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40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Iran-Contra Affair.md

@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ On August 10, 1985 North flew to [[Costa Rica]] to meet Ambassador [[Lewis Tambs
 
 Secord and Albert [[Hakim]] founded [[Stanford Technology Trading Group International]] in 1983; by 1986, Walsh writes, its business "was the Enterprise." Its finances were managed in [[Switzerland]] by the fiduciary [[Compagnie de Services Fiduciaire]], controlled by the American tax lawyer [[Willard Zucker]]. In late June 1985 North and Secord met Calero and the Contra commander [[Enrique Bermudez]] in [[Miami]] and told them that private and third-country donors would pay the Enterprise directly, removing Calero as a money-handler. In July 1985 Zucker's firm created a Liberian shell, [[Defex]] S.A., deliberately named like the Portuguese arms firm Defex, so that the Enterprise's mark-ups would appear in its books as payments to the supplier; Zucker's memorandum of July 8, 1985 describes the objective as having "sufficient debit advices" to show payments "approximating the amounts received." The Enterprise's receiving account was moved to [[Lake Resources]] in [[Geneva]], and all receipts were commingled. Draws from Contra arms sales between April 1985 and September 1986 came to $4.579 million.[^6] The congressional Committees found that Secord testified his mark-up "averaged out almost exactly 20 percent" while the actual commission averaged 38 percent, and that Calero was unaware of it.[^3] In total the Walsh report counts "more than $47 million" through Enterprise accounts; the Committees' figure is nearly $48 million, of which $16.5 million supported the Contras or bought arms sold to them, $15.2 million was spent on Iran, Secord, Hakim and [[Thomas Clines]] took $6.6 million in commissions and profit, and about $1 million went to other North-sponsored covert operations.[^1][^3]
 
-In July 1986 the Enterprise paid the Portuguese firm Defex $2.6 million and $500,000 to the arms dealer [[Monzer Al-Kassar]] for Contra weapons. Walsh's trial-proof estimate of the diversion is $3.6 million and excludes that $500,000 payment, because Al-Kassar "was not available to testify," as well as a $200,000 Jetstar and about $535,000 for the freighter *Erria*, bought in April 1986 through the Panamanian shell company Dolmy Business Inc. The Committees put the amount of the diversion at about $3.8 million of $16.1 million in Iran arms profits.[^6][^3] The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms dealer, supplied drug profits to North for Contra arms, and Seymour and [[Gary Webb]] each state that the Tower Commission probe revealed Al-Kassar had been paid $1.2 million by Secord to move weapons from [[Israel]] to the Contras; the Tower Commission excerpts and the Walsh report, which place the Enterprise's payment to Al-Kassar at $500,000 in July 1986, contain no such figure. Seymour and Webb are the sole sources for the $1.2 million figure.[^7][^8]
+In July 1986 the Enterprise paid the Portuguese firm Defex $2.6 million and $500,000 to the arms dealer [[Monzer Al-Kassar]] for Contra weapons. Walsh's trial-proof estimate of the diversion is $3.6 million and excludes that $500,000 payment, because Al-Kassar "was not available to testify," as well as a $200,000 Jetstar and about $535,000 for the freighter *Erria*, bought in April 1986 through the Panamanian shell company Dolmy Business Inc. The Committees put the amount of the diversion at about $3.8 million of $16.1 million in Iran arms profits.[^6][^3] The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms dealer, supplied drug profits to North for Contra arms, and Seymour and [[Gary Webb]] each state that the Tower Commission probe revealed Al-Kassar had been paid $1.2 million by Secord to move weapons from [[Israel]] to the Contras; the Tower Commission excerpts and the Walsh report, which place the Enterprise's payment to Al-Kassar at $500,000 in July 1986, contain no such figure. Seymour and Webb give the $1.2 million figure.[^7][^8]
 
 ### The Iran arms sales
 
@@ -158,11 +158,11 @@ The Kerry Committee's report of December 1988 stated that "individuals who provi
 
 The National Security Archive's briefing book prints North's notebook for July 12, 1985, in which Secord is quoted as saying that "14 M to finance [the arms in a Honduran warehouse] came from drugs," and North's August 9, 1985 entry that a Honduran DC-6 used for runs out of New Orleans "is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."; the briefing book also notes that DEA agents testified on July 28, 1988 that North had wanted $1.5 million in Cartel money carried by a DEA informant given to the Contras.[^10] The Kerry report states that the pilot [[Floyd Carlton]] testified that Noriega was paid $100,000 to $250,000 for each of four cocaine flights he piloted for the [[Medellin Cartel]], and that the same Panamanian general met North in June 1985 and again in [[London]] on September 22, 1986 to discuss sabotage in Nicaragua; when North proposed a meeting on August 23, 1986, Poindexter replied, "I have nothing against him other than his illegal activities," and Walsh records that the decision was made not to pay Noriega the $1 million.[^12][^10][^13]
 
