Shadow Government Exposed

The Consequences of the Iran-Contra Scandal

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This is a follow-up to Clowns in America, School of Assassins and Dictators, and The Shadow Game, an introduction into the seedy origins and consequences of the CIA.

The Shadow Government was established and entrenched over many decades. It had become so powerful that many people inside and outside of the country feared the consequences of trying to buck the system. But there were moments in time when this corrupt CIA controlled shadow government actually seemed vulnerable.

One such moment happened on October 5, 1986.

What happened?

According to ZinnedProject.org:

On Oct. 5, 1986, the cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal began to unravel when Eugene Hasenfus was captured by Nicaraguan troops after the plane in which he was flying was shot down. 

Hasenfus had been shipping military supplies into Nicaragua for use by the Contras, an anti-Sandinista force that had been created and supported by the U.S. in violation of congressional action stopping the funding, and run by the CIA.

This incident caused an immediate firestorm in Washington DC that would lead to years of media headlines, Congressional investigations and prosecutions by a Special Counsel. It turned out to be the biggest stain on the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

It was the Iran-Contra scandal.

But what was this scandal really about?

Was it just about illegal arms sales?

That’s always been the narrative. I believe that’s the purposeful ‘red herring’ argument deployed by the shadow government in order to hide the truth. The real truth reveals that the shadow government had been operating outside of Congressional oversight and without authorization of the president for a long time.

The shadow government had been setting up their own, independent funding sources, outside of any Congressional control. This is what the Iran-Contra scandal should have been focused on. Instead, the whole country focused on selling weapons for hostages and fighting communism.

The Iran-Contra scandal did expose some key players in the shadow government, however.

There are interesting connections to this scandal that help to reveal the truth and surprisingly, they involve phone calls—evidence from phone calls that connect key individuals to something much bigger than just arming some rebels in Nicaragua or freeing hostages.

According to Rolling Stone:

During the most violent years of the war in Nicaragua, a retired CIA agent – a man of many talents and pseudonyms whose given name is Felix Rodriguez – was the logistics officer for airlifts of weapons and supplies from the Ilopango air base, in El Salvador, to the jungle hide-outs of the Nicaraguan rebels known as contras.

On October 5th, 1986, one of Rodriguez’s cargo planes, a Southern Air Transport C-123K, loaded with 10,000 pounds of ammunition, failed to return from a scheduled drop in Nicaragua. Fearing the worst, Rodriguez made a series of phone calls to Washington that evening.

The first big connection is Felix Rodriguez.

First of all, Felix Rodriguez was never retired from the CIA. Nobody ever retires from the CIA. That’s just a narrative for public consumption in order to create distance and give the CIA political cover.

Felix Rodriguez was the logistics officer for the Contra operation at Ilopango airbase in El Salvador. This airbase was a key transfer point for the entire operation. One of his cargo planes was shot down, and it was a C123K that belonged to Southern Air Transport. (SAT)

Remember that name: Southern Air Transport. We’ll come back to that.

Felix Rodriguez feared the worst when one of his planes went missing, so he started making frantic phone calls to Washington DC.

Who was the first person he called?

More from Rolling Stone:

What was unusual was that Rodriguez did not notify anyone at the Defense Department or the CIA but rather attempted to get word about the missing plane to Donald Gregg, the national-security adviser for Vice President George Bush.

When Rodriguez failed to reach Gregg, he telephoned Gregg’s deputy, army colonel Samuel Watson. Watson relayed the information to the White House Situation Room, and an order was given to send U.S. aircraft toward the Nicaraguan border on a search-and-rescue mission. The following morning Rodriguez learned that Sandinista-government artillerymen had knocked the Southern Air plane out of the sky, killing the pilot and copilot. The third crewman, Eugene Hasenfus, had been captured. Again Rodriguez called Vice President Bush’s office with the news, and the search-and-rescue mission was called off.

The shadow government immediately went into cover-up mode.

But why would Felix Rodriguez, who was overseeing the operation, immediately call the national-security adviser to Vice President George H.W. Bush?

