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The 'Iran-Contra Affair' was a political scandal occurring in 1987 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran, an avowed enemy, and illegally used the profits to continue funding anti-Communist rebels, the Contras, in Nicaragua.[1] Large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials.[2][3] The affair is still shrouded in secrecy. After the arms sales were revealed in November 1986, President Ronald Reagan appeared on national television and denied that they had occurred.[4] A week later, however, on November 13, Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were indeed transferred to Iran. He denied that they were part of an exchange for hostages. Address to the nation on the Iran arms and Contra aid controversy
The affair links quite disparate matters: on one hand were the arms sales to Iran, and on the other, funding of Contra militants in Nicaragua. Direct funding of the Nicaraguan rebels had been made illegal through the Boland Amendment. The affair emerged when a Lebanese newspaper reported that the U.S. sold arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages by Hezbollah. E-mails sent by Oliver North to John Poindexter support this."[...]a single transaction which wd be preceded by a release of hostages" Iran-Contra: White House e-mail However, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. claims that the reason was to establish links with elements of the military in Iran. It is also noteworthy that the Contras did not receive all of their finances from arms sales, but also through drug trafficking of which the US was found to be aware.[5]This is delineated in the "Drug money" section below.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Middle East was faced with frequent hostage-taking incidents by hostile organizations. In 1979, Iranian students took hostage 66 employees of the United States embassy in Iran. On January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan became President, the hostages were freed following the Algiers Accords. Hostage taking in the Middle East did not end there, however.[6]
In 1983, members of Al-Dawa ("The Call"), an exiled Iraqi political party turned militant organization, were imprisoned for their part in a series of truck bombs in Kuwait. In response to the imprisonment, Hezbollah, an ally of Al-Dawa, took 30 Western hostages,[7] six of whom were American. Hezbollah demanded the release of the prisoners for these hostages.
Main articles: Lebanon hostage crisis
Members of the Reagan Administration claim they believed that by selling arms to Iran, Iran would influence the Hezbollah kidnappers in Lebanon to release their hostages. At the time, Iran was in the midst of the Iran-Iraq War and could find few western nations willing to supply it with weapons.[8] The sale of arms would also, according to National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, improve strained relations with Iran.[1] For that reason, weapons were transferred to Iran.
The Iran-Contra report found that the sales of arms to Iran violated United States Government policy; it also violated the Arms Export Control Act.[2] Overall, if the releasing of hostages was the purpose of arms sales to Iran, the plan was a failure as only three of the 30 hostages were released.
Michael Ledeen, a consultant of Robert McFarlane, asked Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres for help in the sale of arms to Iran. The general idea behind the plan was for Israel to ship weapons to Iran, then the US would reimburse Israel with the same weapons. The Israeli government required that the sale of arms meet high level approval from the United States government, and when Robert McFarlane convinced them that the U.S. government approved the sale, Israel obliged by agreeing to sell the arms.[10] Reagan approved McFarlane's idea to reach out to Iran on July 18, 1985 while in a hospital bed recovering from cancer surgery. In July 1985, Israel sent American-made BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles to Iran through an arms dealer named Manucher Ghorbanifar, a friend of Iran's Prime Minister. One hostage, the Reverend Benjamin Weir was subsequently released, despite the completed arms sale. This ultimately proved Ledeen's plan a failure with only three shipments through Israel.
After a botched delivery of HAWK missiles, and a disastrous London meeting between McFarlane and Ghorbanifar (at which Ghorbanifar threatened his American interlocutor by saying that there would be "fire back on your interests"), Arrow Air Flight 1285, a plane containing nearly 250 American servicemen, crashed in Newfoundland.
On the day of the crash, responsibility was claimed by Islamic Jihad, a wing of Hezbollah that had taken credit for the kidnapping of the very Americans in Lebanon whom the Reagan administration sought to have released. The crash came on the second anniversary of another attack for which Islamic Jihad took credit: the near-simultaneous bombings of six targets in Kuwait, the French and American Embassies among them. Members of Hezbollah had participated in and were jailed for those attacks, but most of the conspirators were members of the Iraqi Shia opposition party al-Dawa, or the Call (today one of the largest political parties in Iraq). An article in the June 2007 Middle East Review of International Affairs, by Nathan Thrall, presents evidence of Iran's complicity.[
★ [2]
Robert McFarlane resigned in December 1985.[11] He was replaced by Admiral John Poindexter. On the day of McFarlane's resignation, Oliver North, a military aide to the United States National Security Council (NSC), proposed a new plan for selling arms to Iran. This time, there were two new ideas. Instead of selling arms through Israel, the sale was to be direct. Second, the proceeds from the sale would go to the Contras at a markup. Oliver North wanted a $15 million markup, while contracted Iranian arms broker Manucher Ghorbanifar added a 41% markup of his own.[12] Other members of the NSC were in favor of North's plan. John Poindexter authorized the plan, and it went into effect.[13]
At first, the Iranians refused to buy the arms at the inflated price because of the excessive markup imposed by North and Ghorbanifar. In February 1986, 1000 TOW missiles were shipped to Iran. From May to November 1986, there were additional shipments of miscellaneous weapons and parts. Reagan claimed that the total of all arms sales was less than a planeload.
The plan went ahead, and proceeds from the arms sales went to the Contras, a right-wing guerilla organization engaged in an insurgency against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The diversion was coordinated by Oliver North of the National Security Council. Supporting the Contras financially was an effort to assist them in their fight against the Nicaraguan government.
