McCain Linked To Private Iran-Contra Group

Ties To Group That Supplied Aid To Rebels Re-Examined As Campaigns Probe Candidates' Pasts

(AP)  Barack Obama has his William Ayers connection. Now John McCain may have an Iran-Contra connection. In the 1980s, McCain served on the advisory board to the U.S. chapter of an international group linked to ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America.

The U.S. Council for World Freedom aided rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua. That landed the group in the middle of the Iran-Contra affair and in legal trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, which revoked the charitable organization's tax exemption.

The council created by retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub was the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League, an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. After setting up the U.S. council, Singlaub served as the international league's chairman.

McCain's tie to Singlaub's council is undergoing renewed scrutiny after his campaign criticized Obama for his link to Ayers, a former radical who engaged in violent acts 40 years ago. Over the weekend, Democratic operative Paul Begala said on ABC's "This Week" that this "guilt by association" tactic could backfire on the McCain campaign by renewing discussion of McCain's service on the board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom, "an ultraconservative right-wing group."

In two interviews with The Associated Press in August and September, Singlaub said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain launched his political career. McCain was elected to the U.S. House in 1982.

Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member.

"McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes," Singlaub said. "I think I met him in the Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on the board to make him feel like he wasn't left out. It looks good to have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.

"I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group," Singlaub said.

McCain has said he resigned from the council in 1984 and asked in 1986 to have his name removed from the group's letterhead.

"I didn't know whether (the group's activity) was legal or illegal, but I didn't think I wanted to be associated with them," McCain said in a 1986 newspaper interview.

Singlaub does not recall any McCain resignation in 1984 or May 1986. Nor does Joyce Downey, who oversaw the group's day-to-day activities.

"That's a surprise to me," Singlaub said. "This is the first time I've ever heard that. There may have been someone in his office communicating with our office."

"I don't ever remember hearing about his resigning, but I really wasn't worried about that part of our activities, a housekeeping thing," said Singlaub. "If he didn't want to be on the board that's OK. It wasn't as if he had been active participant and we were going to miss his help. He had no active interest. He certainly supported us."

On Tuesday, the McCain campaign addressed the resignation by saying that the candidate disassociated himself from "one Arizona-based group when questions were raised about its activities."

Taking an opportunity to attack the Obama-Biden ticket, the McCain campaign added that as a House member and later as a senator, McCain fought against communist influence in Central America while Sen. Joe Biden tried to cut off money for anti-communist forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

The renewed attention over McCain's association with Singlaub's group comes as McCain's campaign steps up criticism of Obama's dealings with Ayers, now a college professor who co-founded the Weather Underground in the 1960s and years later worked with Obama on the board of an education reform group in Chicago. Ayers held a meet-the-candidate event at his home when Obama first ran for public office in the mid-1990s.

In McCain's case, he was a House member and a board member of Singlaub's council when the new congressman voted for military assistance to the Nicaraguan Contras, a CIA-organized guerrilla force. In 1984, Congress cut off military assistance to the rebels.

Months before the cutoff, top Reagan administration officials ramped up a secret White House-directed supply network run by National Security Council aide Oliver North, who relied on retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Secord to carry out the operation. The goal was to keep the Contras operating until Congress could be persuaded to resume CIA funding.

Singlaub's private group became the public front for the secret White House activity.

"It was noted that they were trying to act as suppliers. It was pretty good cover for us," Secord, the field operations chief for the secret effort, said Tuesday in an interview.

The White House-directed network's covert arms shipments, financed in part by the Reagan administration's secret arms sales to Iran, exploded into the Iran-Contra affair in November 1986. The scandal proved to be the undoing of Singlaub's council.

In 1987, the Internal Revenue Service withdrew tax-exempt status from Singlaub's group because of its activities on behalf of the Contras.

Peter Kornbluh, co-author of "The Iran-Contra Scandal: A Declassified History," said the Council on World Freedom was crucial to diverting public attention from the Reagan White House's fundraising for the Contras.

Singlaub and the council publicly urged private support for the Contras, providing what Singlaub later called "a lightning rod" to explain how the rebels sustained themselves despite Congress' cutoff.

In October 1986, the secrecy of North's network unraveled after one of its planes was shot down over Nicaragua. One American crewman, Eugene Hasenfus, was captured by the Nicaraguan government. At first, Reagan administration officials lied by saying that the plane had no connection to the U.S. government and was part of Singlaub's operation.

"I resented it that reporters thought it was my plane. I don't run a sloppy operation," Singlaub told The AP.

In an interview last month, Downey, the full-time employee of Singlaub's council, said she has a clear memory of McCain resigning in 1986, but not earlier.

"It was during the time when the U.S. Council had been wrongly accused of being owners of the Hasenfus plane downed in Nicaragua," said Downey. "A couple of days after that, I was in Washington and called home to get messages from my mother. I returned that call and a staff person wanted to ask for the resignation of Congressman McCain."

