Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that proceeds from secret arms sales to Iran were illegally diverted to fund Nicaraguan Contra rebels, publicly exposing the Iran-Contra scandal that had been revealed three weeks earlier by the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa on November 3. The announcement comes …
National Security Council staff member Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall begin systematically shredding documents that would expose illegal activities related to arms sales to Iran and the diversion of proceeds to Nicaraguan Contra rebels. The five-day document destruction campaign, running …
Oliver NorthFawn HallJohn Poindexteriran-contrareagan-administrationobstruction-of-justicecover-upcovert-operations
President Reagan signs a finding on December 5, 1985, retroactively authorizing covert arms sales to Iran already conducted by National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, formalizing an illegal shadow foreign policy run through the National Security Council. McFarlane had undertaken the sale of …
Robert McFarlaneJohn PoindexterOliver NorthRonald Reaganiran-contrareagan-administrationnsccovert-operationsconstitutional-crisis
Israel sends 96 American-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran through arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, marking the first covert arms shipment in what becomes the Iran-Contra scandal. Hours after receiving the weapons, the Islamic fundamentalist group Islamic Jihad releases one American …
Ronald ReaganRobert McFarlaneOliver NorthManucher Ghorbanifariran-contrareagan-administrationforeign-policyarms-traffickingcovert-operations
Ramparts magazine publishes Sol Stern’s article “NSA and the CIA” in March-April 1967, exposing that the Central Intelligence Agency has been secretly funding the National Student Association and revealing “the whole system of anti-Communist front organizations in Europe, …
Ramparts MagazineCentral Intelligence AgencyNational Student AssociationSol SternLyndon B. Johnson+1 moreciadark-moneyconservative-fundingcovert-operationsintelligence-capture+1 more
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues a military order on June 13, 1942, establishing the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a Wall Street lawyer, Medal of Honor recipient, and well-connected Republican. The OSS becomes America’s first …
William DonovanFranklin D. RooseveltAllen DullesOffice of Strategic ServicesWall Street+1 moreintelligence-apparatusnational-security-stateelite-networkscovert-operationswall-street-government-revolving-door