lies, damn lies, stats

There are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

—Benjamin Disraeli, quoted in Mark Twain's Autobiography

in yesterday's washington times, oliver north wrote that the economy grew at a 4.1% rate in the last quarter of 2005, that unemployment is down to 4.9%, and that our casualty rates in iraq have fallen since a year ago. in other words, bush is doing great.

unfortunately, the official version of GDP growth is actually 1.1%, not 4.1. unemployment is indeed down compared to bush's high but up compared to when he took office. (4.0% at the end of 2000.) the number wounded may be down, but by some weird coincidence 2005's deaths almost exactly matched 2004.

my question is, does ollie really believe what he says, or is he intentionally misleading his readers, because this looks suspiciously like the kind of disinformation that keeps folk ignorant and ripe for exploitation, and ollie north is just the kind of guy who could come up with it.

i don't want to make this into an ad hominem, but you recall ollie, right?

here's a compilation of iran-contra events i got from my ragged 1997 world almanac [in brackets] and relatively pristine 2002 time almanac:

1986:
• world court rules US broke international law in mining nicaraguan waters(jun 27)

• [press reports nov 6 broke first news of iran-contra scandal, involving secret US sale of arms to iran]

• secret initiative to send arms to iran revealed (nov 6 et seq)

• reagan denies exchanging arms for hostages and halts arms sales (nov 19)

• diversion of funds from arms sales to nicaraguan contras revealed (nov 25)

1987:
• [public hearings by senate and house committees investigating iran-contra affair held may-aug. lt col oliver north said he had believed all his activities were authorized by his superiors. pres reagan, aug 12, denied knowing of funds' diversion to contras.]

• oliver north jr tells congressional inquiry higher officials approved his secret iran-contra operations (jul 7-10)

• adm john m poindexter, former national security adviser, testifies he authorized use of iran arms sale profits to aid contras (jul 15-22)

• sec of state george p shultz testifies he was deceived repeatedly on iran-contra affair (jul 23-24)

• defense sec caspar w weinberger tells inquiry of official deception and intrigue (jul 31, aug 3)

• reagan says iran arms-contra policy went astray and accepts responsibility (aug 12)

1988:
• robert c mcfarlane, former national security adviser, pleads guilty in iran-contra case (mar 11)

1989:
• [former national security council staff member oliver north became first person, may 4, convicted in a jury trial in connection with iran-contra scandal]

• US jury convicts north in iran-contra affair (may 4)

1990:
• US appeals court overturns north's conviction (jul 20)

1991:
• [iran-contra case against oliver north "terminated," with all charges dropped, sep 16]

1992:
• caspar w weinberger indicted in iran-contra affair (jun 16)

• bush pardons former reagan administration officials involved in iran-contra affair (dec 24)

near the start reagan called north a hero. somewhere along the line i believe they publicly called each other liars.

ollie later said he'd been "exonerated," which startled some folk who knew the conviction had merely been thrown out on a technicality.

see, before ollie went before congress, he negotiated a highly sophisticated immunity agreement that shielded him against use of his testimony to prosecute him. then, when he testified, he made sure he slipped in a lot of stuff that wasn't relevant to the questions he got asked. his appeal lawyers were able to show some important evidence used in his trial was inadmissible under the immunity pact. the justice dept at first meant to retry the case but eventually decided so much evidence was tainted that pursuing retrial was likely to be a waste of taxpayers' money.

so, strictly speaking, both exonerate and absolve are accurate, but neither exculpate nor vindicate would be, if you get my drift.

and ollie north, media star, seems to be living on the flip side of "no good deed goes unpunished."