Sale of arms to Iran linked to the civil war in nicaragua?

Question

How was the sale of arms to Iran linked to the civil war in Nicaragua?

Answer 1

1st of all, that war the U.S. started in Nicaragua was ILLEGAL, not approved b congress, just as todays "Iraq war" in which U.S. soldiers are torturing people they THINK are terrrorists. The U.S. is an imperialist country with tactics that keep the rich rich and the poor poor.

The selling of arms (and drugs) were carried out by ronald reagan, then preisdent of the U.S., and the CIA, in speciallity Oliver North. The scandal was exposed and was labeled the "IRAN CONTRA Scandal", if you google it you will get more than enouph information. But, I was born and live here in Nicaragua and i can tell yhou that those u.s. soldiers came here to kil our people not "liberate" us as they tell the U.S., its all propaganda. They came into our neighborhood, blocked off entrances and RAPED woman and SHOT the men... horrible Americans.

Answer 2

At a time when the Americans were treating Iran as a major enemy of the USA some of the secret service and army officers were secretly selling arms to Iran and using the money to fund terrorist activities by the Contra rebels against the government of Nicaragua after the civil war had been won by the Sandanistas.
The most notorious of these people was Colonel Oliver North

Answer 3

Congress had made it illegal for the US government to provide lethal aid to the Contra forces, so the Executive branch tasked several operatives to go around this prohibition. At the same time, terrorists in Lebanon under the direction of Iran had taken many Americans from the university in Beirut hostage. The Iranians said that, in exchange for modern American weapons to use against Iraq (it was of course illegal to supply weapons to Iran and Iraq was at the time our friend), they would intervene with the terrorists for the release.

The final scheme was to ask Isreal to ship arms to Iran which would be replaced from existing stocks in American armories with NATO. The Iranian government would pay an inflated price into third country bank accounts. This money was then used to purchase weapons on the open market to supply to the Contras in Nicauragua.

With so many things going on that were completely illegal, of course the intermediaries chosen were often unreliable. Lots of money intended towards aid was instead paid in bribes and just plain stolen. This is what led to the whole plot beind discovered. This was also how the people who had ordered the scheme could later claim they were not involved.