Iran Contra

Ian Dalton English 20 Anne Cotteril 05-25-09 Is it justifiable for the United States Government to sell weapons to Hostile Iranians in exchange for the lives of American hostages? I believe like many others that the U.S. Government should do anything and everything it can to save American Hostages. The U.S. Governments first priority should be protecting the lives of their citizens at all costs. on the other hand was it acceptable for the American Government to smuggle drugs into the United States and stimulate the illegal drug trade to illegally fund the contras anti-communist group in Nicaragua (originally funded by the selling of arms to Iran) just to prevent the spread of communism? Is the prevention of communism really worth endangering the lives of countless Americans? It is quite Two-Faced for the United States to go against its own policies and sell arms for the lives of hostages and then fuel the spread of crime by smuggling drugs into America. This series of actions backed by Illegal means performed by the United States Government is known as the Iran Contra Affair. It began as an operation to improve U.S.-Iranian relations, wherein Israel would ship weapons to a relatively moderate, politically influential group of Iranians; the U.S. would then resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah (1). The plan eventually deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages.(1) Large modifications to the plan were conjured by

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anticommunist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua. While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, there has not been any evidence uncovered showing that he authorized this plan. (2) The direct funding of the Nicaraguan rebels had been made illegal through the Boland Amendment. (2) The United States was not only funding the Contras with the sale of Arms to Iran but also through drug trafficking into the United States. (3) In 1996 CIA Director John M. Deutch denied allegations that the CIA was Smuggling drugs into the United States. Later the allegations where proven to be accurate when Fabio Ernesto Carrasco, a pilot for a major Columbian drug smuggler named George Morales testified in court exposing the united states drug trafficking involvement. Carrasco testified that in 1984 and 1985, he piloted planes loaded with weapons for contras operating in Costa Rica. The weapons were offloaded, and then drugs stored in military bags were put on the planes which flew to the United States. (3)