This article by Miles Mathis, published on June 11, 2023, argues that the Contra affair was a staged event designed to cover up illegal arms sales by the US military and CIA. Mathis critiques a photograph related to the affair, calling it a poor Photoshop paste-up, and then outlines the official narrative of Contra involving arms sales to Iran for hostage releases and using the funds to support the Contras in Nicaragua, in violation of Congress’s Boland Amendment and Reagan’s stated policies.
Mathis asserts that the affair was theatrical, pointing to pardons granted by Bush, Sr. to individuals like Secretary of Defense Weinberger, Oliver North, and John Poindexter before convictions, which he deems unconstitutional. He further claims that a deeper level of deception was ignored, specifically concerning the alleged hostages. He highlights that William Francis Buckley, an alleged hostage, was a CIA agent and notes familial connections to the influential William F. Buckley Jr. and The National Review. Mathis suggests Buckley’s death date was faked to fit the Contra narrative, providing evidence from online searches.
The author then examines other alleged hostages, including Terry Anderson, an Associated Press correspondent, and Jeremy Isadore Levin of CNN. He contends that organizations like Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah are Mossad fronts and that figures like Imad Mughniyeh are fabricated. Mathis also scrutinizes David S. Dodge, Frank Reed, and Thomas Sutherland, linking them to prominent families and American University in Beirut and ARAMCO. He also discusses Malcolm Kerr, the former president of American University, and his alleged murder, connecting his family to the British peerage.
Mathis concludes that the alleged hostages were primarily CIA agents or individuals with connections to powerful families, suggesting a network of “cousins” involved. He argues that the true purpose of Contra was to test the limits of Congressional oversight on arms sales, demonstrating that the military/CIA could operate with impunity. The article criticizes a general public apathy towards government corruption, citing events like watergate, 11, the 2007 Financial Crisis, and the 2020 Covid pandemic as further examples of unchecked malfeasance. He believes that this lack of accountability will lead to even larger and more destructive acts of theft and murder in the future.