User Clip: Christopher Hitchens on the metastasis of Debategate into the October Surprise and Iran-Contra

"Do you remember when Ronald Reagan complained so self-pityingly about the eruption of the Iran-contra matter? If it had not been for “that rag in Beirut”— as he said of the Lebanese magazine Al-Shiraa, which first broke the story of Oliver North’s secret cake-and-Bible run with the mullahs—the whole story of hostage trading and illegal arms dealing would have remained a secret. And it was absolutely true that, until the Levantine sheet published the story, knowledge of North’s name and potency was the private property of a few Washington-bureau chiefs who knew the score." close