in Lebanon by Iranian terrorists. Lieutenant North was very sneaky when it came to setting up a system for providing the needed support to the contras, with the use of their own ships, airplanes, airfields and secret bank accounts in their own name. In late November 1986, a Lebanese magazine and an American Newspaper printed that the United States government had sold weapons to Iran in hopes it would help gain Iranian support in releasing the U.S. hostages in Lebanon by Iran friendly Lebanese terrorists. After the leak of this secret information, the U.S. Attorney General, Edwin Meese, admitted that millions of dollars from these sales had been sent directly to the contras in Nicaragua (George C Edwards III and Stephan J. Wayne, 1999, 160). These actions were in direct violation of the Boland Amendment. Congress passed this Amendment in 1984 to prevent the U.S. government or any U.S. military agency from directly or indirectly aiding Iran in any way (David Mervin, 1990, 156-7). This particular incident was detrimental to Ronald Reagan and his administration because they took a strong public stand against governments that helped support terrorism and had been urging other governments not to deal with nations that supported terrorists. As this scandal continued to emerge the U.S. government started a series of congressional and legal investigations. As these investigations continued President Reagan denied any knowledge of the diversion of funds to the Contras, along with the claim that it did not involve negotiations over hostages in Lebanon. Reagan claimed that the weapons deal with Iran was an attempt to open a dialogue with modern elements in the Iranian Government. In February 1987 a special group of investigators, headed by a former U.S. Senator John Tower, issued a report attacking President Reagan and his advisers for their lack of control over the National Security Councils actions. This committee was called the Towner ...
