FOUNDER OF JEWISH INSTITUTE REPORTED LINKED TO ARMS DEAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403730009-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: December 16, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403730009-9
A~ l I'LL A-'nc4O-n
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
16 December 1986
Foun f
d e
er owish institute reported
ed to under investigation the Iran link -
Contra cIeil- Contra affair, Justice Department
officials say.
/J
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Ledeen, a consultant to
the National Security Council who
reportedly was involved in events
leading up to the sale of U.S. arms to
Iran, is a writer and an academic
with conservative views and good
contacts in Israel.
Mr. Ledeen, 45, once worked as a
special adviser to former Secretary
of State Alexander Haig. He is now
a senior fellow at the Center for Stra-
tegic and International Studies, a
Washington think tank with a con-
servative orientation.
A well-known figure in govern-
ment and journalistic circles here in
the capital, Mr. Ledeen has been
identified in Israel and in the United
States as a key player in the initial
talks that eventually resulted in the
sale of weapons, through Israel, to
Iran in the summer of 1985.
Mr. Ledeen refused to comment
Saturday. He asked a reporter to call
back during the week. Last week, he
said he would not answer questions
about the affair because his wife,
Barbara, a Pentagon consultant, re-
cently had a baby.
Last week, Mr. Ledeen testified
before a closed session of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, which is in-
vestigating revelations that pro-
ceeds from the sale of U.S. arms to
Iran were diverted to the Nicara-
guan resistance.
Mr. Ledeen has said his in-
volvement in any Iran program
ended in November 1985, and he was
unaware of payments to help the re-
sistance.
Mr. Ledeen's name also was
raised in connection with a 1985
meeting with arms merchant
Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian
expatriate, who, along with Adnan
Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian, were
middlemen in the deals. Mr. Ghor-
banifar and Mr. Khashoggi were in-
terviewed by Barbara Walters on
ABC's "20-20" show last Thursday.
Mr. Ledeen told associates that he
met Mr. Ghorbanifar several times
in Europe between July and De-
cember 1985, the Chicago Tribune
reported a month ago.
The exact details of how the arms
shipments began in 1985 are cloudy,
but Israeli officials in Jerusalem
said Mr. Ledeen told former Israeli
Prime Minister Shimon Peres in the
early spring of 1985 that the United
States wanted to re-establish contact
with Iran.
Washington apparently looked to
Israel because the Jewish state had
maintained a network of ties with
Tehran even after the 1979 Islamic
revolution.
The officials, speaking on condi-
tion they remain anonymous, said
Mr. Ledeen told Mr. Peres of Pres-
ident Reagan's concern for William
Buckley, the CIA station chief who
was kidnapped by pro-Iranian
Shi'ite Moslems in Beirut in March
1984. An ex-hostage, David
Jacobsen, says he thinks Mr. Buck-
ley died in captivity in June 1985.
Hours after speaking with Mr.
Ledeen, Mr. Peres talked to Al
Schwimmer' the U.S.-born founder
of Israel Aircraft Industries, ac-
cording to a report in Haaretz, an
Israeli newspaper. Mr. Schwimmer
had become an independent arms
dealer after running IAI for 26
years.
It was Mr. Schwimmer's idea to
barter weapons for Mr. Buckley's
freedom, and Mr. Schwimmer
turned for help to Israeli arms
dealer Yaacov Nimrodi, according to
the paper.
Mr. Ledeen is a founder of the
Jewish Institute for National Secu-
ritv Affairs. a aroun that tries to edu-
cate Americans about the need for a
close military relationship between
Israel and the United States.
The New York Times reported
that the first overture to the United
States came in late 1984 from Mr.
Ghorbanifar who said he wanted
money to help gain the release of the
American hostages in Lebanon.
10
Details of the offer were passed
along to the administration by Theo-
dore G. Shackley, a former CIA offi-
cial and a friend of Mr. Ledeen, the
newspaper said.
In a 1980 article in "New York"
magazine, Mr. Ledeen called Mr.
Shackley "one of the CIAs most es-
teemed officers:' who was "driven
out" of the agency by former Pres-
ident Jimmy Carter's CIA director,
Stansfield Turner.
Mr. Shackley also has been a con-
sultant for Stanford Technology Inc.,
the Northern Virginia firm that em-
ploys retired Gen. Richard V. Secord
and Iranian-born businessman, Al-
bert Hakim, wrote Peter Maas in
"Manhunt;' his book about convicted
CIA agent Edwin Wilson.
Gen. Secord and Mr. Hakim are
Mr. Maas also wrote that in Feb-
ruary 1982, Mr. Ledeen, then at the
State Department, approached a
federal prosecutor saying "he [Mr.
Ledeen] had heard disquieting ru-
mors about an investigation of
Shackley and [former Pentagon offi-
cial Erich] Von Marbod." The FBI
was investigating them in a case in-
volving alleged overcharges from a
shipping concern, but no charges
were ever brought against the two.
Mr. Ledeen writes frequently for
major publications about terrorism,
Italy, Western Europe and Central
America, his areas of expertise, ac-
cording to a biography distributed
by the Center for Strategic and In-
ternational Studies.
He was formerly a professor at
Washington University in St. Louis,
Mo., and at the University of Rome.
He was also executive editor of the
center's publication, "The Washing-
ton Quarterly."
At a media conference last sum-.
mer, Mr. Ledeen said Western news'
organizations contribute to terror-
ism by overreporting specific inci-
dents.
"We ought to be asking the press ,
to do a bit of self-censorship;' he
said. He also critized many report-
ers for trying to put a "spin" on their
stories to try to influence policy.
He called this "policy recommen-
dation masquerading as news story."
One of Mr. Ledeen's most contro-
versial articles, written with Arnaud
de Borchgrave, now editor-in-chief
of The Washington Times, appeared
in The New Republic just before
Jimmy Carter's defeat in 1980.
The story said that Billy Carter,
the president's brother, has received
$50,000 in travel money from the
Libyans, which he did not report. A
Justice Department investigation ,
found Billy Carter had lied to gov-
ernment officials, but no charges
were ever brought.
Mr. Ledeen also analyzed, for the
U.S. government, papers collected
during the 1983 invasion of Grenada,
and concluded that the previous gov-
ernment received Soviet support.
Mr. Ledeen's work won high
praise from another expert on ter-
rorism, Neil Livingstone of the Insti-
tute of Terrorism and Sub-National
Conflict.
"I have great respect for him as a
scholar and a writer," said Mr. Liv-
ingstone.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403730009-9