Both the sale of weapons to Iran and the funding of the Contras attempted to circumvent not only stated Administration policy, but also legislation passed by Congress known as the Boland Amendment. Administration officials argued that regardless of the Congress restricting the funds for the Contras, or any affair, the President (the administration) could carry on by seeking alternative means of funding such as private entities and foreign governments. How Tightly Can Congress Draw the Purse Strings?, Louis Fisher, , , American Journal of International Law, 1989
The Contras were also involved in drug trafficking, as detailed in the "Drug money" section below. According to ''The Washington Post'', some Central Americans criticize Reagan for his support of the Contras, saying he was an anti-communist zealot, blinded to human rights abuses, while others say he "saved Central America" and helped "nurture democratic governments and free-market systems across the region." In Central America, Reagan Remains A Polarizing Figure Daniel Ortega, Sandinistan leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, said that he hoped God would forgive Reagan for his "dirty war against Nicaragua."
Whatever the reasons for US arms sales to Iran, the aborted deal caused political strife in the United States when the details became public knowledge.
The Lebanese magazine ''Ash-Shiraa'' exposed the arrangement on November 3, 1986.[14]
[15]
[16] This was the first public reporting of the alleged weapons-for-hostages deal. The operation was discovered only after an airlift of guns was downed over Nicaragua. Eugene Hasenfus, who was captured by Nicaraguan authorities, initially alleged in a press conference on Nicaraguan soil that two of his coworkers, Max Gomez and Ramon Medina, worked for the CIA.
IN SUMMARY; Nicaragua Downs Plane and Survivor Implicates C.I.A He later said he did not know whether they did or not.
HASENFUS TEMPERS COMMENTS ON C.I.A The Iranian government confirmed the Ash-Shiraa story, and ten days after the story was first published, President Ronald Reagan affirmed the truth of the matter. In a televised speech, on November 13, Reagan confirmed the sale of weapons to Iran and stated the reasons for the sale of weapons. He also claimed that only a planeload worth of weapons were sent to Iran.
"My purpose was... to send a signal that the United States was prepared to replace the animosity between us with a new relationship... At the same time we undertook this initiative, we made clear that Iran must oppose all forms of international terrorism as a condition of progress in our relationship. The most significant step which Iran could take, we indicated, would be to use its influence in Lebanon to secure the release of all hostages held there."
The scandal was compounded when on November 21, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall shredded pertinent documents. US Attorney General Edwin Meese admitted on November 25 that profits from weapons sales to Iran were made available to assist the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. On the same day, John Poindexter resigned, and Oliver North was fired. WHITE HOUSE SHAKE-UP: A TASK IS HANDED TO STATE DEPT.; Poindexter and North Have Limited Options
Poindexter was replaced by Frank Carlucci on December 2, 1986.[17]
On November 25, 1986, President Reagan, faced with mounting pressure from Congressional Democrats and the media, announced the creation of a Special Review Board looking into the matter and the next day assigned former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to serve as members; this Presidential Commission would take effect on December 1 and became known as the Tower Commission. The commission was the first presidential commission to review and evaluate the National Security Council. The objectives of the Tower Commission were to inquire into "the circumstances surrounding the Iran-Contra matter, other case studies that might reveal strengths and weaknesses in the operation of the National Security Council system under stress, and the manner in which that system has served eight different Presidents since its inception in 1947."[18]
President Reagan appeared before the Tower Commission on December 2, 1986, to answer questions. His answers were not entirely consistent, and he was (allegedly) plagued with poor memory, because the questions were regarding details that occurred months and years prior. It was also said that during the time in question he was almost constantly using heavy pain medications.
The report published by the Tower Commission, known as the Tower Commission Report, was delivered to the President on February 26, 1987. It criticized the actions of Oliver North, John Poindexter, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and others. It did not determine that the President had knowledge of the extent of the program, although it argued that the President ought to have had better control of the National Security Council staff. The wording of the report surprised some since it was expected to have been weak in its criticism of the President. Instead, it heavily criticized President Reagan for not properly supervising his subordinates or being aware of their actions. The U.S. Congress issued its own report on November 18, 1987, indicating that "If the president did not know what his national security advisers were doing, he should have." [3]" The congressional report stated that the President bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides, and his Administration exhibited "secrecy, deception and disdain for the law."
A major result of the Tower Commission was the consensus that Reagan should have listened to his National Security Advisor more, thereby placing more power in the hands of that chair. The National Security Advisor was to be seen as an "honest broker" and not someone who would use the position to further his or her political agenda.
Some doubted the intentions of the Tower Commission and believed that it was a political stunt. The commission had limited its criticism of Vice President George H.W. Bush. Subsequently, the head of the commission, John Tower, was nominated to the position of Secretary of Defense by Bush when he became President. He was not confirmed by the Senate. Some Democrats used the nomination to retaliate against President George H.W. Bush for what they viewed as 'negative' (though successful) campaign tactics against their nominee, Michael Dukakis. Others, including the conservative organizer Paul Weyrich, accused Tower (accurately, the evidence suggests) of having been involved in extramarital affairs and heavy drinking. One of Tower's leading critics was Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, a Georgia Democrat. Brent Scowcroft was named National Security Advisor.[19]
Oliver North and John Poindexter were indicted on multiple charges on March 16, 1988. NORTH, POINDEXTER AND 2 OTHERS INDICTED ON IRAN-CONTRA FRAUD AND THEFT CHARGES
North, indicted on 16 counts, was found guilty by a jury of three minor counts. The convictions were vacated on appeal on the grounds that North's Fifth Amendment rights may have been violated by the indirect use of his testimony to Congress which had been given under a grant of immunity. In 1990, Poindexter was convicted on several felony counts of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and altering and destroying documents pertinent to the investigation. His convictions were also overturned on appeal on similar grounds. Arthur L. Liman served as chief counsel for the Senate Iran-Contra Affair.
