money-laundering. It was an era when some of the most anti-social influences in American intelligence, industry, banking, and politics were operating without any sense of law and order.

Kerry was a young senator. He knew that what was occuring was an absolute threat to our constitutional democracy. Those who were participating in it did not respect either the legislative or judicial branches of the federal government. And they were absolutely ruthless. So what Kerry did was brave in a way that few senators since the Golden Age (pre-Civil War) had ever been brave. He was going up against an amoral group who had shown a willingness to crush anyone who opposed them.

Anyone who says that Kerry is "part of the system" and implies that his being in the Skull & Bones puts him on equal footing with anyone in the current administration is either ignorant, stupid, or lying. He made a hell of a lot more enemies who are truly dangerous in the Iran-Contra investigation than he did when he opposed the Vietnam War. If you look at any records from those days, no one else had the balls to do what Kerry did, and plenty of people warned him to stop. This should have been brought out more in the campaign.

[InfoMinister]

5. Hopefuly Kerry Will Get Elected

and clean up a lot of the corruption that's in our government.

[mulsh]

7. the silence was impressive

I was able to listen to most of the public hearings on KPFA, I think the testemony about using stateside airbases to trade "palletized bundles of $100 bills" for kilos of coke was most alarming. Every morning after the hearing I'd pick up the SF Chronicle and NY Times, nary a word.
glad to see this getting some exposure. its part of why I voted for John Kerry.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Golden Oldies: Remember what jolly Ollie North did

Insuring that the "Evil" nation of Iran and its Ayatollahs got their mitts on US Hawk missles.

Thanks Ollie. Real patriotic of you (not).

Now if our armed services go up agains Iran -- as pResident AWOL is threatening -- how many of our pilots will die as a result of your "patriotic" corruption?

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_02.htm

[pandorasox]

10. And Gen. Colin Powell lied under oath about what he knew and when

But how many people are aware of that little factoid?

[Hello_Kitty]

11. a "randy conspiracy buff."

Mmmm....that sounds kinda sexy. I know I like my conspiracy buffs to be randy. John Kerry gets my vote again!!;)