Iran-Contra was a shorthand term for the illegalities involved in financing the civil war raging in Nicaragua.Congress passed the Boland Amendment making it illegal to provide funding to overthrow Nicaragua's duly elected Communist government.
By 1986 Americans had become familiar with names such as the Reverend Benjamin Weir,Father Martin Jenco and Terry Anderson of the Associated Press who were among the 17 Americans and 75 Westerners kidnapped in Beirut by terrorists and thrown into hellholes around Lebanon.All captives were brutally tortured, and some left to die.These kidnappings were part of a campaign --in retaliation for Israel's 1982 invasion which had been supported by US warplanes and ships from the US Sixth Fleet--by Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah to rid Lebanon of all Americans."
(Part 1-- Excerpted from "The Family" by Kitty Kelley)
By 1986 Americans had become familiar with names such as the Reverend Benjamin Weir,Father Martin Jenco and Terry Anderson of the Associated Press who were among the 17 Americans and 75 Westerners kidnapped in Beirut by terrorists and thrown into hellholes around Lebanon.All captives were brutally tortured, and some left to die.These kidnappings were part of a campaign --in retaliation for Israel's 1982 invasion which had been supported by US warplanes and ships from the US Sixth Fleet--by Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah to rid Lebanon of all Americans."
(Part 1-- Excerpted from "The Family" by Kitty Kelley)