Oliver North

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Oliver North speaking at CPAC in 2017
God, guns, and freedom
U.S. Politics
Icon politics USA.svg
Starting arguments over Thanksgiving dinner
Persons of interest

Oliver North (October 7, 1943–)[1] was a military colonel most famous for his actions during the Iran-Contra scandal during the administration of Ronald Reagan.

Iran-Contra[edit]

North is most infamous for his actions during Iran-Contra scandal, where he sold weapons to Iran and gave large amounts of the profits to a group in Nicaragua called the Contras "with the full knowledge of National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter and with the unspoken blessing, he assumed, of President Reagan."[2] In the process, he violated both a weapons embargo the United States had placed on Iran[3] and a ban on funding the Contras Congress had put in effect.[4]

But this was far from the only time North broke the law, he went on to admit during a televised hearing that he had previously misled Congress regarding his actions[5] along with the shredding of documents that would have provided information on what North did.[6]

For all of this and much more, North was indicted on sixteen felony counts in March 1988[7] with his trial starting in February of the following year.[8] North was convicted on some of these accounts,[9] although they were all later overturned over how his witnesses could have been impermissibly affected due to his Congressional testimony.[10]

Later career[edit]

Punditry[edit]

After the affair, North went on to become a pundit on Fox News, as well as the president of the National Rifle Association in September of 2018, before resigning on April 29, 2019.

Call of Doodoo[edit]

North was also hired by Activision to serve as military consultant for the 2012 first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and in a controversial move, lent his voice and likeness in a cutscene,[11] never mind that he later blamed video games for the Sandy Hook school shooting which took place in the same year.

References[edit]

  1. Oliver North
  2. The Iran-Contra Affair
  3. Reagan explains secret sale of arms to Iran, Nov. 13, 1986
  4. Appendix A: Background on United States Funding of the Contras
  5. ‘Olliemania’: The stage-worthy scandal that starred Oliver North as a congressional witness
  6. Hostile Witnesses
  7. NORTH, POINDEXTER AND 2 OTHERS INDICTED ON IRAN-CONTRA FRAUD AND THEFT CHARGES
  8. North Trial Opens After Long Delay
  9. 1989: Irangate colonel avoids prison
  10. United States v. Oliver L. North
  11. Totilo, Stephen (May 24, 2012). "Call of Duty Creators Say Oliver North Helped Make Their Game More Authentic". Kotaku. Gizmodo Media Group. Retrieved June 8, 2019.