The Independent Counsel, Lawrence E. Walsh, chose not to re-try North or Poindexter. Weinberger was indicted for lying to the Independent Counsel but was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush.
Faced with undeniable evidence of his involvement in the scandal, Reagan expressed regret regarding the situation at a nationally televised White House press conference on Ash Wednesday, March 4, 1987. Responding to questions, Reagan stated that his previous assertions that the U.S. did not trade arms for hostages were incorrect. He also stated that the Vice President knew of the plan.
Reagan survived the scandal, and his approval ratings returned to previous levels; as the scandal broke in 1986, "Reagan's approval rating plummeted to 46%," but he later "finished strong with a December 1988 Gallup poll recording a 63% approval rating."[20]
In the Poindexter's hometown of Odon, Indiana, a street was renamed to John Poindexter Street. Bill Breedan, a former minister, stole the street's sign in protest of the Iran-Contra Affair. He claimed that he was holding it for a ransom of $30 million, in reference to the amount of money given to Iran to transfer to the contras. He was later arrested and was sent to jail, making him, as stated by Howard Zinn, "the only person to be imprisoned as a result of the Iran-contra Affair."[21]
From the 1980s onward, allegations were made that the Contras were being funded through cocaine distribution.
One of the earliest such allegations was contained in a lawsuit filed in 1986 by two journalists represented by the Christic Institute, alleging that the CIA and other parties were engaged in criminal acts, including financing the purchase of arms with the proceeds of cocaine sales.[22] The suit was dismissed; several of the named participants subsequently sued the Christic Institute for libel and won.
Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra drug links, which was released on April 13, 1989, concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems."[23] The Kerry Committee report further stated that members of the U.S. State Department "who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking...and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."
Whiteout, the CIA, drugs and the press, , Alexander, Cockburn, Verso, , ISBN 1-85984-258-5
Kerry was suspicious of North's connection with Manuel Noriega, Panama's drug baron. According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Noriega and had met him personally.
The report went on to say that "the Contra drug links included...payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies." Houses of the Congress began to raise questions about the drug-related allegations associated with the Contras, causing a review in the spring of 1986 of the allegations by the State Department, in conjunction with the Justice Department and relevant U.S. intelligence agencies.[24]
Former DEA agent Celerino Castillo alleged that Ilopango Airport in El Salvador was used by Contras for drug trafficking, with full knowledge of the CIA. He further alleged that his investigations were hindered by US government agencies. These allegations were part of an investigation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, which however did not find substantial evidence to support Castillo's allegations. THE CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE CONTROVERSY: A REVIEW OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS Castillo also testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on the same allegations. Celerino "Cele" Castillo III
The allegations resurfaced in 1996 when journalist Gary Webb published reports in the San Jose Mercury News,[25] and later in his book ''Dark Alliance'',[26] detailing how Contras had distributed crack cocaine into Los Angeles to fund weapons purchases. These reports were initially attacked by various other newspapers, which attempted to debunk the link, citing official reports that apparently cleared the CIA.
''The Wall Street Journal'' reported on January 29, 1997
[27] on activities at the Mena, Arkansas airport allegedly involved then-governor Bill Clinton in a coverup of illegal drug-trading activity. The Wall Street Journal article goes on to state:
In 1998, CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz published a two-volume report[28] that substantiated many of Webb's claims, and described how 50 contras and contra-related entities involved in the drug trade had been protected from law enforcement activity by the Reagan-Bush administration, and documented a cover-up of evidence relating to these activities. The report also showed that Oliver North and the NSC were aware of these activities. A report later that same year by the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich also came to similar conclusions.
In 2004, Gary Webb committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the head.[28]
In 1992 U.S. President George H.W. Bush pardoned six people involved in the scandal,[30] namely Elliott Abrams, Duane R. Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George, Robert C. McFarlane, and Caspar W. Weinberger.
George W. Bush selected some individuals that served under Reagan for high-level posts in his presidential administration. Bush nominees under fire for link with contras Duncan Campbell Return of the Iran-Contra brigade They include:
★ Elliott Abrams: Personnel Announcement under Bush, the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the National Security Council for Near East and North African Affairs; in Iran Contra, pleaded guilty on two counts of unlawfully withholding information, pardoned.
★ Otto Reich: BIOGRAPHY head of the Office of Public Diplomacy under Reagan.
★ John Negroponte: President Congratulates America's First Director and Deputy Director of National Intelligence under Bush, the National Intelligence Director.
★ Admiral John Poindexter: No more Mr Scrupulous Guy under Bush, Director of the Information Awareness Office; in Iran Contra found guilty of multiple felony counts for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence, convictions reversed.
★ Robert Gates: Bush Says Rumsfeld Is Stepping Down under Bush, confirmed on December 6, 2006 as the new Secretary of Defense to replace the resigning Donald Rumsfeld. Served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991–1993 under George H.W. Bush. During Iran Contra he was Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.
