Iran-Contra Felons Get Good Jobs from Bush

Revisited (via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit)

AP - March 13, 2002
Bush Employs Iran-Contra Veterans

by the Association Press

WASHINGTON, March 13 (AP)--In the 1980s it was the biggest scandal of the Reagan administration, a covert arms-for-hostages overture to Iran -- more popularly known as "Iran-Contra."

Today, a half-dozen alumni of that episode have found prominent jobs in the Bush administration.

The most recent is former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, 65. The retired admiral took over a new Pentagon counterterrorism
office last month.

Poindexter was convicted in 1990 on five felony charges of conspiracy, making false statements to Congress and obstructing congressional inquiries. He was sentenced to six months in prison, time he never served.

Another former Iran-Contra defendant is Elliott Abrams. He now serves as Bush's special White House assistant for democracy and human rights. An assistant secretary of state under Reagan, Abrams pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress, then was pardoned by the first President Bush.

One of the most outspoken Iran-Contra figures is Otto Reich, the State Department's top official for Latin America, who migrated to
the United States shortly after the 1959 revolution in Cuba. From 1983 to 1986, Reich led a State Department office accused of a
covert domestic-propaganda effort against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government.

Others given jobs by Bush:

--Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Questions linger over the former Defense Department official's 1986 contacts with Israel on the Iran arms sales.

--U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte. His service in the 1980s as ambassador to Honduras, which the U.S.-supported Contra rebels used as a base, has drawn criticism.

--Budget Director Mitch Daniels. As Reagan's political director in 1986 and 1987, Daniels helped oversee a White House damage-control
effort.

Senate Democrats raised Iran-Contra objections last year, particularly over the Reich and Negroponte nominations. The appointments of Abrams, and now Poindexter, drew little open criticism. Neither post is subject to Senate confirmation.


link