No. 428, May 15, 1987
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WfJ1IIlE1IS ",1.",111' 25¢ No. 428 .':ii'-. X·S23 15 May 1987 All Roads Lead to the Contra in Chief Grace/Newsweek Johnston/Washington Post Democratic Party-controlled committee to "investigate" Contragate is out to contain the damage" covering up Reagan's crimes ...and theirs. ea anae: emocras over "Live, from Washington, D.C., it's Adviser McFarlane said he'd written it not be done "in a way that suggests to one, all right-"intensely aware" of the the Iran/Contragate hearings." It's on a 3x5 card, which was returned with our adversaries that we are a nation secret contra aid, said Republican billed as high TV docudrama, elaborate expressions of presidential satisfaction divided." No indeed. Northand a couple Senator Cohen; "very knowledgeable," ly staged with soft cop/hard cop rou and pleasure. How did investigators of sidekicks now safely outside the said Inouye. And then ...nothing, be tines, Country I and Country 2 code discover "Reagan knew" about the Iran Reagan administration are being set up cause the "threat to the presidency" is names, "Follow the Money" and other contra. funds diversion? "They must as fall guys, pleading guilty to tax fraud too great. Who could -expect any trivial pursuits. All supposedly to track have found the memo," Lieutenant for having solicited contra arms money different? down the overt/covert funding of the Colonel Oliver North is said to have from wealthy right-wingers for ostensi Some of the key players willnaturally CIA's' contra mercenaries in contraven replied, remarking something to the bly tax-deductible "educational" pur stonewall. Conveniently for the admin tion of various Congressional prohibi effect that he must have "missed one" in poses. (Reagan says he thought the istration, William Casey's lipsare sealed tions, U.S. laws and other impediments. his "shredding party." In spite of the dough was for contra. commercials.) forever: the day before he was to testify "When did you tell the president about attempts at obliteration, it's clear that This is part of a plea bargain, not in before the Tower Commission, the ex this? And what did you tell him?" all roads lead to the Contra in Chief., return for their testimony against CIA chief had a seizure and had half his intoned Senate investigative committee But the TV "investigation" being higher-ups but in return for their:silence. brain removed, so he couldn't talk (or chief counsel Arthur Liman, tossing off played out by the Congressional Dem This is not going after Al Capone but mumble) to Congressional investiga his Watergate line he's been practicing ocrats is cover-up city. Committee after a pair of his capos on income tax tors; he expired the very day General for weeks. Former National Security chairman Inouye declared that it will charges. They'll show that Reagan's the continued on page 12 CIA's Contras Murder American Volunteer Salute Ben Linder On April 28 Benjamin Linder, an revolution that will put an end to American volunteer working in Nica Yankee imperialism and its bloody ragua, was executed by a contra hit crimes. Benjamin squad. He was the firstAmerican killed Ben Linder was a mechanical en Linder gineer working on hydroelectric proj working on by the counterrevolutionaries who have Nicaraguan slaughtered more than 15,000 Nicara ects in the mountains near the Hondu ~ere hydroelectric guans in their dirty war. Linder's ran border. Killed along with him project. murderers-armed, paid and directed two Nicaraguans, Paulo Rosales and by the United States government-are Sergio Hernandez from San Jose de NICA engaged in a last-ditch drive to loosen Bocay, who were helping Linder bring government killed my brother. The possibly two feet away or less. What I Congressional purse strings with an electricity to their village. In the last five contras killed my brother, and Reagan amtelling youistheyblew hisbrainsout orgy of bloodletting. Even as the contra years thousands of Nicaraguan peasants at gunpoint, thereas helaywounded at says he is a contra." the site." killers carried out their crime, Washing and workers have been killed by the This was cold-blooded murder. ton was undertaking the largest-ever contra cutthroats. Hundreds of teach Contra disinformation claimed Linder They did it by the book: this execution is war "maneuvers" in Central America, ers, doctors, technicians and profession was caught in a crossfire. But his father, a page taken straight from the CIA's targeting Sandinista Nicaragua. Ben als, including nine internacionalistas, David Linder, a pathologist, released a murder manual, which called for "neu jamin Linder gave his life in defense of have been assassinated. But it was medical examiner's report showing that tralizing" Sandinista officialsand devel the Nicaraguan