★ Charles E. Allen: Personnel Announcement under Bush, appointed in August 2005 to be chief intelligence officer at the Department of Homeland Security. Allen's position at DHS was not subject to Senate confirmation. Prior to the DHS appointment, Allen had worked 47 years at the CIA. Director of Central Intelligence William Webster formally reprimanded Allen for failing to fully comply with the DCI's request for full cooperation in the agency's internal Iran-Contra scandal investigation. However coworkers of Allen pointed out that Webster reprimanded the one person in the CIA who had brought his suspicions of a funds diversion to Robert Gates. [Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA, Mark Perry, 1992, p. 216.]
★ United States-Iran relations
★ Allegations of state terrorism by United States of America
★ CIA drug trafficking
★ Gary Webb
★ Mistakes were made
★ Operation Condor
★ Orlando Letelier
★ ''Nicaragua v. United States''
★ List of Pardons and Commutations by President George H. W. Bush
1. NYT's apologies miss the point
2. Excerpts From the Iran-Contra Report: A Secret Foreign Policy
3.
★ A tale of three countries: The Iran-Contra affair
4.
★ The Iran-Contra affair
5. The Contras, cocaine, and covert operations: Documentation of official U.S. knowledge of drug trafficking and the Contras
6. An affair to remember: The extent of Reagan’s knowledge in the Iran-Contra affair, , Megan, Tuck, ,
7. The tragedy of Iran
8. Military history of the Iran-Iraq war, 1980-1988
9. Excerpts From the Iran-Contra Report: A Secret Foreign Policy
10. The Iran-Contra affair
11. United States v. Robert C. McFarlane
12. Vol. I: Investigations and prosecutions
13. Irangate: Iran-Contra affair, 1985-1992
14. 1985–1992 Irangate
15. Why Secret 1986 U.S.-Iran “Arms for Hostages” Negotiations Failed
16. Ronald W Reagan
17. Timeline of Ronald Reagan's life
18. Tower commission report excerpts
19. Unwise men
20. More gloss for the Gipper: The myth of Reagan's "enormous popularity"
21. Zinn, Howard. ''A People's History of the United States''. New York: Perennial, 2003. p.587-588 ISBN 0060528370
22. The 'Christic Institute' lawsuit - Avirgan and Honey v. Hull, ''et al.''
23. The Oliver North file: His diaries, e-mail, and memos on the Kerry report, Contras and drugs
24. Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy chaired by Senator John F. Kerry
25. Iran-Contra articles Gary Webb
26. Dark alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the crack cocaine explosion, , Gary, Webb, Seven Stories, , ISBN 1-888363-68-1
27. Mysterious Mena: CIA Discloses, Leach Disposes
28.
29.
30. Proclamation 6518 - Grant of Executive Clemency
★ Irangate: Iran-Contra affair, 1985-1992
★ More gloss for the Gipper: The myth of Reagan's "enormous popularity"
★ Whiteout, the CIA, drugs and the press, , Alexander, Cockburn, Verso, , ISBN 1-85984-258-5
★ The 'Christic Institute' lawsuit - Avirgan and Honey v. Hull, ''et al.''
★ Military history of the Iran-Iraq war, 1980-1988
★
★ The tragedy of Iran
★ United States v. Robert C. McFarlane
★ The Iran-Contra affair
★ The Oliver North file: His diaries, e-mail, and memos on the Kerry report, Contras and drugs
★ The Contras, cocaine, and covert operations: Documentation of official U.S. knowledge of drug trafficking and the Contras
★ NYT's apologies miss the point
★ Timeline of Ronald Reagan's life
★ Unwise men
★ Address to the nation on the Iran arms and Contra aid controversy
★ A tale of three countries: The Iran-Contra affair
★ How the Reagan Administration Taught Iran the Wrong Lessons
★ Tower commission report excerpts ; See also "The Politics of Scandal: The Tower Commission and Iran-Contra," in Kenneth Kitts, ''Presidential Commissions and National Security: The Politics of Damage Control'' (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006).
★ An affair to remember: The extent of Reagan’s knowledge in the Iran-Contra affair
★ Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (S. Rep. No. 216, H.R. Rep. No. 433, 100th Cong., 1st Sess.)
★ Proclamation 6518 - Grant of Executive Clemency
★ Vol. I: Investigations and prosecutions
★ Iran-Contra articles Gary Webb
★ Dark alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the crack cocaine explosion, , Gary, Webb, Seven Stories, , ISBN 1-888363-68-1
★ The Iran-Contra affair
★ Hostile Witnesses
★ The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On: Documents Spotlight Role of Reagan, Top Aides. By the National Security Archive
★ How the Reagan Administration Taught Iran the Wrong Lessons – Middle East Review of International Affairs, June, 2007 article by Nathan Thrall
★ "The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis" (Audio, Video) -- 1987 Bill Moyers special on the Iran-Contra Affair
★ Condensed article outlining Iran-Contra
★ Extract of NSDD-138 (PDF) National Security Archive
★ NSDD-207 (PDF)
★ The Oliver North File: His Diaries, E-Mail, and Memos on the Kerry Report, Contras and Drugs
★ Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (Walsh Report)
★ THE IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR by the National Security Archive
★ About LUIS POSADA CARRILES involved as Ramon Medina in Oliver North's operations.
