WEBVTT - Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80s, Part 1 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:02.960 Hey, everybody, it's Josh and Chuck and we're coming to 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.000 see you guys, some of you some cities. Just listen up. 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:08.200 That's right, because you know, we just did Chicago and 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:10.879 Toronto and it went great, and I think our topic 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:16.360 of went really well. Everyone loved hearing about me. That's right. 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:18.639 So if you're in Boston, you can come see us 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:22.599 in August twenty nine at the Wilbur Portland, Maine, Maine, 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.040 at the State Theater on August thirty. I can't wait. 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.080 I'm gonna Labor Day weekend. I'm gonna stay the whole weekend. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.560 I'll be all over Maine. That's great, man. Where else. 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.960 We're gonna be in Orlando on October nine, and then 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.680 on October t we're going to be in New Orleans, Man. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:37.920 And then later on that month we're doing a three 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.600 night stand at the Bellhouse in Brooklyn. That's right. Is 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:44.120 sold out, but you can still get tickets for the 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.559 and we will see you then. Check it out at 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.920 s y s K live dot com. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.480 you should Know, a production of My Heart Radios How 0:00:54.520 --> 0:01:03.640 Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.240 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant with Jerry over there eating 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.680 with chopstick. As a matter of fact, you know what, 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.960 Jerry pulls up the chopsticks. It's time to record. That's right. Yeah, 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:16.840 he's got she's got Facebook open and she's sitting there 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.240 with her chopsticks. So it's we're recording. Jerry's been fork 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:25.760 free since eighty three. Speaking of eighty three, your shirt, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:28.680 I guess it's kind of eighty three ish. It looks 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.960 very Thomas Magnum. It does chuck. It does not just 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:36.360 the shirt, the whole outfit. Look at the jeans, the shoes. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.360 you got the Ferrari out back. Thank you for noticing, man, 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.080 I look like a chubby Thomas Magnum. It's funny because 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.560 I just finished Stranger Things three, and um, I saw 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:49.600 that there was Have you seen it yet? Are you 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.720 into that? No? I I like the first season. I 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:54.800 never really got back into it after that. No, no 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:59.480 offense to anybody. Sure, Uh, the main the sheriff guy, yeah, 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.360 Hop wears a shirt kind of like that through most 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.840 of this season. And so someone did a cut of 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.639 a like a Magnum p I intro and had him 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.040 running around and shooting things and jumping into cars. I'll 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.360 set to the Magnum thing and it really fits at 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:19.119 that song with the guy with a shirt like that 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.200 and it's magnum. Of course he has a mustache too. Well, 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.680 I'm a mustache less chubby. You should wear a mustache. 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.920 That's look interesting. I don't know. I do solve a 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:32.200 lot of mysteries, though. Nothing can change a look like mustaches, 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:36.600 Oh dude, especially spontaneously, right, especially a fake mustache, because 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.720 you just put it on and bam, you're done. So uh, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.440 I tried. I'm gonna go back to the eight three segue. 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.320 Yeah we're here, right, We're right in the middle of 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.920 the eighties. Yeah, like this is super eighties. This is 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.040 as eighties as it gets. I wrong. Contra fair, that's 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.280 what we're talking about. Some people call it irong gate 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:59.800 poo poo, that name iron contra sure um. I remember 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:03.200 this going on at the time too. I remember watching 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.840 Oliver North testify too, and my sister was like, he's 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:10.000 so dreamy. Look at how much poise he has. He 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:14.399 had his dress greens on, had his boy scout three 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.919 fingers up like swearing. I really think he did do that. Um, 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.280 but even as an adult, like everything I knew about 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:26.440 Iron Contra, like until researching this, it was just the 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.840 glossiest version. Well, I mean I was like ten and eleven, 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.240 so you were like seven and eight. Sure, sure, but 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.560 I mean like still over time, as you age, you're like, oh, 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.000 that's what was going on or oh I understand that 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.400 even as an adult, my conception of it was not 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:44.880 very thorough at all. And as I dug into I'm like, 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:50.160 this is one of the shadiest things has ever done ever. Yeah, 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.600 and it was really great to do this and like 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:55.440 now I know it. Now I have a full understanding 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.920 of what happened. And if it ever comes up at 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.760 a party and people like, oh what was that all about? Anyway, 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.080 and be like, well, please sit down for an hour 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.600 and I'll just pull up my smartphone and play our episode. 