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tiatives the president requested that the moderate iranians do everything in their capability to free the hostages held by hezbollah 4 reagan always publicly insisted after the scandal broke in late 1986 that the purpose behind the arms for hostages trade was to establish a working relationship with the moderate faction associated with rafsanjani to facilitate the reestablishment of the us iranian alliance after the soon to be expected death of khomeini to end the iran iraq war and end iranian support for islamic terrorism while downplaying the importance of freeing the hostages in lebanon as a secondary issue 45 by contrast when testifying before the tower commission reagan declared that the hostage issue was the main reason for selling arms to iran 46 a bgm 71 tow antitank guided missile the following arms were supplied to iran 43 47 first arms sales in 1981 see above 20 august 1985 96 tow antitank missiles 14 september 1985 408 more tows 24 november 1985 18 hawk antiaircraft missiles 17 february 1986 500 tows 27 february 1986 500 tows 24 may 1986 508 tows 240 hawk spare parts 4 august 1986 more hawk spares 28 october 1986 500 tows first few arms sales edit the first arms sales to iran began in 1981 though the official paper trail has them beginning in 1985 see above on 20 august 1985 israel sent 96 us made tow missiles to iran through an arms dealer manucher ghorbanifar 48 subsequently on 14 september 1985 408 more tow missiles were delivered on 15 september 1985 following the second delivery reverend benjamin weir was released by his captors the islamic jihad organization on 24 november 1985 18 hawk antiaircraft missiles were delivered modifications in plans edit robert mcfarlane resigned on 4 december 1985 49 50 stating that he wanted to spend more time with his family 51 and was replaced by admiral john poindexter 52 two days later reagan met with his advisors at the white house where a new plan was introduced this called for a slight change in the arms transactions instead of the weapons going to the moderate iranian group they would go to moderate iranian army leaders 53 as each weapons delivery was made from israel by air hostages held by hezbollah would be released 53 israel would continue to be reimbursed by the us for the weapons though staunchly opposed by secretary of state george shultz and secretary of defense caspar weinberger the plan was authorized by reagan who stated that we were not trading arms for hostages nor were we negotiating with terrorists 54 in his notes of a meeting held in the white house on 7 december 1985 weinberger wrote he told reagan that this plan was illegal writing i argued strongly that we have an embargo that makes arms sales to iran illegal and president couldn t violate it and that washing transactions through israel wouldn t make it legal shultz don regan agreed 55 weinberger s notes have reagan saying he could answer charges of illegality but he couldn t answer charge sic that big strong president reagan passed up a chance to free hostages 55 now retired national security advisor mcfarlane flew to london to meet with israelis and ghorbanifar in an attempt to persuade the iranian to use his influence to release the hostages before any arms transactions occurred this plan was rejected by ghorbanifar 53 on the day of mcfarlane s resignation oliver north a military aide to the us national security council nsc proposed a new plan for selling arms to iran which included two major adjustments instead of selling arms through israel the sale was to be direct at a markup and a portion of the proceeds would go to the contras nicaraguan paramilitary fighters waging guerrilla warfare against the sandinista government claiming power after an election full of irregularities 56 not specific enough to verify the dealings with the iranians were conducted via the nsc with admiral poindexter and his deputy colonel north with the us historians malcolm byrne and peter kornbluh writing that poindexter granted much power to north who made the most of the situation often deciding important matters on his own striking outlandish deals with the iranians and acting in the name of the president on issues that were far beyond his competence all of these activities continued to take place within the framework of the president s broad authorization until the press reported on the existence of the operation nobody in the administration questioned the authority of poindexter s and north s team to implement the president s decisions 57 north proposed a 15 million markup while contracted arms broker ghorbanifar added a 41 percent markup of his own 58 other members of the nsc were in favor of north s plan with large support poindexter authorized it without notifying president reagan and it went into effect 59 at first the iranians refused to buy the arms at the inflated price because of the excessive markup imposed by north and ghorbanifar they eventually relented and in february 1986 1 000 tow missiles were shipped to the country 59 from may to november 1986 there were additional shipments of miscellaneous weapons and parts 59 both the sale of weapons to iran and the funding of the contras attempted to circumvent not only stated administration policy but also the boland amendment administration officials argued that regardless of congress restricting funds for the contras or any affair the president or in this case the administration could carry on by seeking alternative means of funding such as private entities and foreign governments 60 funding from one foreign country brunei was botched when north s secretary fawn hall transposed the numbers of north s swiss bank account number a swiss businessperson suddenly 10 million richer alerted the authorities of the mistake the money was eventually returned to the sultan of brunei with interest 61 on 7 january 1986 john poindexter proposed to reagan a modification of the approved plan instead of negotiating with the moderate iranian political group the us would negotiate with moderate members of the iranian government 62 poindexter told reagan that ghorbanifar had important connections within the iranian government so with the hope of the release of the hostages reagan approved this plan as well 62 throughout february 1986 weapons were shipped directly to iran by the us as part of oliver north s plan but none of the hostages were released retired national security advisor mcfarlane conducted another international voyage this one to tehran bringing with him a gift of a bible with a handwritten inscription by ronald reagan 63 64 and according to george w cave a cake baked in the shape of a key 63 howard teicher described the cake as a joke between north and ghorbanifar 65 mcfarlane met directly with iranian officials associated with rafsanjani who sought to establish us iranian relations in an attempt to free the four remaining hostages 66 the us delegation comprised mcfarlane north cave a retired cia officer who served as the group s translator teicher israeli diplomat amiram nir and a cia communicator 67 they arrived in tehran in an israeli plane carrying forged irish passports on 25 may 1986 68 this meeting also failed much to mcfarlane s disgust he did not meet ministers and instead met in his words third and fourth level officials 68 at one point an angry mcfarlane