Clearly Bush was in the loop.

The second big connection is Donald Gregg.

Who is Donald Gregg?

According to Wikipedia:

Donald Phinney Gregg (born December 5, 1927) is a retired American politician, CIA employee, and U.S. Ambassador to South Korea. Gregg worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 31 years, from 1951 to 1982. He was a National Security Council advisor (1979–1982) and National Security Advisor to U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush (1982–1989)

From 1975 to 1980, Gregg served at the CIA's headquarters in Washington, D.C.; his responsibilities included responding to the "Pike Committee" investigating the CIA.

Donald Gregg was a career CIA employee who was a member of the National Security Counsel (NSC), along with John Poindexter and Oliver North before becoming Vice President Bush’s National Security Advisor. He served at CIA headquarters during the time Bush was head of the CIA in 1976, and also helped fend off the Congressional investigations of the CIA happening at that time.

But Wikipedia fails to mention a key data point on Donald Gregg’s history. The Special Counsel looking into Iran-Contra certainly mentioned it.

According to Special Counsel Lawrence Walsh’s report Volume One:

During the Vietnam War, Gregg supervised CIA officer Felix Rodriguez and they kept in contact following the war. Gregg introduced Rodriguez to Vice President Bush in January 1985, and Rodriguez met with the Vice President again in Washington, D.C., in May 1986. He also met Vice President Bush briefly in Miami on May 20, 1986. As a teenager, Rodriguez had participated in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and remained, following that debacle, an ardent anti-communist.

Don’t miss these important points:

1. Gregg supervised Felix Rodriguez during the Vietnam War.

2. Felix Rodriguez met with Bush at least three times during the Iran-Contra operation.

3. Felix Rodriguez played a part in the Bay of Pigs debacle.

Here’s another important point:

I’ve read a lot of Special Counsel Walsh’s report on Iran-Contra, and there are statements in the report that aren’t true—probably because the scope that Walsh was limited to, did not allow him to look into other subjects that would have proven many of these statements by those involved as false. Almost all of the CIA operatives involved in Iran-Contra gave testimony that was false. They were clearly hiding something and protecting someone.

Admit nothing and deny everything.

For example; the statement that says “Gregg ‘introduced’ Rodriguez to Bush in January 1985,” is suggesting that Bush had never met him before. The truth is, Bush had known Felix Rodriguez for a very long time and he was heavily involved in many of the shadow government operations.

So who is Felix Rodriguez?

According to theCubanhistory.com:

Felix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutía (born 31 May 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer known for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in the interrogation and execution of Marxist guerrilla Che Guevara and his ties to George H.W. Bush during the Iran–Contra affair. He is Cuban of Spanish Basque ancestry.

After the Cuban Revolution, he and his family became exiles in the United States.

In September, 1960 he joined a group of Cuban exiles in Guatemala, supported by the CIA, to receive military training. They were called Brigade 2506.

He became a U.S. citizen in 1969, soon enlisting in the United States Army. During his career with the CIA, he also went by the name Máximo Gómez. He was awarded the Intelligence Star for Valor by the CIA and nine Crosses for Gallantry by the South Vietnamese government.

In the Vietnam War, Rodríguez flew over 300 helicopter missions, and was shot down five times. In 1971, Rodríguez trained Provincial Reconnaissance Units(PRUs). PRUs were CIA-sponsored units that worked for the Phoenix Program. The Walsh Report states (Chapter 29): “During the Vietnam War, [Donald] Gregg supervised CIA officer Felix Rodriguez and they kept in contact following the war.”

Rodríguez also reported to Ted Shackley during the Phoenix Program – Shackley became Bush’s top aide for operations when he directed the CIA; Gregg later became National Security Advisor for Vice President Bush. Rodríguez was in frequent contact with him regarding arms for the Contras.

Felix Rodriguez was not only an accomplished pilot during the Vietnam war, but also trained the Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRU), which were the death squads in the Phoenix Program. Donald Gregg was supervising Felix Rodriguez during that time and Ted Shackley was overseeing the entire operation. Bush would make Shackley the number two man in the CIA when he became director in 1976, and then as Reagan’s Vice President, Bush would make Gregg his National Security Advisor.

