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During the Iran–Iraq war, Rouhani was a member of the Supreme Defense Council (1982–1988), member of the High Council for Supporting War and headed its Executive Committee (1986–1988), deputy commander of the war (1983–1985), commander of the Khatam-ol-Anbiya Operation Center (1985–1988), and commander of the Iran Air Defense Force (1986–1991)
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq, beginning on 22 September 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, and ending on 20 August 1988, when Iran accepted the UN-brokered ceasefire. Iraq wanted to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state, and was worried that the 1979 Iranian Revolution would lead Iraq’s Shi’ite majority to rebel against the Ba’athist government.
Tensions between Iraq and Iran were fueled by Iran’s Islamic revolution and its appearance of being a Pan-Islamic force, in contrast to Iraq’s Arab nationalism.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Iraqis to overthrow the Ba’ath government, which was received with considerable anger in Baghdad. (So Iran decided to buy some weapons..)

When Robert C. McFarlane, Reagan’s national security adviser, came to Tehran in May 1986, Rouhani was one of the three people who talked to McFarlane about buying weapons. Eventually, this weapons sale became known as the Iran-Contra affair….
One thing that’s needed for context there.. The Contras were right wing ‘freedom fighters’ that were trained up by the Argentinian secret services.. (koff Nazi koff) that were setting up terrorist groups in Nicaragua to fight out Cuba’s growing communist influence in Nicaragua and the socialist Sandinista governement.. (funny.. you’d think that the german ‘socialist’ colony down there would have liked other socialist governements).. and then the CIA brought all the groups together and said, you’re all belong to us now.. then Cocaine started growing out of nowhere and Menas Airport became Little Nicaragua..

So what does that have to do with Nicuragua you ask yourself..

In 1961, the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) was founded in Havana, Cuba. The development of the FSLN represented the merger of “Carlos Fonseca’s Nicaraguan Patriotic Youth organization … with Tomas Borge’s Cuban-supported insurgent group.” The FSLN remained a largely unsuccessful and marginal political movement until 1972, when an earthquake rocked the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. The Somoza government, which had assumed control of Nicaragua shortly following the withdrawal of United States military personnel in 1933, was seen to be profiteering from international relief efforts in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
(OH WOW DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR TO SOMETHING HAPPENING RECENTLY???)

his led to a dramatic change in the influence and importance of the FSLN as their position within the Nicaraguan public sentiment began a rapid ascension. Between 1972 and 1978, fighting between the FSLN guerrillas and the Nicaraguan National Guard steadily increased. In 1978 “Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, editor of the opposition newspaper La Prensa” was assassinated; this caused widespread protests and an increase of support from the FSLN including “non-Marxist groups.” The opposition to the oppressive Somoza government was beginning to come to a head.

The Ouster of Somoza

In February 1979, the United States suspended all foreign aid to Nicaragua due to Somoza’s unwillingness to compromise. By July, he had fled the country. FSLN Sandinista forces quickly assumed power in Managua, and the United States quickly moved to recognize the legitimacy of the new government and offer aid, however the FSLN chose instead to look to global Communist interests including the Soviets and Cubans for support. By 1980, the Government of National Recognition (GRN) under Cuban influence had begun installing pro-Marxist, anti-U.S. doctrine into the Nicaraguan educational system. U.S. policy on Nicaragua began to favor support for anti-Sandinista “contras,” because most people involved in the U.S. intelligence operations, including Richard Nixon feared that “defeat for the rebels would probably lead to a violent Marxist guerrilla movement in Mexico and in other Central American countries.”

The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the socialist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government in Nicaragua. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance.

During their war against the Nicaraguan government, the Contras committed a large number of human rights violations and used terrorist tactics, carrying out more than 1300 terrorist attacks. These actions were frequently carried out systematically as a part of the strategy of the Contras. Supporters of the Contras tried to downplay these violations, particularly the Reagan administration in the US, which engaged in a campaign of white propaganda to alter public opinion in favor of the contras, while covertly encouraging the Contras to attack civilian targets.

The CIA and Argentine intelligence, seeking to unify the anti-Sandinista cause before initiating large-scale aid, persuaded 15 September Legion, the UDN and several former smaller groups to merge in September 1981 as the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense, FDN)

Edgar Chamorro later stated that there was strong opposition within the UDN against working with the Guardsmen and that the merging only took place because of insistence by the CIA

In front of the International Court of Justice, Nicaragua claimed that the contras were altogether a creation of the U.S. The U.S. played a very large role in financing, training, arming, and advising the contras over a long period, and the contras only became capable of carrying out significant military operations as a result of this support.

