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White House does negotiate with terrorists!

KidRocks

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President Reagan did exactly that...




http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm

Executive Summary

In October and November 1986, two secret U.S. Government operations were publicly exposed, potentially implicating Reagan Administration officials in illegal activities. These operations were the provision of assistance to the military activities of the Nicaraguan contra rebels during an October 1984 to October 1986 prohibition on such aid, and the sale of U.S. arms to Iran in contravention of stated U.S. policy and in possible violation of arms-export controls. In late November 1986, Reagan Administration officials announced that some of the proceeds from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran had been diverted to the contras.

As a result of the exposure of these operations, Attorney General Edwin Meese III sought the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute possible crimes arising from them.

The Special Division of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appointed Lawrence E. Walsh as Independent Counsel on December 19, 1986, and charged him with investigating:

(1) the direct or indirect sale, shipment, or transfer since in or about 1984 down to the present, of military arms, materiel, or funds to the government of Iran, officials of that government, persons, organizations or entities connected with or purporting to represent that government, or persons located in Iran;

(2) the direct or indirect sale, shipment, or transfer of military arms, materiel or funds to any government, entity, or person acting, or purporting to act as an intermediary in any transaction referred to above;

(3) the financing or funding of any direct or indirect sale, shipment or transfer referred to above;

(4) the diversion of proceeds from any transaction described above to or for any person, organization, foreign government, or any faction or body of insurgents in any foreign country, including, but not limited to Nicaragua;

(5) the provision or coordination of support for persons or entities engaged as military insurgents in armed conflict with the government of Nicaragua since 1984.

This is the final report of that investigation.

Overall Conclusions
The investigations and prosecutions have shown that high-ranking Administration officials violated laws and executive orders in the Iran/contra matter.

Independent Counsel concluded that:

-- the sales of arms to Iran contravened United States Government policy and may have violated the Arms Export Control Act1

1 Independent Counsel is aware that the Reagan Administration Justice Department took the position, after the November 1986 revelations, that the 1985 shipments of United States weapons to Iran did not violate the law. This post hoc position does not correspond with the contemporaneous advice given the President. As detailed within this report, Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger (a lawyer with an extensive record in private practice and the former general counsel of the Bechtel Corporation) advised President Reagan in 1985 that the shipments were illegal. Moreover, Weinberger's opinion was shared by attorneys within the Department of Defense and the White House counsel's office once they became aware of the 1985 shipments. Finally, when Attorney General Meese conducted his initial inquiry into the Iran arms sales, he expressed concern that the shipments may have been illegal.

-- the provision and coordination of support to the contras violated the Boland Amendment ban on aid to military activities in Nicaragua;

-- the policies behind both the Iran and contra operations were fully reviewed and developed at the highest levels of the Reagan Administration...




Reagan authorized illegal arms sales to the nation of Iran, a country he had himself declared to be a "terrorist state".

President Reagan supplied Iraq with weapons and WMD's in their war against Iran.

Remember President Reagan backed that evil dictator Pinochet also.
 
[Moderator Mode]

Moved to the more appropriate forum...

[/Moderator Mode]
 
And he had the ginormous balls to apologize for such.
Accepting responsibility for what happenened on his watch helped endear him to many.
Everyone and every Admin screws up- just human nature- but not every one is capable and willing to acccept the consequences and responsibility for doing so.
 
The Clinton Adminstration negotiated with Rodavan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic. The people responsible for the genocide of Muslims in Bosnia. The Clinton Adminstration negotiated and rewarded terrorists for their crimes rather than punished. It is good that Bush doesn't negotiate with Saddam, even though his stated reasons for going into Iraq turned out to be false and not enough pressure is put on the Saudi government for democratic reform.
 
And to be fair, the Bush Sr. Adminstration also deserves some blame for the inaction over Bosnia's genocide. I remember statements like "We do not negotiate with terrorists" and then seeing pictures on TV showing a US diplomat on one side of the table standing up while Radovan Karadzic stands up with both extending their hands out to each other to negotiate with each other over how they were going to butcher or carve up Bosnia in such a completely unfair and unjust manner and the negotations would favor those people who were responsible for genocide. They were rewarded for their crimes against humanity. The US rewarded them. The US also knew, that it would have been very very easy to stop the genocide but intentionally chose not to, because their was no economic interests in Bosnia like their was in the Middle East.
 
I think every single admin has done something like that. It's actually kinda sad. Every single piece of my political thought I've had is towards progressing to a time when stuff like that won't be needed.
 
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