Letter to the Editor

In response to an article in the Mail Tribune I wrote the following letter to the Editor.

Dear Editor,

The Iran-Contra affair is a serious blemish on our nation's recent history. A cadre of administration officials conspired to circumvent Federal law and sells weapons to Iran, in order to fund a guerilla army in Nicaragua. The Contra forces were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths including the assassination of Ben Linder of Portland.

The 14 conspirators included Ollie North, Robert McFarlane, Elliot Abrams (currently an Assistant Secretary of State), Richard Secord, and Casper Weinberger. Abrams plead guilty and Weinberger was pardoned before his trial.

John Poindexter was convicted of 5 felonies including obstruction of justice and lying to Congress. His conviction was overturned by a court on the grounds that the jury was influenced by prior testimony he had given to Congress under immunity. He is now Director of the Information Awareness Office, a military research effort to create a government database of all personal information including email, credit card purchases and travel history. His "Total Information Awareness Program" will enable domestic surveillance with an incredible level of detail.

The Walsh Investigation details the known evidence (the Reagan Administration refused to declassify all appropriate documents requested) and is available at the Federation of American Scientists' website http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/. The evidence is overwhelming.

George H.W. Bush's "New World Order" was characterized by government officials operating outside of the law, subverting the will of Congress with complete disrespect for the US Constitution. Today we are faced with a predominantly complicit Congress unwilling to stand up against the Bush/Cheney regime. What scandals are already lurking within the walls of the Pentagon, and among the bureaucrats given high level green lights with a wink and a nod? What scorn for the rule of law and the Constitution permeates our Federal Government today?