Archiv: Reagan Administration (1981-1989)


12.02.2026 - 01:23 [ Unlimited Hangout ]

The Maxwell Family Business: Espionage

(July 15, 2020)

Though Israeli intelligence found obvious use for the steady stream of sensitive and classified information, their biggest prize was yet to come – top secret government laboratories in the United States. Eitan tasked Maxwell with selling PROMIS to US labs in the Los Alamos complex, including Sandia National Laboratory, which was and is at the core of the US nuclear weapons system. Notably, the eventual sale of PROMIS to these laboratories by Maxwell occurred during the same period in 1984 when Eitan tasked one of Israel’s top experts in nuclear targeting with supervising Jonathan Pollard’s espionage of U.S. nuclear secrets on Israel’s behalf.

In order to plot how he would accomplish such a feat, Maxwell would meet with none other than Henry Kissinger, who told him that – in order to sell PROMIS to these sensitive laboratories – he needed to enlist the services of then-Senator for Texas John Tower, who was the head of the Senates’ Armed Services Committee at the time.
(…)
Not long after his failure to secure the nomination as Pentagon chief, Tower died in a suspicious plane crash soon after the equally suspicious death of Robert Maxwell.
(…)
In early August 1984, FBI headquarters and other higher-ups in the Ed Meese-led Department of Justice, which itself was complicit in the whole sordid PROMIS affair, ordered the New Mexico office to halt its investigation into Information on Demand, Maxwell and PROMIS. The cover-up, oddly enough, continues today, with the FBI still refusing to release documents pertaining to Robert Maxwell and his role in the PROMIS scandal.

23.12.2025 - 18:16 [ Presidency.ucsb.edu ]

Message to the Senate Transmitting the International Convention and Protocol on Terrorist Acts at Sea

To the Senate of the United States:

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, and the related Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf, signed at Rome on March 10, 1988. I also transmit, for the information of the Senate, the report of the Department of State with respect to the Convention and Protocol.

The seizure of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, and the murder of American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, demonstrated that no country, or form of transportation, is immune from the criminal savagery of those who engage in terrorist acts. This Convention is aimed at ensuring that those who engage in such acts on board or against ships engaged in navigation are brought to justice. The Protocol would do the same with respect to acts on or against fixed platforms on the continental shelf. Modeled on earlier conventions dealing with aircraft hijacking and sabotage (to which the United States is a party), they include provisions requiring States to provide severe punishment for such offenses, and to extradite or prosecute those who commit them.

Work on the Convention and Protocol began in 1986 under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization on the basis of an initial draft cosponsored by the Governments of Italy, Austria and Egypt. That work was completed, and the Convention and Protocol adopted by consensus, at an international conference in Rome in March 1988. The United States and 22 other States signed the Convention at that time, and the United States and 20 other States signed the Protocol. It is clear that the Convention already has broad support in the international community, and it is hoped that all States will join in this major step to deter acts against the safety of maritime navigation.

I recommend, therefore, that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to this Convention and Protocol and give its advice and consent to ratification.

RONALD REAGAN

The White House,

January 3, 1989.

21.12.2025 - 14:39 [ Wikipedia ]

Nicaragua v. United States

The Case Concerning the Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America) (1986)[2] was a case where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Sandinistas and by mining Nicaragua‘s harbors. The case was decided in favor of Nicaragua and against the United States with the awarding of reparations to Nicaragua.

(…)

In response to the ICJ‘s decision that US aid to the contra rebels violated international law, US State Department lawyer, Abraham Sofaer, said that the US would no longer recognize the ICJ‘s ‚compulsory jurisdiction‘ authority. Sofaer said „We felt the Nicaragua case was an unfortunate signal to us that we should be concerned about our security interests and about the use of the court for political-public relations purposes. . . . The President does not want the court used for those purposes–at the same time, he and others in this Administration want to continue to use the court for its intended purposes“. Paul Reichler, one of the lawyers representing Nicaragua in the case, said: „It‘s another indication that this Administration has no regard for international law–when international law conflicts with a foreign policy objective of the Administration, they will throw international law into the waste basket“.

