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In order to fully understand the situation with the Iran Contra issue, the background must be set. The contras fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua had received support from President Regan and funding in the early 80’s. American hostages were taken by Pro-IranianTerrorists in Lebanon, and Iran needed weapons. (Currie 1998) Along with this the money would be used to fund the Contras that were fighting in Nicaragua. (Currie 1998) These elements set the stage for what was one of the biggest scandals in the intelligence community especially dealing with covert action. These two instances were not connected together, the Iranians had no support for the Contras, nor did the Contras for the hostages taken by Hezbollah. They were a series…show more content… (NY times, 1987) In May 8 1984, Rev. Benjamin Weir was captured and subsequently after more Americans was taken hostage by Hezbollah in Lebanon. (NY times, 1987) Hezbollah had been pro-Iranian and to the administration selling arms to Iran to sway them into releasing the hostages seemed like a good idea. The resulting trade between Iran and the United States resulted in over 30 million and over 1500 missiles being sold, as well as all the hostages being released. But out of the 30 million paid to the United States only 12 Mil made it back. This money ultimately went to the funding of the Contras in Nicaragua. (Currie 1998, 203) Which was against the Boland Amendment, and ultimately led to the Goldwaters-Nichols…show more content… (Tower commission report ND) What was apparent with the operation was that is lacked adequate control meaning, that it was not a complete operation in itself, it was a bunch of moving pieces at once. The first portion of the issues that lay ahead of the operations was the legislature that was enacted before this even took place. Under the control of the National Security Council, the operations were taken on to circumvent the congress that blocked the operations. What came of this was that the CIA and NSC as well as other entities, were able to bypass the oversight of the time. (Currie 1998,203)
What went wrong was the action that took place with the arms deals violated the policies in place, with arms deals to terrorists and supplying military arms to Iran. (Tower Report) During this operation, the NSC assumed key leader control, and omitted other groups which could have assisted and ensured operational success. (Tower Report, ND) The possibility that Lt.Col Oliver North was inexperienced was shown in the use of the intermediary in Manucher Ghorbanifar. The NSC never vetted the plan due to operational secrecy and also informal