# Clinton involved in Iran Contra?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-involved-in-iran-contra/62082>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 15, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-involved-in-iran-contra/62082 "2001-04-15T19:20:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-involved-in-iran-contra/62082/1 "2001-04-15T19:20:19Z")

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Is there anything this man HASN’T done? Was he the one on the grassy knoll?

Okay, a good friend of mine, an otherwise intelligent guy who buys into too many right wing conspiracy theories, claims that Clinton was involved in the Iran Contra scandal.  
The way he tells it, the guys who were behind the thing-Oliver North and John Poindexter?-needed to have the plane full of weapons take off to Iran from Arkansas, and had to get Clinton’s permission. Clinton, gave it, on one condition: that they supply him with cocaine.

Is there any BASIS for this other than Rush?

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2001, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-involved-in-iran-contra/62082/2 "2001-04-15T19:30:54Z")

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Clearing air traffic (particularly international air traffic) is a Federal task. Governors have no authority in the matter. If the weapons were “borrowed” from the Arkansas National Guard, Clinton would have had to have approved, but if that point was not in the original version, then it is unlikely that the kooks thought of it, so they didn’t add that to their story.

“Clinton the cocaine abuser” was a big part of the right-wing hatchet job (remember Falwell’s movie?) but they never produced any evidence for it and let it drop once they could accuse him of the far worse crimes of having sex.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-involved-in-iran-contra/62082/3 "2001-04-15T22:51:28Z")

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If you do a google search for **murder “mena airport” cocaine** you can read all the conspiracy theories to your heart’s desire. I’m willing to believe that some weapons shipments bound for the Contras really were sent from the Mena Airport in Arkansas, but I have yet to see any substantiation for the wilder claims.