The Iran Contra Scandal

REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana

Wondery | Ballen Studios

True Crime, History

4.3 • 668 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Ronald Reagan faced two major problems in 1981. A Communist revolution had taken hold in Nicaragua. And in Lebanon, militants were holding American hostages. Reagan's team created a secret plan to solve both issues at once. It was highly illegal and it turned into one of the most shocking scandals in American history. The story connects unlikely dots: weapons, hostages, rebels, and lies.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love unsettling stories.
0:02.4	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to redacted, declassified mysteries, early and ad-free,
0:07.8	as well as another twisted tale from Bollin Studios and Wondery called Wartime Stories,
0:12.8	also hosted by me, Early and Ad-Free on Wondry Plus.
0:16.7	Start your free trial today.
0:27.6	Thank you. Start your free trial today. On the afternoon of October 5, 1986,
0:31.7	Eugene Hassanfuss crouched in the back of a rickety cargo plane.
0:36.2	The 45-year-old CIA operative peered out the tiny window
0:39.7	at the vast green jungles of Nicaragua below. Hasenfus sat squeezed in the back of the plane.
0:47.2	He was on board with one other man and the plane's pilot and co-pilot, and now it was time to make
0:53.1	their drop.
0:56.8	Hazenfus looked around at the wooden pallets,
1:01.0	loaded with rifles, grenade launchers, combat boots, and jungle knives.
1:06.3	Then he pushed the cargo door open and began kicking supplies down into the jungle.
1:08.9	Then he felt a jolt.
1:12.6	Hosenfus steadied himself and peeked through the open door. Panic rose in his gut as he watched part of the wing to centigrade.
1:16.6	Then he saw the right engine burst into flames.
1:21.6	That's when Hasnfus knew.
1:23.6	They'd just been hit.
1:25.6	As chaos erupted around him,
1:29.4	Hasenfus scrambled to put on the parachute that he'd secretly brought.
1:31.1	He tightened the straps and jumped.
	...

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