Fresh start from commit 85df488cc66fa4934e54d62f1eaeffd274743b7a

10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Amiram Nir.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Politics
+  - Intelligence
+  - Israel
+---
+[[Amiram Nir]] was a former [[Israel|Israeli]] TV newsman and a counterterrorism adviser to [[Shimon Peres]]. He was originally a military officer in the tank corps and lost an eye in a training accident. He married [[Judy Moses]], the daughter of the owner of [[Yediot Ahronot]], a major [[Israel|Israeli]] newspaper chain.[^1]
+
+Nir resigned from his TV job to work as a public relations adviser for [[Shimon Peres|Peres]] during the 1981 elections. After [[Shimon Peres|Peres]] became prime minister in 1984, he appointed Nir as his counterterrorism adviser. Nir found documents related to [[Rafi Eitan|Eitan's]] [[USA|U.S.]] spy network and the [[Iran-Israel Joint Committee|Joint Committee's]] arms sales to [[Iran]].[^1]
+
+[[Shimon Peres|Peres]] and Nir faced challenges from the [[Likud Party]]-controlled intelligence community and the lack of financial power within the [[Labor Party]]. [[Shimon Peres|Peres]] decided to open a competing arms channel, run by Nir, to gain control over the profitable [[Iran]] arms sales and to undermine the existing intelligence-community channel. Nir, despite his lack of experience in intelligence or business, sought support from individuals like [[Al Schwimmer]] and [[Yaacov Nimrodi]].[^1]
+
+Nir met with [[Robert McFarlane]] in [[Washington D.C.]] and threatened him with exposure if he did not cooperate with the new channel. This led to [[Robert McFarlane|McFarlane]] connecting Nir with [[Oliver North]] and [[John Poindexter]] of the [[National Security Council]]. Nir, [[Oliver North|North]], and [[John Poindexter|Poindexter]] gained the support of [[William Casey]], then head of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], and [[George Bush]] tacitly ignored the operation.[^1]
+
+Nir's operation, however, struggled to make significant inroads into the arms trade. In April 1986, [[Oliver North|North]] initiated a sting operation, the [[Hashemi sting]], to discredit the [[Iran-Israel Joint Committee|original channel]] and its members. Nir was also involved in the leaking of the [[Jonathan Pollard]] story to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] to further undermine the [[Likud Party]]'s credibility.[^1]
+
+In May 1986, [[Oliver North|North]], [[Robert McFarlane|McFarlane]], and Nir traveled to [[Tehran]] disguised as Irish technicians, carrying [[TOW missile]]s and [[Hawk missile]] spare parts. They were detained, and the military equipment was confiscated. This incident, along with the delivery of outdated [[Hawk missile]]s with [[Israel|Israeli]] markings, effectively killed off the [[Iran]] end of the second channel.[^1]
+
+[[Amiram Nir|Nir]] also faced problems with his plans for supplying the [[Contras]], as [[Yitzhak Rabin]] refused to cooperate. A mysterious $10 million contribution from the [[Sultan of Brunei]] to [[Oliver North|North's]] group, wired through [[Bruce Rappaport]], was leaked by the [[Iran-Israel Joint Committee|Joint Committee]], further exposing the second channel.[^1]
+
+[[Amiram Nir|Nir]] was due to be a major witness in [[Oliver North|North's]] trial and knew a great deal about [[Ihsan Barbouti|Barbouti's]] chemical operation in [[Miami]]. He was killed in a plane crash in [[Mexico]] in November 1988, an event that [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence believed was a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operation to prevent his testimony from embarrassing [[Shimon Peres|Peres]], [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]], or [[George Bush|Bush]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")