MISSING THE IRAN ARMS STORY: DID THE PRESS FAIL?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604960003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 4, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

An c AOCCA Ocn
1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604960003-7
4 March i 98/
Missing the Iran Arms Story:
Did the Press Fail?
,1 By.2_141BERT PEAR
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 3 ? It is now
clear that dozens of people ? officials
at the White House. the State Depart-
ment, the Defense Department and the
Central Intelligence Agency, as wellis
private arms dealers, businessmen
and financiers in Israel and-other coun-
tries ? knew early on about the de-
livery of American arms to Iran that I
began in August 1985.
Similarly, a network of pilots and re-
tired military officers knew that the
"'covert" American efforts to aid the
rebels fighting the Marxist Govern-
ment of Nicaragua were far more ex-
tensive than the White House acknowl-
edged.
But, even with all these people in on
the Iran-Nicaragua story that would
shake the Reagan Presidency, the
American press was not.
With just a few exceptions, little no-
ticed, the seeds of the scandal did not
take root on the nation's front pages
and news broadcasts until after a
Lebanese magazine, Al Shiraa, re-
ported Nov. 3 that America had been
supplying arms to the Teheran regime.
And it was another three weeks be-
fore the press relayed the news, dis-
closed by Attorney General Edwin?
Meese 3d on Nov. 25, that some of the
profits from the arms sales had been
diverted to the Nicaraguan rebels in an
operation supervised by Lieut. Col. Oli-
ver L. North, a member of the staff of
the National Security Council.
'The Press Failed'
"The press was lax in this case,"
.-74 said Michael G. Ga n itor of The
Couri - in ouisville, Ky., who
is president of the American Society of
Newspaper Editors. "The press failed,
and its failure allowed the policy t
continue, and the continuance of it led
to this enormous scandal. Part of this
scandal must be laid at the doorstep of
the press."
Jack Nelson, Washington bureau
chief of The Los Angeles Times, said he
did not fully understand how the White
House had been able to keep the Iran
affair "secret for so long, inasumuch
as so many people knew about it."
How did it happen?
"There was an elaborate effort to
keep the operation secret from the
press, the Congress and various people
in the Administration," said Bob
.7- ward, who played a key role in uncov-
'Mfg-the Watergate scandal and is now
an assistant managing editor of The
Washington Post.
Journalists "who work in Washing-
ton and cover institutions couldn't get
the story," he said. But, he added,
pieces of it might have been obtained
from people outside Washington ?
various middlemen, pilots, bankers,
perhaps even some of the "bellhops in
the Teheran Hilton."
Officials Deceived Officials
Access to information about the cov-
ert activities was extremely restricted
within the established bureaucracy, a
normal source of information for jour-
nalists in Washington. Government of-
ficials deceived one another, as well as
the public.
A Presidential review board's report
last week disclosed that in May, for in-
stance, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter,
who was President Reagan's national
security adviser at the time, instructed
Colonel North not to talk to William J.
Casey, then the Director of Central In-
telligence, or anybody else about his
"operational roles." In June, Admiral
Poindexter said that Secretary of State
George P. Shultz "knows nothing about
the prior financing" of the contras and
added, "It should stay that way."
In addition, journalists note, Admin-
istration officials did not tell Congress
about the covert activities, precluding
any disclosure by lawmakers or their
aides. Last August, after Colonel North
misled, a Congressional committee in-
vestigating his work with the contras,
Admiral Poindexter commended him,
saying, "Well done," according to the
board headed by former Senator John
G. Tower.
Admiral Poindexter, who supervised
American policy toward Iran and the
Niacaraguan counterrevolutionaries,
had expressed disdain for the press. He
was not inclined to disclose details of
the covert operations.
And It Was Hard to Imagine
Also, journalists say, President Rea-
gan's Iran initiative was protected
from disclosure because it was so im-
probable that few journalists would
have suspected it. "This operation was
protected partly because it seemed so
preposterous," Ata Walcott, national
security correspondent ror Ike Wall
Street Journal, said in an interview.
Debates among Government offi-
cials are often a source of information
for journalists. But Herbert E. Hetu, a
spokesman for the Tower commission,
said that President Reagan's staff had
permitted little debate on the decision
to sell arms to Iran.
"There just wasn't any debate going
on," he said. "No winners. No losers. ?
No leaks."
However, the syndicated columnis
iacjgn and Dale Va
ro e ast June that t e I nite a ta es I
was "kowtowing to Khomeini," offer- ?
ing arms in exchange for hostages. In
later columns, they reported details of
the United States' "conciliatory tilt to-
ward Iran."
Mr. Van Atta said he received calls
from many reporters trying to follow
up on the columns. But the reporters
generally failed because they could not
obtain confirmation from the State De-
partment or intelligence agencies.
Press Was Easy on Reagan
The columnist said Government offi-
cials discouraged him from writing
about the negotiations with Iran last
year, on the ground that any publicity
might endanger the hostages' lives.
"Reagan was popular and the press
was not," Mr. Van Atta said. "At that
with the press on
time, the President would probably
have won any dispute 1
national security issues."
Even when the first hints of the arms
shipments began to emerge, American
journalists were slow to pick up the
story.
Robert C. McFarlane, the former na-
tional security adviser, visited Iran in
an effort to secure the release of Amer-
ican hostages in May 1986. An article
about his mission was carried in late
October in a small Lebanese newspa-
per connected to the pro-lranian group
Hezbollah, the Party of God, according
to theTower commission.
"The article was based on a series of
leaflets distributed in Teheran" on Oct.
15 or 16, it said.
John P. Wallach, the foreign affairs
editor of the Hearst newspapers, and r'r
Nathams,. a senior editor of
Re-a-ifer-? s-Digest, are among the few
journalists who reported pieces of the
story before it became widely known.
In July 1985, Mr. Wallach reported
that the United Statis ma [ran had ex-
changed messages expressing a desire
to improve relations. On Nov. 3 last
year, he reported that the United
States had been conducting "secret ne-
gotiations with Iran" for 16 months.
In Reader's Digest last August, Mr.
Adams wrote, "Israel is one of Iran's
most reliable sources for both arms
and munitions, despite denials by the
Israeli Government."
The New York Times reported on
Aug. 8, 1985, that the contras were re-
ceiving "direct military advice from
White House officials" on the staff of
the National Security Council. The
name of Colonel North was withheld at
the request of the White House, which
said that publishing the name would
endanger his life.
Other news organizations and mem-
bers of Congress also investigated
Colonel North's activities and identi-
fied him by name.
"We knew North was a mystery fig-
ure," said Mr. Nelson of The Los An-
geles Times. "We wrote stories about
him. But we did not delve deep enough.
We should have."
.7"
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604960003-7