★ Chip Tatum - The Story That Cost Him His Life
The affair
The affair links quite disparate matters: on one hand were the arms sales to Iran, and on the other, funding of Contra militants in Nicaragua. Direct funding of the Nicaraguan rebels had been made illegal through the Boland Amendment. The affair emerged when a Lebanese newspaper reported that the U.S. sold arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages by Hezbollah. E-mails sent by Oliver North to John Poindexter support this."[...]a single transaction which wd be preceded by a release of hostages" Iran-Contra: White House e-mail However, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. claims that the reason was to establish links with elements of the military in Iran. It is also noteworthy that the Contras did not receive all of their finances from arms sales, but also through drug trafficking of which the US was found to be aware.[5]This is delineated in the "Drug money" section below.
Hostage taking
Vice President George H. W. Bush and other VIPs wait to welcome hostages back home
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Middle East was faced with frequent hostage-taking incidents by hostile organizations. In 1979, Iranian students took hostage 66 employees of the United States embassy in Iran. On January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan became President, the hostages were freed following the Algiers Accords. Hostage taking in the Middle East did not end there, however.[6]
In 1983, members of Al-Dawa ("The Call"), an exiled Iraqi political party turned militant organization, were imprisoned for their part in a series of truck bombs in Kuwait. In response to the imprisonment, Hezbollah, an ally of Al-Dawa, took 30 Western hostages,[7] six of whom were American. Hezbollah demanded the release of the prisoners for these hostages.
Main articles: Lebanon hostage crisis
Members of the Reagan Administration claim they believed that by selling arms to Iran, Iran would influence the Hezbollah kidnappers in Lebanon to release their hostages. At the time, Iran was in the midst of the Iran-Iraq War and could find few western nations willing to supply it with weapons.[8] The sale of arms would also, according to National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, improve strained relations with Iran.[1] For that reason, weapons were transferred to Iran.
Arms transaction
The Iran-Contra report found that the sales of arms to Iran violated United States Government policy; it also violated the Arms Export Control Act.[2] Overall, if the releasing of hostages was the purpose of arms sales to Iran, the plan was a failure as only three of the 30 hostages were released.
First arms sale
Michael Ledeen, a consultant of Robert McFarlane, asked Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres for help in the sale of arms to Iran. The general idea behind the plan was for Israel to ship weapons to Iran, then the US would reimburse Israel with the same weapons. The Israeli government required that the sale of arms meet high level approval from the United States government, and when Robert McFarlane convinced them that the U.S. government approved the sale, Israel obliged by agreeing to sell the arms.[10] Reagan approved McFarlane's idea to reach out to Iran on July 18, 1985 while in a hospital bed recovering from cancer surgery. In July 1985, Israel sent American-made BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles to Iran through an arms dealer named Manucher Ghorbanifar, a friend of Iran's Prime Minister. One hostage, the Reverend Benjamin Weir was subsequently released, despite the completed arms sale. This ultimately proved Ledeen's plan a failure with only three shipments through Israel.
Arrow Air 1285 crash
After a botched delivery of HAWK missiles, and a disastrous London meeting between McFarlane and Ghorbanifar (at which Ghorbanifar threatened his American interlocutor by saying that there would be "fire back on your interests"), Arrow Air Flight 1285, a plane containing nearly 250 American servicemen, crashed in Newfoundland.
On the day of the crash, responsibility was claimed by Islamic Jihad, a wing of Hezbollah that had taken credit for the kidnapping of the very Americans in Lebanon whom the Reagan administration sought to have released. The crash came on the second anniversary of another attack for which Islamic Jihad took credit: the near-simultaneous bombings of six targets in Kuwait, the French and American Embassies among them. Members of Hezbollah had participated in and were jailed for those attacks, but most of the conspirators were members of the Iraqi Shia opposition party al-Dawa, or the Call (today one of the largest political parties in Iraq). An article in the June 2007 Middle East Review of International Affairs, by Nathan Thrall, presents evidence of Iran's complicity.[
★ [2]
Subsequent dealings
Robert McFarlane resigned in December 1985.[11] He was replaced by Admiral John Poindexter. On the day of McFarlane's resignation, Oliver North, a military aide to the United States National Security Council (NSC), proposed a new plan for selling arms to Iran. This time, there were two new ideas. Instead of selling arms through Israel, the sale was to be direct. Second, the proceeds from the sale would go to the Contras at a markup. Oliver North wanted a $15 million markup, while contracted Iranian arms broker Manucher Ghorbanifar added a 41% markup of his own.[12] Other members of the NSC were in favor of North's plan. John Poindexter authorized the plan, and it went into effect.[13]
At first, the Iranians refused to buy the arms at the inflated price because of the excessive markup imposed by North and Ghorbanifar. In February 1986, 1000 TOW missiles were shipped to Iran. From May to November 1986, there were additional shipments of miscellaneous weapons and parts. Reagan claimed that the total of all arms sales was less than a planeload.
The Contras
The plan went ahead, and proceeds from the arms sales went to the Contras, a right-wing guerilla organization engaged in an insurgency against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The diversion was coordinated by Oliver North of the National Security Council. Supporting the Contras financially was an effort to assist them in their fight against the Nicaraguan government.
Both the sale of weapons to Iran and the funding of the Contras attempted to circumvent not only stated Administration policy, but also legislation passed by Congress known as the Boland Amendment. Administration officials argued that regardless of the Congress restricting the funds for the Contras, or any affair, the President (the administration) could carry on by seeking alternative means of funding such as private entities and foreign governments. How Tightly Can Congress Draw the Purse Strings?, Louis Fisher, , , American Journal of International Law, 1989
The Contras were also involved in drug trafficking, as detailed in the "Drug money" section below. According to ''The Washington Post'', some Central Americans criticize Reagan for his support of the Contras, saying he was an anti-communist zealot, blinded to human rights abuses, while others say he "saved Central America" and helped "nurture democratic governments and free-market systems across the region." In Central America, Reagan Remains A Polarizing Figure Daniel Ortega, Sandinistan leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, said that he hoped God would forgive Reagan for his "dirty war against Nicaragua."
