Contragate: Cover-up needed to protect Reagan... and Congress

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Nicaraguans celebrate 25th anniversary of founding of FSLN. 4 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1987 I TOLD THE TOWER COMMISSION THE FIRST IRAN ARMS SHIPMENT.

I TOLD THEM I DIDN'T APPROVE IT.

"He sounded at t sure he hasn't done promises never to New York Times President Reagan's nation), Just give us a little more to go on. Nicaraguan contras. was criminal." class.

Times like a man who's anything wrong-and do it again." (from a editorial following March 4 speech to the The Times editorial aptly characterized Reagan's first major speech in response to the Iran-contra scandal. The editor of this most authoritatiye mouthpiece of the U.S. capitalist class then goes on to state the Times' main message to the nation's ruling establishment: "Nevertheless, for all the convolutions the president's message was clear: It was a mistake...I am respon -sible... We will obey the spirit of the law."

The Times' message is to the point: We accept your apology, dear President Reagan, and we pledge to help you give lip-service to "the spirit," if not the letter of the law.

This theme repeated in national newspaper and television coverage follows the line signaled by the Tower Commission's report. This special board, which was headed by former Republican Senator John G. Tower of Texas, was appointed by Reagan himself to conduct an investigation of his National Security Council. The NSC was the main governmental agency responsible for the systematic evasion and outright violation. of laws prohibiting military aid to the The Tower report records evidence of lies, cover-ups and "disregard" for these laws. But former Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie, a Democrat and one of the Tower Commission's three members, summed up his panel's conclusions at a press conference on March S. "There are obviously people whose performance was wrong," he said, "but that is something different than reaching a conclusion that it The Tower report is a signal that the U.S. ruling class has set out to bring this affair to an end as speedily as they can get away with. They are determined to prevent a lifting of the curtain covering up the illegal diversion of profits from Iran arms sales to the Nicaraguan contras. They intend, if they can, to reveal only enough to appear to have upheld legality and to forestall the deeply felt mass suspicion of a coverup at the highest levels of the ruling This means, too, that a top-level decision has been made to prevent the current fiasco THEN, THREE WEEKS LATER, I FELT IT WAS IMPORTANT THEY HAD BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY.

HEY, I'M AS EAGER AS ANYONE A TO FIND OUT WHICH IT WAS. from ending-like Watergate—in the ouster of a disgraced president, which would cause even greater damage to the stability of American capitalism.

Contragate and Watergate

The Watergate affair derived from "a third-rate burglary" of Democratic Party offices by agents of Republican President Richard Nixon.

It was merely a crime committed by one faction of the capitalists against another—a "dirty trick" in the best tradition of capitalist politics. But there was no way the Democrats in that instance could also be implicated. This is what allowed the Democrats to pull all stops in their normal craving for political advantage.

The current administration's lawbreaking, however, is qualitatively different. The crimes against the Nicaraguan Revolution and people were endorsed by both capitalist parties almost from the moment Anastasio Somoza, the U.S. puppet dictator of Nicaragua, was overthrown. Contragate can yet implicate the Democrats in Congress-as well as the Reagan administration. This restrains them from following the Watergate scenario to the end.

Reagan's not-so-secret illegal financing of the contras is completely in accord with the criminal counterrevolutionary policy of Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike. Even during the ban by Congress of "military" aid to the contras, the same Congress had voted $30 million in "humanitarian" aid to feed, clothe, pay, and otherwise support the same murderous bandits. And later, of course, Congress also approved undisguised military aid as well.

But the real force powering the Contragate maelstrom is the failure of the contras' efforts to mount a serious threat to the Nicaraguan Revolution. On March 9, expressing the demoralization of the contras themselves, Arturo Cruz, the least discredited of the contra leaders, resigned after months of bitter infighting among them.

According to a Times report, "[Cruz] resigned because he found it impossible to carry out the fundamental reorganization that he believes is necessary to turn the Nicaraguan rebels into a popular resistance On the same day, confirming that the contras had indeed not changed, new reports of wanton killings of unarmed peasants were published. "The contras came in shooting, and we had no soldiers to defend us," said Dominga Solana, who worked at a cattle cooperative in Quisilala, Nicaragua. "They stole cattle and burned our houses," she said from her hospital bed. Her arm was shattered by a contra rifle bullet. And her mother and three others, at the cooperative, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed.