The third big connection is Ted Shackley.

Who is Ted Shackley?

According to Wikipedia:

Theodore George "Ted" Shackley, Jr. (July 16, 1927 – December 9, 2002) was an American CIA officer involved in many important and controversial CIA operations during the 1960s and 1970s. He is one of the most decorated CIA officers. Due to his "light hair and mysterious ways", Shackley was known to his colleagues as "the Blond Ghost".

In the early 1960s, Shackley's work included being station chief in Miami, during the period of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as the Cuban Project (also known as Operation Mongoose), which he directed. He was also said to be the director of the "Phoenix Program" during the Vietnam War, as well as the CIA station chief in Laos between 1966 and 1968, and Saigon station chief from 1968 through February 1972. In 1976, he was appointed Associate Deputy Director for Operations, second in charge of CIA covert operations.

Don’t miss these huge data points.

Shackley was at the center of a lot of things.

In the early 1960’s, during the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion, Shackley was the CIA station chief in Miami. This huge CIA station in Miami would be at the center of the CIA connection to a specially trained force of Cuban American operatives involved in many important things. It wasn’t just Brigade 2506, it was also Operation 40, where Rodriguez was one of the leaders. (More on them in coming articles.)

Then, in Vietnam, Shackley was the director of the Phoenix Program, where Rodriguez was training death squads and flying covert missions.

Shackley was also CIA station chief in Laos, where the CIA was fighting a secret war to protect and expand their global heroine trade. Felix Rodriguez was there at the same time flying missions, which is why he was awarded the Intelligence Star for Valor by the CIA.

What’s the Intelligence Star for Valor?

According to Wikipedia:

The Intelligence Star is an award given by the Central Intelligence Agency to its officers for "voluntary acts of courage performed under hazardous conditions or for outstanding achievements or services rendered with distinction under conditions of grave risk".

Only a few dozen people have received this award (mostly posthumously), making it one of the rarest valor awards awarded by the US government.

So we have three key members of the shadow government with direct ties to George H.W. Bush. They are also connected to the secret war in Laos that was a huge drug-trafficking operation. But before that, they were connected to the Miami CIA station during the Bay of Pigs debacle, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the JFK assassination.

That’s an important data point.

The JFK assassination is going to connect a lot of dots, but I have to leave that for a coming article.

So the first evidence of phone calls that exposed the shadow government went to the office of Vice President Bush and directly connected him to illegally supplying the Contras with weapons. It connected Bush and Gregg to Felix Rodriguez, and they all were connected to Ted Shackley.

What was the second piece of evidence through phone calls that helps expose the truth?

It came as evidence during the investigation into Iran-Contra.

Do you remember the name of the company that owned the plane that was shot down in Nicaragua, which exposed the Iran-Contra scandal?

Southern Air Transport.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

When U.S officials wanted to ship arms to Iran, they called 305-871-5171: Southern Air Transport, the "worldwide charter specialists" with "oversized cargo capabilities" and "remote site delivery."

And when the contras in Nicaragua needed supplies ferried from Portugal to air bases in Central America, they dialed the same number.

And when Americans running guns to the contras needed mechanics to fix their dilapidated planes, they too used Southern Air.

And now, when the House and Senate intelligence committees and a federal grand jury are handing out subpoenas, they also have remembered to call on the Miami-based airline, once owned by the CIA and now caught up in virtually every thread of scandal that has tightened around the Reagan Administration.

Just a coincidence that it’s a CIA-owned airline based in Miami?

Congress was now sending out subpoenas and investigating Southern Air Transport.

Guess who is about to enter the picture?

A guy who played a key role in my last article.

More from that Los Angeles Times article:

The Justice Department has admitted that it held back a probe of Southern Air for 10 days in late October and early November at the request of Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, then the President's national security adviser.

