By Paul Craig Roberts

March 28, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - The Democrats cannot stop making fools of themselves.  Thom Hartmann is an example. He writes for Common Dreams and has a progressive talk radio program.  During the George W. Bush regime I was a frequent guest on his program.  It was OK to tell the truth about the Bush regime’s  deceits and illegal wars of aggression.  But telling the truth about the Obama regime’s deceits and illegal wars of aggression left me unqualified for his program.

Hartmann, like the rest of them, will never escape from Democratic partisanship. He asserts that Attorney General William Barr, who he calls “cover-up general” covered up Mueller’s Russiagate report.  Hartmann seems to think that Mueller found all sorts of damning evidence against Trump, but we will never know because Barr, “without showing us even a single complete sentence from the Mueller report decided that there are no crimes here.”  He accuses Barr of “burying Mueller’s report and cherry-picking fragments of sentences from it to justify Trump’s behavior.”  He tells his readers that “Barr’s history of doing just this sort of thing to help Republican presidents in legal crises explains why Trump brought him back in to head the Justice Department.”  https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/26/has-cover-general-william-barr-struck-again 

Hartmann  ignorantly accuses Barr of withholding Mueller’s report. To the contrary, Barr’s summary of the report clearly states that federal laws, which he identifies, govern the release of information that can be made public.  Once the DOJ has identified “material that by law cannot be made public,” the report will be released.  

I know Democrats are disappointed not to have Trump’s head presented to them by Mueller on a silver platter.  But surely not even Democrats are stupid enough to believe the Russiagate conspiracy tale.  It was all cooked up by the military/security complex to prevent Trump from normalizing relations with Russia, thereby removing the enemy that justifies the $1,000 billion annual budget.

Before writing such nonsense as Hartmann has written, he should have read Barr’s summary of the report.  Barr quotes Mueller directly from the report:  “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51323.htm 

Again from Mueller’s report:  “The evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference.”

Other Democrats who cannot cope with their disappointment claim that although cleared of election theft collusion Trump was not cleared of obstruction of justice.  This is nonsensical even for Democrats.  As Trump committed no crime, what evidence did he obstruct?  The evidence of his innocence?  Just as murder requires a body, obstruction requires a crime to obstruct.

But facts are boring to Democrats.  They were certain that all the lies that they and the media whores told would find their way into Mueller’s report. Mueller’s staff was Democrat to the core, and Mueller used every dirty trick in the book in his effort to get something on Trump.  It simply couldn’t be done.

Democrats will never get over it, just as they never have got over Iran-Contra.  Hartmann couldn’t write about the “Russiagate coverup” without dragging in Ronald Reagan and the “Iran-Contra coverup.”

What coverup is he talking about? The Reagan administration started an investigation that continued during the George H.W. Bush administration.  It resulted in a dozen indictments and convictions of high level officials, not lowly grunts as in the Abu Ghraib torture case. Among the convicted were Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, National Security Advisor John Poindexter, Chief of Covert Ops-CIA Clair George, Chief of the CIA’s Central American Task Force Alan D. Fiers, Air Force Major General Richard Secord, Lt. Col. Oliver North.  

Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger was indicted but pardoned by President Bush prior to being tried.  Poindexter’s conviction was overturned.  North was granted immunity for testifying. With the exception of General Secord, the others convicted were later pardoned by President Bush.  

Under precedents established by the George W. Bush and Obama regimes, an Iran-Contra investigation would not be possible today.  In the 21st century US presidents have successfully asserted powers as commander-in-chief that are beyond the reach of Congress.  For all practical purposes, the Boland Amendment is a dead letter law.

Iran-Contra was a scheme involving Israel to prevent what was perceived to be a communist takeover in Nicaragua and to obtain the release of US hostages held by Hezbollah.  As a scandal its illegality pales in comparison to the Clinton regime’s bombing attack on Serbia, the George W. Bush regime’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama regime’s overthrow of Gaddafi and attempted overthrow of Assad by military force and Obama’s overthrow of democratically elected presidents in Honduras and Ukraine, and the Trump regime’s threats against Iran and current attempt to overthrow the democratic government in Venezuela.

Iran-Contra was three decades ago. No one under 50 would know anything about it. Yet we hear more about it from the liberal/progressive/left than we do about the massive abuses of power and war crimes of our own time.  

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West, How America Was Lost, and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order.