Discovery and scandal
Whatever the reasons for US arms sales to Iran, the aborted deal caused political strife in the United States when the details became public knowledge.
The Lebanese magazine ''Ash-Shiraa'' exposed the arrangement on November 3, 1986.[14]
[15]
[16] This was the first public reporting of the alleged weapons-for-hostages deal. The operation was discovered only after an airlift of guns was downed over Nicaragua. Eugene Hasenfus, who was captured by Nicaraguan authorities, initially alleged in a press conference on Nicaraguan soil that two of his coworkers, Max Gomez and Ramon Medina, worked for the CIA.
IN SUMMARY; Nicaragua Downs Plane and Survivor Implicates C.I.A He later said he did not know whether they did or not.
HASENFUS TEMPERS COMMENTS ON C.I.A The Iranian government confirmed the Ash-Shiraa story, and ten days after the story was first published, President Ronald Reagan affirmed the truth of the matter. In a televised speech, on November 13, Reagan confirmed the sale of weapons to Iran and stated the reasons for the sale of weapons. He also claimed that only a planeload worth of weapons were sent to Iran.
"My purpose was... to send a signal that the United States was prepared to replace the animosity between us with a new relationship... At the same time we undertook this initiative, we made clear that Iran must oppose all forms of international terrorism as a condition of progress in our relationship. The most significant step which Iran could take, we indicated, would be to use its influence in Lebanon to secure the release of all hostages held there."
The scandal was compounded when on November 21, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall shredded pertinent documents. US Attorney General Edwin Meese admitted on November 25 that profits from weapons sales to Iran were made available to assist the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. On the same day, John Poindexter resigned, and Oliver North was fired. WHITE HOUSE SHAKE-UP: A TASK IS HANDED TO STATE DEPT.; Poindexter and North Have Limited Options
Poindexter was replaced by Frank Carlucci on December 2, 1986.[17]
Tower Commission
On November 25, 1986, President Reagan, faced with mounting pressure from Congressional Democrats and the media, announced the creation of a Special Review Board looking into the matter and the next day assigned former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to serve as members; this Presidential Commission would take effect on December 1 and became known as the Tower Commission. The commission was the first presidential commission to review and evaluate the National Security Council. The objectives of the Tower Commission were to inquire into "the circumstances surrounding the Iran-Contra matter, other case studies that might reveal strengths and weaknesses in the operation of the National Security Council system under stress, and the manner in which that system has served eight different Presidents since its inception in 1947."[18]
President Reagan appeared before the Tower Commission on December 2, 1986, to answer questions. His answers were not entirely consistent, and he was (allegedly) plagued with poor memory, because the questions were regarding details that occurred months and years prior. It was also said that during the time in question he was almost constantly using heavy pain medications.
The report published by the Tower Commission, known as the Tower Commission Report, was delivered to the President on February 26, 1987. It criticized the actions of Oliver North, John Poindexter, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and others. It did not determine that the President had knowledge of the extent of the program, although it argued that the President ought to have had better control of the National Security Council staff. The wording of the report surprised some since it was expected to have been weak in its criticism of the President. Instead, it heavily criticized President Reagan for not properly supervising his subordinates or being aware of their actions. The U.S. Congress issued its own report on November 18, 1987, indicating that "If the president did not know what his national security advisers were doing, he should have." [3]" The congressional report stated that the President bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides, and his Administration exhibited "secrecy, deception and disdain for the law."
A major result of the Tower Commission was the consensus that Reagan should have listened to his National Security Advisor more, thereby placing more power in the hands of that chair. The National Security Advisor was to be seen as an "honest broker" and not someone who would use the position to further his or her political agenda.
Some doubted the intentions of the Tower Commission and believed that it was a political stunt. The commission had limited its criticism of Vice President George H.W. Bush. Subsequently, the head of the commission, John Tower, was nominated to the position of Secretary of Defense by Bush when he became President. He was not confirmed by the Senate. Some Democrats used the nomination to retaliate against President George H.W. Bush for what they viewed as 'negative' (though successful) campaign tactics against their nominee, Michael Dukakis. Others, including the conservative organizer Paul Weyrich, accused Tower (accurately, the evidence suggests) of having been involved in extramarital affairs and heavy drinking. One of Tower's leading critics was Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, a Georgia Democrat. Brent Scowcroft was named National Security Advisor.[19]
Aftermath
Oliver North and John Poindexter were indicted on multiple charges on March 16, 1988. NORTH, POINDEXTER AND 2 OTHERS INDICTED ON IRAN-CONTRA FRAUD AND THEFT CHARGES
North, indicted on 16 counts, was found guilty by a jury of three minor counts. The convictions were vacated on appeal on the grounds that North's Fifth Amendment rights may have been violated by the indirect use of his testimony to Congress which had been given under a grant of immunity. In 1990, Poindexter was convicted on several felony counts of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and altering and destroying documents pertinent to the investigation. His convictions were also overturned on appeal on similar grounds. Arthur L. Liman served as chief counsel for the Senate Iran-Contra Affair.
