[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

HM, bleeding money from one set of totalitarians in order to overthrow another set of totalitarians hardly amounts to criminality.

If you're talking about Iran-Contra, then you are justifying 'selling arms to an enemy' as 'bleeding money from one set of totalitarians'. Wow, is that the same thing as 'advancing to the rear'?

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

When you pay the Danegeld, do you get rid of the Dane?

Again, if your first comment is in support of Iran-Contra, which was the ultimate 'Danegeld (ransom)', then your second comment on the dangers of such is remarkably inconsistent.

I am genuinely confused here. Was your first comment really in support of Iran-Contra?

BTW, I hope the shelf life of a TOW missile is less than 20 years or that Iran expended all of them against Iraq, or if we do invade Iran our troops will be on the receiving end of US-made weapons.


From Iran-Contra at Wikipedia

Arms transaction

The Iran-Contra report found that the sales of arms to Iran violated United States Government policy; it also violated the Arms Export Control Act.[2] Overall, if the releasing of hostages was the purpose of arms sales to Iran, the plan was a failure as only three of the 30 hostages were released.[9]

First arms sale

Michael Ledeen, a consultant of Robert McFarlane, asked Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres for help in the sale of arms to Iran.[11] The general idea behind the plan was for Israel to ship weapons to Iran, then the US would reimburse Israel with the same weapons. The Israeli government required that the sale of arms meet high level approval from the United States government, and when Robert McFarlane convinced them that the U.S. government approved the sale, Israel obliged by agreeing to sell the arms. [11] Reagan approved McFarlane's idea to reach out to Iran on July 18, 1985 while in a hospital bed recovering from cancer surgery.[12] [12] In July 1985, Israel sent American-made BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles to Iran through an arms dealer named Manucher Ghorbanifar, a friend of Iran's Prime Minister. One hostage, reverend Benjamin Weir was subsequently released; despite the fact that arms were being sold to Iran, only Weir was released. This resulted in the failure of Ledeen's plan [8] with only three shipments through Israel. [11]

Subsequent dealings

Robert McFarlane resigned in December 1985[13]. He was replaced by Admiral John Poindexter. On the day of McFarlane's resignation, Oliver North, a military aide to the United States National Security Council (NSC), proposed a new plan for selling arms to Iran. This time, there were two new ideas. Instead of selling arms through Israel, the sale was to be direct. Second, the proceeds from the sale would go to the Contras at a markup. Oliver North wanted a $15 million markup, while contracted Iranian arms broker Manucher Ghorbanifar added a 41% markup of his own. [14] Other members of the NSC were in favor of North's plan. John Poindexter authorized the plan, and it went into effect. [15]
At first, the Iranians refused to buy the arms at the inflated price because of the excessive markup imposed by North and Ghorbanifar. In February 1986, 1000 TOW missiles were shipped to Iran.[15] From May to November 1986, there were additional shipments of miscellaneous weapons and parts.[15] Reagan claimed that the total of all arms sales was less than a planeload.[5]