Robert Parry: Iran-Contra’s ‘Lost Chapter’

[babylonsister]

Iran-Contra’s ‘Lost Chapter’
by Robert Parry


As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.

To understand this extraordinary development, historians might want to look back at the 1980s and examine the Iran-Contra scandal’s “lost chapter,” a narrative describing how Ronald Reagan’s administration brought CIA tactics to bear domestically to reshape the way Americans perceived the world.

That chapter — which we are publishing here for the first time — was “lost” because Republicans on the congressional Iran-Contra investigation waged a rear-guard fight that traded elimination of the chapter’s key findings for the votes of three moderate GOP senators, giving the final report a patina of bipartisanship.

Under that compromise, a few segments of the draft chapter were inserted in the final report’s Executive Summary and in another section on White House private fundraising, but the chapter’s conclusions and its detailed account of how the “perception management” operation worked ended up on the editing room floor.

The American people thus were spared the chapter’s troubling finding: that the Reagan administration had built a domestic covert propaganda apparatus managed by a CIA propaganda and disinformation specialist working out of the National Security Council.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/30/9992/

[formercia]

1. NSC=Ollie North=Right wing reactionaries

In 1975, William Simon, Bill Casey and others of the same circle of reactionaries, had been upset about the media and how anti-war 'propaganda' had torpedoed Spellman's War. They set out with a mountain of cash, to buy media outlets.

By the time of the October Surprise, they had gained effective control of the US media.


http://books.google.com/books?id=HKlQHFdZfGkC&pg=RA1-PA86&lpg=RA1-PA86&dq=william+simon+casey+abc&source=web&ots=r0ej6tfhcJ&sig=4Z3ub-CKFC8AlUWsnXEQd6XAaKI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result

[starroute]

2. And Dick Cheney was at the center of it -- protecting Bush

Cheney only gets a brief mention in this latest Parry article -- but here's one by Parry from 2000 where he plays a more prominent role.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/110500b.html

One of the key congressional Republicans fighting this rear-guard action was Rep. Dick Cheney of Wyoming, who became the ranking House Republican on the Iran-contra investigation. Cheney already enjoyed a favorable reputation in Washington as a steady conservative hand.

Cheney smartly exploited his relationship with Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., who was chairman of the Iran-contra panel. Hamilton cared deeply about his reputation for bipartisanship and the Republicans quickly exploited this fact.

A senior committee source said one of Cheney’s top priorities was to block Democrats from deposing Vice President Bush about his Iran-contra knowledge. Cheney “kept trying to intimidate Hamilton,” the source said. “He kept saying if we go down that road, we won’t have bipartisanship.”

So, Hamilton gave Bush a pass. The limited investigation also gave little attention to other sensitive areas, such as contra-drug trafficking and the public diplomacy operation. They were pared down or tossed out altogether.

[pberq]

8. Lee Hamilton

Does anyone think it was a coincidence that Hamilton was also on the 9-11 Commission?

[many a good man]

3. Psy Ops against the American people

is the greatest threat to democracy.

:kick:

[Doctor_J]

4. You can trace the beginning of GOP lawlessness back to this point

and the frequency and audacity and severity have been increasing ever since. No one is ever going to bring them to justice. No one is ever going to say, "That's it. You are going to pay for breaking the law this time". That's why I believe we're headed for a shooting war on US soil.

[nashville_brook]

5. thank you bill clinton for sweeping iran/contra under the rug. hope obama does better.

[snot]

6. k&r'd

[formercia]

7. Lies

"Lies work."

George Herbert Walker Bush 1992

There are three kinds of lies:

Lies you tell to people on the outside.

Lies you tell to people on the inside.

And then, there's the lies you tell yourself.

A saying at the CIA.

[yurbud]

9. kick