Everything about The Iran-contra Affair totally explained
The
Iran-Contra affair was a
political scandal which was revealed in 1986 as a result of earlier events during the
Reagan administration. It began as an operation to increase U.S.-Iranian relations, wherein
Israel would ship weapons to a moderate, politically influential group of Iranians opposed to the
Ayatollah Khomeni; the U.S. would reimburse Israel with those weapons and receive payment from Israel. The moderate Iranians agreed to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by
Hezbollah. The plan eventually deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the
executive branch sold weapons to
Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages, without the direct authorization of President
Ronald Reagan. While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, he didn't authorize this plan, nor was he aware that the funds were being sent to the Contras. The investigation was compounded when large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. On
March 4,
1987, Reagan returned to the airwaves in a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for any actions that he was unaware of, and admitting that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."
Many investigations ensued, including those by the
United States Congress and the three-man, Reagan-appointed "Tower Commission". Neither could find any evidence that Reagan himself knew of the extent of the multiple programs. They were all pardoned in the final days of the
George H. W. Bush presidency, who had been vice-president at the time.
The affair
The affair is comprised of two matters: arms sales to Iran, and 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 through Israel in exchange for the release of hostages by
Hezbollah. Letters sent by
Oliver North to
John Poindexter support this. The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. says that the reason weapons were eventually sold directly to Iran was to establish links with elements of the military in the country. The Contras didn't receive all of their finances from arms sales, but also through
drug trafficking.
Hostage taking
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 52 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 didn't end there, however. In 1983, members of
Al-Dawa, 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, six of whom were American.
Hezbollah demanded the release of the prisoners for these hostages.
Arms transactions
Michael Ledeen, a consultant of
National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, requested assistance from
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres for help in the sale of arms to Iran. The idea behind the plan was for
Israel to ship weapons through an intermediary (identified as
Manucher Ghorbanifar)
In 1985, President Reagan entered
Bethesda Naval Hospital for
colon cancer surgery. While recovering in the hospital, McFarlane met with the president and told him that Representatives from Israel had contacted the
National Security Agency to pass on confidential information from a sect of moderate, politically influential Iranians opposed to the Ayatollah. These Iranians sought to establish a quiet relationship with the United States, before establishing formal relationships upon the death of the Ayatollah. Reagan allowed McFarlane to meet with the Israeli intermediaries because, according to him, establishing relations with a strategically located country, thus preventing the
Soviet Union from doing the same, was a beneficial move.
Following the Israeli-U.S. meeting, Israel requested permission from the U.S. to sell a small number of
TOW antitank missiles to the moderate Iranians, Now having a reason to trust the moderates, Reagan approved the transaction, which was meant to be between Israel and the moderates in Iran, with the U.S. reimbursing Israel.
According to
The New York Times, the United States supplied the following arms to Iran:
First arms sale
In July 1985, Israel sent American-made
BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) antitank missiles to Iran through an arms dealer named
Manucher Ghorbanifar, a friend of
Iran's Prime Minister. Hours after receiving the weapons, one hostage, the Reverend
Benjamin Weir was released.
On the day of the crash, responsibility was claimed by the
Islamic Jihad Organization, 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 fourth 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 al-Dawa. An article in the June 2007
Middle East Review of International Affairs, by Nathan Thrall, published by the
Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) of the
Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), based in
Herzliya,
Israel presents evidence of Iran's complicity.
Modifications in plans
Robert McFarlane resigned on
December 5,
1985, citing that he wanted to spend more time with his family; he was replaced by Admiral
John Poindexter.
Two days later, Reagan met with his advisors at the White House, where a new plan was introduced. This one called for a slight change in the arms transactions: instead of the weapons going to the moderate Iranian group, they'd go to moderate Iranian army leaders. As the weapons would be delivered from Israel by air, the hostages held by Hezbollah would be released. 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. 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. 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.
On
January 7,
1986, John Poindexter proposed to the president a modification in the approved plan: instead of negotiating with the moderate Iranain political group, the U.S. would negotiate with moderate members of the Iranian government. Poindexter told Reagan that Ghorbanifar had serious connections within the Iranian government, so with the hope of the release of the hostages, Reagan approved this plan as well. This meeting failed as well, as the members requested demands such as Israel's withdrawal from the
Golan Heights, and the United States rejected them.
