"Recall that Bush [Senior] and his minions did everything possible to obstruct Walsh's investigation. Walsh's team had discovered notes written by Caspar Weinberger which disproved Bush's claim that he had been "out of the loop." These notes proved that Weinberger had knowledge of $25 million in Saudi Arabian contributions to the Nicaraguan contras. . . .
        "According to Brosnahan, the trial would have shown that Weinberger knew as early as summer 1985 that President Ronald Reagan had personally authorized missile shipments to Iran in violation of the Arms Control Export Act, and that this potentially impeachable act was concealed by constructing a false record. `The August [1985] meeting [of Reagan's National Security Council] discussed having Israel send the missiles to Iran and replenishing them out of U.S. stocks,' says Brosnahan. `Weinberger is responsible for all missiles. The Secretary of Defense is the guy.'
        "Another guy who stood to lose his exalted standing in Washington if the trial took place was General Colin Powell, who was Weinberger's principal aide in 1985. In an affidavit, Powell said he `saw virtually all the papers that went in and out of [Weinberger's] office' and thus would have had direct access to the evidence of missile replenishment. Early in the investigation, Powell gave conflicting accounts of his knowledge of Weinberger's extensive personal notes, denying knowledge of their existence (when Weinberger was claiming he didn't take any), and then saying in 1992 that the notes were no secret and describing them in detail (after Weinberger was forced to cough them up)."

--Larry Chin, "`Marin hot tubbers,' Iran-Contra ghosts and other fears
of the Bush clan, YellowTimes.org, 27 Jan 2002
--Robert Parry, "The White House cover-up that no one
wants you to understand, Mother Jones, July 1993