Contras
 Contras  (Death squad)   | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Successor | Recontra Frente Norte 380 |
| Staff | 23,000 |
| Interest of | Yair Klein, Our Hidden History, Jim Steele |
| Exposed by | David MacMichael |
| South American death squads that were supported by the United States. | |
The contras is a label given to the various U.S.-backed rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the socialist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government in Nicaragua. HRW reported in 1989 that they were "major and systematic violators of the most basic standards of the laws of armed conflict, including by launching indiscriminate attacks on civilians, selectively murdering non-combatants, and mistreating prisoners".[1]
Iran-Contra
| In VICE's latest installment of 'I Was There', photojournalist Lou Dematteis recounts photographing the capture of U.S. mercenary Eugene Hasenfus after his cargo plane was shot down in the Nicaraguan countryside. Lou's photograph, along with reporting from his colleagues on the ground, exposed how the American government, including the CIA, was illegally using funds made from selling arms to Iran to secretly fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. This became known as the Iran-Contra affair and the resulting scandal led to the conviction and resignation of several Reagan Administration officials, most notably Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. |
- Full article: “Iran-Contra”
- Full article: “Iran-Contra”
With the US Congress blocking further contra aid, the Reagan administration sought to arrange funding and military supplies by means of third countries and private sources.[2] Between 1984 and 1986, $34 million from third countries and $2.7 million from private sources were raised this way.[2] The secret contra assistance may have been run by the United States National Security Council, with officer Lt. Col. Oliver North in charge.[3] North carried the can for a cabal-run organization called "The Enterprise" which had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, ship, operatives and secret Swiss bank accounts. It also received assistance from personnel from other government agencies, especially from CIA personnel in Central America.[2] These efforts were somewhat exposed in the Iran–Contra Affair of 1986–1987, which facilitated contra funding through the proceeds of arms sales to Iran, but which left the drug trafficking of cocaine into USA more or less unaddressed.
Related Quotations
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Terrorism" | “Terrorism is not really an '-ism'. There's no connection between the Sandinistas who fought the Contras and Al Qaida or Colombia's FARC and fisherman turned pirates in Africa and Asia, yet they are all called "terrorists". That's just a convenient way for your government to convince the world that there is another enemy '-ism' out there, like communism used to be. It diverts attention from the very real problems.
Our narrow-minded attitudes and the resultant policies foment violence, rebellion and wars. In the long run, almost noone benefits from attacking the people we label as "terrorists", with one, glaring exception:- the corporatocracy. Those who own and run the companies that build the ships, missiles and armoured vehicles, make guns, uniforms and bulletproof vests, distribute food, soft drinks and ammunition, provide insurance, medicines and toilet paper, constructions ports, airstrips and housing and reconstruct devastated villages, schools, factories and hospitals. They, and only they, are the big winners. The rest of us are hoodwinked by that one, loaded word "terrorist". The current economic collapse has awakened us to the importance of regulating and reining in the people who control the businesses that benefit from the misuse of words like "terrorism" and who perpetrate other scams. We recognize today that white collar executives are not a special, incorruptible breed.” | Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann | |
| Death squad | “So what the US military advisors do, is to teach the people in the country how to organize themselves, and how to carry out missions, and how to keep their mouths shut about missions, and how to be more "professional" in the jobs that the ingenious troops want to carry out anyway. [...] It wasn't quite that the American advisors said thou shall create a death squad and you gonna report to me, no. What they said was: here is how to organize yourself, to conduct missions and don't report to me, because I don't want to know it.” | Christopher Simpson | 2014 |
| Oliver North | “$14M [million] to finance came from drugs.” | Oliver North | 12 July 1985 |