The US government viewed the leftist Sandinistas as a threat to economic interests of American corporations in Nicaragua and to national security.

On December 1, 1981, United States President Ronald Reagan signed a classified finding that gave CIA director William J. Casey authorization to “Support and conduct… paramilitary operations against… Nicaragua (the government).. This plan initially called for the U.S. government to cooperate with the Argentinian government, which was already engaged in a similar operation, to train and fund an existing resistance group in Nicaragua known as the Contras. Eventually, due to the U.S. alliance with Great Britain during the Falklands war, Argentina withdrew support for these programs and the CIA had to relocate their training sites to Honduras. Three days later on 4 December 1981, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12333, which prohibited assassination performed or conspired by anyone working for or on behalf of the United States Government, banned the intelligence community from any indirect participation that would violate activities forbidden by the Order, and banned any covert action that could be conducted to influence United States political processes, public opinion, or media.

In 1983, the Central Intelligence Agency released two manuals to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. The first, the Freedom Fighter’s Manual, was airdropped over known Contra camps.
The second manual, “Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare”, was much more controversial in that it directly instigated the use of assassination or “neutralization” of Sandinista officials as a guerrilla warfare tactic as “selective use of violence for propagandistic effects.” (despite Reagan signing legislation that banned the Intelligence Community from using tactics that would directly or indirectly lead to assassinations.) The Nicaraguan Contras were then taught to invoke riots and shootings which would lead to the death of selected members of the cause, with the aim of martyrdom to gain support for the Contra cause.[20] This manual was in direct violation of Executive Order 12333 with its encouragement and instruction to “neutralize carefully selected and planned targets, such as court judges, mesta judges, police and State Security officials, CDS chiefs, etc.” While the United States may not have directly participated in any assassinations, it conspired to do so through a rebel group that was being funded by the United States Congress, and later the United States National Security Council.

In 1984, U.S. officials began receiving reports of Contra rebels involving themselves in cocaine trafficking. Three CIA officials told journalists that they considered these reports “reliable.” Former Panamanian deputy health minister Dr. Hugo Spadafora, who had fought with the Contra army, outlined charges of cocaine trafficking to a prominent Panamanian official and was later found murdered. The charges linked the Contra trafficking to Sebastian Gonzalez Mendiola, who was charged with cocaine trafficking on November 26, 1984, in Costa Rica….
In 1985, another Contra leader “told U.S. authorities that the group was being paid $50,000 by various Colombian traffickers for help with a 100-kilo cocaine shipment and that the money would go ‘for the cause’ of fighting the Nicaraguan government.” A 1985 National Intelligence Estimate revealed cocaine trafficking links to a top commander working under Contra leader Edén Pastora.[40] Pastora had complained about such charges as early as March 1985, claiming that “two ‘political figures’ in Washington told him last week that State Department and CIA personnel were spreading the rumor that he is linked to drug trafficking in order to isolate his movement.” In June 1985 it was found that 1.5 million in DEA seized money was used to help Contras.

On December 20, 1985, these and other charges were laid out in an Associated Press article after an extensive investigation which included interviews with “officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Costa Rica’s Public Security Ministry, as well as rebels and Americans who work with them.” Five American Contra supporters who worked with the rebels confirmed the charges, noting that “two Cuban-Americans used armed rebel troops to guard cocaine at clandestine airfields in northern Costa Rica. They identified the Cuban-Americans as members of the 2506 Brigade, an anti-Castro group that participated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba. Several also said they supplied information about the smuggling to U.S. investigators.” One of the Americans “said that in one ongoing operation, the cocaine is unloaded from planes at rebel airstrips and taken to an Atlantic coast port where it is concealed on shrimp boats that are later unloaded in the Miami area.”

Mena Airport.

In the 1980’s, the Mena airport became one of the world’s largest aircraft refurbishing centers, providing services to planes from many countries.Researchers claim that the largest consumers of aircraft refurbishing services are drug smugglers and intelligence agencies involved in covert activities.In fact, residents of Mena, Arkansas, have told reporters that former marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North was a frequent visitor during the 1980’s. Eugene Hasenfus, a pilot who was shot down in a Contra supply plane over Nicaragua in 1986, was also seen in town renting cargo vehicles.