When Hasenfus was shot down, McCain was in the final month of his first campaign for the U.S. Senate seat he still holds.

McCain's office responded quickly. McCain said he had resigned from the council in 1984. Further, McCain said that in May 1986 he asked the group to remove his name from the letterhead. McCain's office produced two letters from 1984 and 1986 to back his account.

The dates on the resignation letters in 1984 and May 1986 coincided with McCain election campaigns and increasingly critical public scrutiny of the World Anti-Communist League, the umbrella group Singlaub chaired.

In 1983 and 1984 for example, columnist Jack Anderson linked the league's Latin American affiliate to death squad political assassinations.

The Latin American affiliate was kicked out of the league. At the time, Singlaub told the columnist the Latin American affiliate had "knowingly promoted pro-Nazi groups" and was "virulently anti-Semitic."

"That was putting it mildly," Anderson wrote in a Sept. 11, 1984, column on alleged death squad murders, an article that appeared two months before the U.S. election day.

Two weeks after Anderson's column, a letter from McCain addressed to Singlaub asks that the congressman's name be taken off the board because he didn't have time for the council.

Singlaub told AP that "certainly by 1984," he had purged the World Anti-Communist League of extremists. Singlaub complains that American news media wrote that the league hadn't gotten rid of extremist elements and tried to tarnish the league's credibility, "making something evil out of fighting communism."

[impeach__w]

Let us not forget the Iran Contra was about CIA shipped Drugs for weapons and money to hezbolah (sp?) to be re-distributed to contras (terrorists according to congress and Freedom fighters to Reagan.)
Why did George bush as Gov of TX fly on one of Barry Seal''s CIA drug planes? Evidently it was bush''s favorite plane.
Why did the mccain campain fly on the very plane the flew the bin laudin family out of the US after 9/11? There was more than one flight. One was on on Sept 13 2001 with saudis and FBI on it. THe Bush admin claims it never happened but the 9/11 commission proved they did Fly Suadis around and out of the counrty on that day too (more than one flight!) when Airspace and airports were CLosed to all but military.

[votethatone0]

Vote That One 08

Seems there are a lot of people trying to make money of the THAT ONE comment.

If you want a t-shirt etc. go here, they are donating all profits to the OBAMA campaign

http://www.cafepress.com/votethatone08

[votethatone0]

Vote That One 08

Seems there are a lot of people trying to make money of the THAT ONE comment.

If you want a t-shirt etc. go here, they are donating all profits to the OBAMA campaign

http://www.cafepress.com/votethatone08

[votethatone0]

Vote That One 08

Seems there are a lot of people trying to make money of the THAT ONE comment.

If you want a t-shirt etc. go here, they are donating all profits to the OBAMA campaign

http://www.cafepress.com/votethatone08

[votethatone0]

Vote That One 08

Seems there are a lot of people trying to make money of the THAT ONE comment.

If you want a t-shirt etc. go here, they are donating all profits to the OBAMA campaign

http://www.cafepress.com/votethatone08

[grangerwoods]

VIDEOS JOHNNY MAC DID NOT SEE
PALIN IS ANTI-AMERICAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIi4rbIXbkw

Listen very very close from the 6 minute mark to the end!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4iCDBIAde8&feature=related

Her own confirmation!

[dibs977]

We would not be running like a coward to leave Iraq---our troops have already proven themselves far beyond cowardice and our billions paid have already shown how much we have sacrificed. But even more importantly, we must not allow ego to enter into such important issues. Ego must be kept out of it. We must look for peace and cooperation instead of simple victory. Victory is defined and Iraq and US working together for peace.

[dibs977]

GetRealTex---all you say are lies---all made up.
Obama is a great and honest man who has no corruption. Anyone can see the innocence, honesty, intelligence and kindness in his face. Look you radical right---if you don''t believe in abortion--don''t get one (I don''t either but criminalizing desperate women will not stop it) and if you don''t like gay marriage, then don''t marry a gay person of the same ***. But please don''t destroy our nation just because of these issues. Our nation could fall and we might not have a USA. Please stop the insanity and the corruption that is happening and has happened in recent years with the Republicans. Now this voter registration thing---another example of GOP Corruption---they are trying to stop the voter process. It comes down to dishonesty and corruption and we have so much of it now in the GOP that it may bring our country down.

[ioweign]

State to review Palin per diem payments

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
The Associated Press

Published: October 7th, 2008 03:36 PM

Gov. Sarah Palin''s practice of charging the state when she stays in her home must be reviewed to determine if she should pay taxes on the payments, state Finance Director Kim Garnero said today.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, released two years'' worth of tax returns last week that did not list the per diem payments she received since becoming Alaska governor in December 2006. She collected nearly $17,000 during that period for 312 nights spent in her Wasilla home, about an hour''s drive from Anchorage, according to state travel records.

