You're listening to an Air Wave media podcast.

It's an odd quark of faith that the entire reason that the Iran Contra story was revealed

and Reagan's presidency affected by it is not because of any events in the United States

but because of a conflict within the Iranian government and a battle for power in that country.

And here's what we know is we discussed on the full episode White House on Fire of

my history can beat up your politics part of the dozen Ronald Reagan series is actually

number eight.

We discussed in that episode on November 4th, 1986 the New York Times published a story

that exposed one of the more bizarre US foreign policy initiatives of modern times that the

Reagan administration who had entered office on this very conservative hard line policy

was trading arms with Iran using Israel as a conduit.

Their account was based largely on a newspaper account from Lebanon.

The day before in November 3rd Lebanese magazine had reported that Ronald Reagan had been

immached in secret negotiations with Iran over the fate of American hostages being

held by forces in Lebanon.

The administration had reportedly sent an envoy former national security adviser Robert

Bud McFarlane to Tehran in order to talk.

The revelations came as a particular shock to American reasons because the State Department

had identified Iran as a sponsor of international terrorism.

Well, what happened?

The key player behind the revelation of the Iran Contrastory that started so many events

in the United States is Metihav Shami.

...