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The Iran–Contra affair (Persian: ماجرای ایران-کنترا; Spanish: Caso Irán-Contra), also referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the Iran Initiative, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that centered around arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 to 1986, facilitated by senior officials of the Ronald Reagan administration.
The Iran–Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo. [1]
During Congress' initial hearings in late 1986, before the committees were constituted, North assisted in preparation of a misleading chronology of the Iran-Contra affair. Another member of the NSC presented the chronology to Congress. A jury convicted North of aiding and abetting obstruction of Congress.
The Contra war escalated over the year before the election. The US promised to end the economic embargo should Chamorro win. [71] The UNO scored a decisive victory on 25 February 1990. Chamorro won with 55 percent of the presidential vote as compared to Ortega's 41 percent. Of 92 seats in the National Assembly, UNO gained 51, and the FSLN won 39.
[49] [non-primary source needed] The two main Contra groups, US arms dealers, and a lieutenant of a drug ring which imported drugs from Latin America to the US west coast were set to attend the Costa Rica meeting. The lieutenant trafficker was also a Contra, and the CIA knew that there was an arms-for-drugs shuttle and did nothing to stop it. [54]
President Ronald Reagan (Far Right), discusses his remarks on the Iran-Contra Affair while in the Oval Office. On Monday, November 3rd 1986, a pro-Syrian newspaper in Lebanon, Ash-Shiraa, revealed the secret deal to the world [21] [22] and The New York Times picked it up a day later on Tuesday, US election day. [23]
After the Boland Amendment made it illegal for the U.S. government to provide funding for Contra activities, Reagan's administration secretly sold arms to the Iranian government to fund a secret U.S. government apparatus that continued illegally to fund the Contras, in what became known as the Iran–Contra affair. [344]
In November 1986 Iran-Contra affair revelations forced the Justice Department to launch a review of the case. [13] After a Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case narrowed mail and wire fraud prosecutions, 46 of the 55 charges were dropped in mid-1988.