May 1987

5/1/87

Duarte in US asks that Salvadoran refugees be allowed to stay

Kemp bragging that he never voted to send arms to a nation in conflict w/Israel, & would appoint Jeanne Kirkpatrick sec state “to clean out the Arabists in the State Dept”

Whilst Nakasone is in Washington, no doubt being lectured on “dumping” of chips, we made a deal w/USSR for 4m tonnes of subsidized wheat

Sec Ed. Bennett wants involuntary AIDS testing for a wide range (this from a man who thinks ed. should be for abstinence)

Quebec has decided to join Canada’s const. Isn’t that nice of it?


5/2/87

The Nation comments that the discovery of sex/Marines/spy scandal in Moscow embassy & bugs in the walls of our new embassy not surprising. Like U-2, something always comes up before US-Soviet relations can improve. Likens it to the police chief’s “shock” in Casablanca


5/3/87

Ollie North: “This Marine is never going to plead guilty to anything.”


5/4/87

The pope is Ger. saying the Reformation may have been a good idea, but enough is enough. Has also been pointing out how many clergy opposed Nazism & beatified one of them, who was actually confined to a monastery by an agreement between church & Ger state

RR on the Contras: “The demo. Nic. resistance, including the freedom fighters, today offers the only political alternatives to the dictatorship of the past and the communism of today.”

In 1982 kinetic kill vehicles---the early-deployment version of Star Wars--was found unrealistic.

Sup Court decides states can force Rotary Club to accept women

Miami Herald claims Gary Hart slept w/a ♀ Friday

The Br Labour Party having trouble w/its blacks, who want to setup their own section


5/5/87

RR admin solicited funds for Contras from China & Poland (?!). Inc from Ch. were Soviet-made anti-aircraft missiles

1st day of Iran-Contra hearings by Congress on tv. Secord said $3.5m diverted to Contras & RR knew it

Sup Court says judges & juries must apply reasonable rather than community standards on obscenity


5/6/87

Wm Casey, ex of CIA, dead. Guess that means he can’t be subpoenaed on Contragate, huh?

2nd day Iran-Contra: Secord says North initiated idea of $ going to Contras
-Says there was no agreement for Iran to release all hostages, though McFarlane thought there was. Says the chronology of events released by gov was redrafted to indicate RR didn’t know. Comments on North finding it humorous that the Ayatollah’s money going to Contras. Strikes me that he thinks of himself as Robin Hood

SA elections: Nat Party won, of course, the Progressive Feds lost a couple of seats, far right has grown

House votes down abandonment of SALT II


5/7/87

Economist blames Japanese trade surplus on its food policies. They spend ⅓ income on food. Japan allows no imports of rice, which is sold for 6-8X world price. Other agric products like Amer. wheat have their prices jacked up. So there is less disposable income & money is diverted to high-saving & conservative-consuming ruralites. Econ. ignores reason for this, which is the American-written const, biased in favor of the conserv rural regions.

SA elections: Con party 26%, the new official opposition. Nats retain 123 of 166 seats

Day 3: questioning moved to the offensive, with Secord being charged with making a profit controlling the money. Incidentally, questioning thus far has been by one lawyer, not the Congressmen. Secord has hitherto presented himself as a humanitarian doing his duty. Q. whether this his $ of gov $
-One Congressman accused him of running his priv foreign policy. Orrin Hatch, on the other hand, says how nice it was of Secord to do all this & that it would have been appropriate for him to make a profit.
-Secord & Lake Resources were to buy a ship, the Urea (!), & rent it to CIA for purposes as yet unstated, perhaps involving Libya

Hart almost definitely schtupped the woman, & seems to have lost a lot of cool (to say nothing of being 10 pts down in polls). He may well quit the race.

RR claims not to have known about any excess money from Iran. Says Secord was wrong

Secord questioned on whether he thought North’s salary inc in refusal of money to Contras by Boland Amend. Didn’t know, but expressed his contempt for it & a genius couldn’t understand it, says

Before SA election, ANC told white voters to cast a “vote against apartheid.”
Secord said Tues. that North used profits for DEA agents


5/8/87

Gary Hart w/drew, blaming the press, loudly & bitterly. Blames the system, none of it was his own fault. Incidentally, the Post reported on another, long-term mistress in Washington

Day 4: Secord said of the hearings, “the whole world is laughing at us.”


5/9/87

Peres says if he doesn’t get a Mideast Peace Conf, will break up the coalition

Secord $ to DEA was for attempts to locate hostages in Lebanon

US trying to get UN to ignore arms embargo on Iran

Incidentally, I still haven’t decided on the meaning of the SA elections. Clearly some of the English are defecting from PFP to NP, but was this indicative of decline of liberalism or fear of far right? And there was the greatest crack in the Afk Nationalists yet, inc losing university support. And 3 inds who broke from NP did quite well... and PW Botha is in his 70s


5/10/87

NYT comments that Hart even now can’t accept that prez campaigns more about who someone is than what someone says. Sounds like RR’s concern w/controlling debate

Casey’s family is suggesting $ be sent to Contras in lieu of flowers


5/11/87

Ed Meese will be investigated by a special prosecutor for ties to scandalous defence contractor Wedtech

Day 5: McFarlane today. Policy w/regard to a “Soviet client” must be open, not covert
-Said Contras, under Boland, must be given cont. support until Congressional support could be given again. This support by White House must be “smoke & mirrors”
-Said RR ordered McF to support Contras after aid cut off
-And McF had RR intervene w/Guatemala (not named as such) to release a shipment
-At one pt, when only one hostage was to be released, McF had to choose one

Thatcher calls election for June 11

Secord said last week that the Iranians were charged $30m for arms worth $12m. $3.5m to Contras, $8m still held in banks for Albert Hakim, $3m on transporting the arms, $1m on misc (inc the DEA agents) & $2m is lost. Secord dropped weapons in s Nicaragua. Bought 5 aircraft, built an air base in El S. & an emergency strip in Costa Rica. With aid from, among others, the ambassador to Costa Rica


5/12/87

The $ from Sultan of Brunei reappeared. A Swiss citizen found $10m in his bank account & moved it into a CD. He is now under arrest

Day 6: Ollie North wanted aid to go to Guatemala (unnamed) as quid pro quo for end-user certificates required in arms sales. Actually, not unnamed, but McF has a big mouth...
-McF says North has gotten a bum rap & invokes latter’s experiences in VN--“Wouldn’t be party to” abandonment of those we have committed to

RR says didn’t ask 3rd countries for $ for Contras

But RR wants 10 fighters & 2 trainers for Honduras--Contra quid pro quo, presumably. Some say it would give Nicaragua justification for obtaining M16s

Woody Allen & Ginger Rogers testify to Senate cmte against colorization

They’re taking it pretty easy on McF, presumably because of his suicide attempt. He even told them to “shoot your best shot,” I just intend to obfuscate anyway


5/13/87

Day 7: No “finding” was ever made for the use of DEA agents

The data gleaned from RR notes are not being made known

Also solicited Contra $ from Taiwan

McF said North seems to have been taking orders from Casey

Mort Halperin suggested that RR saying to McF “get aid to Contras but don’t break the law” was irresponsible because incompatible

RR admitted speaking to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia about aid to Contras in 1985, but RR didn’t bring it up. Insists there was no solicitation. Saudi aid has been $32.5m


5/15/87

Israel: PM Shamir asked foreign ministry to tell Israeli embassies that the foreign min, Peres, no longer had a mandate to pursue an internat peace conf. Peres killed it...

1986 were 546,659 prisoners in US, up 66% since 1980. CA had 58,484

The judge dismissed the case against the 8 Palestinians when gov didn’t produce an INS official. Charges were immediately refiled

McF on Ollie North last Monday: “Ollie was probably the most mission-oriented, can-do professional on the staff.” What was he doing on the NSC staff instead of CIA?

RR said he talked with aides about paying $2m to get hostages back, but he didn’t consider it ransom. Huh? But gosh he didn’t quite remember...

Taiwan said its businessmen raised $2m for Contras at US request. At same time as a bill on trade w/Taiwan was vetoed by RR

INS wants to require AIDS testing of immigrants

RR said that a poll showing that his admin was lying was ok because the people thought it was ok if the gov lied to them

The Civil Rights Commission criticized Sup Court decision for affirmative action. said latest RR appointee Wm Allen as “inconsistent with the principle that all men are created equal.” No comment

Defense has rules affecting 3m security clearances (inc civilians in contractors, etc). Must disclosed sexual behaviour inc adultery, sodomy, etc as grounds for loss of job or clearance. Funnily enough, open gays are ok

Coup in Fiji. The last election returned its 1st native Indian gov (Inds & Fijians are 49 & 47% of pop). Coup leader says will rewrite const to exclude Inds from pol role. The now ex-prez smuggled out a note asking intervention from Oz & NZ

77 US comps in SA have settled non-whites in whites-only residential areas

From Wed.: McF was told by North of a “shredding party,” but did nothing. Obstruction of justice? Incidentally, he blew up when asked about use of DEA agents & compared our terrorism policy to Israel’s one of definitive reaction.

Dole, Kemp & others intro leg. to shut down PLO offices

“Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.”


5/16/87

To continue in power w/out an election, Shamir is wooing small relig parties & will try to pass a bill giving Orthodox rabbis control of converts

Civil Rights Commission rejected the report criticizing Sup Court

La Prensa in 1981 (when taken over by CIA?) began reporting on plagues, linked w/Bible & Russia & Cuba & mutilation & Virgin Mary stories. In 1982 started panic-buying of some commodities by reporting shortages. Received money from North’s Nat Endowment for Democracy from Jan85 till closure


5/17/87

RR says Boland doesn’t apply to him or the NSC

Weinberger lobbied Eur countries to complain about the proposed arms-control treaty

Sandinistas anti-Israel, Somoza was pro-Israel, so Saudis had no good reason to support Contras


5/18/87

Sup Court extends civil rights protections to whites (Jews & Arabs)

Sen Paul Simon, the welfare-state candidate, announced for prez today. Wants to guarantee job opportunities, “use the tools of government”

Argentina signed a nuclear agreement w/Iran perhaps inc enriched uranium

Fiji’s gov-gen refused to swear in the coup cabinet


5/21/87

Day 11: Today spoke 3 who gave $ to Contras, inc Joseph Coors. North showed them “secret” plans for a provisional Contra gov with US naval blockade. Sting. Then Carl Channell, now indicted, would move in & ask for money. Coors thought he was had; he had though he bought Contras the only Maule plane
-Ollie said didn’t show the plan to anyone. But O’Boyle didn’t have clearance. Ollie said the plan was the admin’s

Yesterday in hearings: North got $90,000 in travellers’ checks from Contras (Calero testified) for DEA search for hostages. It wasn’t spent by them but North got snow tires...and gave Robert Owen $1,000 in travelers’ checks as a wedding present.

After waffling on the stand, Secord refuses to allow investigators into his Swiss accounts

The 3 Contra donors today said they were told for more $ they could meet RR ($300,000). Channell called one of ‘em after Ollie fired to contrib to his legal defence fund. She later found that Channell took 35% off the top

Singlaub contacted Taiwan, evidently to set up a diversion to Contras similar to what would occur later w/Iran. Taiwan would buy weapons at excess price & profits to go to Contras

Israeli Cabinet decided to charge univ students 50% more tuition if haven’t served in army--& this means Arabs

Iraq blew up one of our ships in the Persian Gulf but RR blames Iran anyway...because they’re happy about it???


5/22/87

Fijian gov-gen seems to be acquiescing to the coup

According to O’Boyle (one of yesterday’s Contra donors), North talked of KGB plot against him & falsely asserted that billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt had given $1m

North hired a Br mercenary to destroy Nic. assault helicopters on the ground, though it wasn’t done

INS will postpone employer sanctions on hiring illegals


5/23/87

A juror for ex-Labor Sec Raymond Donovan, witnesses against whom tend to turn up dead, went insane mysteriously...

The Soviet Union voluntarily recalled its whaling vessels & stopped completely


5/24/87

Soviet Union stops jamming VOA broadcasts

The deposed PM of Fiji is talking of forming a breakaway state


5/25/87

Senate votes to prohibit aid to Front-Line countries unless RR certifies that they renounce terrorism (meaning ANC)

Israel is refusing to cooperate w/the ind counsel’s Irangate probe because it insists on subpoenaing Israelis. It wants only written q’s

Jack Kemp calls proposed arms treaty “a nuclear Munich”

Raymond Donovan acquitted


5/28/87

The former ambassador to Costa Rica testified today. His instructions were to est a southern front for Contras. He thinks this is actually part of supporting Costa Rica. Seems to have been taking his orders from North & CIA, not State Dept. Singlaub made a deal w/Eden Pastora to try to get him into military action inside Nicaragua; the deal evidently was intended to somehow commit the US gov (at the request of Jesse Helms). Ambassador Tambs saw no point in reading Boland Amend or consult counsel.
-Secord op-ed in Wall St J today criticizing the hearings. Among other things, they shouldn’t be letting out secret info

A comforting thought: Elliott Abrams may become the second fall guy + North + Secord as a profiteer

Tambs was one of those that Helms insisted be hired

Tambs, at request of Ollie North, called Costa Rican prez Arias to prevent a news conf from a defense official on the secret air strip. But Arias had demanded it not be used long before. Tower Commission says it was used at least once (Hasenfus’s flight)


5/29/87

Last yr US sent $400m to mujahadeen in Afghanistan, the largest covert op since VN

Sup Court decides defendants believed dangerous can be held w/out bail. Rehnquist wrote, “The mere fact that a person is detained does not inexorably lead to the conclusion that the government has imposed punishment.” Their cells are usually separate & detention should be ltd to 70 dys (can be extended to >1 yr because of court delays)--It is regulatory, not punitive

Israeli cabinet collectively accepts blame for Pollard. Not that they acknowledge fault or anything

RR wants Iran to “go to bed every night wondering what we might do.”

US & NZ suspend aid to Fiji

What did Ollie North buy w/a $20 travelers’ check at the Parklane Hosiery store?