THE SENATE YEARS
1. Michael D’Antonio, “Senator for a Year, Mitchell, Still Unknown at Home,” Maine Sunday Telegram, May 17, 1981.
2. William S. Cohen and George J. Mitchell, Men of Zeal: A Candid Inside Story of the Iran-Contra Hearings (New York: Viking, 1988).
3. Ibid., 183–93. One of the many ironies that emerged in the hearings was that North justified lying to Congress because he “had to weigh in the balance the difference between lives and lies,” and Congress could not be trusted with sensitive information. But in one of the examples he cited, the terrorist seizure of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, North himself was reportedly the source of the leak (183–86).
4. Ibid., 169–72.
5. Robert McFarlane, national security advisor, four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress; Oliver North, National Security Council staff, three counts of accepting a gratuity, aiding in the obstruction of Congress, destroying documents; John Poindexter, national security advisor, two counts of false statements, two counts of obstructing Congress, and conspiracy; Richard Secord, head of the enterprise, pleaded guilty to one felony count of false statements to Congress; Albert Hakim, head of the enterprise, pleaded guilty to giving money to North; Thomas Clines, businessman in the enterprise, guilty of underreporting earnings and stating falsely on tax returns that he had no foreign accounts; Carl Channell, fundraiser, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States; Richard Miller, fundraiser, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States; Clair George, CIA deputy director for operations, two counts of making false statements and perjury before Congress; Duane Clarridge, CIA European Division chief, indicted on seven counts of perjury and false statements; Alan Fiers Jr., CIA Central American Task Force chief, pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress; Joseph Fernandez, CIA station chief in San Jose, Costa Rica, four-count conspiracy indictment issued in Virginia, dropped because of failure of attorney general to mandate disclosure of information relevant to defense; Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, two counts of withholding information from Congress; Caspar Weinberger, secretary of defense, indicted on five counts of perjury, making false statements, and obstruction.
6. McFarlane, North, Poindexter, Secord, Hakim, Clines, Channell, Miller, George, Fiers, Abrams.
7. Abrams, George, Fiers, McFarlane.
8. Weinberger and Clarridge.
9. David Johnston, “The Pardons: Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Aborting a Weinberger Trial. Prosecutor Assails ‘Coverup,’ ” New York Times, December 25, 1992.
10. Ibid.
11. Too much deference for some. See Seymour M. Hersh, “The Iran-Contra Committees: Did They Protect Reagan?,” New York Times Magazine, April 29, 1990.
12. Nationally televised speech from the White House, March 4, 1987.
13. Richard E. Cohen, Washington at Work: Back Rooms and Clean Air (New York: Macmillan, 1995), 27–48.
14. Ibid., 62.
15. Helen Dewar, Washington Post, March 25, 1990.
16. Congressional Record: Senate, March 29, 1990, 5861.
17. Paul A. Gigot, “Clean-Air Game: Green Machine Routs Bush Team,” Wall Street Journal, April 6, 1990; Matthew L. Wald, “Industry Wary of Clean-Air Bill,” New York Times, April 5, 1990.
18. Cohen, Washington at Work, 174.
19. Ibid., 176.
20. Environmental Protection Agency, Our Nation’s Air, 2012 Report. The amounts of reduction were significant: ground-level ozone 17 percent, particulate pollution 38 percent, lead 45 percent, nitrogen oxides 45 percent, carbon monoxide 73 percent, sulfur dioxide 75 percent.
21. “Portland Girl Given Little League Rights,” Associated Press, Lewiston Daily Sun, May 28, 1974.
22. 132 Cong. Rec. 14336 1986.
23. 132 Cong. Rec. 14341 1986.
24. “White House Shores Up No Tax Stand,” Washington Post, May 10, 1990.
25. John Robert Greene, The Presidency of George Bush (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999), 37.
26. A copy of the original document, with my handwritten changes, is included at the end of these notes.
27. Statement by the president, August 19, 1982.
28. “The Budget Agreement,” New York Times, October 2, 1990.