Poindexter feared, a Justice Department spokesman said, that the investigation would interfere with arms shipments to Iran and the possible release of American hostages in Lebanon. The department's internal inspector is looking into the delay.

Poindexter was doing his best to hold up any investigation into the airline. He would use an excuse that the shadow government would use for many years to come, in order to both garner sympathy and as a red herring distraction from the real truth:

Hostages.

More from the Los Angeles Times article:

Southern Air was born in Miami in 1949, a small charter operation that hauled cargo to the Bahamas. Eleven years later, it still had only three planes and plenty of debts.

In 1960, it found an eager buyer. The CIA was looking to obtain airlines that could do covert work under legitimate cover. It purchased Southern Air for $300,000 and extended the airline's operations into the Far East and Latin America.

In 1960, the CIA purchased the Miami-based airline that only had three planes, but was able to extend the airline’s operations into the Far East and Latin America.

The Far East and Latin America? Coincidence?

Sure sounds a lot like Bush’s Zapata Offshore drilling company, which only had a few drilling rigs, but expanded to key drug trafficking locations globally.

More from the Los Angeles Times:

In fiscal year 1984, Southern Air earned $17 million from the military hauls. For fiscal year 1987, the contracted total is up to $44 million, airlift command spokesman Lt. Jerry Todd said.

Contracted routes have included flights to the Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador. Aboard the planes have been construction materials, medical supplies, office supplies and spare parts, Todd said.

But Ilopango was more than just an occasional stop for Southern Air's airlift command-contracted flights. It also was a place where it often sent its mechanics.

Contra Staging Area:

The military airfield was a staging area for the contras, and the company serviced the planes that carried guns and supplies into the field.

America began to learn something of those secret airdrops Oct. 5, when a Nicaraguan soldier shot down an old C-123 over a stretch of jungle.

One of the three men killed was a former CIA proprietary pilot named William J. Cooper, who was carrying a Southern Air identification card. Among other papers aboard the plane was company president Langton's business card.

The plane shot down in Nicaragua was owned by the CIA.

Here’s where we get a third connection of evidence, based on phone calls that introduce us to another major player in this shadow government operation.

According to the Christian Science Monitor:

The US Justice Department has asked Swiss authorities to assist in an investigation of both Colonel Oliver North and General Secord in connection with two Swiss bank accounts that may have been used to channel funds to the Nicaraguan contras.

Telephone records show that repeated calls were made to Secord’s home and business from a ``safe house'' in El Salvador used by crew members of a secret air resupply operation that had been dropping weapons and ammunition to the contras. The operation was conducted at a time when Congress had banned US military aid to the rebels.

The Justice Department had launched an investigation into Oliver North and Richard Secord involving Swiss bank accounts. There’s no need to use “secret” Swiss bank accounts if you’ve got nothing to hide.

There were repeated phone calls to ‘retired’ General Richard Secord’s home from a ``safe house'' in El Salvador used by crew members of a “secret air resupply operation.”

Is it possible that it’s the same Southern Air Transport?

Of course it was.

More from the Christian Science Monitor:

North was fired last month from his NSC post after Attorney General Edwin Meese said North had planned and run the Iran-contra effort without President Reagan's authorization.

Secord has denied any wrongdoing, saying his role in the Iran-contra affair was that of an adviser. He was not available for comment yesterday. Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday, Secord invoked the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions.

Was he just an advisor, who happened to have his name on a couple Swiss Bank accounts with a whole lot of money in them? No surprise that he decided to plead the Fifth instead of testifying.

But who is Richard Secord?

More from the Christian Science Monitor:

Secord's work with the CIA and friendships with agency personnel date from the 1960s when he served in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Secord, a decorated Air Force veteran who flew 285 combat missions, is reported to have been involved in covert US bombing and other actions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. He also headed the US Air Force military assistance group in Iran from 1975 to 1978, a time when the late Shah was building up his air force with US firepower. Secord is said to have been on a first-name basis with most of the leadership of the Iranian armed forces under the Shah.