Other news reports in the same edition of the Times document the grotesquely inhuman contra actions, including the contra bayoneting of a 9-month-old infant and the execution-style killing of two elderly women after they were forced to lie on the dirt floor of their home.

Such news reportage, besides confirming the criminal character of the contras, suggests that the stage is being set for a more flexible anti-Sandinista policy. This could include a negotiated truce in exchange for concessions to imperialism. The contras, in this case, would be held in reserve as blackmail to wrench further concessions from the Sandinista government.

An editorial in the March 15 New York Times, for example, bemoaning the latest blows to hopes in the contras, asks: "Where now in Nicaragua?" Proposing that Reagan "abandon the illusion that [the contras] can win," the editor suggests he aim for "three main...attainable...goals":

• "Securing Sandinista agreement to keep Soviet and Cuban bases, advisers and missiles out of Nicaragua.

• "Securing an agreement that the Sandinistas will not export revolution across Nicaragua's borders.

• "Achieving a regional treaty to help protect and widen Nicaraguans' political rights."

The Times concludes Socialist Action/Jeff Mackler rightfully ask his critics to support the use of force should the Sandinistas betray their security promises. But to claim that power, he must first accept that his choices are limited, and that the interest of all the Americas can be served by trying the path of negotiation.' "Protect the presidency"

The U.S. rulers, forced to readjust their counterrevolutionary policies in Nicaragua, must at the same time prevent the Irancontra scandal from getting out of hand and deepening the crisis of confidence caused by the failures of their foreign policy.

For the last four months the most formidable governmental machine in the world, with all the potent investigative and police powers available to it, has not yet uncovered the trail of money from the Iran arms-sale profits to the secret contra bank accounts.

Of course, there cannot be any doubt that this information will ultimately be partially revealed. But not until after all loose ends have been trimmed and tied to prevent further unraveling...and further damage done to the capitalist political structure. The ruling class needs time, too, to pick appropriate fall-guys, and to guarantee that the selected patsies to be sacrificed will not, or cannot, spill all the beans.

The most likely candidates at this time appear to be Admiral Poindexter and Colonel North, both of whom were dismissed from their leading positions at the head of the NSC. They are likely to be the first sacrificial offerings to satisfy public outrage and protect higher responsible government figures in the administration and Congress.

It is likely, too, that the ruling-class penchant for preparing for "deniability" -10 protect the real decision-makers from responsibility when illegal policies fail-explains the illusion created that Poindexter and North were runaway, freewheeling, uncontrolled "cowboys."

Already Reagan himself seems to have upped the ante in response to a widespread concern that he is continuing to stonewall. On March 9 his daughter, Maureen Reagan, met with the press after she and other members of the Republican National Committee had just met with her father. She told them that her father was "royally angry" after he read the Tower report and learned the full story of his subordinates' actions. (He had said nothing like this in his speech in response to this report just three days earlier.)

The president's daughter-and apparent confidant—went further. In a reference to Poindexter and North, Ms. Reagan said, "A member of the United States military who lies to the commander in chief is guilty of treason and should be court-martialed."

This more serious charge could cause more problems than it solves for Reagan and the capitalist government. If granted "immunity" in exchange for testifying before investigative bodies, the intended fall-guys could reveal more embarrassing facts than any of the rulers would like. The worst damage to the capitalist political structure would come from such disclosures. It could lead to serious criminal indictments against Reagan's surrogates, and fan the flames under Reagan himself.

This, in turn, could lead to the implication of the Congress in the scandal. It is hard to believe that Congress was unaware of Reagan's violation of the Congressional ban on arms to the contras.

It is not possible that such a complex operation could have been kept secret from the Congress. The illegal contra-supply (continued on page 5)

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(continued from page 4) operation involved federal and military bureaucrats and officers, troops, exgenerals, a variety of arms dealers and intermediaries, and a horde of mercenaries operating the squadron of arms-delivery "companies" fronting for the U.S. government.

Too many people know. And when it comes to dirty work like illegal contra aid

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Nothing good for American capitalism can come of a replay of Watergate...