June 1987

6/1/87

When the Israeli cabinet accepted blame for Pollard, they accepted a report they were not allowed to read until after...as they say “everyone is guilty, so no one is to blame.”

The Br Alliance party seems now to be attacking Labour’s unilateralism rather than the Tories’ everything

Sec Interior Hodel on alternatives to actually doing something about the destruction of the ozone layer: hats & sunglasses

A 18-year old W German flew a Cessna to Red Square & landed. The Defense Minister & Air Defense head have been fired

Well, everyone bitched when RR couldn’t let the word AIDS past his lips. We didn’t know how lucky we were, since it is now frequently coming in conjunction w/the word testing and the word routine, the new euphemism for mandatory ... prisoners, before marriage, immigrants... RR & Bush have been loudly booed


6/2/87

Elliott Abrams testifying today. Once, when asked by Congress whether foreign govs contrib to Contras, he said no because Brunei’s $10m had been lost

Security Council fails to agree on a US proposal for a global arms embargo against Iran

AIDS victims still might not get Social Security: “They may be dying; but they might not be disabled.”

Sultan of Brunei does indeed want his $10m back

Abrams claims to have thought that the Costa Rican air strip was entirely private & didn’t think of how Costa R gov approval had been attained. Thought it might not even have been necessary. In other words, CR would be implicated in Contra activities w/out being told. Even if you believe him, this is reprehensible. Claims he went to Brunei to solicit funds w/out having even thought of the answer to, what do we get from this

Gen. Secord 1972 wrote a master’s thesis for the Naval War College on Unconventional Warfare & Covert Ops. Said that “bur. obstacles should be dismissed out of hand” & obstacles were academia, the press, Congress, which should be circumvented by a high-level agency such as the NSC. Of course, no one asked him about this.


6/3/87

Last yr, 2 incidents Chernobyl & the shuttle explosion, made people doubt technology. We’ve just had another 2, the implications of which have been ignored. The US ship Stark was destroyed by an Iraqi pilot who, the radar record shows, didn’t know what he was doing and who almost crashed. Imagine what a Soviet submarine would have done... in other words, the new shiny 600-ship navy is as stupid as we all thought. And a 19-year old German made it past the famed Soviet air defenses all the way to the Kremlin. Both should indicate how obsolete most non-nuclear technology is...

Senate voted to require immigrants to be tested for AIDS, 96-0.

The ind counsel asked that Ollie North not be given immunity

Rev. Sullivan of the Sullivan principles calls for econ embargo & complete pullout from SA


6/5/87

A pro-Contra witness before a congressional subcmte Jun85 who said Sandinistas put on Contra uniforms & commit atrocities was paid $2,500 by Ollie North & is not a priest, though dressed as one.

Secord & Hakim, private citizens, negotiated an agreement w/Iran for release of 1½ hostages (!), for, among other things, US would fight Russia if it invaded Iran & would help overthrow the prez of Iraq & get Kuwait to release Iranian prisoners. If this seems disproportionate, the proximity of the 1986 elections might have something to do with it


6/8/87

Queen Elizabeth refused to meet the ousted PM of Fiji

US to start now testing fed prisoners for AIDS

Today the lawyer for NSC oversight cmte testified (Sciaroni). He’s the one wrote an opinion that NSC not covered by Boland Amend. He failed the CA bar twice, & the DC twice, finally passing in PA after 5 yrs. He’s painfully unqualified. His opinion was actually classified. A classified legal opinion??? His investigation of NSC involved 5 minutes of questioning North, 30 min. someone else & that was it. Gosh, they said they weren’t breaking the law.


6/9/87

Meese indicating that AIDS might be a factor in parole decisions (for or against?). Anyway, probation officers will be notified. As Meese says, they might not be allowed to hold certain jobs, like day car center.

Kahane denied a place in Israeli parl. Wouldn’t take pledge, as would lose US citizenship.


6/12/87

Thatcher won the Br elections


6/13/87

Conservs have a majority of 100, but reduced from 1983. The Alliance screwed itself. Labour up to 229 from 208, damaged greatly by unilateralism. London Labour elected 4 nonwhites. Cons 375, Lab 229, Alliance 22. Of SDP, Shirley Williams, Wm Rogers & Roy Jenkins all defeated. Enoch Powell (finally) out. The big theme seems to be the north-south divide


6/16/87

RR says “there ain’t no smoking gun” on Iran-Contra

Citibank to pull out of SA.

Sup Court barred use in death sentencing hearings about victim’s traits & impact of murder on victim’s family

Dallas police dept ranks #1 in use of deadly force 1986, killing 1.03 persons/100,000, followed by San Diego 0.83, LA .71


6/18/87

Citibank SA sold to 1st National, formerly Barclay’s before it pulled out, now controlled by Anglo America, which also benefits from Ford pull-out

Italian gen elections benefitted socialists & Christ. Dems at cost of CPs. Greens took their 1st seats

RR on Iran-Contra: “I think that spotlight has been growing so dim in recent days that when you get a mile and a half away from the Potomac River, there are an awful lot of people that have gone back to their favorite television shows, and I don’t blame them. I’ve never heard so much hearsay in all my life that wouldn’t be permitted in a courtroom for a minute and a half.”

Interestingly, the Economist sort of came out in support of Proportional Representation this week. Obviously, the Alliance failure is dir related to first-past-the-post. Differences & representation become based on regional differences, not ideas (my interpretation)... The system discriminates against Alliance because it has no geographical base, but appeals to some segment of every group. It’s interesting that in US, we never know the disparity because exc for the presidential vote, no one calculates nat. votes. We don’t even know if these sorts of disparities exist. Econ. seems to object to fact that there are large segments of the pop unaffected by the Thatcher Revo & that there is no incentive for her to change that--the electoral system thus encourages interest politics.