NORTHERN IRELAND
1. George J. Mitchell, Making Peace (New York: Knopf, 1999), 187.
1. Ashley Dunlak, “Tigers’ Scherzer on Steroid Scandal: ‘We’re Tired of Cheaters,’ ” CBS Detroit, August 6, 2013.
2. Stephen Lorenso and Christian Red, “Mike Trout Wants Players Caught Using Steroids and PEDs Thrown Out of Baseball for Life,” New York Daily News, August 13, 2013.
3. Mike Cardillo, “Diamondbacks Pitcher David Hernandez: Throw PED Cheats Out of Baseball,” Big Lead, June 7, 2013.
4. Peter Abraham, “Dustin Pedroia OK with Hiking PED Penalties,” Boston Globe, March 4, 2013; Bryan Curtis, “Q&A: Angels Pitcher C. J. Wilson on Steroids, Screenplays, and Star Wars,” Grantland, March 11, 2013.
5. Associated Press, “All Star SS Peralta, Cardinals Reach 4-Year Deal,” November 24, 2013.
6. Bill Madden, “MLB Players Association’s Michael Weiner Says Some Players Would Welcome Tougher Bans for Positive Drug Tests,” New York Daily News, February 25, 2013.
7. Statement by Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association, March 28, 2014.
8. Ibid.
9. Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports (New York: Gotham, 2006).
10. The history of baseball’s efforts to confront drug use is summarized in George J. Mitchell, Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball, December 13, 2007, 18–137.
11. Report of the Special Bid Oversight Commission, United States Olympic Committee, March 1, 1999.
12. Mitchell, Report to the Commissioner of Baseball.
13. Report of the International Commission on Violence in the Middle East, April 30, 2001.
14. U.S. Department of State, Remarks by Senator George J. Mitchell, Appointment of Special Envoy for Middle East Peace and Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Washington, DC, January 22, 2009.
15. Naftali Bennett, “For Israel, Two-State Is No Solution,” New York Times, November 5, 2014.
16. Stephen Castle and Jodi Rudoren, “A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State,” New York Times, October 13, 2014.
17. Dan Bilefsky and Maia de la Baume, “Symbolic Vote in France Backs Palestinian State,” New York Times, December 3, 2014.
18. Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, 102nd Congress, May 22, 1991.
19. U.S. Department of State, airgram to the Embassy in Israel, April 8, 1968. See http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v20/d137.
20. UN Security Council, Statement by Charles Yost, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, July 1, 1969. See Foundation for Middle East Peace, “Report on Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories,” Special Report, February 1994, p. 6.
21. United Nations Security Council, Statement by William Scranton, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, March 23, 1976. See Foundation for Middle East Peace, “Report on Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories,” Special Report, February 1994, p. 6.
22. U.S. Department of State, Statement by the Secretary of State, March 21, 1980.
23. White House, Statement by the President, September 1, 1982.
24. White House, Statement by the President, December 16, 1996.
25. White House, Statement by President George W. Bush, April 4, 2002; White House, “President Bush Calls for New Palestinian Leadership,” June 24, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020624-3.html.
26. United Nations, “A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” July 2002, http://www.un.org/News/dh/mideast/roadmap122002.pdf.
27. Thomas Friedman, “The Last Train,” New York Times, October 26, 2014.
28. Jackson Diehl, “Abbas’ Waiting Game on Peace with Israel,” Washington Post, May 29, 2009. Abbas’s view, that others are resonsible for the plight of the Palestinians, is widely shared in the region among Arabs, and also in Turkey and Iran and other non-Arab countries. It is often expressed more broadly to included the plight of the entire region. See Tim Arango, “Turkish Leader, Using Conflicts, Cements Power,” New York Times, November 1, 2014.
29. David Ignatius, “The Mideast Deal That Could Have Been,” Washington Post, October 26, 2011.
30. Richard Boudreaux, “Olmert’s Peace Efforts Put Livni in Tight Spot,” Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2009.
31. Ibid.
32. Much later, in an interview, Olmert described those discussions in detail. Greg Sheridan, “Ehud Olmert Still Dreams of Peace,” Australian, November 28, 2009.
33. Richard Boudreaux, “Olmert’s Peace Efforts Put Livni in Tight Spot,” Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2009.
34. U.S. Department of State, Briefing by Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell, November 25, 2009.