shouted as i am a minister i expect to meet with decision makers otherwise you can work with my staff 68 the iranians requested concessions such as israel s withdrawal from the golan heights which the us rejected 66 more importantly mcfarlane refused to ship spare parts for the hawk missiles until the iranians had hezbollah release the us hostages whereas the iranians wanted to reverse that sequence with the spare parts being shipped first before the hostages were freed 68 the differing negotiating positions led to mcfarlane s mission going home after four days 69 after the failure of the secret visit to tehran mcfarlane advised reagan not to talk to the iranians anymore advice that was disregarded 69 subsequent dealings edit on 26 july 1986 hezbollah freed the us hostage father lawrence jenco former head of catholic relief services in lebanon 69 following this william j casey head of the cia requested that the us authorize sending a shipment of small missile parts to iranian military forces as a way of expressing gratitude 70 casey also justified this request by stating that the contact in the iranian government might otherwise lose face or be executed and hostages might be killed reagan authorized the shipment to ensure that those potential events would not occur 70 north used this release to persuade reagan to switch over to a sequential policy of freeing the hostages one by one instead of the all or nothing policy that the americans had pursued until then 69 by this point the americans had grown tired of ghorbanifar who had proven himself a dishonest intermediary who played off both sides to his own commercial advantage 69 in august 1986 the americans had established a new contact in the iranian government ali hashemi bahramani the nephew of rafsanjani and an officer in the revolutionary guard 69 the fact that the revolutionary guard was deeply involved in international terrorism seemed only to attract the americans more to bahramani who was seen as someone with the influence to change iran s policies 69 richard secord a us arms dealer who was being used as a contact with iran wrote to north my judgment is that we have opened up a new and probably better channel into iran 69 north was so impressed with bahramani that he arranged for him to secretly visit washington d c and gave him a guided tour at midnight of the white house 69 north frequently met with bahramani in the summer and autumn of 1986 in west germany discussing arms sales to iran the freeing of hostages held by hezbollah and how best to overthrow president saddam hussein of iraq and the establishment of a non hostile regime in baghdad 69 in september and october 1986 three more americans frank reed joseph cicippio and edward tracy were abducted in lebanon by a separate terrorist group who referred to them simply as g i joe after the popular us toy the reasons for their abduction are unknown although it is speculated that they were kidnapped to replace the freed americans 71 one more original hostage david jacobsen was later released the captors promised to release the remaining two but the release never happened 72 during a secret meeting in frankfurt in october 1986 north told bahramani that saddam hussein must go 69 north also claimed that reagan had told him to tell bahramani that saddam hussein is an asshole 69 bahramani during a secret meeting in mainz informed north that rafsanjani for his own politics decided to get all the groups involved and give them a role to play 73 thus all the factions in the iranian government would be jointly responsible for the talks with the americans and there would not be an internal war 73 this demand of bahramani caused much dismay on the us side as it made clear to them that they would not be dealing solely with a moderate faction in the islamic republic but rather with all the factions in the iranian government including those who were very much involved in terrorism 73 despite this the talks were not broken off 73 discovery and scandal edit after a leak by mehdi hashemi a senior official in the islamic revolutionary guard corps the lebanese magazine ash shiraa exposed the arrangement on 3 november 1986 74 according to patrick seale it was the syrian president hafez al assad who leaked the information which he had received from a syrian agent in tehran to ash shiraa 75 76 according to seymour hersh an unnamed former military officer told him that the leak may have been orchestrated by a covert team led by arthur s moreau jr assistant to the chair of the us joint chiefs of staff due to fears the scheme had grown out of control 77 this was the first public report of the weapons for hostages deal the operation was discovered only after an airlift of guns corporate air services hpf821 was downed over nicaragua eugene hasenfus who was captured by nicaraguan authorities after surviving the plane crash initially alleged in a press conference on nicaraguan soil that two of his coworkers max gomez and ramon medina worked for the cia 78 he later said he did not know whether they did or not 79 the iranian government confirmed the ash shiraa story and 10 days after the story was first published president reagan appeared on national television from the oval office on 13 november stating my purpose was to send a signal that the united states was prepared to replace the animosity between the us and iran 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 8 the scandal was compounded when oliver north destroyed or hid pertinent documents between 21 november and 25 november 1986 during north s trial in 1989 his secretary fawn hall testified extensively about helping north alter and shred official us national security council nsc documents from the white house according to the new york times enough documents were put into a government shredder to jam it 58 hall also testified that she smuggled classified documents out of the old executive office building by concealing them in her boots and dress 80 north s explanation for destroying some documents was to protect the lives of individuals involved in iran and contra operations 58 it was not until 1993 years after the trial that north s notebooks were made public and only after the national security archive and public citizen sued the office of the independent counsel under the freedom of information act 58 the diversion of funds is revealed what is involved is that in the course of the arms transfers which involved the united states providing the arms to israel and israel in turn transferring the arms in effect selling the arms to representatives of iran certain monies which were received in the transaction between representatives of israel and representatives of iran were taken and made available to the forces in central america which are opposing the sandinista government there 81 u s attorney general edwin meese white house news conference on november 25 1986 during the 1989 trial north testified that on 21 22 or 24 of november 1986 he witnessed poindexter destroy what may have been the only signed copy of a presidential covert action finding that sought to authorize cia participation in the november 1985 hawk missile shipment to iran 58 u s attorney general edwin meese admitted on 25 november that profits from weapons sales to iran were made available to assist the con...
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