Remember Iran-Contra? On this special day, you should...

Today is the anniversary of a very special event... George H. Bush's pardons in 1992 for several figures involved in the Iran-Contra scandal . 4 of those pardoned had already been convicted, including Clair E. George, former head of C.I.A. covert operations, Elliott Abrams, former Assistant Secretary of State, Alan G. Fiers Jr., former head of C.I.A. Central American Task Force, and Robert C. McFarlane, former national security adviser. The remaining two were Duane R. Clarridge, former senior C.I.A. official, and Caspar W. Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense, both of whom were about to stand trial in the March and January respectively. Here is a timeline of events for Iran-Contra , and detailed research and analysis of the sequence of events. It all begins with the Tehran Hostage Crisis , in which 52 American hostages were taken and held at our embassy in Tehran, thanks mainly to our support for the Shah of Iran in the face of popular revolt against him by radical clerics, including Ayatollah Khomeini . Despite 14 months of attempted negotiation, sanctions, and rescue attempts , Jimmy Carter was unable to secure the release of the hostages. The hostages were not released until the day of Reagan's inauguration, which is at best extremely convenient and questionable. Regardless, following the release of hostages, a plan was formed to sell weapons to moderate Iranians (hoping they could overthrow the radical Iranian government), and the proceeds from those sales were then redirected to a militant group (Contras) attempting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, led then by the Sandinistas, a group we opposed for our belief that they were aligned with Cuba and socialists elsewhere. There are many that have dedicated entire blogs to this story, but I at least wanted to acknowledge this pardon day as a reminder of this insanely twisted story that has started to fade into our distant memories... watch below Senator George Mitchell's final words to Ollie North following his trip to Congress to explain his involvement in the entire mess (I promise to follow-up with more in-depth discussion of North in the coming days).