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:10.440 Actually maybe an hour and a half. We'll see how 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.320 this goes. Yeah, by the way, everyone, this is a 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.400 two parter buckle up and so, uh, this is part one. 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.599 I figured we'd start with the beginning. I think that's 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.080 a really good idea. That reminds me of my friend 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:28.919 in college watched the movie. Uh, which one was it? Shortcuts. 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.279 The movie that was on two video cassettes. It was 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.240 so long, you know, they had to split them up. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.760 Was it Magnolia A Bridge too far? I can't remember. 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.520 My friend in college, very very famously among our friends, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.280 watched the second tape first and then watch the first 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.919 tape second and didn't really put it together. She was 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.440 just like, I thought it was a little confusing, really, 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.320 so it was accidental. Oh yeah, And then she was 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.520 like and then she showed up in the and the 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.479 second part, and I was like, she's already dead. She 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.119 was kind of country. This is kind of funny movies, 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:05.440 one of them anachronisms. Yeah, well, this is not anachronism, 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.440 because we're gonna be normal, smart, singing people and start 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.839 at the beginning. And there's really no better place to 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.200 start than the election of Ronald Reagan. In Ronald Reagan, 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.520 if you weren't familiar with him already when he was president, 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.719 he had already been governor of California. But even before that, 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.240 he had a pretty extensive career in Hollywood. And while 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.839 he was a pretty big star in Hollywood at least 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.000 B plus list if not a list actor, I mean, 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.600 he was a medium sized star, but definitely way more 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.360 famous as president than he ever was as a movie star. Um. 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:46.039 He learned to detest communism. And at the time, communism 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.600 was a really big thing in Hollywood, like it was 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:54.920 very fashionable, um, especially among the intellectuals of Hollywood. And 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:56.760 he learned to hate it so much so that by 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.560 the time he got to be president, he had this 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:05.960 idea that there was it was impossible for capitalist democracy 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.160 and communism to coexist even peacefully on Earth. You couldn't 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.159 have both. You had to have one or the other. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.839 And by god, Ronald Reagan was going to see to 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.360 it that the one that we had was a capitalist democracy. Yeah. 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:24.440 He wanted to stamp out communism wherever it reared its head. Uh, 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.960 and it was rearing its head close to home, which 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.400 we'll see here in a second, but all over the world. 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.440 Oh yeah, for sure. He it was called the Reagan Bits, 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.440 and pieces of it were right, and he came up 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.240 with the Reagan doctrine. And the Reagan doctrine was, um, 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:44.520 we will aid any any opposition to communism wherever it's spouts, 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.640 Like if you're if you're fighting against a communist revolution, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.680 will support your country. If you're a rebel fighting against 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:55.760 a leftist communists, Um government will help you overthrow. That's 0:06:55.800 --> 0:07:01.040 the Reagan doctrine. Yeah, via money, via arm via training, 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:06.400 via covert operations that we carried out ourselves. There were 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.880 all kinds of ways that we could and did help 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.560 stem the flow of communism. So there was, as you 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:14.560 were saying, there was a place pretty close to home 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.000 where communism had sprouted up, and that was Nicaragua down 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.200 in Central America, and in Central America in the thirties, 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.280 the Sandinista government had taken power and had held onto 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.840 power well into the seventies and by this time the 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.400 early eighties, and it drove Ronald Reagan nuts that there 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.440 was a communist power right there that was being supported 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:41.160 by the Soviet Union through Cuba. Ostensibly. I've never gotten 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.200 the impression that this was ever conclusively proven. They definitely 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.239 got support from Cuba. But whether it was the Soviet 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.120 Union who was really calling the shots of nick Nicaragua 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.000 or not, I I don't know. Yeah, And I think 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.160 you know, to go even further back and draw the 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.840 lines a little even more clear. The Sandinistans were named 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:06.280 for Augusto Sandino, who led the Nationalist rebellion against what 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.520 the US occupation of Central America. That's where it started. 