MEANT TO AID IRAN FACTIONS, REAGAN SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560046-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: November 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/01 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560046-6
Meant to Aid
Iran Factions,
Reagan Says
By David Hoffman
and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
President Reagan told congres.
sional leaders yesterday that the se-
cret operation to ship military
equipment and spare parts to Iran
began as part of a larger effort tot
support some dissident factions W-
ing for power in Tehran, admt iis-
tration officials said.
In a White House meeting, the
president and top administration of-
ficials detailed the origins and sub-
sequent operation of the controver-
sial covert program run by presi-
dential aides that led to the release
of some U.S. hostages in Lebanon
held by pro-Iranian terrorists.
The operation has provoked an-
gry exchanges within the White
House in recent days between chief
of staff Donald T. Regan and nation-
al security adviser John M. Poindex.
ter over how to explain the pres-
ident's previously secret actions to
Congress and the public, officials
said.
On Nov. 6, Regan and Poindexter
got into a "shouting match" in front
of the president in the Oval Office,
with Regan demanding that some
details be made public and Poindex-
ter insisting that all be kept secret,
officials said. The president initially
sided with Poindexter, they added.
Attempting to calm the rising
congressional demands for informa-
tion about the operation, Reagan
met for two hours yesterday with
Senate Majority Leader Robert J.
Dole (R-Kan.), Minority Leader
Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), House
Majority Leader James C. Wright
Jr. (D-Tex.) and Rep. Dick Cheney
(R-Wyo.), fourth-ranking member
of the House GOP leadership.
Officials said Poindexter told the
congressional leaders that arms
shipments to Iran, which contra-
dicted a longstanding U.S. policy to
isolate Iran and remain neutral in
the Iran-Iraq war, were justified in
WASHINGTON POST
13 November 1986
part to help dissident factions that
could assume power after the death
of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Officials said the congressional
leaders were told that the negoti-
ations for release of the hostages
came about as a "byproduct" of the
earlier efforts. However, the ad-
ministration officials reported that
the shipment of weapons to Iran be-
came linked to efforts to free the
U.S. hostages.
[Poindexter told reporters last
night that the United States will
pursue its controversial dealings
with Iran, United Press Internation-
al reported. "We are going to con-
tinue our policies. We have thought
all along that our policy was cor-
rect," he said.)
Administration officials acknowl-
edged yesterday they are attempt-
ing to shift attention from the arms-
for-hostages' aspect of the Iran ne-
gotiations to the purported larger
goal of establishing links to poten-
tial Iranian leaders. This was the
thrust of the briefing to congres-
sional leaders yesterday.
However, Byrd, who has crit'
cized the administration as unde
mining U.S. credibility with the Ira
operation, said after meeting Rea
gan yesterday that "my mind ha
not been changed." A congressiona
source who received the Poindexte
briefing earlier said the administra
tion is "rewriting history" about the
Iran operation.
While the Iran operation began as
part of a tong-running U.S. concern
about the future of that strategic
nation, officials have said the flow of
American military equipment and
spare parts to Iran was initiated at
the suggestion of Israeli interme-
diaries in mid-1985 as a way to win
freedom for the U.S. hostages. The
first shipments were sent just be-
fore the release of the Rev. Benja-
min Weir in September 1985. Fur-
ther shipments were made in this
Administration officials said the
congressional leaders have been
given several justifications for the
president's deciding to contravene
secretly his publicly stated policy of
not paying ransom for hostages.
The United States has labeled Iran
an "outlaw" nation that supports
terrorism and, led by Secretary of
State George P. Shultz, has sought
to halt worldwide flows of arms to
Iran.
Yesterday, officials said Poindex-
ter and others made a distinction
between sending weapons to the
captors of the American hostages,
the Islamic Jihad group that owes
its allegience to Khomeini, and aid-
ing dissident factions within his gov-
ernment.
"We're not dealing with the cap-
tors," said one official familiar with
yesterday's meeting. "We have sin-
gled out individuals we think can
bring about change. They are not
the ones who took the hostages"-a
reference to the students who held
American diplomats in the U.S. Em-
bassy-in Tehran in 1979-80.
Reagan was joined Yesterday by
Vice President Bush, Secretary of
Defense CasDar W. Weinberger. At-
torney General Edwin Meese III,
CIA Director William 1. Casey,
Shultz. Regan and Poindexter.
Officials said the briefing yester-
day was a belated attempt to pro-
vide information to congressional
leaders after more than a week of
criticism that the White House at-
tempted to bvoass them.
Other officials had said last week
that the Iran operation was con-
ducted byte National Security
Council and not the ntr me -
ligence Agency in order to avoid
disclosure to congressro tnte -
ence committees required for CIA
Aerations.
Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.),
hairman of the House ermanent
year, before two more hostages, ~elect mittee on Intelfi ence,
the Rev. Lawrence M. Jenco and 000"need =Stprda that hit gaud
David P. Jacobsen, were released
by the Islamic Jihad.
In each instance, White House of-
ficials had expected more hostages
to be released, and on several oc-
casions they were disappointed
when no one was freed, sources
have said.
will hold its first hearing on the trait
o.p ration Nov. 21. Poindexter
promised last week to brief the Sen-
ate Se eect-Cmmitte eon-lnte7li-
gence soon. That panel's vino chair-
=WJ
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man, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, (D-Vt.),
yesterday demanded
of the operation and accused the ad-
ministration "3cramb1ilm to find a
reason for what they did."
Administration officials said the
Iran operation has created a large
credibility problem for the White
House, in part because Reagan de-
cided, after it was publicly dis-
closed, not to give the nation any
explanation for the decision to con-
travene his antiterrorism policy.
Chief of staff Regan and national
security adviser Poindexter sharply
differed on whether the president.
should give some details of the Iran.
ian operation to Congress, officials
said. The president at first en-
dorsed Poindexter's approach, but
was then persuaded to hold yester-
day's briefing. Former national a&,
curity adviser Robert C. McFar.'
lane, who started the program and,
after leaving the White House,
made a secret trip to Tehran in late
May, this week reportedly urged
the administration to make public
the details of the operation.
The credibility problem was ex.
acerbated by signals from Shultz
and Weinberger that they had
strongly opposed the arms ship-
ments to Iran, officials said. "We
have nobody we can send out to ex-
plain this," said one official.
Another problem is that the ad-
ministration is in the midst of con-
sidering sanctions against Syria for
its role in the attempted bombing of
an El Al airliner on a flight from
London this year. British Prime
Minister Margaret- Thatcher, who
broke relations with Syria as a re-
sult, is scheduled to visit Reagan at
Camp David on Saturday.
The administration also is con-
cerned that it faces a severe cred-
ibility problem with other allies and
a host of moderate Arab nations,
which were pressed repeatedly to
isolate Iran while the United States
was secretly shipping arms to Teh-
ran through Israel, sources said.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said yesterday that the ad-
ministration is "hopeful" that the
hostages remaining in the hands of
the Islamic Jihad group will be re-
leased soon.
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