The Independent Counsel, Lawrence E. Walsh, chose not to re-try North or Poindexter. Weinberger was indicted for lying to the Independent Counsel but was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush.
Faced with undeniable evidence of his involvement in the scandal, Reagan expressed regret regarding the situation at a nationally televised White House press conference on Ash Wednesday, March 4, 1987. Responding to questions, Reagan stated that his previous assertions that the U.S. did not trade arms for hostages were incorrect. He also stated that the Vice President knew of the plan.
Reagan survived the scandal, and his approval ratings returned to previous levels; as the scandal broke in 1986, "Reagan's approval rating plummeted to 46%," but he later "finished strong with a December 1988 Gallup poll recording a 63% approval rating."[20]
In the Poindexter's hometown of Odon, Indiana, a street was renamed to John Poindexter Street. Bill Breedan, a former minister, stole the street's sign in protest of the Iran-Contra Affair. He claimed that he was holding it for a ransom of $30 million, in reference to the amount of money given to Iran to transfer to the contras. He was later arrested and was sent to jail, making him, as stated by Howard Zinn, "the only person to be imprisoned as a result of the Iran-contra Affair."[21]
Drug money
From the 1980s onward, allegations were made that the Contras were being funded through cocaine distribution.
One of the earliest such allegations was contained in a lawsuit filed in 1986 by two journalists represented by the Christic Institute, alleging that the CIA and other parties were engaged in criminal acts, including financing the purchase of arms with the proceeds of cocaine sales.[22] The suit was dismissed; several of the named participants subsequently sued the Christic Institute for libel and won.
Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra drug links, which was released on April 13, 1989, concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems."[23] The Kerry Committee report further stated that members of the U.S. State Department "who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking...and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."
Whiteout, the CIA, drugs and the press, , Alexander, Cockburn, Verso, , ISBN 1-85984-258-5
Kerry was suspicious of North's connection with Manuel Noriega, Panama's drug baron. According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Noriega and had met him personally.
The report went on to say that "the Contra drug links included...payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies." Houses of the Congress began to raise questions about the drug-related allegations associated with the Contras, causing a review in the spring of 1986 of the allegations by the State Department, in conjunction with the Justice Department and relevant U.S. intelligence agencies.[24]
Former DEA agent Celerino Castillo alleged that Ilopango Airport in El Salvador was used by Contras for drug trafficking, with full knowledge of the CIA. He further alleged that his investigations were hindered by US government agencies. These allegations were part of an investigation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, which however did not find substantial evidence to support Castillo's allegations. THE CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE CONTROVERSY: A REVIEW OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS Castillo also testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on the same allegations. Celerino "Cele" Castillo III
The allegations resurfaced in 1996 when journalist Gary Webb published reports in the San Jose Mercury News,[25] and later in his book ''Dark Alliance'',[26] detailing how Contras had distributed crack cocaine into Los Angeles to fund weapons purchases. These reports were initially attacked by various other newspapers, which attempted to debunk the link, citing official reports that apparently cleared the CIA.
''The Wall Street Journal'' reported on January 29, 1997
[27] on activities at the Mena, Arkansas airport allegedly involved then-governor Bill Clinton in a coverup of illegal drug-trading activity. The Wall Street Journal article goes on to state:
At the center of the web of speculation spun around Mena are a few undisputed facts: One of the most successful drug informants in U.S. history, smuggler Barry Seal, based his air operation at Mena. At the height of his career he was importing as much as 1,000 pounds of cocaine per month, and had a personal fortune estimated at more than $50 million. After becoming an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, he worked at least once with the CIA, in a Sandinista drug sting. He was gunned down by Colombian hit men in Baton Rouge, La., in 1986; eight months later, one of his planes—with an Arkansas pilot at the wheel and Eugene Hasenfus in the cargo bay—was shot
down over Nicaragua with a load of Contra supplies.
In 1998, CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz published a two-volume report[28] that substantiated many of Webb's claims, and described how 50 contras and contra-related entities involved in the drug trade had been protected from law enforcement activity by the Reagan-Bush administration, and documented a cover-up of evidence relating to these activities. The report also showed that Oliver North and the NSC were aware of these activities. A report later that same year by the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich also came to similar conclusions.
In 2004, Gary Webb committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the head.[28]
Persons involved pardoned and reinstated
In 1992 U.S. President George H.W. Bush pardoned six people involved in the scandal,[30] namely Elliott Abrams, Duane R. Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George, Robert C. McFarlane, and Caspar W. Weinberger.
George W. Bush selected some individuals that served under Reagan for high-level posts in his presidential administration. Bush nominees under fire for link with contras Duncan Campbell Return of the Iran-Contra brigade They include:
★ Elliott Abrams: Personnel Announcement under Bush, the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the National Security Council for Near East and North African Affairs; in Iran Contra, pleaded guilty on two counts of unlawfully withholding information, pardoned.
★ Otto Reich: BIOGRAPHY head of the Office of Public Diplomacy under Reagan.
★ John Negroponte: President Congratulates America's First Director and Deputy Director of National Intelligence under Bush, the National Intelligence Director.
★ Admiral John Poindexter: No more Mr Scrupulous Guy under Bush, Director of the Information Awareness Office; in Iran Contra found guilty of multiple felony counts for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence, convictions reversed.
★ Robert Gates: Bush Says Rumsfeld Is Stepping Down under Bush, confirmed on December 6, 2006 as the new Secretary of Defense to replace the resigning Donald Rumsfeld. Served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991–1993 under George H.W. Bush. During Iran Contra he was Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.
