1986

Peoples’ revolution – Corazon Aquino was voted into office – the widow of Benigno Aquino. Space shuttle Challenger exploded on 28th January 1986.

Salvador – Oliver Stone, set in 1980. Richard Boyle, a US journalist, drives to El Salvador. He found a civil war with his own government supporting the right wing incumbents and the death squads. The film was co-written by Boyle. TIME OUT FILM GUIDE.

Iran Contra
Sandinista leader Tomas Borge made a speech which was taken out of context by Reagan Admin – page 97 Chomsky “Hegemony”.
“The real threat is successful development that might “infect others” – “renewing the danger of Guatemala’s crashed experiment with democracy and social reform” [WHEN?] and “Cuba’s ‘successful defiance’.”
NHAO and the “private benefactors” operation were virtually indistinguishable from each other by early 1986.
Fiers met with Richard Gadd twice during February to learn about Gadd’s operation hoping to reestablish a CIA covert lethal re-supply network.
Adkins ordered CIA pilots to ferry lethal and non lethal supplies to contras in southern Honduras, using CIA helicopters. Though he clearly violated Boland, Adkins was encouraged by signs from Washington that Boland would not be around for long.
It looked likely that Boland would be ended soon so Reagan instructed his advisors to propose an ambitious $100m contra aid program. Some in the administration hoped that aid would be on its way as early as April 1986.
North and Abrams continued to give briefings and provide other assistance to groups of contributers gathered by Channell and Miller. President Reagan continued to drop by some of these sessions and grant private meetings and photo opportunities. Money raised by Channell and Miller had the enterprise, as did funds from the Saudis and diverted proceeds from the covert sales of arms to Iran.

John Poindexter – a naval officer with ‘little political experience replaces a burned out McFarlane as National Security Advisor’.  DATE?
Casey persuaded president to go ahead with shipments of TOW Anti-tank missiles and HAWK anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.  Schultz and Weinberger objected. Arms for hostages. One hostage was released after initial shipment. Then only two more. Several more yanks were then seized. The fiction is that only North, Casey and Poindexter were aware of using Iranian money to fund contras until November 86. Then it hit the papers.

June 1986 pressure from US Congress led to Washington suspending $7.1m in aid because Bolivia had not met the 1983 agreement.
At same time Bolivia government entered secretly into Operation Blast Furnace (from July 1986) joint US-Bolivia effort aimed at destroying cocaine labs in Beni Dept. and arresting drug traffickers. Outcry – operation didn’t get Bolivian congressional approval which it needed as it involved foreign troop movements on national territory. Over 150 troops present. Estessoro survived with support from AND-MNR pact. Congress remained sceptical.

Opposition
Bad news for the gun runners in March – Congress unexpectedly defeated Reagan’s $100m aid package.

May 16th Reagan gathered his NSPG for a meeting on the contras. Casey reported encouraging developments in the contra war, but many including Shultz and Weinberger, Don Regan, Casey, and Poindexter voiced concern that all would be for naught if money was not found for the contras, and soon. Some money had become availiable, from an Iranian arms sale payment of $15m received May 14th – 15th, but it wasn’t enough.
In late June the administration succeeded in convincing the House of Representatives that they should approve the $100m aid package. Ironically it may have signalled to past contributors that they need not contribute just as the money was needed most. Opponents of the aid managed to delay the payment till the next fiscal year which started October.  North tried to liquidate the Enterprise assets in order to bridge this gap. He pressed CIA officials to buy all of the Enterprise’s Central American assets.

Ronnie made claim that the CIA was not illegally arming the contras.
However, when Nicaragua shot down a C-123 transport plane (October 5th) flying illegally over their territory this was shown to be a deceit. There was one survivor, the two pilots were dead. The survivor was Eugene Hasenfus (Hasenfus?) who turned out to be a CIA employee, as were the two dead pilots. The plane was carrying military supplies to the contras and belonged to Southern Air Transport, a CIA front company.

Hasenfus was convicted, then pardoned and released.

Back in Washington Abrams lied repeatedly about the incident.

Although the details have long been known, the Iran-contra scandal finally captured the media’s attention in 1986. Congress held hearings, and several key figures such as North lie under oath to protect the intelligence community. William Casey died of a brain cancer before congress could question him. All reforms enacted by congress after the scandal are purely cosmetic.

Arms to Iran
November 3rd Lebonese newspaper Al Shiraa reported that the US were secretly selling arms to Iran. Reagan denied this on the 6th, but on the 13th admitted arms were sold to Iran but not to win release of US hostages. In a news conference on 19th Reagan denied US involvement in shipments prior to January 1986. On the 25th the White House disclosed contra diversion from the Iran arms sales.