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:12.960 That's where it all started. And from nineteen you know, 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.160 the US occupied This is all part of the Banana Wars. 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:21.080 So we occupied Nicaragua from nineteen twelve to nineteen thirty three, Uh, 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:22.960 for a lot of reasons, but one was like, hey, 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:24.920 no one's going to build a canal here unless it's US. 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.000 That was sort of one of the main reasons. And uh, 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.440 that all ceased in nineteen thirty three with Roosevelt's Good 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.839 Neighbor Policy, which is basically like, we're gonna pull out 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:39.400 of Nicaragua. Yeah, okay, So but we we had our 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.120 fingers all over Central America for many, many, many years. 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.520 And that's why when people forget or choose not to 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.640 remember when people flee horrible situations in Central America to 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.040 come to the United States now like kind of where 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.240 all these horrible situations started years and years ago because 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.480 of things that we did well. When when Reagan became president, 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.480 UM intervening in Nicaragua, Nick Man, I'm going to have 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.640 a hard time if I can't say Nicaragua. UM intervening 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.800 in Nicaragua became like a like first and foremost priority 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:18.559 for them. Almost immediately they started UM funding the Contras. 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.760 The Contra rebels are the groups who were fighting against 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:26.240 the Santainista government. They were right wing groups, UM, and 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.080 they were funding them, they were training them, like you 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.040 were saying, and they're doing all this secretly. There was 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.280 an operation called Operation Black Eagle, that one that was 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.160 something else. So we were already funding them and at 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.960 the time, Congress was on board. Congress was on board, 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.600 especially at first because the Republicans controlled the House. Well, 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.360 you know how when somebody comes in andto steamrolls over 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:51.479 the other party, usually in a presidential election, very frequently 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.760 there's in the mid terms, the congressional mid terms, there's 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.720 like a backlash against that flip. Believe it or not, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.240 That happen to Ronald Reagan inwo Yeah, and the House 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.880 did flip. They flipped over to the Democrats, and UM 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.800 that Democrat controlled House, combined with a Newsweek cover story 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:16.280 that came out, kind of turned the tide against UM 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.840 Reagan's policy on helping out in Nicaragua. Yeah, there was 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.760 a CIA director named William Casey who was UM. He 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.719 was kind of telling Congress what they needed here, here 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.880 and there, uh you have been here vague briefings that 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.560 that was probably um a generous way to say it. 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.240 Sometimes Casey would send another guy though, named Dwyane Dewey Clarridge. 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.440 And this is where things really went south because Claridge 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.320 did not present well to Congress UM. And anytime Congress 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:51.680 feels like they're being subverted or ignored or like kept 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:53.800 out of the loop or like not able to offer 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.959 their checks and balances on the executive branch, they really 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.240 get mad. They do. And like we're seeing that today. 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.360 This is like history just repeats itself over and over again, exactly. Yeah. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.520 And and in this particular case, the place where UM 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.480 where the administration, the regular administration, and Congress just started 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.800 budding heads over Nicaragua, it was Duyne Clarridge. You know, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.520 he just that's how poor job he did. But in 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.320 his defense, he was coming from a place where he 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.160 was a CIA man through and through. And this is 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.440 less than ten years after Congress had just basically rooted 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.360 out the CIA held public hearings. That's when like the 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:35.000 um MK ultra came out and the fact that they've 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:39.439 been dosing unsuspecting Americans with LSD so that's his defense. 