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About What's happening. (Eugene, OR) 1982-1993 | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1987)
O P IN I O N ASHES and DIAMONDS by Alexander Cockburn Rocky Horror Show It is hard to repress a shudder while turning on the television set to watch the Iran/contra hearings in Washing ton, D.C. True to gloomy predictions Republicans, with the slack-jawed ac quiescence and even vociferous sup port of most Democrats, have turned the joint Congressional investigation into a pro-contra rally. Even senators and representatives with good inten tions dribble away opportunity, bay ing emptily down false trails, bom barding the witnesses with red her rings. It's instructive to remember the Senate and House probes of the Wat ergate scandals and the performance of the congressional class of '73 and '74. The difference is as good an in dex as any of the political rot of the past decade and a half. As I suggested here a month ago, Israel has disappeared from the scan dal entirely, at least so far as these Congressional hearings are con cerned. Under the zealous protection of Senator Inouye, the nation that either co-sponsored or initiated the arms and money shuttle to Iran and on to Nicaragua, is referred to only by number. It took Special Prosecu tor Lawrence Walsh, with the issue of his subpoena for David Kimche, Israeli arms dealer and former head of the Foreign Ministry, to remind the world that Israel was involved. Israel had exacted from Sen. Inouye pro mises that whatever documents it might turn over would not be dis closed without consultation. Indeed Israel, despite its domestic political crisis, has felt sufficiently relaxed about its scandal-management to dispatch—according to a report in Le Observateur Nouvel in February—military instructors to work with the Iranian revolutionary guards, the Pasadaran. The magazine said that the wisdom imparted by these instructors contributed to the success, earlier this year, of the Pasa daran on the southern front against Iraq. Israel has also been reported as supplying trainers for the contras in Honduras. Congressional timidity about caus ing offense to Israel has been a prime factor in prompting the debacle of the hearings, since it was outrage at the furnishing of weapons to Khomeini rather than at illegal U.S. supply of the contras that made the U.S. con gressional watchdogs—and press stir sleepily in their kennels. But since resolute probing of what happened be tween the U.S. and Iran must in evitably involve Israel, the commit tee has swivelled its attention to Nicaragua, thus allowing Courtier, Garn and the others their contra soap box. All is not utterly dark. Despite the incantatory howls in the corporate press about Reagan’s supposed popu larity, the late-May CBS/New York Times poll, among others, appears to have established beyond reasonable doubt that more Americans than otherwise think he is doing a lousy job and three out of four think he is ly ing about his role in the scandal. This is well above the Nixon level on the spectrum of human credibility. So cheer up. And while we are at it, listen to a true tribune of the people addressing the House of Represen tatives on May 4, 1987: “So here we are with a President trying to divert our attention by try ing to say he can do something with literally a bunch of gangsters known as the Contras. . . . How in the world would they be received in Nicaragua if we were to try to pour them down On May 14 the Sandinistas flew up 70 reporters to examine the abandoned contra camp, but precious little of their findings made it to the U.S. corporate media. the throats of the Nicaraguan people? Never. That is why they are hiding out in Honduras. They are not leading the revolution in Nicaragua because they are the representatives and the sym bols of the regimes that were kicked out by the revolution in Nicaragua. “And let me say that I call it a glorious revolution. Regardless of what anybody else may call it, I call it a glorious revolution because it was an uprising of people that had been under the yoke of the worst kind of tyrant, the most corrupt form of human government in any part of the world. And who gave a hoot then about human rights? Where was Ron ald Reagan worrying about human rights and freedom and democracy in Nicaragua? . . . Either we get on the side of the people or we continue as the aides and the allies and those in close brotherhood with the despots and tyrants of this part of the world.” This was Rep. Henry Gonzalez of Texas, the lone person in Congress calling for the impeachment of Ronald Reagan. A Contra Love Call Six days after Gonzalez expressed these uplifting sentiments, Sandinista troops wiped out a contra base near San Andres de Bocay and drove more than 800 contras across the river into Honduras. This was the terrain to which credulous U.S. journalists had been brought in droves to examine the supposed ability of the contras to hold a piece of Nicaraguan soil. Their plan, conceivably in conjunction with the U.S. “Solid Shield” maneuvers just above the Honduran border, was to have FDN military commander Enrique Bermudez and other contra leaders come down and claim that the “democratic resistance” now func tions inside Nicaragua. Had the San dinistas not successfully routed the contras it is entirely conceivable that Bermudez and the others would have made their descent to “liberated terri tory” in mid-May and immediately called upon the U.S. troops massed a few miles to the north to come and help them ward off Sandinista attack. This has been a Reagan scenario all along, hand in hand with other strategy, chillingly evoked in late May by General Galvin to Boston Globe reporter Fred Kaplan, with his remark that the contras were doing well since they were hitting “soft targets” and “not duking it up with the Sandi nistas.” By “soft targets” Galvin meant peasant co-ops, health workers, medical facilities, ill-defended settle ments, and other targets appropriate to the martial arts of the contras. On May 14 the Sandinistas flew up 70 reporters to examine the aban doned contra camp, but precious lit tle of their findings made it into the U.S. corporate media. In a typical dis patch Steven Kinzer of the New York Times, who followed his usual habit of staying in Managua and seeking the counsel of “diplomatic sources,” i.e., the U.S. embassy, acknowledged that there may have been a battle in which the contras were routed, but on the other hand there may not and that perhaps the contras never claimed to control this area and on the other hand perhaps they did and who knows the narrow line that divides truth from fiction, etc., etc. The Militant, the Continued on page 16 Guide to Local Arts, Entertainment and Events Published Every Thursday Publishers Elisabeth Lyman Lucia McKelvey Sonja Ungemach Editor Lucia McKelvey Advertising Manager Elisabeth Lyman Production Manager Sonja Ungemach Office Manager/Production Sheri Longobardo Assistant Editor Deborah McGee Cover Design Melanie Pratt Advertising Representatives Susan Brokaw Ken Hof Martha Wagner Garde Wells Contributing Writers Deborah McGee Jim Stiak Lois Wadsworth Martha Wagner Photographer David Stein Distribution Daybreak News Ca Typesetting ProtoType Camera Work Graphics Unlimited Printing Springfield News 335 West 20th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97405 (503) 484-0519 Copyright 1987 What's Happening. 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