WEINBERGER FACES QUIZ ON ARMS SALE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470008-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 17, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470008-1
AgTfnl WASHINGTON POST
ON 17 December 1986
THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION'S SECRET ARMS DEAL
Weinberger Faces Quiz on Arms Sale
Iran Received Bargain Rates, Documents Indicate
By George C. Wilson
Washwgto,, Past *alt Writer
Defense Secretary Caspar W.
Weinberger will make his first ap-
pearance today before the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence
since the Iran-contra controversy
erupted and is expected to be
quizzed about whether Iran bought
U.S. weapons at bargain rates.
Pentagon officials have said they
sold the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy 2,008 TOW antitank missiles and
an unspecified number of Hawk an-
tiaircraft missile components. The
CIA, in turn, arranged for their sale
to Iran.
CIA Director William J. Casey
has said $12.2 million passed
through a CIA bank account to re-
pay the Pentagon for the TOWs and
the Hawk components, but has said
he did not know the source of the
money.
Iran got a bargain even if the
TOWs it purchased resemble the
cheapest ones in the Pentagon's
latest weapons book. The procure-
ment catalog for fiscal 1987 shows
the Marines paying $9,860 each for
an older version of the TOW than
the Army had on order, the TOW
II, which cost $11,216 each.
Even if Iran's entire $12.2 mil-
lion went for the 2,008 TOWs, the
price for each would come to about
$6,000, or one-third off the Ma-
rines' price tag. If Iran paid the Ma-
rines' price of $9,860 each, its
2,008 TOWs would have cost $19.8
million.
Weinberger has stressed that the
TOWs that went to Iran were older
weapons and that the Pentappn sold
them to the CIA under the Econ-
omy Act. If the U.S. weapons had
been sold under usual procedures,
the Arms Export Control Act-
which requires the Pentagon to no-
tify Congress of any foreign arms
sale exceeding $14 million-would
have applied.
Several committees are studying
whether the Iran sale justifies ad-
ditional legislation to prevent the
Pentagon and CIA from evading
Congress in selling weapons abroad.
Army officials said yesterday
they still could not release the price
of the TOWs sold to Iran or how the
amount was calculated. The Army
has been pressed by reporters for
more than a week to explain the
price. An Army spokesman said
yesterday that the service was told
to turn news queries over to the
Defense Department.
Without knowing which Hawk
components Iran purchased it is
impossible from public documents
to estimate their market price.
President Reagan in a news con-
ference mistakenly referred to the
TOW-which stands for tube-
launched, optically tracked, wire-
guided-as a shoulder-fired weap-
on. Because of its weight, the weap-
on requires more than one man to
handle it, but it can be mounted on
a jeep or in a helicopter.
Iran employs TOW missiles in its
war with Iraq to knock out tanks
and other armored vehicles. Hawk
missiles are used against attacking
aircraft, and are effective at low and
medium altitudes. Iraqi pilots usu-
ally bomb from high altitude, appar-
ently to keep out of range of Iran's
Hawks.
The House Armed Services Com-
mittee has submitted detailed ques-
tions to the Army on the TOW and
Hawk sale to Iran. A committee
staff member said the panel wanted
to determine how the weapons
were priced, how their sale affected
readiness of U.S. forces and wheth-
er the procedures were flawed and
need correction through legislation.
Senators on the intelligence com-
mittee are expected to ask Wein-
berger today whether the desire to
obtain money for the Nicaraguan
rebel forces affected the prices the
CIA has publicly reported and ac-
tually paid for the weapons from
Pentagon stocks.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470008-1