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.080 He was mad because they uncovered all the awful things 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.520 that he'd been doing, right, right, right, true compassion, Chuck, 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.920 that's true compassion. So um, So Congress is starting to 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.679 get a little unhappy with this. And there was one 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:58.840 congress Man in particular named Edward Boland, I believe, and 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.080 he was from Massachusetts, and he said, hey, I just 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.760 read about this cover story in Newsweek has a title 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.160 America's Secret War colon Nicaragua. Seems like they should have 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.680 flip flopped that, you know, Nicaragua colon America's Secret War. 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.560 I think they both had the same end goal. It's fine. 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.800 But he was like, wait, why am I reading about 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.880 this in a magazine? And I'm a member of Congress, 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.560 right because at this time, like Congress is like, well, okay, 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.160 we think we're just kind of funding things, we're maybe 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.400 helping out a little bit. This Newsweek magazine was like, no, no, no, 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.040 it's way more than that. Like there's way more American 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.720 involvement down in Nicaragua than than you've been led to 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:45.600 believe Congress, like actual covert CIA ops like blowing up 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.880 bridges and blowing up buildings and uh, you know, direct 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:54.480 saboteur type ops. Yeah, not just here's some arms and 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.920 then you know, you you close this one eye, believe 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.560 this eye open when you're shooting. There was way more 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.200 involved than that. Or we could just do the shooting 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:08.160 basically here, just let me do it. So Congress, uh, 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.920 in the guys of Edward Bowland said nope, we're not 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.200 doing that, and they passed the Bowling Amendment, which basically said, 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:19.080 if if you cannot use CIA funds or depart Defense 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:23.640 Department funds to aid the contras in Nicaragua, it's done. 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.559 Good night. Congress went to sleep, and so that should 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:28.959 have been the that's the end of it, right, because 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.240 Congress passed a well it was at a loft now 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.200 passed an amendment enact enact yea, and so everyone just stopped. Right, 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.280 that's how it works. All right, what's part two going 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:43.079 to be about. We're just gonna see here quietly. So, um, 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.920 this did not stop anything. Uh. Here's what happened. In nine. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.520 The CIA had this one operation where they went into 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.600 the commercial shipping harbors of Nicaragua. Oh boy, I know 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:00.959 it's it's I said it right in my head all morning. Nicaragua. Uh, 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.320 and they put mines there. You know, I was about 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:07.160 to say land mines, but they were c mines, floating mines, 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.040 and uh, the idea here was we're gonna plant these 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.679 mines that we're gonna whip up our own press releases 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.400 for the Contras where they take credit for it, like, 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.360 we don't even trust them to write a good press release, 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.560 wrote the press release for so where the contrasts are 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.120 saying that they did it, and Uh, the overall effect 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.040 it's going to have is they're not gonna be able 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.080 to ship arms via the seaport, at least into Nicaragua. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.960 Plus it also makes the Contras look way more together 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.000 and with it than they actually were, right, Like, all 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:38.160 we need to do is give them some money, and 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.360 they got it covered. Right. So the CIA does this 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.680 and and they're thinking, Okay, so, um my shipping in 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.520 the Nicaraguan harbors is going to stop. It does not stop. Um. 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.520 As a matter of fact, there there were there was damage. 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:53.920 So they used little firecracker mines which make a big 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:56.400 blast and a lot of water everywhere. But the big ship. 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:58.480 It's not gonna hurt the ship. Well, it's sunk a 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.600 lot of small fishing vessels, but it also damaged ships 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:07.160 from the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, and the USSR commercial ships. 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.400 So um. The Wall Street Journal broke this story and said, hey, 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:13.920 you guys, you Congress, You remember how you pass this 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:18.080 amendment saying there could be no CIA involvement in in Nicaragua. Well, 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.280 they mind the harbor of the sovereign nation, and it 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.120 blew up a bunch of other other country ships. In 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:29.360 Congress once again, it's like, man, you keep doing secret 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.400 things behind their back. That really makes us mad. Should 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.520 we take a break. All right, let's take a break. 