A federal Grand Jury looking into activities at the Mena airport refused to hand down any indictments after drug running charges were made public.Deborah Robinson says that Clinton had “ignored the situation” until he began his presidential campaign.” Clinton then said he would provide money for a state run investigation of the Mena airport. But according to Robinson, the promise of an investigation was never followed up by Clinton’s staff. In fact, a local Arkansas state prosecutor blasted Clinton’s promise of an investigation, comparing it to “spitting on a forest fire.”

Meanwhile in Little Rock.. Jackson Stephens who brokered the arrival of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)–the bank later identified as an institution of preference for global criminals and drug peddlers–into this country in 1977. He steered the bank’s founder, Hassan Abedi, toward Jimmy Carter’s budget director, Bert Lance. (remember Stephens and Carter were friends from high school or university or something..) Following the collapse of BCCI, First American Bankshares (which had become secrelty owned by Abedi) are gravely weakened; other U.S. banks secretly taken over by BCCI–including CenTrust, the biggest S&L in Florida, and Independence Bank of Encino–collapsed, leaving taxpayers holding the multi-billion dollar bag. In court documents recently released by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, it has been revealed that Jackson Stephens, a billionaire banker in Little Rock, Arkansas, and one of presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s main supporters, may have played a key role in setting up the illegal purchase by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) of two American banks.

Both First American National Bank, the largest bank in Washington DC, and Georgia National Bank, were purchased by BCCI front man and Stephens business associate Gaith Pharon. Stephens’ family bank, the Worthern National Bank,recently extended a two million dollar loan to the Clinton campaign.
By the mid-1980s, Arkansas was a crucial link in the contra war against Nicaragua being masterminded from Washington. One scheme for maintaining a cover-up for Oliver North’s network was, it appears, played out in the Governor’s mansion occupied by Bill Clinton.
Among the occupants of that same mansion was Buddy Young, a man then, in charge of Clinton’s security, who later became a regional director for FEMA. According to court documents filed by Terry Reed, a former C.l.A. asset involved in North’s contra supply effort, Young was a pivotal figure in a case designed to land Reed in prison not long after Reed had walked out of an arms-for-drugs operation in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he had been working with C.I.A. man Felix Rodriguez.

Arkansas’s role in the contra war and in an arms-for-drugs supply network goes back to the early 1980s and the airport at Mena, Arkansas. A federal investigation aided by the Arkansas State Police established that Barry Seal, a drug dealer working for the Medellin cartel as well as with the C.I.A. and the D.E.A., had his planes retrofitted at Mena for drug drops, trained pilots there and laundered his profits partly through financial institutions in Arkansas. Seal, at this time was in close contact with North, who acknowledged the relationship in his memoir. These were the years in which North was constructing his covert supply lines for the contras.

Meanwhile.. Back in Nicaragua..

After the Boland Amendment (The Boland Amendment is a term describing three U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, all aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. ) was enacted, it became illegal under U.S. law to fund the Contras; National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, Deputy National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter, National Security Council staffer Col. Oliver North and others continued an illegal operation to fund the Contras, leading to the Iran-Contra scandal. At that point, members of the National Security Council staff continued covert operations forbidden to the CIA. Such operations were justified under the pretense that the 1984 Boland Amendment did not specify what constituted an ‘agency involved in intelligence gathering’ beyond that of the CIA or DOD.

Sale of arms to Iran in exchange for cash to be sent to Nicaraguan Contras was facilitated by Israel, in the CIA-approved operation underlying the Iran-Contra Affair. In a memo from CIA Director William Casey to Robert C. McFarlane, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, titled Supplemental Assistance to Nicaragua Program on 27 March 1984, Casey writes, “In view of the possible difficulties in obtaining supplemental appropriations to carry out the Nicaraguan covert action project through the remainder of this year, I am in full agreement that you should explore funding alternatives with the Israelis and perhaps others. I believe your thought of putting one of your staff in touch with the appropriate Israeli official should be promptly pursued.” He goes on to write, “Although additional moneys are indeed required to continue the project in the current fiscal year, equipment and material made available from other sources might in part substitute for some funding.”