Our history was founded on representative government, exemplified in the Pilgrim’s “Town Meeting” government, wherein there was open government, rather than secrecy. We’ve had the secrecy of Watergate with domestic political spying to circumvent our elections. Now there’s a combination of Irangate, contragate and Israelgate. The president admits to secretly supplying weapons to Khomeni’s Iran—while advising other nations not to do so, and in this weapons supply, the will of Congress has been replaced with one-man rule, or unrepresentative government. Irangate!

These Irangate transactions were channeled through Israel. Possibly Israelgate, denounced in Israel by some lower ranking officials there but not by its top leader, Peres. Israelgate involves gun-running to Iran and the profits going to Reagan’s contras (terrorists of civilians in Nicaragua). It means our top leader, leaders or White House agencies are secretly running our nation, bypassing our legislative branch, the congress. Israelgate, Irangate and contragate all bypass congressional authorization of this weapons supply and profit distribution to Reagan’s contras. The Israelgate complicity evokes the possibility of whether other secret gun running is being conducted to subvert or topple other nations like Angola or Nicaragua. The contragate money was being supplied while congress had not authorized any money for the contras. Can just one man, like Lt. Col. North, spend $27 million without anyone like the National Security Agency, CIA, Pentagon or State/Defense departments etc. knowing anything about it?

Spending $27 million should be spent openly or only under congressional authorization. Likewise, though Hansenfus admits to supplying weapons to contra terrorists, our top leaders deny knowledge of such gun-running to contras. Contragate also evokes questions to ascertain who or perhaps what agencies secretly gun-run to how many nations and run our own nation’s policy in the process.

Unnamed U.S. government officials report the State Department/Defense, National Security and White House would all have been aware of gun-running to Khomeni’s Iran. This merits congressional investigations and a special prosecutor investigation.

Congress and the public need information, not misinformation. Information should be accessible to more than a lieutenant colonel or a president. It should be accurate, if other nations are to trust us. Selling weapons to Khomeni’s Iran through Israel while telling other nations not to sell weapons to Iran does not endanger representative government or trusting our nation.

Bernice Russell

Crystal Lake