Return of the Iran-Contra brigade

The selection of Elliot Abrams last week as President George Bush's director of Middle Eastern affairs triggered a cloud of controversy over both the administration's Middle East policy.

Abrams pleaded guilty in 1987 to withholding information from about the Nicaraguan Contra case from Congress, before being pardoned by the first President Bush in 1992. Four officials now in the Bush administration worked for President Reagan in the mid-1980s, when money from arms sales to Iran was diverted to aid the Contra rebels in Nicaragua:

Elliott Abrams

NOW Senior director for Near East and North African Affairs at the National Security Council

THEN Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs

Pleaded guilty to withholding information about the case from Congress. Was later pardoned by President George Bush Sr

John D. Negroponte

NOW US Ambassador to the United Nations

THEN Ambassador to Honduras

Was the Reagan administration's 'point man' for efforts to back the Contras from Nicaragua's neighbour, Honduras

John M. Poindexter

NOW Director of the Information Awareness Office at the Pentagon's research agency

THEN National Security Adviser

Was convicted in 1990 of five felony counts, including making false statements to Congress. The convictions were later overturned

Otto J. Reich

NOW Special envoy for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and was Assistant Secretary of State

THEN Director of the office of public diplomacy at the State Department

Led an office found to have engaged in prohibited acts of domestic propaganda to generate support for the Contras