Summary
The case
In 1984, Congress cut off U.S. military aid to Nicaragua's Contra rebels. The money kept flowing anyway.
Part 1 follows it: private donors, $32 million from Saudi Arabia, Swiss accounts and shell companies run by Richard Secord and Albert Hakim (including the Enterprise's Lake Resources account in Geneva), and marked-up missile sales to Iran. Then, on October 5, 1986, a cargo plane went down over Nicaragua, and the whole network began to unravel.
Where investigators disagreed, we show both numbers.
$32MSaudi money to the Contras, 1984–85Walsh, Vol. I, Ch. 1
2,000+TOW missiles sold to Iran, 1985–86Walsh, Ch. 8
$3,700 → $10,000Pentagon price per TOW vs. what Iran paid, Feb. 1986Walsh, Ch. 8
$3.6–3.8MThe diversion: provable (Walsh) vs. 1987 congressional estimateWalsh; H. Rept. 100-433
Where this comes from
From the episode's published source list (Part 1 has no separate sources.md; this list matches the YouTube description).
- Walsh, Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (1993)
- Walsh Report, Executive Summary
- Walsh Report, Ch. 8, “The Enterprise and Its Finances”
- Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (Nov. 1987), majority report, H. Rept. 100-433, p. 22
- Report of the President's Special Review Board (Tower Commission), Feb. 1987
- Reagan, Address to the Nation, March 4, 1987
- National Security Archive, The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0)
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