more on civil rights1988
In 1985-86, for example, the top political spenders were the National Congressional Club (Jesse Helms's PAC): $15.8 million; the National Conservative PAC: $9.3 million; the National Committee to Preserve Social Security PAC: $6.2 million; the Realtors PAC: $6 million; the American Medical Association PAC: $5.4 million; and the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund: $4.7 million.
The Power Game - Hedrick Smith p.250
In 1986 House incumbents got forty-five percent of their campaign money from PACs, well up from twenty-one percent in 1974.
The Power Game - Hedrick Smith p.259
chernobyl april 29
The [Chernobyl] accident, he [Chernousenko] says, was not the result of operator error but was caused by major flaws of design present in fifteen other Soviet reactors that are still in operation....Chernousenko asserts that between 7,000 and 10,000 volunteers were killed. But his most serious charge is that the accident released the lethal contents of 80 percent of the reactor core rather than the 3 percent figure announced to the world.
Chernobyl - the hidden tragedy by Jay M. Gould in The Nation Magazine (March 15,1993)
It exploded ten years ago this month. But Chernobyl's molten radioactive rubble continues to smolder and kill -- and could explode again. Its lethal runoff now threatens the water supply of tens of millions of people. Its airborne fallout has led to a massive increase in childhood thyroid cancer rates in the surrounding area -- and may have affected them as far away as Connecticut...Despite this unparalleled disaster, fifteen Soviet R.B.M.K. reactors like the one at Chernobyl are still in operation, and the global nuclear energy industry is struggling to keep them going. Two months before the accident, a glowing photo spread in Soviet Life featured Chernobyl as the pinnacle of technological achievement.
In the Dead Zone: Aftermath of the Apocalypse by Harvey Wasserman The Nation April 96
For the Children of Chernobyl
There's another site on
Chernobyl
more on nuclear1987
Another 1,000 TOW missiles were shipped to Iran - the first direct U.S. shipment - but no hostage was released.
Veil - Bob Woodward p.506
"We did not - repeat, did not - trade weapons or anything else for hostages. Nor will we."
-Ronald Reagan
Three days after a Lebanese newspaper disclosed McFarlane's mission to Tehran, Reagan told reporters, "to us it has no foundation" - though Reagan himself had approved the mission...Next, Reagan was claiming "the modest deliveries, taken together, could easily fit into a single cargo plane." Actually, many tons of equipment had arrived on at least eight planes. At his news conference on November 19, Reagan denied Israel had been involved and had to be corrected by his staff within minutes. Testimony by Shultz, McFarlane, Poindexter, and Reagan showed that Reagan knew the truth before he misled the nation on these points.
The Power Game - Hedrick Smith p.614
In 1986 at the height of the Iran-conta scandal, Gergen used a similar ploy to shield Ronald Reagan from Congress. As lawmakers called for a full-scale investigation of the administration's arms-for-hostages deal, Gergen went on national television to portay ant congressional inquiry as a direct attack on the presidency.
...The warning bought the president several months to get his story straight, and the Congress never touched him.
Club Fed - Bill Thomas
In all, the Americans and Israelis shipped Iran two thousand TOW missiles, eighteen HAWK antiaircraft missiles, and millions of dollars' worth of spare parts. In return, they got three hostages - but three additional American hostages were taken, and Buckley was killed.
The Power Game - Hedrick Smith p.616
Meanwhile, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, reported that a U.S. "police training program" in Washington in June and July "included three of the most notorious death squad members in San Salvador" who will "have their techniques upgraded," and that in the same weeks "more than 10 independent human rights activists have been arrested by Salvadoran Security forces," some tortured according to the Archbishop, in actions defended by the U.S. Embassy.
The Culture of Terrorism - Noam Chomsky p.227
Contra supply plane shot down, Hasenfus captured
...in some cases, FBI investigators discovered, arms shipments to the contras were "married" to return flights of narcotics sent via the Bahamas to the United States. Under mounting public scrutiny the Reagan White House reluctantly conceded that some contra rebels may well have "engaged in" drug trafficking although, the administration quickly added, these drug runners were acting on their own.
p.107 The Last Days of the CIA : Eclipse - Mark Perry
text from Senator Kerry's investigation of drugrunning by the contras is at Pink Noise
more on Iran/contra1987
In May 1986 John Lawn wrote a letter prasing Noriega for his vigorous struggle against drugs and his enthusiastic participation in the drug war. Another one has been reported in 1987.
Chronicles of Dissent - Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian p.202
more on drugs1987
Congress was outraged, as Congressman Ed Jenkins, a pro-contra Georgia Democrat, protested, that not a single elected official - president, vice president, or any member of Congress - knew about the contra fund diversion from Iran.
The Power Game - Hedrick Smith p.626
In addition to supplying the resistance with weapons, the CIA also provided at least $2 billion in counterfeit Afghan currency.
The U.S. Intelligence Community 3rd Ed. - Jeffrey T. Richelson p.352
From 1986 to 1989, a $3 billion CIA covert operation to support the Afghan rebels secretly sent almost one thousand Stinger missiles to the rebel front, through connections with the Pakistani government...But three hundred of the deadly Stingers are missing and unaccounted for.
p.97 When the Eagle Screams - Stephen Bowman
marcos flees phillipines
To plead his case and try to get the regulators off his back, Keating was able to mobilize, in various degrees, five senators (aka the Keating Five) to whom he had made a total of some $1.3 million in political contributions: Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), John Glenn (D-Ohio), John S. McCain III (R-Ariz.), and Ronald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-Mich.).
Scandal - Suzanne Garment p. 248
Officially, the White House claimed its package would lower the 1985 deficit by $40 billion in 1986; in fact, the deficit rose $8 billion to a new record of $220.7 billion.
The Power Game - Hedrick Smith p.489
more on debt1990