Se

FEATURE

berate throughout the U.S.

By GUS HALL

Most questions and discussions on the
Political crises are now related in some way
to the Tower Commission Report.

The commission was set up and selected
by the president. Its mission — to cover up
the policies of Reaganism and divert atten-
tion away from the Senate and House inves-
Ugations. ;

Questions about Reagan’s credibility and
future are important — but much more
important are questions of policy and polit-
Ics. :

The Tower Commission Report is loaded
With phrases and conclusions that try to
Carry out its coverup mandate — phrases
like “Reagan’s management style,” “Rea-
8an’s inability to remember,” “lack of atten-
tion and control,” “his aides did not save
him from himself.”

Although coverup was the primary pur-
Pose and concern, the report is still a politi-
Cal blockbuster. Because its authors had to
appear to be credible, many incredible facts
and new information have entered the pub-
lic domain. ‘

There is great interest and growing active
Concern about the Iran-contragate scandal
Mall sectors of the population. This in itself
'Sa very positive development. Public inter-
€st, concern and vigilance will play an
‘mportant role in checking and blocking the

Orces of reaction from trying to recoup the
POWer they had illegally taken over.

The new polls show that one-third of the
Population think Reagan should resign. Of
these, most still think Reagan is a nice guy.
0 effect, people are saying to Reagan,

othing personal. But get out!”

In another related poll, only 20 per cent
of the American people think Reagan mea-
Sures up to the status and credibility of

Orbachev. This says a lot about the new

inking about the Soviet Union and its
“adership in comparison with ours.

ith the release of the commission find-
Ngs, the investigative process continues. As
More and more comes out, evidence of a
eeping fascism is piling up. We should be
“luctant to overstate the danger of fascism.

Ut at the same time we must sound the

atm before the creeping process reaches a

tical mass.

“ ascism is always a creeping process. It

F ten creeps in unseen up to a certain point.

becism never comes on the scene under the
nner of fascism. No one makes a decision
® establish fascism.

f In Germany, the process was developing
°t a long time, including the ideological

. €ning up of the people. Then there was a
Malitative shift and it became obvious to
© whole world.

in the components and the process were

th Place here. The fact that the conditions,

oe Components and the timing did not all

Me together here to make a qualitative

Earlier this month, the Tower Commission, the three-member
commission set up by Reagan to investigate the involvement of the
National Security Council in the secret Iran sales, released its long-
awaited report. Predictably, since it was a White House-appointed
committee, it concluded that the arms scandal was an “aberration” in
government policy and made no recommendations for fundamental
Structural changes in the conduct of the administration, calling merely
for changes in personnel. Nonetheless, the report was highly critical of.
Reagan for failing to be in control and the hundreds if pages of
evidence that accompanied the 304-page report revealed an elaborate
network of connections between numerous ultra-right organizations
and the presidency and the clear involvement of those organizations,

ine sna a De eS NRE IO RE IS SN a I I

With Irangate bared, defeat
of Reagan policies on agenda

T': echoes of the Irangate scandal, including the revelations that
the U.S. National Security Council had established a covert
apparatus known as Project Democracy to secretly carry out the
Reagan administration's right wing foreign policy, continue to rever-

together with North's White House basement operation, in covert
activities in Nicaragua, Libya, the Middle East and even the U.S. itself.

Two other investigations into the affair are also underway, includ-
ing that undertaken by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh and

another investigation, which will be conducted jointly by the House of

March 6, 1987.

shift before the conspiracy was exposed is
very fortunate for us.

The components in place were:

@ The ultra-right president, who gave the
presidential seal of approval to subversion
and ultra-right takeover operations;

@ The ideology of fanatical, evangelical
anti-communism, racism and anti-demo-
cracy;

@ The pro-war military;

e Hundreds of millions of dollars in cor-
porate funding by the most reactionary sec-
tion of monopoly capital, with $5 million
illegally used to buy elections for ultra-
righth candidates;

@ The secret, covert, National Security
Council basement operation subverting and
bypassing. all. democratic. institutions and
laws;

, Casey, Poindexter ... all out of
aeons, ‘but the policies that they carried
out have still to be removed.

Representatives and the Senate. Both are likely to produce fresh
revelations about the scandal, particularly the joint House-Senate
probe which will bringing Lt. Col. Oliver North and Adm. John
Poindexter to the stand to testify in return for granting them both
immunity from prosecution.

The question for many is what impact the scandal — and the
evidence it has bared about the secret conduct of foreign policy and
subversion of democracy — will have on the Reagan administration
and the ultra-right grip on U.S. government. Gus Hall, leader of the
Communist Party USA, addresses some of those issues in the follow-
ing commentary which first appeared in the People’s Daily World

e A network of committed military and
CIA personnel with deep hooks into lead-
ing circles of the Marine Corps, the ultra-
right wing of the military;

@ A massive worldwide communications
and intelligence gathering network, which
bypassed telephones and all official, public
channels, using their own secret computer
system.

When this takeover operation was
exposed by a small Lebanese magazine, the
scandal exploded on the U.S. and world
scene. Most of the operatives ran for cover,
leaving the Reagans and a few diehards to
take the heat. The right-wing forces were
scattered and the creeping process was cor-
raled.

The question is whether the crisis has
been averted and is now past, whether we
have now turned the corner and are moving
in the opposite direction. I think so. The
exposes, the investigations, the publicity,
U.S. and world public opinion have cor-
raled the fascist forces and the creeping pro-
cess.

The main conspirators are out — former

- National Security advisors John Poindexter

and Robert MacFarlane, Lt. Col. Oliver
North, White House Chief of Staff Donald
Regan, and former CIA director William
Casey. The appointment of former Senate
majority leader Howard Baker, the with-
drawal of the nomination of Casey’s pro-
tege, Robert Gates, and the nomination of
FBI head William Webster to head the CIA
are actions that further weaken the power of
the ultra-right. With these changes, the new
composition of Congress takes on greater
importance and potential.

Now it is most important to help people
draw the right conclusions and lessons. The
political crisis is not over. The immediate
danger is past, but still present. One of the
lessons is, yes, it can happen here.

The question now is how to build guaran-
tees against the regrouping and rebuilding
of the fascist and ultra-right forces. How to
push for more measures, including the elim-
ination of the National Security Council,
which is by its very nature an anti-
democratic, unconstitutional apparatus,
and the dismantling of institutions and
other instruments of subversion and conspi-
racy, including the National Endowment
for Democracy.

I think there is now enough of a shift in
the balance of forces that the people can
turn the country around. Everything is in
place to eliminate the influence of the ultra-
right and drive them out of political power.

We can stop the funding of the contra
movements. Based on the latest Soviet

_ proposal, there can be a nuclear arms

agreement. We can reverse the Reagan
budget cuts and reverse their racist, anti-
labor policies. There can be a re-assertion of
the democratic spirit.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 1, 1987 e 11