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:48.360 Stuff you should know. Gosh, stuff you should know. Stuff 0:15:48.360 --> 0:16:04.440 you should know. Okay, let's keep going. So what does 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:06.800 Congress do? They're like, all right, they're mad. We passed 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.200 one bowl in amendment, which I don't think we said, chuck. 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.880 The first Bowling Amendment was passed four hundred and eleven 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:18.840 to zero, unanimously saying do not mess around in Nicaragua anymore. 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.840 That's when you know Congress is mad when they unanimously 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.640 agree on something. And then then the Wall Street Journal 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.360 breaks the story about the harbor mining long after the 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:31.720 Bowling Amendment was passed. And now Congress is even madder, right, 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:36.040 So they passed two more amendments, bowling amendments. Uh, because 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:40.600 there were loopholes basically that allowed you know, the the 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.720 US to sort of do these things semi legally. So 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:45.560 it was like, well, here's a loophole, so it wasn't 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.000 really fully illegal that we did this stuff. That's like 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:53.040 the Reagan Administration's way, all right, they close ease loopholes 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:58.240 and uh, now this was like it was pretty iron clad. 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.600 I don't know about iron clad, but it was pretty 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.760 tight amendment wise. At the very least, Congress walked away 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:08.399 thinking it's done. It's we made ourselves quite clear. Ronald 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.160 Reagan signed these into law. Yeah he didn't. He didn't. 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.120 He accepted these things. I think he even said like, yeah, 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.040 this is a good idea, great way to go, Congress 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.280 and signed it. Um I'm not gonna do a Reagan impression, 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.800 but um so the Congress thought that the matter was settled, 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.840 but it wasn't settled. Like this is how laser focused 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:34.280 Reagan was on overthrowing the Santinista government down in Nicaragua. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:40.720 He just took a CIA operation and took it even 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.480 further underground than it had been before. Basically, he was like, Okay, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.640 if you guys are gonna outlaw this stuff, um, we're 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.000 just gonna have to get even more illegal. Yeah. So 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.120 there were a couple of factions here at work. One 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.720 was this continued operation underground, deep deep, underground now, and 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.479 then there was Reagan's public Like he still wanted to 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.000 get real money from Congress so he didn't have to 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.680 do this stuff, so he kept up this public PR campaign, 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:13.080 beating this drum about communism matter doorstep. Uh. He said 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.480 that the contrasts were the moral equals of our founding fathers. 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.159 That's a big one to pull out, Like, that's a 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:23.159 direct quote of our founding fathers. Um and started in 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:25.960 with the and again you see the stuff kind of 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.720 repeating itself, the campaign of fear, where he basically said, 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:33.040 unless we do something tough here, then there will be 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.439 a tidal wave of FEAT people. I don't even know 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.119 what that means, but that's that just seems super offensive, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.240 swarming into our country. He meant, you know, refugees, FEAT 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.399 people seeking a safe haven. It was one word, even 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.800 I think one word. It's funny because I looked at 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.959 FEAT people and that's a company that like, I think 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.720 it makes shoelaces and they're like, yn't see it again, 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:58.199 say dot com. Uh, so this is all going on 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.600 and on the on the on the down low, all 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.320 the operations are going on, and on the public facing side. 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:08.479 Reagan's just continuing this PR push right basically saying like, Congress, 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.919 look at these heartless old you know, gas bags, turning 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.240 off the funding to these founding father moral equivalent to 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:17.960 our founding fathers. Go vote these guys out of office 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.120 and voting some people who will turn the funding back on. Yeah. 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.480 And while the contrast may have been fighting communism, they 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.440 were doing so through means that the Founding Fathers probably 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.560 would not have approved of, like murder and torture and 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:38.000 rape and mutilation, kidnapping and not. You know, I mean 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.000 it wasn't so widespread that it was like that's all 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.720 they were doing, but they would resort to those tactics. Uh. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.639 And that's not Founding father stuff. No, it's definitely not, not, 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:48.480 as far as I've ever learned. Now, I don't think so. 