Secord has worked with the CIA since the early 1960’s, and flew hundreds of missions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. He also flew ‘covert’ bombing missions.

What do you want to bet that a lot of those bombings happened in Laos during the Secret War?

He also headed the ‘military assistance group’ for the Shah of Iran. He was selling arms to the CIA-installed dictator in Iran.

Here’s some even more interesting information:

According to the Orlando Sentinel:

Company flight logs subpoenaed by federal investigators show that in the early to mid-1970s, Southern Air shuttled cargo for the shah of Iran’s air force, the airline’s highest paying client other than the U.S. government.

Don’t miss this huge reveal.

In the 1970’s Southern Air Transport hauled cargo (weapons) for the Shah of Iran. Other than the US government, Iran was their ”highest-paying client.”

That’s a key data point.

Who’s getting paid?

Remember, this is a CIA-owned and controlled airline.

Who was at the center of making those weapons deals with Iran?

General Richard Secord, of course—a guy who just happened to be involved in Vietnam and more importantly, the secret war in Laos, right along with Shackley, Gregg and Rodriguez.

All coordinated and controlled by Bush.

It’s always been about the money. The keystone to revealing everything is money.

Follow the money.

More from the Orlando Sentinel:

According to a “knowledgeable Reagan administration official” quoted in The Chicago Tribune, Southern Air was the carrier of choice of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Secord and Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, each of whom reportedly played a direct role in helping establish a contra supply network. The official said the men pressed contra leader Adolfo Calero to use Southern Air for such missions.

Secord was chief U.S. military adviser to the Iranian air force in the 1970s, when Southern Air flew air force cargo for the Shah.

General Richard Secord had deep connections in Iran long before Iran-Contra was even a problem. He is a key figure because of these deep connections even though he claimed to only be an advisor.

Secord is a model figure of what the shadow government represents. He is the fitting image of a group of elites who believe they are above the law and know what’s best for the world.

Have you ever read Secord’s 1972 Master’s thesis?

His thesis director was the CIA adviser to the head of the U.S. Naval War College, and here is the title of his thesis:

“Unconventional Warfare/Covert Operations as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy.”

According to the Los Angeles Times:

The CIA should be given “the authority” to run all such operations, Secord wrote at the start of the 55-page document. The Pentagon should be “removed from the chain of command,” and “parochial outcries” from competing government groups should be ignored.

“Bureaucratic obstacles should be dismissed out of hand,” he wrote. So should opposition from “the press, Congress, academia and others.” A high-level group, “probably the National Security Council,” should “develop and implement the required programs.”

He wrote that thesis in 1972, but it sure sounds exactly like what happened during the Iran-Contra scandal.

And did you know that Secord was also a successful businessman?

More from the Los Angeles Times:

And there is the businessman Secord. He was the privateer and international arms dealer, the specialist in secret shipping, shell companies and Swiss bank accounts.

Over the next year, Secord became North’s top lieutenant. Investigators say he was the “black-ops” jack-of-all-trades whose operations included coordinating arms shipments to Iran, controlling Swiss bank accounts for the transactions, and allegedly using the profits to supply weapons to the contras at a time when U.S. military aid was illegal.

Secord was a guy who believed the CIA should have all authority to perform covert operations with no oversight control, and was also an arms dealer who specialized in using Swiss banks. He was a big-time shadow government player.

More from the Los Angeles Times:

The Tower board reported that at least $32 million from the Iran arms deals, and up to $40 million in alleged contributions for the contras, were funneled through Secord’s accounts. What happened to most of the money remains a mystery.

This is the huge problem:

How does $32 million from sales to Iran, along with $40 million in gift contributions just disappear? How is it unaccounted for?

This is the key. It’s all about the money.

The Iran-Contra scandal is not about selling arms illegally.

That’s the red herring argument the shadow government wants everyone focused on. They knew the American people would sympathize with fighting communism and freeing hostages.

The Iran-Contra scandal exposes the fact that a CIA controlled shadow government had ‘already’ set up it’s own funding sources outside of Congressional oversight or restrictions.

