{"id":393205,"date":"2019-01-17T18:10:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T17:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/ap-expunges-iran-contra-pardons-from-barrs-record-consortiumnews\/"},"modified":"2019-01-17T18:10:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T17:10:53","slug":"ap-expunges-iran-contra-pardons-from-barrs-record-consortiumnews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/ap-expunges-iran-contra-pardons-from-barrs-record-consortiumnews\/","title":{"rendered":"AP Expunges Iran\/Contra Pardons from Barr\u2019s Record \u2013 Consortiumnews"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Sam Husseini writes that the news agency ignored the nominee\u2019s link to a major U.S. scandal broken by its own investigative reporter at the time, the late Robert Parry, founder of <strong>Consortium News.<\/strong><span id=\"more-32474\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/tag\/sam-husseini\/\">By SamHusseini<\/a><\/span><br \/><\/strong><em style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/triumph-of-conventional-wisdom-ap-expunges-iran-contra-pardons-from-barrs-record\/\">FAIR<\/a><\/em><strong><br \/><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/edited-sam-husseini-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/edited-sam-husseini-1-150x150.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-27670\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\"  \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-27670\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/edited-sam-husseini-1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\"  \/><\/noscript><\/a><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>A<\/strong><\/span> president facing a major scandal, just as the highest-profile trial is about to begin, pardons the indicted or convicted officials around him to effectively stop the investigation that\u2019s closing in on his own illegal conduct.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Trump soon? We\u2019ll see. But this actually describes what President George H.W. Bush did in 1992.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">The Iran\/Contra scandal revealed, among other things, that the Reagan\/Bush White House had secretly sold missiles to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Lebanon, using the proceeds to fund right-wing forces fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government in violation of U.S. law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/NYT-Bush-Pardons-640x523.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/NYT-Bush-Pardons-640x523.png\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-32477\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"523\"  \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-32477\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/NYT-Bush-Pardons-640x523.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"523\"  \/><\/noscript><\/a>On Christmas Eve 1992, just as the indicted former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was about to face trial, Bush pardoned him and five others, including former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane. <em>The\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">(<a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1992\/12\/25\/us\/pardons-bush-pardons-6-iran-affair-aborting-weinberger-trial-prosecutor-assails.html?auth=login-email\">12\/25\/92<\/a>)<\/span> reported this as \u201cBush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Averting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails \u2018Cover-Up.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">The attorney general for Bush who\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/01\/14\/684553791\/william-barr-supported-pardons-in-an-earlier-d-c-witch-hunt-iran-contra\">approved the pardons<\/a><\/span>, William Barr, is now being nominated for the same position by Trump. Is this background relevant? Though current news columns are rife with speculation that Trump might likewise protect himself by pardoning his indicted or convicted associates, the dominant U.S. news wire service doesn\u2019t seem to think so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">In \u201cBarr as Attorney General: Old Job, Very Different Washington\u201d <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">(<a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/8f26d3c22b264d5dad454fd94c6eb6a1?\">1\/14\/19<\/a>),<\/span>\u00a0<em>Associated Press<\/em>\u00a0reporter Eric Tucker made no mention whatsoever of the Iran\/Contra pardons. Rather than seriously examine the trajectory of presidential power and accountability, Tucker framed the story, as the headline indicates, as a stark contrast between the\u00a0gentlemanly Bush and the \u201ctwice-divorced\u201d Trump:<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32478\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/AP-William-Barr.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/AP-William-Barr-584x700.jpg\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32478\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"700\"  \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32478\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/AP-William-Barr-584x700.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"700\"  \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">AP describes Barr as \u201cprincipled, smart and strong-willed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Serving Trump, who faces intensifying investigations from the department Barr would lead, is unlikely to compare&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2019\/01\/16\/triumph-of-conventional-wisdom-ap-expunges-iran-contra-pardons-from-barrs-record\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Husseini writes that the news agency ignored the nominee\u2019s link to a major U.S. scandal broken by its own investigative reporter at the time, the late Robert Parry, founder of Consortium News. By SamHusseiniFAIR A president facing a major scandal, just as the highest-profile trial is about to begin, pardons the indicted or convicted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-393205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2524"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}