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.000 And I mean it's had a few hundred couple hundred 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.720 years to come out and it still hasn't. So Yeah, 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:55.520 I read some of the stuff too, Like some of 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.240 the UM affidavits were like just brutal. Oh yeah, dude. 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.840 The a war down in Nicaragua, the civil war that 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:06.159 the US basically fomented and supported. UM, it went on 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.720 for a decade, like it was, it went on into 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:13.000 the nineties, and it was like not just like countrymen 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:17.600 against countrymen, Like civilians were getting murdered by the scores 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.959 and just they would get kidnapped and tortured and killed, 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.320 and like it was a really brutal time in Nicaragua. 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.240 And the regular administration is right in the middle of this, 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:29.240 like providing as much I eat as they can to 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:31.840 one side. Yeah, And it was one of the big 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.639 problems was that the Contras back then were a bunch 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.680 of different factions and they didn't answer to a single leader. 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:41.400 And the one thing I got out of the affidavits, 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.400 one of which this woman described them taking her children 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.520 and her finding their mutilated bodies the next day, it 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.679 was brutal. Um. One of the leaders said that there's 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:56.160 there's no disciplinary system at all within the Contra groups. 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.680 So yeah, yeah, like there's no accountability, so you could 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.159 do any thing you wanted, and there's no discipline set up, 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.400 so it was just they were fractured and no one, 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:08.840 you know, was talking to each other, and it was 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.480 just a big mess. Right. But Reagan was doing his 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.120 best to paint everything in black and white Contrast good 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:20.320 Sandinista's bad. So anything that Contrast did was good, and 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:22.359 stuff that couldn't be painted as good would just be 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.960 denied or glossed over, not reported on. That's right. So 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.280 while while Reagan's out running around trying to drum up 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.240 public support for the Contrast and thus congressional aid being 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.560 turned back on, and also saying don't do drugs, he yeah, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:37.920 that was a big one, even though we're shipping a 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.840 lot of drugs back and forth. It's awfully rich now 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.359 that you know all that stuff, you know. Um, he's 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:47.879 also secretly supporting them going in flagrant violation of what 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.600 Congress has said that that America can do. Um. He 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.000 tells his people he wants the Contrast movement to be 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.879 kept alive, body and soul. Is how we put it, 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.800 which any basically said do it. This is what history 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.439 has told us, is that Reagan basically said keep the 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.480 Contra movement alive, body and soul. I'm gonna go work 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:11.000 on Congress. I'm putting my hands over my ears from 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.320 now on. Whether that's true or not, we will probably 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.760 never know as far as the history books is concerned. Yeah, 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:22.600 that was, that's what happened, right. So, uh, here's what 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:24.920 they did. They said, the CIA has a bad rap 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.119 um for a lot of reasons, and Congress is not 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.720 super friendly with them. Well, they expressly forbade the CIA 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.080 from operating them. Right, So he said, here's what we're 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:37.240 gonna do. Um, we're gonna use the National Security Council. 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.880 And there the CIA chief, William Casey, he's around. He's 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:43.960 gonna just like advise here and there. And William Casey 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:45.840 was like, oh no, I really got to be involved 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:47.560 because this is really good stuff. They're like no, no, no no, 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:51.639 we're talking like officially here. That okay exactly. So at 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:56.240 first National Security Advisors Robert McFarlane, and then he was 0:22:56.320 --> 0:23:00.720 succeeded by John Poindexter. Very important to remember that name. Um, 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.120 and then case he's still there, like you said, doing 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.480 his thing on the download unofficially right. I think even 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:08.840 in some cases kind of stepping on toes or whatever. 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.560 He was like a an additional boss to the to 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:15.880 the main guy, the guy everybody's heard of, the guy 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:18.679 whose mind or whose name jumps to mind when you 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.960 hear about this, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, and in in 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.920 in retrospect, especially if you went, if you live through 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.600