CIA BYPASSED IN IRAN ARMS SUPPLY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605100029-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: November 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605100029-2
WASHINGTON POST
ARTICLE APPEARED s November .1986
ON PA6E ~ - ~
IA B assed in Iran Arms Su 1
C
yp pp y
~/hite House
Sought to ovoid Disclosure to Congress
~By Walter-Pinccis~?
-"WaIiuTgGm-P~t;( 5laf( Writer
In setting up a secret program
linking release of American hos-
tages in Lebanon to clandestine
arms shipments to (ran, senior
White House officials in early 1985
bypassed the Central Intelligence
Agency to avoid the ~i~andatory dis-
closure of such covert operations to
Congress, according to informed
sources.
After top State Department and
Pentago~i officials objected earlier
this year to continuing the program,
President Reagan ordered even
tighter secrecy by virtually exclud-
ing those two departments from
information about the White House-
run operation, sources said.
At a White House meeting last
January, Reagan listened to argu-
ments against the covert program,
which had already led to the Sep-
tember 1985 release of the Rev.
[3enjamin Weir, from Secretary of
State George P. Shultz and Secre-
tary of Defense Caspar W. Wein-
berger, sources said.
Shultz and Weinberger said the
program contradicted the admin-
istration's well-publicized policy of
not negotiating with terrorists and
of isolating [ran as a supporter of
terrorism, sources said. The two
also argued that the Iranians could
riot be trusted to keep such a po-
te~itially explosive operation secret
very long.
Support for the program came
from CIA Director William J. Casey;
Robert C. McFarlane, who had re-
tired the previous month as the
president's national security advis-
er, and Vice Adm. John M. Poindex-
ter, McFarlane's replacement.
They argued that dealing with Teh-
ran officials was the only way to
free four other Americans held by
the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad terror-
ists.
But Reagan sided with Shultz and
Weinberger and temporarily "closed
down" the operation, sources said.
In succeeding months, however, North, began meeting with Iranian
pressure built up from hostage fam- officials in European cities and
flies who claimed the president was eventually Tehran.
not doing enough to gain release of The U.S. officials said they would
their imprisoned relatives and Rea- not interfere with specific Israeli
gan .approved resumption of the military shipments to Iran if they
program. led to release of American hos-
He ordered, however, that infor- tages. On Sept. 14, 1985, a mys-
mation about it be kept from top terious cargo plane landed in Israel
State Department officials and after flying out of Iran, according to
sharply limited in the Pentagon,-the news reports. That plane carried
sources said. Shultz and Weinber- military equipment, according to a
ger knew of the resumption, the knowledgeable source.
sources added, but few of their sen- That day, Weir was released.
for deputies were in on the secret. Reagan later called Israeli Prime
The program had been initiated Minister Shimon Peres to thank
him for Israeli cooperation, sources
in 1985 after U.S. officials decided said.
that only Iranian authorities could After shipments of military
bring pressure for release of Amer- equipment resumed in mid-1986, an
leans held by the pro-Iranian Islam- unmarked cargo plane was reported
is Jihad clans that were demanding to have landed in Iran on July 4;
release of terrorists jailed in Ku- according to members of the Iran-
wait. - ~ ~ - - - - - -t -
run~~the program, White House of- United States. On July 27, a second
ficials warned that the CIA would hostage, Rev. Lawrence M. Jenco,
have to tell the House and Senate was released.
intelligence committees about the Former Iranian president Abol-
operation. Such a disclosure was hassan Bani-Sadr, now living in Par-
legally required by congressional is, said on the ABC program 'Night-
reforms adopted in the 1970s after fine Wednesday, that additional
revelations of controversial CIA Plane loads of military equipment
covert operations. arrived in Iran in August and Sep-
Some administration officials tember. Last Sunday, hostage Da-
have been highly critical of what
they claim is Congress' inability to
keep a secret. The White House
was convinced that a clandestine
plan to authorize shipment of arms
to Iran would certainly leak to the
news media because of congression-
al concern that such an operation
would be perceived by U.S. allies as
a hypocritical contradiction of
Washington's public demand for an
embargo on arms to Tehran.
Consequently, sources said, the
program was kept within the White
House, with CIA director Casey in
full accord.
Israeli officials, who had main-
tained secret contacts with Iranian
military and political figures, of-
fered to open a negotiating channel
for Washington. McFarlane and an
assistant on the national security
council staff, Lt. Col. Oliver C.
vid P. Jacobsen was released m Bei-
rut.
Sources familiar with the pro-
gram said yesterday that some re-
cent news accounts had exagger-.
ated the amount of equipment that
went to Iran under the White House
program.
"There have been large arms
shipments to Iran that were pur- /
chases from North Korea and Chi-
na," one source said yesterday, "but
they were not associated with this
program." Instead, he said, the
Iranians used the U.S.-Israeli chan-
nel to get "high priority" material
that they could not get elsewhere.
High on that list, he said, were
parts for F14 aircraft that Iran had
possessed since its days as a
staunch U.S. ally, including special-
ized engine parts, landing gears,
radar, electronics and "some ord-
nance."
Continued
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605100029-2
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605100029-2
The shipments did not originate
in the United States, sources said,
but were put together from U.S.-
made equipment in the hands of
other countries. In some special
instances, equipment in the United
States was shipped to another coun-
try and then turned over to Israelis
or other middlemen.
Increasingly vocal in their con-
cern as more officials learned of the
White House operation, State De-
partment officials fretted that the
plan threatened broader, long-term
foreign policy objectives for the im-
mediate gain of having one or more
hostages released.
In August, the State Depart-
ment's top counterterrorism ex-
pert, Robert M. Oakley, went on
leave to go with the Carnegie En-
dowment for International Peace.
His deputy, Parker Borg, left the
State Department in September for
health reasons to join the Center for
Strategic and International Studies
at Georgetown University.
Officials said the departures of
two experienced counterterrorism
experts has temporarily hampered
efforts to deal with the issue.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605100029-2