Difference between revisions of "Oliver North"
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[[File:Oliver North.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Oliver North.]] | [[File:Oliver North.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Oliver North.]] | ||
| − | '''Oliver Laurence North''' (October 7, 1943, San Antonio, Texas) is an American lieutenant-colonel who became notorious between 1986 and 1988 for his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair, where the [[Ronald Reagan]] administration sold arms to Iran to fund the Contra movement in [[Nicaragua]] to overthrow the local government. North was convicted of three felony counts: accepting an illegal gratuity; aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry; and ordering the destruction of documents via his secretary, Fawn Hall. Later President [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush, Sr.]] acquitted him of all charges. | + | '''Oliver Laurence North''' (October 7, 1943, [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]]) is an American lieutenant-colonel who became notorious between 1986 and 1988 for his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair, where the [[Ronald Reagan]] administration sold arms to Iran to fund the Contra movement in [[Nicaragua]] to overthrow the local government. North was convicted of three felony counts: accepting an illegal gratuity; aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry; and ordering the destruction of documents via his secretary, Fawn Hall. Later President [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush, Sr.]] acquitted him of all charges. |
Later North became a conservative political commentator, praising the [[Republican Party]], host of ''"War Stories with Oliver North"'' on Fox News Channel. | Later North became a conservative political commentator, praising the [[Republican Party]], host of ''"War Stories with Oliver North"'' on Fox News Channel. | ||
Latest revision as of 09:30, 1 August 2026
Oliver Laurence North (October 7, 1943, San Antonio, Texas) is an American lieutenant-colonel who became notorious between 1986 and 1988 for his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair, where the Ronald Reagan administration sold arms to Iran to fund the Contra movement in Nicaragua to overthrow the local government. North was convicted of three felony counts: accepting an illegal gratuity; aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry; and ordering the destruction of documents via his secretary, Fawn Hall. Later President George Bush, Sr. acquitted him of all charges.
Later North became a conservative political commentator, praising the Republican Party, host of "War Stories with Oliver North" on Fox News Channel.
Contents
Frank Zappa and Oliver North
- Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk: "Involved with funding for an 'undeclared war' in Central America / Claiming Ronald Reagan and Oliver North as close friends".
- The Untouchables: "Oliver North! No "Secret Government" for you, buddy, you're over, you're through!"
In The Real Frank Zappa Book, in the chapter Church of American Secular Humanism, Zappa criticized judge Brevard Hand's attempts to fight secular humanism and making Creationism and prayer mandatory in schools: Out of this desperate need, C.A.S.H. was created. Zappa reasoned that, if the Judge's ruling was upheld, Secular Humanism was entitled to the same benefits under U.S. law that every other religion enjoys: tax exemptions, awesome political power, unaudited expenditures of vast sums on real estate speculations, etc., so, in drafting the Tenets Of The Faith, he duplicated the actual language of the Judge's ruling, adding to it a few thoughts of his own. (THE COMPLETE LIST IS INCLUDED LATER.) When asked to explain, Zappa paraphrased Oliver North, saying, "As a result of Judge Hand's finding on this matter, I sensed a need for the creation of an 'off-the-shelf, stand-alone, self-financing (religious) organization, capable of worldwide covert action.
Frank Zappa about Oliver North
"We know who talks to us on television once in a while, but we don't know who the president is, and that's the real problem! Because it used to be Bill Casey, but he's dead, and then it was kind of Oliver North, but now he's unemployed, so who the f**k is doin' it?" - Frank Zappa, A Talk With Frank Zappa, interviewed by Bill Camarata, March 1988.
"Oliver North, some people think he's a hero. I don't. I think he should probably be punished and I think the people who asked him to do what he did should be punished even more. Because, not only did he take an oath to be in the military that he was supposed to uphold the Constitution, but because someone in the government told him to draw up a plan to suspend the US constitution, and he went out and did it. (...) At that time, the psychology of the Reagan Administration had made the decision that it was more important to aid the Contras than to stop the drugs coming in. That's what is hypocritical about Reagan's war on drugs. They made deals, there are documents stating that planeloads of weapons would go to Nicaragua for the Contras and would come back full of drugs and would land at a US army base. That was the trade put. This is all public information, all you have to do is remember what you see and hear." - Frank Zappa, interviewed by Allan Handelman, The Rock Report, July 1989. [1]
"Do we need to see John Sununu as a talk-show guy? Or, on CNBC, Gordon Liddy or Oliver North? Let's face it: Some of these people are criminals. Why do we need to be presented with them as voices of authority whose opinions are something we should even waste our time with? Why? (...) It's a whole program designed to modify behavior and modify thinking on a national level. They're happy to take the slings and arrows of the outraged minority in order to keep these voices of stupidity in your face all the time. It's all propaganda. (...) It is the residue of the domestic-diplomacy department that Reagan established during the Iran-Contra days. The idea was to control the news. From that office, a guy would make phone calls and certain journalists would get fired and news stories would get changed. Then it was the obvious control of the media we saw during the Gulf War." - Frank Zappa. Interview in Playboy, 2 May, 1993.
