George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

given in the Tower Commission Report--is as follows: `` [T]he proposal to shift to direct
U.S. arms sales to Iran ... was considered by the president at a meeting on January 17
which only the Vice President, Mr. Regan, Mr. Fortier, and VADM Poindexter attended.
Thereafter, the only senior-level review the Iran initiative received was during one or
another of the President's daily national security briefings. These were routinely attended
only by the President, the Vice President, Mr. Regan, and VADM Poindexter. There was
no subsequent collective consideration of the Iran initiative by the NSC principals before
it became public 11 months later....
Because of the obsession with secrecy, interagency consideration of the initiative was
limited to the cabinet level. With the exception of the NSC staff and, after January 17,
1986, a handful of CIA officials, the rest of the executive departments and agencies were
largely excluded.
``The National Security Act also requires notification of Congress of covert intelligence
activities. If not done in advance, notification must be `in timely fashion.' The
Presidential Finding of January 17 directed that congressional notification be withheld,
and this decision appears to have never been reconsidered. ''@s4@s3
January 18, 1986:
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was directed to prepare the transfer of 4,000 TOW
anti-tank missiles to the CIA, which was to ship them to Khomeini's Iran. Bypassing
normal channels for covert shipments, he elected to have his senior military assistant, Lt.
Gen. Colin L. Powell, handle the arrangements for the arms transfer.@s4@s4
January 19-21, 1986:
George Bush's deputy national security aide, Col. Samuel Watson, worked with Felix
Rodriguez in El Salvador, and met with Col. James Steele, the U.S. military liaison
officer with the covert Contra resupply organization in El Salvador.@s4@s5
Bush Sets Up North as Counterterrorism Boss--and `` Fall Guy''
January 20, 1986:
Following the recommendations of an as yet unofficial report of the George Bush
Terrorism Task Force, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive
(NSDD) 207.
The unofficial Bush report, the official Bush report released in February, and the Bushorganized
NSDD 207, together put forward Oliver North as `` Mr. Iran-Contra. '' North
became the nominal, up- front coordinator of the administration's counterterrorism
program, hiding as best he could Bush's hand in these matters. He was given a secret
office and staff (the Office to Combat Terrorism), separate from regular NSC staff
members. George Bush now reassigned his Terrorism Task Force employees, Craig Coy
and Robert Earl, to do the daily work of the North secret office. The Bush men spent the