Revolution. His heroic Linder's death at the hands of U.S. his son survived the initial barrage, opment workers. The FDN. contras example and internationalist commit directed mercenaries which has brought immobilized by rifle fire: vowed to continue the assassinations. ment must inspire class-conscious work the war home to many Americans. His "He wasthenkilled bya gunshotwound And the White House blamed Linder ers and militant youth to dedicate their older brother John denounced the to his head. The powderthen suggests for his own death, saying that he had put lives to the struggle for an American authors ofthecrime: "The United States that he was shot at very close range, continued on page 11 ----Bush in the Bushes?---- Bedroom'Snoops Sink Gary Hart American politics is awash in sleaze. about everybody not born into the Gary Hart's forced withdrawal as the "Fortune 500." front-running Democratic presidential Is it an accident that this scandal contender-they're calling it "cam exploded just the daybefore the Iran paignus interruptus"-has the Repub gate-Contragate Congressional hear licans oozing glee. "I can't deny that it ings opened? For an administration in has been a great media diversion," what former CIA chief George Bush smirked president-ial spokesman Marlin would call "deep doodoo,' it couldn't . Fitzwater. They've had plenty of prob have come at a more convenient time. lems lately on their side of the aisle: the Talk about "dirty tricks": at Hart's vicious lying moron Reagan crippled fund-raiser kicking off the '88 campaign, and his whole crew of incompetent wild federal marshals came in and seized the men and contra murderers stonewalling funds (supposedly for back '84 debts). in Congress, Meese's dabbling in Wed Back in 1972 there was a group known tech, the Deaver and Donovan deals, as the "White House plumbers," who etc. It's a sign of these hypocritical brought us Watergate, a program of Moral Majority times that it only took a _sabotage, break-ins and smear jobs couple of well-placed "anonymous tips" against the Democrats. Interestingly, to set the entire press corps on Hart like part of the intention ofNixon's hatchet a pack of wolves. men was to ensure the nomination of It wasn't the National Enquirer that George McGovern, who they calculated did Hart·in. The Miami Herald's was seen as so far out the Democrats "Miami vice" act, turning its reporters were guaranteed to lose, as indeed into stakeout snoops hoping to catch happened. McGovern's campaign man Hart in the act, or at least in the presence ager: Gary Hart. of a leggy blonde model, was despicable. So now Gary Hart's been got. If it Carl Iwasaki The Washington Post got in a final Reagan's legion of indecency strikesagain, hounding Gary Hart for seeing wasn't G. Gordon Liddy, we wonder: blow, telling the beleaguered Hart model Donna Rice. Government, media snoops out of the bedroom! was there a Bush lurking in thebushes campaign it had its own '87-model outside that Washington townhouse? "Deep Throat," complete' with docu according to a Newsweek (18 May) poll, committed adultery?" For many past What tips did dirty trickster Nixon ments, ready to reveal a Hart liaison 70 percent of the American public is presidents, this was simply treated as a really give Reagan on how to handle with a Washington society lady. All the opposed to media spying, and two out of fact of life. Warren G. Harding, Frank Contragate? The New York Times titled "responsible" media smarmily defended three think Hart got a raw deal. lin D. Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Ken a boxed chronology of Hart's political their prying into politicians' private lives It was a new low when a reporter nedy come to mind-Roosevelt even demise "Eight Days in May," an by claiming "public interest." But actually asked Hart, "Have you ever mobilized the Secret Service to ensure obvious takeoff on Seven Days in May, privacy for his meetings with his mis the movie about a secret generals' coup tress. It used to be they waited until plot against the U.S. government. they were dead before the "now it can be Whether or not Gary Hart "courted told" stuff came out-and they certainly danger," had a political "deathwish," or Fighting Fascism in France weren't about to sing about Jack was a "pantless chump" (in the words of Hitler's victory in Germany in 1933 arid Kennedy's affair with a Mafia moll. the London Guardian) is irrelevant. the world depression plunged France into As we've said many times, govern That he obviously felt himself suscepti social crisis. Mounting fascist terror gave ment has no business interfering in ble to this campaign of sexual blackmail rise to a bonapartistgo.vernment resting on private life, which means basically sex. by "anonymous" smear jobs abetted by the state and military bureaucracy.