Just a few flaws in your line of reasoning...
Please note the large, bold words, from your own selection:
Aestu wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affairThe Iran–Contra affair[1] (Persian: ماجرای مکفارلین, Spanish: caso Irán-contras) was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, President Ronald Reagan and other senior U.S. officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo.[2] At least some U.S. officials also hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of hostages and allow U.S. intelligence agencies to fund the Nicaraguan Contras. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the Reagan administration had been prohibited by Congress (backed by a strong majority opinion of the American public).
The affair began as an operation to improve U.S.-Iranian relations. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to a relatively moderate, politically influential group of Iranians, and then the U.S. would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah, who in turn were connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. The plan deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages.[3][4] Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua. These were not the same hostages that were taken in Iran while Carter was still in office. As plainly stated in
the other linked article, the hostages in question were taken by an Iranian student group, not Hezbollah.
Quote:
I can clearly picture him, on a cell phone calling Tehran while he’s dancing at the Inaugural Ball, “YOU GUYS WANT SOME GUNS? GIMME MY HOSTAGES.”
And again, from the other article,
Quote:
On November 2, the Iranian parliament finally set forth formal conditions for the hostages' release and eight days later Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher arrived in Algiers with the first US reply setting off a slow motion diplomatic shuffle between Washington, Algiers and Tehran.[102] Algerian diplomat Abdulkarim Ghuraib's mediation in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resulted in the "Algiers Accords"[103] of January 19, 1981. The Algiers Accords called for Iran's immediate freeing of the hostages, the unfreezing of $7.9 billion of Iranian assets and immunity from lawsuits Iran might have faced in America, and a pledge by the United States that "it is and from now on will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran's internal affairs." The Accords also created the Iran – United States Claims Tribunal (http://www.iusct.org/), and Iran deposited 1 Billion dollars in an escrow account to satisfy claims adjudicated by the Tribunal in favor of American businesses which had lost assets after the hostage takeover. The Tribunal closed to new claims by private individuals on January 19, 1982. In total, it received approximately 4,700 private US claims. The Tribunal has ordered payments by Iran to US nationals totaling over USD 2.5 billion. Almost all private claims have now been resolved; but several intergovernmental claims are still before the Tribunal.
The hostages were released on the day President Carter's term ended. While Carter had an "obsession" with finishing the matter before stepping down, the hostage takers are thought to have wanted the release delayed as punishment for his perceived support for the Shah.[104] Iranians insisted on payment in gold rather than US dollars so the U.S. government transferred 50 tonnes of gold to Iran while simultaneously taking ownership of an equivalent quantity of Iranian gold that had been frozen at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. And again, please note the large, bold words:
Aestu wrote:
On March 4, 1987, Reagan returned to the airwaves in a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for any actions that he was unaware of, and admitting that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."
Taking responsibility for what he was "unaware of" is one of those "buck stops here" accountability things. It wasn't an admission of guilt. It's not even relevant if it was, because the hostages you're talking about are not the ones that were taken while Carter was in office.
Aestu wrote:
CIA gave weapons under Bush during Carter admin
Reagan became prez
Humiliation for the current prez disappears
Reagan indicted, smiles it off
Bush pardons perps
That's history, folks
Your Time-Line falls about under scrutiny. The hostages you are referencing are not the droids we're looking for, Obi-Wan. As I said earlier, you are conflating two entirely different historical events.
edited for syntax(semtex)
Your Pal,
Jubber