★ Charles E. Allen: Personnel Announcement under Bush, appointed in August 2005 to be chief intelligence officer at the Department of Homeland Security. Allen's position at DHS was not subject to Senate confirmation. Prior to the DHS appointment, Allen had worked 47 years at the CIA. Director of Central Intelligence William Webster formally reprimanded Allen for failing to fully comply with the DCI's request for full cooperation in the agency's internal Iran-Contra scandal investigation. However coworkers of Allen pointed out that Webster reprimanded the one person in the CIA who had brought his suspicions of a funds diversion to Robert Gates. [Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA, Mark Perry, 1992, p. 216.]
See also
★ United States-Iran relations
★ Allegations of state terrorism by United States of America
★ CIA drug trafficking
★ Gary Webb
★ Mistakes were made
★ Operation Condor
★ Orlando Letelier
★ ''Nicaragua v. United States''
★ List of Pardons and Commutations by President George H. W. Bush
Notes
1. NYT's apologies miss the point
2. Excerpts From the Iran-Contra Report: A Secret Foreign Policy
3.
★ A tale of three countries: The Iran-Contra affair
4.
★ The Iran-Contra affair
5. The Contras, cocaine, and covert operations: Documentation of official U.S. knowledge of drug trafficking and the Contras
6. An affair to remember: The extent of Reagan’s knowledge in the Iran-Contra affair, , Megan, Tuck, ,
7. The tragedy of Iran
8. Military history of the Iran-Iraq war, 1980-1988
9. Excerpts From the Iran-Contra Report: A Secret Foreign Policy
10. The Iran-Contra affair
11. United States v. Robert C. McFarlane
12. Vol. I: Investigations and prosecutions
13. Irangate: Iran-Contra affair, 1985-1992
14. 1985–1992 Irangate
15. Why Secret 1986 U.S.-Iran “Arms for Hostages” Negotiations Failed
16. Ronald W Reagan
17. Timeline of Ronald Reagan's life
18. Tower commission report excerpts
19. Unwise men
20. More gloss for the Gipper: The myth of Reagan's "enormous popularity"
21. Zinn, Howard. ''A People's History of the United States''. New York: Perennial, 2003. p.587-588 ISBN 0060528370
22. The 'Christic Institute' lawsuit - Avirgan and Honey v. Hull, ''et al.''
23. The Oliver North file: His diaries, e-mail, and memos on the Kerry report, Contras and drugs
24. Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy chaired by Senator John F. Kerry
25. Iran-Contra articles Gary Webb
26. Dark alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the crack cocaine explosion, , Gary, Webb, Seven Stories, , ISBN 1-888363-68-1
27. Mysterious Mena: CIA Discloses, Leach Disposes
28.
29.
30. Proclamation 6518 - Grant of Executive Clemency
Sources
★ Irangate: Iran-Contra affair, 1985-1992
★ More gloss for the Gipper: The myth of Reagan's "enormous popularity"
★ Whiteout, the CIA, drugs and the press, , Alexander, Cockburn, Verso, , ISBN 1-85984-258-5
★ The 'Christic Institute' lawsuit - Avirgan and Honey v. Hull, ''et al.''
★ Military history of the Iran-Iraq war, 1980-1988
★
★ The tragedy of Iran
★ United States v. Robert C. McFarlane
★ The Iran-Contra affair
★ The Oliver North file: His diaries, e-mail, and memos on the Kerry report, Contras and drugs
★ The Contras, cocaine, and covert operations: Documentation of official U.S. knowledge of drug trafficking and the Contras
★ NYT's apologies miss the point
★ Timeline of Ronald Reagan's life
★ Unwise men
★ Address to the nation on the Iran arms and Contra aid controversy
★ A tale of three countries: The Iran-Contra affair
★ How the Reagan Administration Taught Iran the Wrong Lessons
★ Tower commission report excerpts ; See also "The Politics of Scandal: The Tower Commission and Iran-Contra," in Kenneth Kitts, ''Presidential Commissions and National Security: The Politics of Damage Control'' (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006).
★ An affair to remember: The extent of Reagan’s knowledge in the Iran-Contra affair
★ Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (S. Rep. No. 216, H.R. Rep. No. 433, 100th Cong., 1st Sess.)
★ Proclamation 6518 - Grant of Executive Clemency
★ Vol. I: Investigations and prosecutions
★ Iran-Contra articles Gary Webb
★ Dark alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the crack cocaine explosion, , Gary, Webb, Seven Stories, , ISBN 1-888363-68-1
★ The Iran-Contra affair
★ Hostile Witnesses
External links
★ The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On: Documents Spotlight Role of Reagan, Top Aides. By the National Security Archive
★ How the Reagan Administration Taught Iran the Wrong Lessons – Middle East Review of International Affairs, June, 2007 article by Nathan Thrall
★ "The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis" (Audio, Video) -- 1987 Bill Moyers special on the Iran-Contra Affair
★ Condensed article outlining Iran-Contra
★ Extract of NSDD-138 (PDF) National Security Archive
★ NSDD-207 (PDF)
★ The Oliver North File: His Diaries, E-Mail, and Memos on the Kerry Report, Contras and Drugs
★ Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (Walsh Report)
★ THE IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR by the National Security Archive
★ About LUIS POSADA CARRILES involved as Ramon Medina in Oliver North's operations.
★ Chip Tatum - The Story That Cost Him His Life
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