From: L-Bueno@cup.portal.com (Louis Alberto Bueno)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: George Bush pardons criminals
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 92 01:06:22 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world
  <Dec.26.07.44.44.1992.9492@romulus.rutgers.edu>

kaldis@romulus.rutgers.edu (Theodore A. Kaldis) writes:
>In article <cubsfan.725313723@camelot> cubsfan@camelot.bradley.edu (Michael Silverman) writes:
>
>> Far from being patriots, the men Bush pardoned (like Weinberger)
>> are *traitors* to the United States of America
>
>Why is Weinberger a "traitor"?  By all accounts, he had opposed the
>so-called Iran-Contra arms deal.

	By "all accounts," Weinberger can be considered a traitor.  The
following are excerpts from an article written in the Washington Post:

--

	One of the charges against Weinberger was that he had concealed his
own detailed Iran-Contra notes from Walsh's prosecutors and congressional
investigators. Walsh also had discovered over the last two years of his
six-year investigation that former secretary of state George P. Shultz or
aides working for him had withheld relevant notes. In addition, notes made
by former White House chief of staff Donald T. Regan were not turned over
to prosecutors until years after investigators first asked the Reagan White
House for them.
	Walsh said he felt each official "was playing his own game" in
holding back his notes, but the cumulative effect of their actions was to
protect then-President Ronald Reagan from the threat of impeachment
proceedings.
	With all these notes and other information his investigators had
accumulated, Walsh said, the evidence would have shown that a November 1985
shipment by Israel of U.S.-made arms to Iran was "a deliberate violation
of the Arms Export Control Act" approved by Reagan himself.
	The notes, he added, show that in November 1986, Reagan and his top
aides tried to conceal the violation, in part by saying they did not know
it had taken place until months later. Walsh said Bush's recently disclosed
notes have yet to be fully examined and it remains to be seen whether they
fall into the same pattern.
	Walsh declined to comment on the content of the Bush notes turned
over so far, but another source said they reflected enough attention to
Iran-Contra detail to record when Shultz turned over some of his notes to
investigators in 1987.
	Walsh said in a telephone interview Saturday that given the past
pattern of deception, he thinks the pardon of Weinberger "is more
devastating than the Reagan coverup." Bush, Walsh said, has "stopped the
trial of a confederate. Whether criminal or not, it shows the ethics of the
administration in a way that I could not have demonstrated."

--

	So in other words, Teddy, while Weinberger may claim he was
opposed to the Arms-For-Hostages Deals, his silence, and then later,
his obvious involvement in the Iran-Contra coverup demonstrates that
he was/is willing to lie to Congress and the American people upon a
mantle of responsibility that was entrusted to him, makes him a traitor
to the people he was sworn to protect (i.e. American hostages in Lebanon). 

>> and should be punished as such.  Unfortunately, they never will be.
>
>Actually, the crime of "treason" is quite well defined.  Just what is
>it that Weinberger did that makes him a traitor?

	More on that particular subject:

--

	Walsh himself, in a withering response to the charge that he had
criminalized political differences, said: "A lie to Congress is not a
matter of political opinion. It is a crime."
				     ^^^^^^
	The sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to the
Contras were actions taken against democratically agreed upon policies of
the country. Those who undertook those actions were prosecuted not because
they opposed the policies - that much would be mere political difference -
but because they illegally enacted their opposition. At a stroke, by
		 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
undermining the investigation at what may be its most crucial moment the
president has made himself the central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal.
	Walsh claims that Weinberger's notes "contain evidence of a
conspiracy among the highest-ranking Reagan administration officials to lie
to Congress and the American public. Because the notes were withheld from
investigators for years, many of the leads were impossible to follow, key
witnesses had reportedly forgotten what was said and done, and statutes of
limitation had expired."
	
--

	Any questions? :-)

>  Or are you just an
>airhead who is congenial to the idea that those who have policy
>differences with some influential self-appointed elite should be
>treated as criminals (at least in cases where you happen to disagree
>with their basic ideology)?

	Oh boy! Talk about an *AIRHEAD!* :-)  "Policy differences???"
Read above again... and if you're still doubtful, some comparative reading
won't ache you terribly.  The facts are the facts on this one, not just
some prosecutor's opinion.  Sorry to bend your frame of reality on this
one :-)

	One more excerpt:

--

	Walsh disputed a claim by the White House that his request for
Bush's notes was not issued until just before Weinberger's trial, which was
to begin early next month.
	"Early in 1987, we sent a very comprehensive and a very specific
request to every office involved in Iran-Contra, including the vice
president's (Bush's) that included all handwritten notes, tape recordings
and documents," said Mary Belcher, spokeswoman for the independent
prosecutor. "It was one of those endless lawyer's sentences that covered
everything."
	"The real issue is why the notes weren't produced five years ago
when the (Iran-Contra) congressional committees and we asked for them,"
Belcher said.
	The Iran-Contra affair centers around U.S. arms sales to Iran in
exchange for the release of American hostages, with proceeds from the sales
going to help finance rebel forces in Nicaragua.

--

	BTW: I have a question fer ya, Tedz... do you *actually* believe
Weinberger is as innocent as he claims?  If so, can you please provide
some documented proof, such as I have for my position?  Thanks..

Regards,

--Louis
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton