« Ronald Reagan , ce héros qui a vaincu une idéologie totalitaire par la puissance de sa conviction et sans tirer un seul coup de fusil. »

c’est vrai ça : pas une seule guerre sous Ronny.

« Reagan envoya les Marines au Liban en septembre 1982. Après plusieurs attentats mineurs, un camion plein d’explosifs détruisit leur caserne et causa la mort de 241 Marines. Deux jours plus tard, Reagan ordonna l’invasion de Grenade, petite île des Caraïbes. Trois mois plus tard, les Marines furent retirés du Liban. »

un oubli, sans doute.

sous sa présidence eut lieu l’affaire des contrats ; c’est bien connu, en Equateur ou au Nicaragua, Reagan faisait transporter des fruits, par la United Fruit je suppose.

On se demande pourquoi quand un de ces avions s’est écrasé on l’a trouvé bourré de drogue et d’armes. Un oubli, encore, je suppose encore.

petit rappel :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras

rafraichissement du cerveau du doryphore ici :

Ronald Reagan, who had assumed the American presidency in January 1981, accused the Sandinistas of importing Cuban-style socialism and aiding leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.[citation needed] On 4 January 1982, Reagan signed the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17),[23] giving the CIA the authority to recruit and support the contras with $19 million in military aid. The effort to support the contras was one component of the Reagan Doctrine, which called for providing military support to movements opposing Soviet-supported, communistgovernments.

By December 1981, however, the U.S. had already begun to support armed opponents of the Sandinista regime.[24] From the beginning, the CIA was in charge.[25] To arm, cloth, feed, and supervise the contras[26] would become the most ambitious paramilitary and political action operation mounted by the agency in nearly a decade.[27]

In the fiscal year 1984, the U.S. congress approved $24 million in contra aid.[28] However, since the contras failed to win widespread popular support or military victories within Nicaragua,[29] since opinion polls indicated that a majority of the U.S. public was not supportive of the contras,[30] and since the Reagan administration lost much of its support regarding its contra policy within congress after disclosure of CIA mining of Nicaraguan ports,[31] congress cut off all funds for the contras in 1985 by the third Bolan Amendment.[28] The Boland Amendment had first been passed by congress in December 1982. At this time, it only outlawed U.S. assistance to the contras for the purpose of overthrowing the Nicaraguan government, while allowing assistance for other purposes.[32] In October 1984, it was amended to forbid action by not only the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency but all U.S. government agencies.

[edit]

Illegal covert operations

See also : Iran-Contra affair

With congress blocking further contra aid, the Reagan administration sought to arrange funding and military supplies by means of third countries and private sources.[33] Between 1984 and 1986, $34 million from third countries and $2.7 million from private sources were raised this way.[33] The secret contra assistance was run by the National Security Council, with officer Lt. Col. Oliver North in charge.[34] With the third-party funds, North created an organization called « The Enterprise » which served as the secret arm of the NSC staff and had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, ship, operatives and secret Swiss bank accounts.[33] It also received assistance from personnel from other government agencies, especially from CIA personnel in Central America.[33] This operation functioned, however, without any of the accountability required of U.S. government activities.[33]The Enterprise’s efforts culminated in the Iran-Contra Affair of 1986–1987, which facilitated contra funding through the proceeds of arms sales to Iran.

According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Manuel Noriega, the military leader of Panama later convicted on drug charges, whom he personally met. The issue of drug money and its importance in funding the Nicaraguan conflict was the subject of various reports and publications. The contras were funded by drug trafficking, of which the USA was aware.[35] Senator John Kerry’s 1988 Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra drug links concluded that « senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras’ funding problems. » [36]

The Reagan administration’s support for the Contras continued to stir controversy well into the 1990s. In August 1996, San Jose Mercury Newsreporter Gary Webb published a series titled Dark Alliance, alleging that the contras contributed to the rise of crack cocaine in California.

Americas Watch - which subsequently became part of Human Rights Watch - stated that « the Contras systematically engage in violent abuses... so prevalent that these may be said to be their principal means of waging war. »[53] It[54] accused the Contras of :

▪ targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination[55]

▪ kidnapping civilians[56]

▪ torturing civilians[57]

▪ executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat[58]

▪ raping women[55]

▪ indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian houses[56]

▪ seizing civilian property[55]

▪ burning civilian houses in captured towns.[55]

Human Rights Watch released a report on the situation in 1989, which stated : « [The] contras were major and systematic violators of the most basic standards of the laws of armed conflict, including by launching indiscriminate attacks on civilians, selectively murdering non-combatants, and mistreating prisoners. »

The Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR, now known as « Progressio »), a human rights organization which identifies itself with liberation theology, summarized Contra operating procedures in their 1987 human rights report : « The record of the contras in the field, as opposed to their official professions of democratic faith, is one of consistent and bloody abuse of human rights, of murder, torture, mutilation, rape, arson, destruction and kidnapping. »[59]

In 1985, the Wall Street Journal reported :

Three weeks ago, Americas Watch issued a report on human rights abuses in Nicaragua. One member of the Permanent Commission for Human Rights commented on the Americas Watch report and its chief investigator Juan Mendez : « The Sandinistas are laying the groundwork for a totalitarian society here and yet all Mendez wanted to hear about were abuses by the contras. How can we get people in the U.S. to see what’s happening here when so many of the groups who come down are pro-Sandinista ? »[70]

This was part of a strategy of the Reagan Administration that largely involved stonewalling the press on matters of human rights violations : in addition to skepticism of Contra abuses, the White House insisted that the notorious El Mozote Massacre (carried out by government death squads trained at the School of the Americas) didn’t happen. However, with regard to Nicaragua, their tactic was refuted by many activists on the ground, including Human Rights Watch, who said the following of the White House’s attempts at denial.

Le propre de l’extrême droite est de réécrire l’histoire : votre blondinet est donc bien comme vous, docteur raciste et ignorant des faits historiques.