Olafe Palme, Swedish pm was killed after refusing to allow illegal US arms laundering through Sweden.

The Justice Department began an inquiry into the NSC on November 21st. Eventually this will be known as Iran-contra scandal. The Justice Department found a memo in Lt. Col. Oliver North’s office on the transfer of $12m to contras from Iranian arms sale. Reagan announced the Justice Department’s findings on November 25th. Secretary Fawn Hall smuggled important documents out of North’s office.
Reagan appointed a commission on November 26th headed by former Senator John Tower to investigate his NSC staff in the wake of the Iran-contra affair.

November 26th Meese told the nation that Reagan did not know in advance of November ‘85 missile shipment to Iran – he only learned later. Now he claims Reagan did know but the shipments were legal – then why the cover-up? This was the announcement that introduced the Iran-Contra scandal to the nation.
Meese blamed Poindexter and North causing both to be dropped from the NSC.
Former CIA officer Jones???

On December 1st North pleaded the 5th amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran Contra arms sale.

The Tower Commission was appointed by RR on December 1st. Meese requested appointment of Independent Counsel on Iran/contra on the 4th.  Dec 6th, Swiss financial records of Enterprise requested by Department of Justice pursuant to treaty. December 17th US congress forms the ‘Irangate’ Committee.
Dec 19th, Walsh appointed Independent Counsel.   Senate Intelligence Committee on December 20th 1986. CBS-NYT poll in December, Reagan’s popularity had dropped from 67% to 46%. In just one month.

1986 Tax Reform Act – cut top rate from 50% to 28%.
The US agreed to defer interest payments by GB on credit related to arms.

Chernobyl
April 26th, 4,300 people died directly, as many as 350,000 clean up workers ill in 1996, millions of others affected mostly in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Go to www.greenpeace.org/~comms/nukes/chernob/rep02.html

Reykjavik Summit
Reagan-Gorby meeting 11th to 12th of October 1986.
Nearly led to breakthrough. Intermediate Nuclear forces (INF) issue. USSR wanted Star Wars cancelled.

Haiti
Rising popular revolt in Haiti means that “Baby Doc” Duvalier will remain “presdent for life” only if he has a short one. The US which hates instability in a puppet country, flies Duvalier to the south of France for a comfortable retirement. The CIA then rigs the upcoming elections in favour of another right-wing military strongman. However, violence keeps the country in political turmoil for another four years. The CIA tries to strengthen the military by creating the National Intelligence Service (SIN), which suppresses popular revolt through torture and assassination.

Libya
See “HEGEMONY” – CHOMKSY – PAGE 97 – add to this account
Reagan directed naval and air force to return to Libya to bomb civilian urban targets – guided by the goal of “contributing to an international environment of peace, freedom and progress within which our democracy, and other free nations, can flourish”.
100 were reported killed in this act of state terrorism. Mostly women and children including Gaddafi’s 16 month old daughter. That must have been a blow for terrorism!

Look up Stephen Shalom Z Magazine April and June 1990.

Steps taken to ensure South Africa maintains its illegal hold over Namibia while disrupting its neighbours’ continued support for Israeli terrorism.

Congress went to the Democrats – who began to override RR’s wetoes, reject his nominees and bring a halt to even ‘humanitarian’ aid to the contras.


notes
The right who had opposed FDR and prevented a reoccurrence by changing the constitution now sought a reversal so RR could run for a third term. He was still popular. But that was before the IRangate revelations. All talk of Reagan getting a third term was quietly dropped.

Oliver North had helped get an acquittal for Randy Herrod the patrol leader during the 1970 Southang massacre in South Vientam.
http://www.law.duke.edu/lens/publications/050698
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_North

AIDS
Reagan’s budget director stated treatment and core of persons with AIDS was a state of local concern, not a federal one.

Cuba
The Cuban economy was in trouble  - Hurricanes and drought; fall in world market price of oil; Gorbachev wanted to reduce the level of aid to Cuba; Castro does appear unwilling to copy Gorby’s economic strategy in Cuba.

Afghanistan
CIA director William Casey had given his backing to a plan put forward by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, to recruit people from around the world to join the Afghan jihad. More than 100,000 Islamic militants were trained in Pakistan 1986 to 1992 in camps overseen by CIA and MI6, with the SAS training future al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in bomb-making and other black arts. Their leaders were trained at a CIA camp in Virginia – operation cyclone – which continued long after USSR withdrawal in 1989. PILGER 2003.