Committee report concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra's funding problems." In February 1987, a US Federal Bureau of Investigation debriefing reported that Dennis Ainsworth agreed to be interviewed by the bureau because of his knowledge of specific information of which he believed the Nicaraguan Contra leaders were selling arms and cocaine for their gain instead of a military effort to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. Ainsworth gave the FBI a list of his extensive contacts with various Contra leaders and backers. As part of Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 1989, hand-written notes of Oliver North were collected as evidence. These notes revealed who helped run the Contra war and other covert operations authorized by the Reagan administration. The operation underlying the Iran-Contra Affair was given legal approval by then-CIA deputy counsel David Addington among others, according to Salon.com Washington bureau chief Sidney Blumenthal. 1987 hearings Preceding the Congressional hearings that took place in May 1987, the United States public had been led to believe, from President Reagan himself, that the U.S. was not involved in the guns-for-hostages exchange. Reagan boldly came before the United States on November 13, 1986, and declared: Months later, when more leaks persisted, and it was clear that the United States did, in fact, have a significant role in the Iran-Contra scandal, Reagan went back before the American people on March 4, 1987, and stated, "A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it's not." Two months later, a thirteen-week Congressional hearing began concerning U.S. involvement in the weapons-for-hostages exchange and the subsequent distribution of weapons to Nicaraguan Contra fighters. Of the hearings, Robert White, who served as Ambassador to Paraguay from 1976 to 1980, stated, "What we saw in the Iran-Contra hearings, was the exposure of the beginnings of a national security state, which believes it has the right to overrule the Constitution of the United States in the name of security." Elements of the hearings proved White's comments to be accurate, as evidence and testimony, principally from Oliver North himself, showed a well-planned strategy on the part of U.S. officials to procure hostages in exchange for U.S. weapons. One particular