In September and October of 1986 three more Americans — Frank Reed, Joseph Ciccipio, Edward Tracy — were abducted in Lebanon by a separate terrorist group. The reasons for their abduction are unknown, although it's speculated that they were kidnapped to replace the freed Americans. Later, however, one more original hostage, David Jacobsen, was released and the captors promised to released the remaining two, although that never occurred.
Discovery and scandal
After a leak by Iranian radical
Mehdi Hashemi, the Lebanese magazine
Ash-Shiraa exposed the arrangement on
November 3,
1986. 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
Central Intelligence Agency. He later said he didn't know whether they did or not. The Iranian government confirmed the
Ash-Shiraa story, and ten days after the story was first published, President Ronald Reagan appeared on national television from the
Oval Office. In his speech on
November 13, Reagan confirmed the transactions and stated the reasons for them:
"My purpose was... to send a signal that the United States was prepared to replace the animosity between [theU.S. 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."
During the trial North testified that on November 21, 22, or 24, he witnessed Poindexter destroy what may have been the only signed copy of a presidential covert-action finding that sought to authorize Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) participation in the November 1985 Hawk missile shipment to Iran. Poindexter was replaced by Frank Carlucci on December 2, 1986.
Tower Commission
On November 25, 1986, President Reagan announced the creation of a Special Review Board looking into the matter; the following day, he appointed former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to serve as members. This Presidential Commission took effect on December 1 and became known as the "Tower Commission". The main objectives of the 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." The commission was the first presidential commission to review and evaluate the National Security Council.
President Reagan appeared before the Tower Commission on December 2, 1986, to answer questions regarding his involvement in the affair. When asked about his role in the authorizing the arms deals, he first stated that he had; later, he appeared to contradict himself by stating that he'd no recollection of doing so (in his autobiography, An American Life, Reagan does acknowledge authorizing the shipments to Israel).
The report published by the Tower Commission, known as the Tower Commission Report, was delivered to the President on February 26, 1987. The Commission had interviewed 80 witnesses to the scheme, President Reagan told the American people the reason why he didn't update them on the scandal:
"The reason I haven't spoken to you before now is this: You deserve the truth. And as frustrating as the waiting has been, I felt it was improper to come to you with sketchy reports, or possibly even erroneous statements, which would then have to be corrected, creating even more doubt and confusion. There's been enough of that." The "Teflon President", as Reagan was nicknamed by critics, survived the scandal however and by January 1989 a Gallup poll was "recording a 64% approval rating," the highest ever recorded for a departing President at that time.
Internationally the damage was more severe. Magnus Ranstorp wrote, "U.S. willingness to engage in concessions with Iran and the Hezbollah not only signalled to its adversaries that hostage-taking was an extremely useful instrument in extracting political and financial concessions for the West but also undermined any credibility of U.S. criticism of other states' deviation from the principles of no-negotiation and no concession to terrorists and their demands.
In Iran Mehdi Hashemi, the leaker of the scandal, was executed in 1987, allegedly for activities unrelated to the scandal. Though Hashemi made a full video confession to numerous serious charges, some observers find the coincidence of his leak and the subsequent prosecution highly suspicious.
Convictions, pardons, and reinstatements
Oliver North and John Poindexter were indicted on multiple charges on March 16, 1988.
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 during the 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.
In 1992 U.S. President George H. W. Bush pardoned six convicted administration officials, namely Elliott Abrams, Duane R. Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George, Robert McFarlane, and Caspar Weinberger.
George W. Bush selected some individuals that served under Reagan for high-level posts in his presidential administration. They include:
Elliott Abrams: 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: head of the Office of Public Diplomacy under Reagan.
John Negroponte: under Bush, served as the Ambassador to Iraq, the National Intelligence Director, and the Deputy Secretary of State.
Admiral John Poindexter: 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.
Charles E. Allen: under Bush, appointed in August 2005 to be chief intelligence officer at the Department of Homeland Security. Allen's position at DHS wasn't 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.]
In 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 confined to prison, making him, as stated by Howard Zinn, "the only person to be imprisoned as a result of the Iran-Contra affair."
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