U.S. STILL SEEKS BETTER LINKS TO IRAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940020-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: January 7, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

,.. _- Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940020-7
WASHINGTON POST
7 January 1987
I JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA
U.S. Still Seeks Better Links to Iran
T he typhoon that has blown up over President
Reagan's Iran overtures hasn't deterred the
president or changed his policy. He is still
quietly seeking a rapprochement with Iran's
bellicose mullahs who are kindling the Middle East
tinderbox and waging undeclared, underground
warfare against Americans.
The White House has adopted a pattern of
selective prudence, softening its statements and
tempering its actions, so as not to alienate the
"moderates" who may take over the levers of power
when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini loses his grip.
For_examule the White House was ready to
recruit ex -CIA three nr Richard LSplma 1 car
ambassador to Iran to coordinate its Iran s-Vategy.
But the appointment was quietly dropped because,
as the American ambassador who was closest to the
late shah, he would antagonize the mullahs.
We have been sorting through the jigsaw pieces
for more than a year. We have a pretty good idea
what has been going on behind the scenes.
According to our sources, Reagan was the
angriest of Americans over Khomeini's
provocations, and more than once came close to
ordering a military response to Khomeini's
concerted terrorist campaign.
But strategists warned the president that the
unpredictable Khomeini might start blowing up oil
facilities and sinking oil tankers essential to the
West. One secret Pentagon scenario showed how
World War [if could develop from an escalation of
the Iranian-American altercation. A contingency
plan even called for dropping nuclear bombs on 19
"choke points" to stop a Soviet ;nvasron of Iran and
takeover of the strategic Persi'In Gulf.
This was Sobering enough o) cool Reagan's hot
blood with the chill of caution. So he resorted to
back channels and secret statecraft to improve
relations with the mullahs.
The idea of offering arms to grease the
relationship, our sources say, originated with
international arms dealers who had established
back channels to sell black-market arms to Iran.
Sources close to Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the
National Security Council officer who handled the
secret Iran operation, describe him as a man of
action, fiercely patriotic, who was deeply impressed
by his access to the Oval Office. He not only was
eager to do the president's bidding but tended, in
the way of young men, to out-Reagan Reagan.
Knowing how strongly the president felt about
supporting the contras in Nicaragua, our sources
say, North made it his mission to carry out the
president's will. When Congress refused to
appropriate funds in 1984, North assured the
contras, notwithstanding, that the U.S. government
would support them. Later he allegedly set up
secret bank accounts to siphon money from the
Iranian arms payments to buy weapons for the
contras.
Those who know North say he believed he was
performing a patriotic service. Not a penny of the
Iranian millions, they are confident, wound up in
North's pocket. They are less certain, though,
about the arms traffickers who sold North on the
scheme.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940020-7