Robert Gates’ Bid for CIA Post
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The Gates nomination hearings should provide an opportunity for the American people to review the kind of foreign policy made in their behalf during the 1980s.
First, what kind of foreign policy is it that cynically supplies hundreds of millions/billions of dollars worth of weapons to both sides of the 10-year Iran/Iraq War, eventually leading to the Persian Gulf War, and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq?
Second, do we want a foreign policy apparatus in which a President, his National Security Council and any number of the “ex” intelligence operatives can independently raise money (arms sales, solicitations from foreign countries, donations from “private” citizens) to carry out foreign-policy objectives covertly, unknown and unaccountable to Congress and the American people?
PAUL T. COMPTON
Temple City
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