Lindsey Graham on Benghazi: “We will get to it like we got to the bottom of Iran-Contra” (Video)

[Draggingtree]

Nice Deb

 

 

Lindsey Graham on Benghazi: “We will get to it like we got to the bottom of Iran-Contra” (Video)

 

 

November, 27, 2012 — nicedeb

 

“This is about four dead Americans, this is about a national security failure,” Graham said. “We will get to it like we got to the bottom of Iran-Contra.”

 

The comment came at the very end of Senator Graham’s remarks on ABC’s This Week with Steppie Stephanopoulos, Sunday:

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Iran Contra, eh? Interesting.

 

Why do I think this is significant?

 

Let’s review what the Iran Contra scandal was about:

 

The scandal began as an operation to free seven American hostages being held by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, 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 the U.S. hostages. 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.^[2][3] 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.^[4][5]

 

Iran Contra was basically a gun running operation designed to free our hostages and support the Contras in Nicaragua.

 

In March 2011, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens became the official U.S. liaison to the Libyan opposition, who were believed to have links to al Qaeda. Not long after Stevens’ appointment, the U.S. announced a program that sought to buy man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) that had gone missing in Libya. Glen Doherty, one of the former Navy SEALs who was killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack, was working in Libya for the state department to find and destroy the MANPADS, capable of shooting down commercial airliners. Meanwhile at the consulate, with Benghazi still flooded with weapons from the war, Ambassador Stevens and U.S. embassy staff were becoming increasingly concerned for their safety. Security threats were on the rise in the months leading up to the attack on the consulate in Benghazi. As noted earlier, Ambassador Stevens’ last meeting was with the Turkish consul general and at least one source has suggested the meeting was to negotiate a weapons transfer; specifically, SA-7 MANPAD missiles from Libyan fighters. Interestingly, a week prior to the attack, a Libyan ship docked in Turkey with a large amount of weapons, including SA-7 MANPADS, bound for Syria.