20.12.2025 - 09:05 [ Drop Site News ]

Epstein, Israel, and the CIA: How the Iran-Contra Planes Landed at Les Wexner‘s Base

Stanley Pottinger, as it happens, was a notable figure in the scandal that became known as Iran-Contra, in which the CIA used Israel as a middleman to move off-the-books weapons to Iran. In the early 1980s, under the CIA’s supervision, Pottinger advised an Iranian banker on shipping embargoed arms to Iran using fraudulent paperwork and overseas “dummy companies”—in the very same period that Pottinger and Epstein worked together selling “tax-avoidance” strategies from a penthouse by Central Park. Pottinger’s system eventually gave rise to a network of covert intermediaries shipping arms around the world; the CIA’s profits became a slush fund used to illegally bankroll the insurgent Contra army, who waged a war against Nicaragua’s leftist government while simultaneously trafficking cocaine to the United States.

(…)

Pottinger escaped prosecution after the FBI’s incriminating tapes of his conversations mysteriously disappeared; he went on to make a fortune on real estate deals in the 1980s, and became a New York Times’ bestselling novelist. His Times obit from last year reports that his final spy thriller remains unpublished. Hashemi died in 1986 after being infected with “a rare and virulent form of leukemia” that was diagnosed only two days before he died. (His death was later alleged to be foul play.)

02.09.2025 - 22:12 [ Times of Israel ]

Can the US legally ban Mahmoud Abbas and the PA from the UN General Assembly?

(August 31, 2025)

The issue was brought before the International Court of Justice, an agency of the UN, which ruled that the US was legally bound by the headquarters agreement. But the ICJ never issued a final ruling on the Arafat visa denial because the issue was brought to arbitration, although that process too was never brought to a definitive conclusion.

09.04.2024 - 16:42 [ New York Times ]

A Way to Rejoin The World Court

(19.07.1986)

The imprudence of this acceptance was demonstrated by the Nicaraguan case, in which the Court ruled that the United States is using force illegally in Central America. That case should not – and need not – have gone to the Court. To make sure the United States retains sovereign discretion to defend itself and its allies, any new American acceptance of the Court‘s compulsory jurisdiction should emulate the good sense of others like India and Kenya by excluding disputes involving armed conflict. America -acting alone or with its allies – still needs the freedom to protect freedom. The finger on the trigger cannot be that of the global judiciary.

09.04.2024 - 15:41 [ CovertActionMagazine.com ]

Biden Has Relaunched Reagan’s Murderous War Against Nicaraguan Democracy–How Many Is He Willing to Kill to Win?

(14.09.2023)

When CIA-trained terrorists tried to overthrow the Sandinista government in the 1980s, the left erupted in protest. Now the left is cheering for the CIA.

09.04.2024 - 15:26 [ Scribd.com ]

Psychological Operations in Guerilla Warfare

A copy of the „90-page psychological warfare manual“ produced by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for Nicaraguan rebels in the late 1970s or early 1980s

09.04.2024 - 15:20 [ TaskandPurpose.com ]

The Psyops Manual The CIA Gave To Nicaragua’s Contras Is Totally Bonkers

(18.12.2017)

During the U.S. government‘s decade-long support of the Contra rebels who waged an armed campaign against Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista regime in the 1980s, the CIA funneled all manner of assistance to the anti-socialist “freedom fighters,” from training and financial assistance to covert operations. The original “advise and assist” mission was a disaster in retrospect, spurring all manner of human rights violations as well as the modern crack cocaine scourge. But the CIA aid program’s most fascinating product might be the batshit crazy psychological warfare manual cooked up for the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries.

09.04.2024 - 11:15 [ Haaretz ]

The Truth About Israel, Iran and 1980s U.S. Arms Deals

(Nov. 26, 2010)

In the aforesaid period Netanyahu served as deputy to Moshe Arens, when he was Israel‘s ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1982-83 ).

(…)

The recently revealed documents deal with an operation dubbed „Tipped Kettle,“ involving weapons the Israel Defense Forces looted from the Palestine Liberation Organization during Operation Peace for Galilee in Lebanon, and their transfer to the Contras – opponents of the socialistic Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

(…)

Part II was patently illegal – a blatant effort by the White House to violate a Congressional order and to cook up a strange deal involving the sale of American weapons (originally supplied to the IDF ) to anti-American Iran, for use in its war with Iraq; the release of Western hostages being held in Lebanon by Iranian-controlled Hezbollah; and the financing of Contras‘ activities thanks to the difference between the sum paid by the Iranians and the true value of the weapons – minus a profit for those engaged in the deal.

(…)

The CIA had direct intelligence connections with the Mossad, but in the affair of the captured weapons the American agency preferred to hide behind the Pentagon.

09.04.2024 - 11:05 [ TeenVogue.com ]

What Was the Iran-Contra Affair? A Political Scandal That Engulfed the Reagan White House

(18.11.2021)

An exiled Iranian arms dealer named Manucher Ghorbanifar claimed to have contacts with a moderate faction inside Iran, and further alleged that weapons sales would improve that faction’s standing. Ghorbanifar collaborated with Israel, which proved to be an important intermediary. While Israel was no ally of Iran, it was also no ally of Iraq, and the ongoing war between the two countries kept them both distracted. Israel began selling U.S.-made weapons to Iran in 1981, even after the U.S. State Department began an effort to end arm sales, known as Operation Staunch, in 1983.

09.04.2024 - 10:35 [ Wikipedia ]

Nicaragua v. United States

The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America (1986)[2] was a case where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Sandinistas and by mining Nicaragua‘s harbors. The case was decided in favor of Nicaragua and against the United States with the awarding of reparations to Nicaragua.

09.04.2024 - 10:24 [ History News Network - hnn.us ]

Isn‘t It Time We Rejoin the World Court? (We Left in 1986)

(no date / presumably 2004)

The protest at U.S. exemption of individuals from criminal jurisdiction has been widely reported. The continued refusal of the United States to subject its own actions, especially the use of force against others, to judgment by the ICJ has been treated as a non-event.

The president who turned America‘s back on judgment under international law was Ronald Reagan. His action resulted from fear (especially after prominent condemnation by Senators Barry Goldwater and Daniel Patrick Moynihan) of an adverse Court ruling in Nicaragua‘s case against the U.S.

18.12.2023 - 18:15 [ Le Monde ]

„Operation Condor“ – neue Erkenntnisse über einen schmutzigen Krieg

(11.05.2001)

Erst die zufällige Entdeckung von zwei Tonnen Aktenmaterial aus der Stroessner-Diktatur hat eine erste Rekonstruktion der kriminellen Machenschaften dieses internationalen Netzwerks ermöglicht. Ende Dezember 1992 wurden sie in einer Polizeistation von Lambaré gefunden, einem Vorort der paraguayischen Hauptstadt Asunción. Auf Grund der Freigabe bis dahin als geheim eingestufter CIA-Dokumente über Chile am 13. November 2000 konnte der Inhalt dieser „Akten des Terrors“ überprüft und präzisiert werden.

Seit der panamerikanischen Konferenz von Chapultepec, die im Februar 1945 in Mexiko stattfand, schwören die USA die südamerikanischen Militärs auf den Kampf gegen den Kommunismus ein. In Chapultepec war beschlossen worden, dass das 1942 geschaffene Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) seine Tätigkeiten weiterführen sollte.

DAS aus Offizieren der Unterzeichnerstaaten zusammengesetzte Gremium sollte nach Möglichkeiten suchen, die im Krieg begonnene militärische Zusammenarbeit weiterzuentwickeln. In seinem Rahmen wurden im Jahr 1951 bilaterale Militärhilfeabkommen unterzeichnet: ….

18.12.2023 - 18:02 [ UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) ]

Chile: Operation Condor judgment major win for accountability – Türk

GENEVA (15 December 2023) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today hailed Chile’s Supreme Court judgement on Operation Condor – a notorious campaign coordinated among South America’s dictatorships in the 70s and 80s to persecute political opponents and dissidents – as a major step towards accountability for thousands of victims.

The former dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay implemented Operation Condor to search for, persecute, torture, summarily kill and forcibly disappear people perceived as dissidents across the region. They used a myriad of tactics to eliminate them, including throwing people out of aeroplanes and helicopters.

On 14 December, in a unanimous ruling, Chile’s Supreme Court confirmed the convictions of 22 agents of the dissolved Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) for the kidnappings and qualified homicides of some victims of the Operation Condor, and ordered reparation measures.

09.09.2023 - 17:12 [ Amnesty International ]

ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION: 50 YEARS OF DISPOSSESSION

(June 2017)

For half a century, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip has resulted in systematic human rights violations against Palestinians living there.

24.10.2022 - 19:42 [ Haaretz ]

The Truth About Israel, Iran and 1980s U.S. Arms Deals

(Nov. 26, 2010)

In the aforesaid period Netanyahu served as deputy to Moshe Arens, when he was Israel‘s ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1982-83 ).