[timberagain]

Posted by j-whitman3 at 04:21 PM:
"I prefer to talk about the links between Obama and domestic and international terrorism..."
================================
Oh, is that what you "prefer"? Let''s just stop the presses, then. Who died and made you king?

[starleo146]

How about McCain''''''''s 70th B-day party on a yacht owned by convicted Italian felon Raffaello Follieri. Also, McCain''''''''s ties with Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska is an aluminum tycoon in Russia that also has extensive ties with the Russian mob and also has a very long rap sheet. McCain''''''''s senior advisors (Davis & Manafort) worked w/ the Kremlin to take over Montenegro. That is some quilt my assoication.

Posted by deedee993 at 05:00 PM : Oct 07, 2008

[missingamerica]

More stupidity on parade.

It was the Democrats that stood in the schoolhouse door, not Conservative Republicans.

Lester Maddox was a Democrat, and so was George Wallace.

Conservatives would be happy to see peace in Israel and elsewhere.

The thing we don''t like is running from a fight
like the coward Obama wants to do in Iraq. We need peace there on terms that will benefit Iraqis.

Posted by gctomajtom at 04:48 PM : Oct 07, 2008

You have an interesting approach to "wanting to see peace", then...continuing a war long after it is revealed to have been started with misinformation and lies does not strike too many people as being a "peaceful" act.

Oh - remember to remind your fellow rightie posters that you righties do not discriminate the next time you see them posting racist remarks and insinuations against Obama.

And you know you will see it...

[missingamerica]

I''m throwing this out just to scare the righties:

From the Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1007/p01s01-wome.html):

[bq]
Jerusalem - Yazan Khalaf has no shortage of big dreams. Aspiring to be a pilot, the young Arab-Israeli entering the 10th grade is also trying to "change the whole world."

Yazan might not start any kind of global revolution, but he is taking part in an educational experiment that could profoundly affect Israel.

He''s among 14 students who started this year in Israel''s first bilingual Jewish-Arab high school. It''s a radical development for a country where most schools are segregated and one that its founders hope will spark a national rethink about education. At a minimum, putting Jews and Arabs together in bilingual classrooms can foster greater understanding between both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It might be a model of the world they may live in someday.
[eq]

lollll...the righties are going to hate that on two counts:

a) Because it is about integration

b) Because it is about integration in Israel, which might lead to peace in the Middle East someday...and you KNOW they hate that idea.

lollll....

[stevex47]

jwhitman,
"MUSLIM OBAMA has a lot to explain about his friendship with terrorists."

MUSLIM Lover boosh has a lot to explain about his friendship with terrorist bin ladens for over 50 years. Splain all that to us. if you want J, I''ll post the link to pics of boosh kissing them and holding their hands. I''m sure you''d like to see those pics.

How many BILLIONS have the boosh''s made with the bin ladens?

[egresor]

anti-communist death squads?
answer me this....is that better or worse?


Posted by egresor
===
that is MORALLY better!

[egresor]

people in glass houses should never throw stones!

troopergate
earmarks
anti-communist death squads

it seems pretty transparent doesn''t it?

both were just starting in politics and who do they seek a boost from but from people influencial in your neighborhood is what. it''s just that mccain''s people lived in ritzier neighborhoods is all.

mccain joined that group for political purposes. he wasn''t active and just wanted his name on their roles for future influence.

obama went to those who had influence in his area. he didn''t have to ascribe to everything the guy said even more than he ascribed to his pastors beliefs.....the same as mccain!

mccain and obama were both starting their political careers and associated with those they felt could get them elected. nothing nefarious (other than political) or to be called an associate of terrorists any more than john mccain can be labeled an assassin (tho some might) (tho the group did sponser them).

anti-communist death squads?
answer me this....is that better or worse?

[mbourn2]

Ah yes... honesty in the election process.... This was today.

-----------------
Nevada state authorities seized records and computers Tuesday from the Las Vegas office of an organization that tries to get low-income people registered to vote, after fielding complaints of voter fraud.

Bob Walsh, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state''''s office, told FOXNews.com the raid was prompted by ongoing complaints about "erroneous" registration information being submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.

...

ACORN spokesman Charles Jackson confirmed the group''''s Nevada office was raided.

It''''s not the first time ACORN''''s been under investigation for irregularities in registration records.

In 2006, ACORN committed what Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed called the "worse case of election fraud" in the state''''s history.

In the case, ACORN submitted just over 1,800 new voter registration forms, and all but six of the 1,800 names were fake.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[element51]

Credibility2.....That is a very interesting quote.
"by any means necessary."....MalcolmX

"with any means at hand."....Joe Volger...Alaska Independent Party


These quotes sound remarkably similar to me. How come you didn''t quote Mr. Vogler?

[onewayright]

Rolling Stones website??? Yeah, very legit news there jtjr30 LOL

[jtjr30]

Theres a Powerful article on John Mccain''s life on the Rolling Stones website, youll be amazed at the things this guy has done to his own peoples