That’s the real scandal that got completely ignored, even by Congress after they discovered the evidence.

The entire country was blind to what was actually happening.

It was a massive money laundering operation and nobody cared about the money and what happened to it or where it went. Nobody followed the money, which is why everyone got a slap on the wrist.

But there was something big that happened in 1981 before the Iran-Contra scandal, which is directly connected, and nobody remembers it.

What was it?

Soon after taking office, the Reagan administration tried to force the Senate to approve a huge sale of AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) planes to Saudi Arabia.

At the time, this was a huge deal. It caught a lot of people by surprise and turned into a massive fight between the White House and Congress.

According to the New York Times:

King Fahd and other top Saudi Arabian officials agreed in 1981 to aid anti-Communist resistance groups around the world as part of the arrangement allowing them to buy sophisticated American Awacs radar planes, according to United States officials and others familiar with the deal.

As an example of this arrangement, King Fahd and other officials tried in 1984 and 1985 to funnel $15 million to the Nicaraguan rebels, according to an American businessman who said he turned down direct requests from King Fahd and other Saudi officials to be a conduit for the money. The businessman said the funds were to have been sent through Richard V. Secord, a retired Air Force major general, and Albert Hakim, General Secord's partner.

Nowhere in the media narrative or in the fight on Capital Hill, did anybody ever mention anything about Saudi Arabia funding anti-Communist groups around the world, as a “condition,” in order to purchase billions of dollars worth of AWACS aircraft.

This was never in the public narrative.

Why?

Because Richard Secord and his Iranian-American business partner, Albert Hakim, were facilitating the deal for a shadow government. Secord had known Hakim since the 1970’s, when Secord was selling weapons to the Shah of Iran in which they were both profiting.

More from the New York Times:

As has been reported, Congressional investigators have concluded that General Secord and Mr. Hakim were involved in the covert program to supply the contras during the period that Congress placed strict controls on American assistance. General Secord also handled the sale of Awacs radar planes to the Saudis in 1981, before he retired.

The AWACS radar planes are the key to exposing this whole operation. This deal happened in 1981 and Secord was the driving force behind the deal.

Remember, this is long ‘BEFORE’ the Boland Amendments that limited funding in Nicaragua. The White House wasn’t restricted in any way, so why would Secord ask Saudi Arabia to set up this secret fund?

This is the shadow government exposed.

Nobody in Congress knew about this condition attached to the sale of the AWACS planes. It might have raised a lot of questions. The sale passed the Senate with a vote of 52-48.

So why would Secord and Hakim need this ‘condition’ to be secret?

What does the shadow government need most?

What was one of their biggest constraints and obstacles?

Funding.

Remember when President Jimmy Carter cut off funding for Somoza because of human rights abuses? That helped to topple the CIA-controlled dictator.

The CIA needed to set up their own funding sources globally in order to eliminate the one Constitutional restraint that they feared most.

The Congressional ‘power of the purse.’

It’s always been about the money. This is exactly why Bush was so busy setting up the CIA drug-trafficking operations globally, using his Offshore Oil company as a front and installing dictators in strategic countries.

Drug trafficking is a major funding source for the CIA and shadow government.

But so are weapons sales.

The CIA controlled the global arms trade just like the drug trade. They propped up dictators, then sold them billions in overpriced weapons—or, as in the AWACS sale, bribed them with advanced weapons in order to fund their shadow operations hidden from Congressional oversight or constitutional restrictions.

More from the New York Times:

Congressional investigators say they have also obtained evidence that the Saudis provided funds to United States-backed resistance groups during this period, although they have not been able to trace what happened to some of the funds.

The disclosure of the 1981 arrangement - which was confirmed by present and former United States officials who were familiar with the Awacs sale - shows for the first time one of the origins of Saudi support for anti-Communist groups and King Fahd's personal involvement in the deal.

Congress couldn’t trace what happened to some of the funds, and nothing came of it. Their constitutional authority was stripped from them and nobody cared.

More from the New York Times:

The disclosure also demonstrates that the Reagan Administration used covert means to fund resistance groups such as the contras years earlier than had been publicly known before.