(…)

The recently revealed documents deal with an operation dubbed „Tipped Kettle,“ involving weapons the Israel Defense Forces looted from the Palestine Liberation Organization during Operation Peace for Galilee in Lebanon, and their transfer to the Contras – opponents of the socialistic Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

(…)

Part II was patently illegal – a blatant effort by the White House to violate a Congressional order and to cook up a strange deal involving the sale of American weapons (originally supplied to the IDF ) to anti-American Iran, for use in its war with Iraq; the release of Western hostages being held in Lebanon by Iranian-controlled Hezbollah; and the financing of Contras‘ activities thanks to the difference between the sum paid by the Iranians and the true value of the weapons – minus a profit for those engaged in the deal.

(…)

The CIA had direct intelligence connections with the Mossad, but in the affair of the captured weapons the American agency preferred to hide behind the Pentagon.

24.10.2022 - 19:40 [ TeenVogue.com ]

What Was the Iran-Contra Affair? A Political Scandal That Engulfed the Reagan White House

(18.11.2021)

An exiled Iranian arms dealer named Manucher Ghorbanifar claimed to have contacts with a moderate faction inside Iran, and further alleged that weapons sales would improve that faction’s standing. Ghorbanifar collaborated with Israel, which proved to be an important intermediary. While Israel was no ally of Iran, it was also no ally of Iraq, and the ongoing war between the two countries kept them both distracted. Israel began selling U.S.-made weapons to Iran in 1981, even after the U.S. State Department began an effort to end arm sales, known as Operation Staunch, in 1983.

16.05.2022 - 18:26 [ Haaretz ]

The Truth About Israel, Iran and 1980s U.S. Arms Deals

(Nov. 26, 2010)

In the aforesaid period Netanyahu served as deputy to Moshe Arens, when he was Israel‘s ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1982-83 ).

(…)

The recently revealed documents deal with an operation dubbed „Tipped Kettle,“ involving weapons the Israel Defense Forces looted from the Palestine Liberation Organization during Operation Peace for Galilee in Lebanon, and their transfer to the Contras – opponents of the socialistic Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

(…)

Part II was patently illegal – a blatant effort by the White House to violate a Congressional order and to cook up a strange deal involving the sale of American weapons (originally supplied to the IDF ) to anti-American Iran, for use in its war with Iraq; the release of Western hostages being held in Lebanon by Iranian-controlled Hezbollah; and the financing of Contras‘ activities thanks to the difference between the sum paid by the Iranians and the true value of the weapons – minus a profit for those engaged in the deal.

(…)

The CIA had direct intelligence connections with the Mossad, but in the affair of the captured weapons the American agency preferred to hide behind the Pentagon.

16.05.2022 - 17:37 [ dokmz.com ]

Akten zur Iran-Contra-Affäre veröffentlicht

(26.11.2011)

Am 25.11.1986 hatte Präsident Ronald Reagan zunächst die heimliche Lieferung von Waffen an den verfeindeten Iran dementiert und später dann den Umfang der Lieferung als „höchstens eine Flugzeugladung“ kleingeredet, obwohl es sich um 1500 Panzer- und Luftabwehrraketen handelte. Der Deal beinhaltete u.a. die Aufschiebung der Freilassung der 52 US-Geiseln, was Präsident Carter den Wahlkampf sabotiert hatte. Der finanzielle Anteil der iranischen Gegenleistung wurde am Kongress vorbei zur Finanzierung der Contras in Nicaragua verwendet, um die dortige Regierung zu stürzen. Die Contras, ursprünglich Regierungstruppen einer gestürzten Diktatur, waren von der CIA ausgebildet und mit Waffen versorgt worden, mit denen sie zur Destabilisierung Terrorismus gegen die Zivilbevölkerung verübten. Die CIA tolerierte sogar die Eigenfinanzierung der Contras durch Drogenschmuggel in die USA.

16.05.2022 - 17:23 [ DW.com ]

Die Iran-Contra-Affäre

(20.07.2009)

Die USA hatten Waffen an den Iran verkauft und mit einem Teil der Erträge die nikaraguanischen „Contras“ bei ihrem Bemühen unterstützt, die linken Sandinisten in ihrer Heimat zu stürzen. Gleichzeitig versuchte Washington mit dieser Strategie, amerikanische Geiseln freizukaufen, die im Libanon verschwunden waren. Israel war als Mittler eingeschaltet, das freilich auch auf eigene Initiative bereits Waffengeschäfte mit Teheran aufgenommen hatte.