6/19/87

Sup Court decides that creationism is religion, not science, 7-2.


6/20/87

Those who colorize films are going to be able to copyright them. I wonder, if I drew a mustache on the Mona Lisa, could I copyright it


6/21/87

RR vetoed the Fairness Doctrine, though it is still FCC policy


6/22/87

This week’s (June 20) Nation, Christopher Hitchens. 7/18/81 an Argentinian plane w/Israeli weapons on the way to Iran crashed on the Soviet-Turkish border. It is here suggested that it was part of a plot by the RR team, headed by Casey & retired army officers like Gen. Secord, made a deal w/Iran to delay hostage release till after the election. This is the same team that stole Carter’s briefing books for the debates

From SA’s Beeld of May 10: “Influx control in the United States? As unfamiliar as it may sound it is the only way a law passed recently in the US can be interpreted.”

There’s a bill before the Senate to limit campaign $ from PACs, & intro pub financing for Sen. races. Should cost $90m. The R’s have been filibustering


6/23/87

Sup Court votes down law for mandatory executions of murders committed by lifers

Ollie North got a $14,000 security system paid for by Secord, and then tried to cover up when I-C broke

Last yr, US foreign debt doubled

Sup Court allows feds to withhold highway funds of states that don’t raise drinking age


6/24/87

AMA backs mandatory testing of prisoners & immigrants for AIDS

The Christic Institute has a lawsuit, rarely heard of, relating to conspiracy in US foreign policy & bombing of Eden Pastora. Secord had a priv investigator who testified yesterday in Costa Rica investigating them. He’s the one who installed North’s security system & backdated & underquoted a bill.

Since an incompetent Iraqi pilot blew up the USS Stark, there has been a plan to put US flags on Kuwaiti ships & send in warships to escort them. Asst sec defense Richard Armitage says that Iraq (responsible for 2/3 of attacks on ships, since it depends on oil pipelines, not ships) would be asked to knock it off. No, Armitage said, because Iran doing better in the land war so Iraq should be allowed to blow up ships, I guess.


6/25/87

Sup Court allowed the US Olympics cmte to deny the Gay Olympics the right to use the 3,000-yr old word olympics

Sup Court upheld Army’s immunity from prosecution against a soldier given LSD in the 1960s

And this same sup Court allowed the same Army to court-marital someone for private activities

AIDS has really gone too far, now. I understand that in the next James Bond movie, Bond sleeps with only one woman

Project Censored annual list of under-reported stories.
1) Soujorner Mag. got a letter from IRS threatening its tax-exempt status because it wasn’t fair enough on US defense policy. In gen., there is harassment & numerous break-ins of opposition groups
2) Disinformation & censorship. Poindexter & NSA created a “sensitive” classification to restrict access to unclassified info. Deliberate disinformation (like that of “impending coup” against Qaddafi). ¼ of the 160,000 gov publications in 1982 have been eliminated
3) 1987 Intelligence Authorization Bill gave FBI authority to obtain phone & financial records secretly w/out court order upon certification that the investigatee might be a foreign agent
4) CIA payments to Costa Rican & Honduran journalists to attack Nicaragua in print
5) RR’s support of the World Anti-Communist League of John Singlaub & misc fascist mafia & terrorists & death squads
6) Nerve gas production in residential areas
7) CIA bombing of Pastora in 1984. The exec editor of WaPo never heard of the Christic Institute lawsuit nor Project Censored
8) Intentional exposures by gov agencies of people to radiation for 30 yrs. Inc exposure of the testicles of >139 inmates in WA & Ore.
9) V.A. 1st denied the existence of, then destroyed documents relating to, radiation of soldiers
10) The launch scheduled after the Challenger, would have contained an unmanned spacecraft w/a propulsion system containing 46.7 pounds of plutonium. It would have killed at least 1m--“kiss Florida goodbye.” NASA plans to cont. sending up such probes when the shuttles resume

I-C testimony: when Justice orig. found out about the arms transfer, a statement was prepared but not released saying no one in gov knew of the diversion

6/26/87

When Meese heard of a memo North failed to shred on the diversion, “He said something analogous to ‘Oh, darn,” but it--perhaps more strenuous than that.” --asst atty gen Charles Cooper

Justice Powell retires


6/28/87

The rioting in S Korea has led the gov to allow dir elections or prez, so perhaps it may mean real democracy


6/29/87

I may have overstated S Korea, but the man Chun chose as his successor, oddly enough, came out in favor of dir elections

Sup Court rules that probation officers can conduct searches of people on probation w/out warrants. And don’t need probable cause

Israel decides on a non-discriminatory tuition


6/30/87

Nation lists things ignored by Iran Contra cmtes:
1) Meese’s quashing of FBI investigation
2) drug running etc by Contras. Indeed former CIA station chief in Costa Rica testified that he was ordered to cont. working w/two he suspected of drug dealing
3) Contra corruption
4) attempted assassination of Pastora

16 of the 26 members of the Iran-Contra cmte voted against a moratorium on Contra aid in March

Cons. no longer have seats from Manchester, Leicester, Bradford, Liverpool, Newcastle & Glasgow. Ivor Crewe says Labour becoming the “party neither of one class nor one nation” but “a regional class party”

Admin ruled out providing condoms to fed prison inmates. Since homosexual sex is against prison regs