However, it could not be learned who in the Administration first proposed Saudi financing of American-backed anti-Communist movements. Nor is it clear why the Administration might have been trying to arrange such financing as early as 1981. Covert assistance to rebel movements would have to have been reported to Congressional oversight committees, but there was no explicit ban on military aid to the contras, for example, until 1984.

''I recall the Saudis agreeing to fund anti-Communist groups at the time of the Awacs sale, in connection with the sale,'' one former Administration official said, adding that how the informal agreement would be implemented was never explicitly defined.

Don’t miss these key points:

Someone in the Reagan administration was using covert means to fund their resistance groups around the world, and supposedly, nobody knew who was behind it. ‘Nobody’ in the shadow government had a closer relationship to Saudi king Fahd, than George H.W. Bush. He was behind it all.

Congress couldn’t understand why they were doing this covertly when there was no ban at the time on military aid.

Isn’t it obvious?

Why do it covertly?

Because the whole point was to completely avoid reporting ‘anything’ to Congressional oversight committees.

It’s a shadow government that operates outside of constitutional controls and that means, independent funding outside of any congressional knowledge whatsoever.

But how much money are we talking about with this AWACS deal? The deal was for Saudi Arabia to purchase the planes for 8.5 billion dollars.

According to the New York Times:

Congressional investigations of the Iran-contra affair have uncovered a Central Intelligence Agency bank account in Switzerland holding $250 million the Saudis donated for the Afghan guerrillas. The Senate Intelligence Committee also heard testimony about approximately $30 million the Saudis donated for the contras, but investigators have been unable to trace these funds.

Congress found out about the secret deal and then discovered at least 280 million dollars in secret Swiss bank accounts belonging to the CIA and did nothing about it. This money was outside of Congressional control, and the CIA could use it for whatever they wanted to. This removed all Congressional control or oversight.

Why would Congress allow them to get away with this?

They were allowing a rogue agency and a shadow government to do whatever they wanted, with no consequences.

Do you want to know the truth?

The whole Iran-Contra scandal was a charade. It was a dog and pony show to entertain and fool the public into thinking there was real accountability.

But let’s get honest.

Go back in history.

Let me ask some questions that expose the ‘shadow game’ for what it really was.

Oliver North was at the center of the entire operation and so was his boss, John Poindexter. Both were members of the National Security Council. Congress gave them immunity in order to testify.

Why?

Why would Congress give the two guys at the center of the whole illegal scandal immunity, especially when the Special Counsel was begging them not to do it?

What was the result?

It spoiled all the criminal investigations to follow, and after the Special Counsel won convictions against both Poindexter and North, guess what happened?

Their convictions were overturned on appeal because of their immunity deals.

These two individuals literally admitted to shredding hundreds of documents of all their crimes and were laundering money through Swiss bank accounts and still walked away “scot-free.”

It was just a show trial.

How about Secord?

What happened to the guy who was laundering money through all the Swiss bank accounts?

He didn’t even get a slap on the wrist.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Richard V. Secord, who ran the shadowy enterprise set up to channel money from Iran arms sales to the Contras in Nicaragua, was sentenced to two years’ probation Wednesday.

The former Air Force major general faced up to five years in jail, but U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr. said that prison would be too harsh a punishment.

Secord pleaded guilty to one felony count of misleading Congress as part of a plea bargain that resulted in the dismissal of 11 other charges. Also, Robinson ordered Secord to pay a fee of $50, the minimum required for all defendants who plead guilty in federal court.

A massive money laundering operation exposed, and nobody was really punished for it at all.

Why?

Because that’s how government works when it’s completely controlled by a shadow government that is all powerful and unrestricted in any way.

The shadow government was in complete control of everything.

My next article goes much deeper into the shadow government’s global money laundering, and I will finally start to connect this entrenched shadow government back to Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, who was the biggest threat to Trump when he became president.

Badlands Media articles and features represent the opinions of the contributing authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Badlands Media itself.

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