Received: from gargoyle.uchicago.edu by zaphod.uchicago.edu (5.59/4.7) id AA18625; Wed, 25 Jul 90 23:45:39 CDT Received: by gargoyle.uchicago.edu from uchimvs1.uchicago.edu (5.59/1.14) id AA14412; Wed, 25 Jul 90 23:45:38 199 Date: Wed, 25 Jul 90 23:45:38 199 From: MATHRICH%UMCVMB.BITNET%UCHIMVS1@gargoyle.UChicago.EDU Message-Id: <9007260445.AA14412@gargoyle.uchicago.edu> Received: (from UMCVMB.BITNET for via BSMTP) Received: (from MAILER@UMCVMB for MAILER@UCHIMVS1 via NJE) Apparently-To: (M-MAILER-0083; 136 LINES); Wed, 25 Jul 90 23:44:27 CST Received: by UMCVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 4096; Wed, 25 Jul 90 23:40:30 CDT Date: Wed, 25 Jul 90 23:38:52 CDT From: "Rich Winkel UMC Math Department" To: mkvemuri%zaphod%gargoyle.uchicago.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, davidow%zaphod%gargoyle.uchicago.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, Q4095%pucc.BITNET@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, nelson%clutx.clarkson.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, james968%ccwf.cc.utexas.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, terri%csd4.csd.uwm.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, c3ar%zaphod%gargoyle.uchicago.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, harelb%zaphod%gargoyle.uchicago.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, mary%zaphod%gargoyle.uchicago.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, john.w.lamperti%dartmouth.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, madhav.chari%dartmouth.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, stet%mac.dartmouth.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, sin%math.ufl.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, braden%venera.isi.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, hiramc%sco.COM@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, MATHRICH%UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, arens%venera.isi.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, hansen%aerosmith.esd%sgi.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, DICKSON%HARTFORD.BITNET@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, BREEDING%SEARCH.enet.dec.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, gst%gnosys.svle.ma.us@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, jjc%mayo.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, FIFRAN%LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, bmiller%venera.isi.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, robert%marvax.Berkeley.EDU%ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, allard%venera.isi.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, michelma%division.cs.columbia.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, BOBM%MAX.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, froncio%caip.rutgers.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, bertoldi%astro.princeton.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, jha%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, dm%think.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, mikey%boulder.colorado.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, gscott%portia.stanford.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, avatar%pnet51.orb.mn.org@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, UNCPJS%UNC.BITNET@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, avila%swinger.csd%sgi.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, jeffb%music%sgi.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, sco!barta%ucscc.UCSC.EDU@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, dave%sgi.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, lara%sgi.sgi.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, STUKAS%IRISHMVS.CC.ND.EDU@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, archer%sgi.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, wile%ISI.EDU@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, sco!brigid%uunet.uu.net@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, msg%fiji%sgi.com@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, wiener%spot.colorado.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU, fylz!fyl%beaver.cs.washington.edu@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU Subject: Fwd from Christic Institute /** chr.contragate: 100.0 **/ ** Topic: RICO `REFORM' AND CONTRA COVERUP ** ** Written 12:58 pm Jul 25, 1990 by christic in cdp:chr.contragate ** ----------------------------------------------------------------- RICO `REFORM' MOTIVATED BY IRAN-CONTRA COVERUP? By JACK ANDERSON, 24 July 1990 [The following article by syndicated columnist Jack Anderson appeared Wednesday in newspapers around the country.] WASHINGTON--A bill breezing through the House Judiciary Committee would tone down federal racketeering laws, and its critics are wondering why some members of Congress would be so quick to support it, especially since it might let savings and loan scoundrels off more easily. Entries in Oliver North's notebooks tracking the Iran-contra scandal provide one reason that the bill might look even better for some members of Congress already predisposed to pass it. If the teeth are taken out of the racketeering law, it could hamper one already shaky racketeering suit that has embarassed some Iran-contra players on Capitol Hill. Journalists Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey, through the Christic Institute, a Washington public interest law group, filed the suit in 1986. The defendants include several major and minor players in the Iran-contra scandal. Not trusting the American criminal justice system to bring the players to account, Avirgan and Honey sued them personally under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. The suit alleges that the Iran-contra supply operation amounted to organized crime involving drugs, guns and murder. The claims revolve around a 1984 attempt to kill maverick Nicaraguan contra leader Eden Pastora at a press conference in Nicaragua. A man posing as a journalist carried a bomb into the press conference. Pastora survived, but four people were killed and Avirgan and Honey were among the injured. At the time, Pastora was an outspoken critic of the main contra group and the Central Intelligence Agency had warned him to join those contras. The Avirgan and Honey lawsuit is based on the strong racketeering law that Congress is about to dilute. Rep. Bill McCollum, R- Fla., is a co-sponsor of the changes and big supporter of making them retroactive to cover suits already in the courts. He also stands to take some heat from the Avirgan and Honey lawsuit, which was dismissed once but is now in appeal. Oliver North recorded in his notebooks that in 1985 McCollum and three other members of Congress were briefed by Robert McFarlane on the status of the contras. They talked about a plan that included, ``$25-$50 M. (million) third country support and CIA intel (intelligence).'' The notes could indicate that McCollum was aware of North's supply operation to the contras when U.S. aid to those rebels was illegal. McCollum now claims the meeting was about a ``lobbying effort'' to get Congress to restore aid to the contras. As a member of the congressional Iran-contra Committee that later investigated North's operation, McCollum signed a minority report finding that North did not break the law. McCollum's top aid, Vaughn Forrest, has also been linked to the network that the Avirgan and Honey suit seeks to expose. In a deposition in that suit, one of North's couriers confirmed that Forrest knew John Hull, one of the defendants in the racketeering suit. Hull is an American who lived on a ranch in Costa Rica in the mid-1980s and used the airstrips on his ranch, near the Nicaraguan border, to supply the contras. On the night that Pastora was bombed, Forrest was with Hull at one of Hull's safe houses in Costa Rica. Hull has since been charged with murder in Costa Rica for his alleged role in the bombing. He now lives on a farm in Indiana while the United States and Costa Rica debate his extradition. North's notes show that a U.S. official briefed him on Pastora's whereabouts four days before the bombing. The official was in touch with a group of Cuban exiles training with Hull to fight for the contras. Costa Rican authorities now claim one of the Cubans was also behind the bombing. Forrest isn't a defendant in the Avirgan and Honey lawsuit, but further exposure of his ties to the others would tarnish the reputation of his boss, McCollum. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Lang tcn449 TCN Media Department christic PeaceNet Christic Institute 76247,3214 CompuServe (202) 797-8106 voice uunet!pyramid!cdp!christic UUCP (202) 462-5138 fax cdp!christic%labrea@stanford Bitnet 151251507 telex cdp!christic@arisia.xerox.com Internet ** End of text from cdp:chr.contragate **