20.01.2022 - 08:21 [ Werner Rügemer / Nachdenkseiten ]

Impfwahn – wie die Bevölkerung noch kränker wird

1984 ernannte Reagan Dr. Anthony Fauci zum Direktor des NIAID. Seitdem ohne Unterbrechung bis heute nimmt Fauci diese Stellung ein. Mithilfe der Pharma-Konzerne, der Elite-Universitäten und später der privaten Stiftungen wie der Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) und mithilfe aller Regierungen – ob Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden – baute der oberste Staats- und Konzernvirologe der USA ein weltweites Netzwerk aus. Es wurde führend bei der Pandemie-Politik des Westens.

22.11.2021 - 19:45 [ TeenVogue.com ]

What Was the Iran-Contra Affair? A Political Scandal That Engulfed the Reagan White House

(18.11.2021)

An exiled Iranian arms dealer named Manucher Ghorbanifar claimed to have contacts with a moderate faction inside Iran, and further alleged that weapons sales would improve that faction’s standing. Ghorbanifar collaborated with Israel, which proved to be an important intermediary. While Israel was no ally of Iran, it was also no ally of Iraq, and the ongoing war between the two countries kept them both distracted. Israel began selling U.S.-made weapons to Iran in 1981, even after the U.S. State Department began an effort to end arm sales, known as Operation Staunch, in 1983.

07.05.2021 - 19:28 [ Amerika21.de ]

Das Massaker von El Mozote in El Salvador: US-Militärberater war dabei

Das Massaker von El Mozote, bei dem salvadorianische Streitkräfte zwischen dem 10. und 12. Dezember 1981 etwa 1.000 Frauen, Kinder und Betagte bestialisch ermordeten, ist bis heute nicht vollständig aufgeklärt. Es ist eine der schlimmsten Menschenrechtsverletzungen in der Zeit des bewaffneten Konfliktes (1980-1992) und steht stellvertretend für die Straflosigkeit, die noch heute für die Menschenrechtsverbrechen in dieser Zeit gilt. Erst ein Urteil des Interamerikanischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte im Jahr 2012 und die Abschaffung des Amnestiegesetzes 2016 ebneten den Weg für erste gerichtliche Schritte, um die Täter zu ermitteln. Seither läuft ein Verfahren zur Beweisaufnahme, geleitet von Richter Jorge Guzmán. Angeklagt sind 16 Mitglieder des Batallions Atlacatl, ein salvadorianisches Elitebataillon, das in der US-Militärbasis von Fort Benning, Georgia, in Aufstandsbekämpfungstaktiken ausgebildet wurde.

21.08.2020 - 16:39 [ Forbes ]

Over 70 Republican National Security Officials Endorse Biden, Deem Trump ‘Dangerously Unfit’ For President

Among the statement’s signees are officials who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, some of whom have served in the country’s top defense and intelligence roles.

Former CIA head General Michael Hayden, former FBI and CIA chief William Webster, former National Intelligence director Michael Leiter and former Air Force secretary Mike Donley are among the officials now siding with Biden.

21.08.2020 - 14:08 [ Baltimore Sun ]

When a wave of torture and murder staggered a small U.S. ally, truth was a casualty.

(Jun 11, 1995)

* The CIA was instrumental in training and equipping Battalion 316. Members were flown to a secret location in the United States for training in surveillance and interrogation, and later were given CIA training at Honduran bases.

* Starting in 1981, the United States secretly provided funds for Argentine counterinsurgency experts to train anti-Communist forces in Honduras. By that time, Argentina was notorious for its own „Dirty War,“ which had left at least 10,000 dead or „disappeared“ in the 1970s. Argentine and CIA instructors worked side by side training Battalion 316 members at a camp in Lepaterique, a town about 16 miles west of Tegucigalpa.

* Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who as chief of the Honduran armed forces personally directed Battalion 316, received strong U.S. support – even after he told a U.S. ambassador that he intended to use the Argentine method of eliminating subversives.

* By 1983, when Alvarez‘s oppressive methods were well known to the U.S. Embassy, the Reagan administration awarded him the Legion of Merit for „encouraging the success of democratic processes in Honduras.“ His friendship with Donald Winters, the CIA station chief in Honduras, was so close that when Winters adopted a child, he asked Alvarez to be the girl‘s godfather.

21.08.2020 - 13:53 [ theHill.com ]

Negroponte endorses Biden: He beats Trump on ‚character, compassion and life experience‘

John Negroponte, who served as director of national intelligence under former President George W. Bush, endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden in his race against President Trump on Thursday in an interview with the Daily Beast.

“All roads lead to Trump in a way,” Negroponte told the website. “I’m just not sure the country can withstand another four years of the presidency with a man who has shown such disregard to the office.”