-Webb wrote that Kerry investigation director [[Jack Blum]] told him: "We were even dumped on by the Iran-Contra Committee. They wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole," and that during North's July 1987 testimony two men from Baltimore stood with a banner reading "Ask about the cocaine smuggling" before police removed them. Webb also wrote that the plane shot down over Nicaragua was a Fairchild C-123K called The Fat Lady, based at [[Mena, Arkansas]] before Barry Seal sold it, after which it flew weapons for North and the [[FDN]]; that Hasenfus was a former [[Air America]] cargo handler; that congressional records show North was regularly briefed by the CIA on Seal's joint CIA-DEA sting of the Sandinistas and allegedly leaked it to the press shortly before a critical vote on Contra aid; and that the Enterprise's flights from Ilopango reportedly brought cocaine back on return flights, with Hangar No. 4 there used by the CIA until it was turned over to North's operation in 1985. The Committees' account identifies the aircraft only as one belonging to the Enterprise, with a [[Southern Air Transport]] identification card found on the pilot. Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.[^8][^3]
+Webb wrote that Kerry investigation director [[Jack Blum]] told him: "We were even dumped on by the Iran-Contra Committee. They wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole," and that during North's July 1987 testimony two men from Baltimore stood with a banner reading "Ask about the cocaine smuggling" before police removed them. Webb also wrote that the plane shot down over Nicaragua was a Fairchild C-123K called The Fat Lady, based at [[Mena, Arkansas]] before Barry Seal sold it, after which it flew weapons for North and the [[FDN]]; that Hasenfus was a former [[Air America]] cargo handler; that congressional records show North was regularly briefed by the CIA on Seal's joint CIA-DEA sting of the Sandinistas and allegedly leaked it to the press shortly before a critical vote on Contra aid; and that the Enterprise's flights from Ilopango reportedly brought cocaine back on return flights, with Hangar No. 4 there used by the CIA until it was turned over to North's operation in 1985. The Committees' account identifies the aircraft only as one belonging to the Enterprise, with a [[Southern Air Transport]] identification card found on the pilot.[^8][^3]
 
 ### The Octopus and the BCCI cluster
 
-The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that the Iran-Contra Affair was a significant component of [[Danny Casolaro]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" investigation, which Casolaro believed was interconnected with the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and the BCCI scandal; that he obtained photocopies of checks drawn on BCCI accounts for Khashoggi and Ghorbanifar from [[Bob Bickel]], who had them from the [[October Surprise]] source [[Richard Brenneke]]; that [[Ian Stuart Spiro]]'s name appeared in North's notebooks and his death was linked to a spy network and the affair; that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], a self-described Israeli military intelligence officer, tipped off the Lebanese magazine; and that the former White House aide [[Barbara Honegger]] alleged in her book *October Surprise* that Al-Kassar's heroin smuggling network in [[Italy]] was used to launder [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] arms stocks, diverting them to Iran with the help of Italian intelligence officials linked to the P2 lodge. Seymour is the sole source for the passages so cited.[^7] The Walsh report places Khashoggi's own BCCI account in Monte Carlo as the origin of $5 million of the February 1986 bridge financing.[^6]
+The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that the Iran-Contra Affair was a significant component of [[Danny Casolaro]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" investigation, which Casolaro believed was interconnected with the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and the BCCI scandal; that he obtained photocopies of checks drawn on BCCI accounts for Khashoggi and Ghorbanifar from [[Bob Bickel]], who had them from the [[October Surprise]] source [[Richard Brenneke]]; that [[Ian Stuart Spiro]]'s name appeared in North's notebooks and his death was linked to a spy network and the affair; that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], a self-described Israeli military intelligence officer, tipped off the Lebanese magazine; and that the former White House aide [[Barbara Honegger]] alleged in her book *October Surprise* that Al-Kassar's heroin smuggling network in [[Italy]] was used to launder [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] arms stocks, diverting them to Iran with the help of Italian intelligence officials linked to the P2 lodge.[^7] The Walsh report places Khashoggi's own BCCI account in Monte Carlo as the origin of $5 million of the February 1986 bridge financing.[^6]
 
 ### Footnotes
 [^1]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels, August 4, 1993), Executive Summary. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm
@@ -171,8 +171,8 @@ The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that the Iran-Contra Affair was a significant com
 [^4]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm
 [^5]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 27, "President Reagan," section on contra financial support. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_27.htm
 [^6]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 8, "The Enterprise and Its Finances," including notes 5, 30 to 35 and 51. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_08.htm
-[^7]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited.
-[^8]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, Prologue, ch. 6 ("They were doing their patriotic duty") and ch. 4. Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^7]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
+[^8]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, Prologue, ch. 6 ("They were doing their patriotic duty") and ch. 4.
 [^9]: Tower Commission, *Report of the President's Special Review Board* (February 26, 1987), Part I, "Contra Diversion" and "N.S.C. Staff and Support for the Contras" (excerpts published by the American Presidency Project). https://archive.org/details/tower-commission-report-excerpts-reagan
 [^10]: National Security Archive, "The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations," Electronic Briefing Book No. 2 (North notebooks of July 12 and August 9, 1985; North and Poindexter electronic messages of August 23, 1986). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html
 [^11]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, "Summary of Prosecutions." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm