In Contempt of Congress; The Reagan Record of Deceit & Illegality on Central America

iii, [1]68 pages. Illustrations. Preface by George McGovern. Several text pages creased. Paperclip mark/impression on several pages. This was produced by the The Central America Crisis Monitoring Team and the members were identified on page ii. Includes Preface and Introduction, as well as chapters on Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Also includes an appendix on Possible Violations of Law. The authors assert that escalating U.S. involvement in Central America has spawned a credibility gap that threatens the constitutional order. Whether testifying on the state of human rights in El Salvador and Guatemala, the scope of CIA activities targeted against the government of Nicaragua, or the scale of the growing U.S. military buildup in Honduras, Reagan Administration officials have misled Congress about the nature of its activities and goals in Central America. The disturbingly systematic record of such deceit has prompted this report. The weighty accumulation of deception practiced by the Reagan Administration underscores a fundamental reality of United states policy towards Central America: the nature of the regimes and movements bolstered by U.S. Assistance, and the Administration's ultimate policy goals for the entire region, are repugnant to basic U.S. values. It is only through deception that the American people may be beguiled into accepting the current policy, and the Congress may by manipulated into legitimating escalating intervention. A consideration of the U.S. policy towards Central America--the expanded covert war against Nicaragua, unending military assistance to El Salvador, the U.S. military buildup in Honduras, renewed military aid to Guatemala--leads to the question of whether the Reagan Administration is seeking military or diplomatic solutions in the region. The matter of deceit is central to this question. When promises of peace and negotiated settlements serve as mere window dressing for secret wars, murder manuals, and escalating militarization, Congress and the public are robbed of their voice to debate and influence the conduct of foreign affairs. Democracy demands public debate and informed consent. Neither is possible when the President misleads legislators and voters as to the nature of its allies, actions, and agenda in distant and nearby lands. When such is the case, contempt of Congress also becomes contempt for the American people. The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) is an American progressive think tank that was started in 1963 and is presently based in Washington, D.C. It has been directed by John Cavanagh since 1998. The organization focuses on U.S. foreign policy, domestic policy, human rights, international economics, and national security. IPS has been described as one of the five major, independent think tanks in Washington. Members of the IPS played key roles in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, in the women's and environmental movements of the 1970s, and in the peace, anti-apartheid, and anti-intervention movements of the 1980s. In 1976, agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet assassinated two IPS members of staff on Washington's Embassy Row. The target of the car bomb attack was Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean government minister and ambassador to the United States, one of Pinochet's most outspoken critics and the head of IPS's sister organization, the Transnational Institute (TNI). Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a 25-year-old IPS development associate, was also killed. In the 1980s, IPS became heavily involved in supporting the movement against U.S. intervention in Central America. IPS Director Robert Borosage and other staff helped draft Changing Course: Blueprint for Peace in Central America and the Caribbean, which was used by hundreds of schools, labor unions, churches, and citizen organizations as a challenge to U.S. policy in the region.…