IRANIAN MIDDLEMAN SCORNS TOWER REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100240009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: March 23, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100240009-8
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE L
scorns
~i By Michael Hedges
The Iranian middleman in U.S.
weapons deals with Tehran said the
lbwer commission suppressed im-
portant information about the
transactions and published other de-
tails that may have resulted in
deaths in the Middle East.
Manucher Ghorbanifar said he
will stress the shortcomings of the
'Ibwer commission report during an
early April meeting with congres-
sional investigators.
"They didn't publish many impor-
tant staterilsets of fact; said Mr.
Ghorbanifar in a recent interview
with Arnaud de Borchgrsre, editor
in chief of no Washington Times. .
"We showed them the certified
documents from the Credit Suisse
Bank, how all the transactions took
place. ... What the Tower report
published on the transactions is
laughable."
Mr. Ghorbanifar, who was roundly
criticized by the three-man board
probing the Iran-Contra affair, said
their report clumsily printed "very
sensitive stuff, clearly not designed
for publication because lives were at
stake."
He did not specifically identify
the material in the report or those
for whom the information might
have proved fatal. But, he said,
"Three people have now disap-
peared: Dead, from what I hear"
His criticism of the CIA was
equally tough. The agency's med-
dling in the Iran deals resulted lit at
least one hostage being retai]]]ns de-
spite plans for his release, Mr Gher-
banifar said
He branded former National Se-
curity Adviser Robert McFarlane "a
fool; claiming Me McFarlane blew
any chance of getft hostages out
of Iran when he misresid the situa-
tion during a Alteflil trip to Thh#ad.
In an unusually candid interview,
W. Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA has
calle_,?!I whose tsstaon
was as "ll colorful story"
by Tbwa'. board' Ober Edmund'
WASHINGTON TIMES
23 March 1987
rniddIrnan
Tower report
Muskie, challenged many critical te-
nets of the commission's report.
The attack on the commission's
findings puts Mr. Ghorbanifar, a
shadowy figure who insinuated him-
self into U .S. and Israeli overtures to
Iran, on course with official com-
ments now coming from lbhran.
Iranian President All Khamenei
has said the Tbwer report was
"largely fictional"and that Iran soon
will publish a report of its own refut-
ing the board's conclusions.
Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hos-
sein Moussavi described the com-
mission's work as "more like a
fiction fabricated by the melan-
cholic mind of McFarlane or worked
out with cooperation ... to restore
lost credibility of the U.S"
Mr. Ghorbanifar changed that the
CIA bungled the U.S.-Iran negoti-
ations by opening a second channel
for selling arms through George
79 Cave, a retired CIA agent who want
to'Ihhran with Mr. McFarlane and
White House national security aide
Lt. Col. Oliver North in May 19861
"Cave was the real operator," Mr.
Ghorbanifar said. "And he was led to
believe that [Iranian Parliament
Speaker Ali-Akbar Hashemil Raf-
sanjani could overthrow (Ayatollah
Ruhollah) Khomeini;" he said. "That
is where the U.S. went off the rails.
Through me, the U.S. was dealing
with the legitimate government of
Iran, and through Cave they they
were dealing with what they thought
was a conspiracy against Khomeini:'
The CIA and Mr. Ghorbanifar
have equally low opinions of each
.other, according to documents
,quoted in the lbwer report. Mr. Cave
,had been "a little bit horrified" when
he discovered the Iranian middle-
man was involved, it said.
The CIA had stopped using Mr.
`Ghorbanifar as a source in 1983 at
?Mr. Cave's insistence, claiming he
;had lied to the agency. The CIA said -
Mr. Ghorbanifar flunked a lie detec
;tor test he was given in Washington
in January 1986, and the agency ac-
tively lobbied to have him cut out of
the hostage negotiations, according
to the Tbwer report.
Mr. Ghorbanifar said the CIAs ear
Rerness to circumvent him led it to
undercut the price on arms offered
Iran by Col. North by going to an-
other faction in the Iranian govern-
ment with a better deal.
"The CIA, even though they knew
the exact price [offered by Col.
North], still went ahead and made a
deal at a much cheaper price. ... A
very dirty double game."
According to Mr. Ghorbanifar, the
Iranians were set to release two hos-
tages with another two to follow
when they received Mr. Cave's offer,
which only required them to free
one person.
As a result, Mr. Ghorbanifar said,
only one hostage, the Rev. David
Jacobsen, was released. Immedi-
ately-4fterward, Ce&.North and Is-
raeli counterterrorism adviser
Amiram Nir called-0D apologize for
Mr. Cave's meddling, Mr. Ghor-
banifar said.
Just as damaging to the Itostage-
release talks in Tehran last May was
Mr. McFarlane's failure to grasp
Iranian nuances, he said.
"McFarlane was a fool," Mr. Ghor-
banifar said, "a nobody. He had no
idea how. to deal with Iranians. Her
played no role in that secret missioa-
to Tehran. He just killed any deal byr
walking away."
According to Mr. Ghorbanifar, at
the point Mr. McFarlane cut off the
talks, "He had Iranian officials on
their knees begging him to stay, but
he was stubborn. He said, 'I get four
hostages now, or the bags go back on
the plane.... ..
Mr. Ghorbanifar said he has been
frustrated by U.S. failure to investi-
gate his account of the arms deals.
But he said he hopes to be vindicated
when he meets with congressional
investigators in Paris next month.
"Within two weeks we will prove
that the CIA lied and that they are
the ones who got President Reagan
into such hot water. [Investigators)
will get the day-to-day chronology
that led to the crisis. They will know
who are the liars and where the
money is."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100240009-8