KEEPING TABS ON SECRET TALKS WITH IRAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200030-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: November 17, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/04/28 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100200030-8
WASHINGTON POST
1, ~:~c~~mer 1956
LACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA
Keeping Tabs on Secret Talks With Iran
or nearly a year, we have been reporting on the
F secret deals the Reagan administration was
making with [ran. We voiced our vehement
objections to the secret negotiations, both in this
column and in private talks with administration
officials.
Because of constant warnings from our sources
that detailed reports on the U.S.-Iranian contacts
would endanger the lives of American hostages in
Lebanon, we were circumspect in outlining the exact
nature of the negotiations. Even so, other journalists
told us they couldn't confirm the stories, and high
administration officials tried their best to persuade us
that we were wrong.
But we knew we were right, and we believed that
the administration's policy was wrong.
Last January, we disclosed that former high-level
officials were conducting secret talks with [ran over
the hostages. Now that the cat is out of the bag, we
can reveal that two of the negotiators were a
one-time Central Intelligence Agency official and a
high Defense Department official who were,closely
associated with reriegade CTA ex-a~gentEdwin
Wilson.
On Feb. 2t, in an Oval Office interview with
President Reagan, Dale Van Atta pursued the story
on U.S, contacts with Iran. "This is on Iran," he said,
,~ccurdinq to a tape recording of the~conversation.
"For six years they've been waging a terrorist war
against us and there are at least 264 American '
bodies they can count as being responsible for,
including, as we reported. [hostage) William Buckley
last dear, whom they tortured mercilessly. [know
there are still four hostages there noM and that may
preclude rou from saying anrtlting.'
The president confirmed part of our story, but
then made a statement that-on his condition-we
will be able to repoR only after all the hostages are
safely home.
After further inquiries, we wrote two columns last
April that began to pry the lid off the secret
operation. On April 28, we reported that the
administration "has been quietly conciliator~st
behind-the-scenes negotiations with Iran over the
American hostages held by pro-[ranian terrorists."
On April 30 we reported that the administration
was using covert Israeli shipments of U.S. arms to
establish relations with Iran.
We learned that the arms sales were part of secret
dealings with Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanpni, speaker
of Iran's parliament. On biay 11, we warned:
"[TJhe president's advisers should not lose sight of
the dubious background of the people they're cozying
up to .... [Tfiey areJ dealing with a bunch of
cutthroats."
We specifically warned about Rafsanjani, who was
implicated in the murder of two American
servicemen in Iran in the 1970s. "U.S. officials have
pinned a substantial part of their hope on Raisan~ani,"
we wrote. "and have presumably inspired stories in
the press, which referred to him as 'moderate' and
credited him with helping to free the Amencan
hostages five years ago."
[t was Rafsanjani who blew the cover on the secret
arms-for-hostages deal.
Approved For Release 2011/04/28 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100200030-8