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---
title: Bobby Ray Inman
aliases:
- Bobby Ray Inman
- Bobby Inman
- Bobby R. Inman
- B. R. Inman
- Admiral Bobby Ray Inman
- Admiral Bobby Inman
- Admiral B. R. Inman
- Adm. Inman
- Vice Admiral Bobby R. Inman
- Vice Admiral B. R. Inman
- Admiral Inman
created: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-08
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- NationalSecurityAgency
- CentralIntelligenceAgency
- DefenseIntelligenceAgency
- Navy
- MicroelectronicsAndComputerTechnology
- Westmark
- Tracor
- InternationalSignalAndControl
- ScienceApplicationsInternational
- InmanReport
- KoreanAirLines007
- USSLiberty
- UFOs
- Stargate
summary: "Navy admiral who directed the NSA, served as CIA deputy director, ran MCC and Westmark, sat on the International Signal and Control proxy board, and withdrew from a 1994 Defense nomination."
born: 1931-04-04
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[NSA]]"
role: "director"
start: 1977-07-05
end: 1981-02
fn: 3
- type: appointed
with: "[[Ronald Reagan]]"
reverse: true
role: "nominated Deputy Director of Central Intelligence"
start: 1981-02
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
role: "deputy director"
start: 1981-02
end: 1982-04
fn: 12
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Defense Intelligence Agency]]"
role: "vice director for plans, operations and support"
start: 1976
end: 1977
fn: 5
- type: head_of
with: "[[Office of Naval Intelligence]]"
role: "Director of Naval Intelligence"
start: 1974
end: 1976
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation]]"
role: "president and chief executive officer (chairman, president and chief executive per SAIC proxy)"
start: 1983-01-21
end: 1986
fn: 19
- type: head_of
with: "[[Westmark Systems]]"
role: "chairman from September 1986; chief executive from December 31, 1986 to December 31, 1989"
start: 1986-09
end: 1989-12-31
fn: 25
- type: head_of
with: "[[Tracor]]"
role: "chairman and chief executive"
start: 1988
end: 1989-12
fn: 27
- type: head_of
with: "[[Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas]]"
role: "chairman"
start: 1987-01
end: 1990-12
fn: 25
- type: director_of
with: "[[Science Applications International Corporation]]"
role: "director; chairman of the executive committee (1994); part-time employee from April 1990"
start: 1982
fn: 32
- type: director_of
with: "[[International Signal and Control]]"
role: "member of the special proxy board"
fn: 37
- type: director_of
with: "[[Fluor Corporation]]"
role: "director from 1985 (chairman of the nominating committee in 1994); the company was renamed Massey Energy after the November 30, 2000 reverse spin-off"
start: 1985
fn: 30
- type: director_of
with: "[[Massey Energy]]"
role: "director; company formerly Fluor Corporation"
start: 2000-11-30
fn: 31
- type: director_of
with: "[[SBC Communications]]"
role: "director of Southwestern Bell Corporation (later SBC), still listed in the 2002 proxy"
start: 1985-03
fn: 26
- type: director_of
with: "[[Temple-Inland]]"
role: "director, first elected 1987; still listed in the 2002 proxy"
start: 1987
fn: 25
- type: director_of
with: "[[Xerox]]"
role: "director, listed in the 1994 and 1995 proxies of Fluor, SAIC, Southwestern Bell and Temple-Inland"
fn: 26
- type: director_of
with: "[[Dell Computer Corporation]]"
role: "director and audit committee chairman; resigned December 16, 1993"
end: 1993-12-16
fn: 34
- type: director_of
with: "[[Council on Foreign Relations]]"
role: "director, term expiring 1988 (1984-1985 annual report)"
fn: 35
- type: director_of
with: "[[Xe Services]]"
role: "independent director"
start: 2011
fn: 36
- type: appointed
with: "[[Bill Clinton]]"
reverse: true
role: "nominee for Secretary of Defense, withdrawn"
start: 1993-12-16
end: 1994-01-18
fn: 4
- type: appointed
with: "[[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]]"
role: "member, named by George H. W. Bush (July 1991 per the Clinton Library finding aid; July 1990 per Good); term not renewed under Clinton"
start: 1991-07
fn: 39
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Advisory Panel on Overseas Security]]"
role: "chairman"
start: 1985
fn: 22
---
Bobby Ray Inman (born April 4, 1931) is a retired [[United States Navy]] admiral who directed the [[NSA]] from 1977 to 1981 and served as deputy director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] from 1981 to 1982.[^1][^2][^3] After retiring from the Navy he was chairman and chief executive of [[Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation]] in [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], headed Westmark Systems and Tracor, sat on several corporate boards, and in 1993 was nominated Secretary of Defense by President [[Bill Clinton]], withdrawing in January 1994.[^1][^4]
### Naval intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency
Inman was born in [[Rhonesboro, Texas]], and graduated from the [[University of Texas at Austin]] in 1950.[^2] He joined the Naval Reserve in 1951 and was commissioned an ensign in 1952. He then spent nineteen years as an analyst for Naval Intelligence, serving on an aircraft carrier, two cruisers and a destroyer as well as in shore assignments.[^1] He became Director of [[Office of Naval Intelligence|Naval Intelligence]] in 1974.[^1]
He was vice director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] in 1976.[^1] In January 1977 [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]], then chairman of the [[National Foreign Intelligence Board]], wrote to him as "Vice Admiral Bobby R. Inman, USN, Vice Director, Plans, Operations and Support, Defense Intelligence Agency," thanking him for a year of advice to the board.[^5]
### Director of the NSA, 1977 to 1981
Inman told the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] in February 1981 that he had served as director of the NSA "since 5 July 1977."[^3] He said that during his four years at the agency "this committee constantly pressed on the administration the question of the adequacy of the intelligence assets."[^3]
The [[BBC]]'s [[Tim Harford]] wrote in 2017 that the agency's head during the public-key cryptography dispute "was genuinely puzzled about the academics' motives," and that Inman "soon accepted that the professor had a point and no prosecutions followed."[^6]
Inman testified that the NSA's signals intelligence collection in Southeast Asia was dismantled after the war and was not resumed until at least 1978.[^7]
On March 5, 2003, Inman told [[David C. Walsh]] that he "flatly rejected" what Walsh calls the "Cristol/Israeli thesis" of the 1967 attack on the [[USS Liberty Incident|USS Liberty]]. "It is just exceedingly difficult to believe that [the Liberty] was not correctly identified," Inman said, and he based the view on talks with NSA seniors who had direct knowledge at the time.[^8] [[Oliver Kirby]], the NSA's deputy director for operations and production in 1967, said that intercepts of Israeli pilots' conversations made it "absolutely certain" that the pilots knew the ship was American.[^8]
### Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, 1981 to 1982
President [[Ronald Reagan]] nominated Inman in 1981.[^1] The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held its hearing on February 3, 1981, with [[Barry Goldwater]] presiding. Senator [[Joe Biden|Joseph R. Biden, Jr.]] submitted written questions on a centralized data bank and on the Freedom of Information Act, and Inman's answers are printed with the record.[^3] He was easily confirmed, and his White House biography gives March 1982 as the date he resigned.[^1]
On December 4, 1981 Inman spoke at the White House briefing on the new executive order on intelligence activities. "It's my pleasure on behalf of the intelligence community to welcome the President's new executive order on United States intelligence activities," he said.[^9]
In March 1982 Inman told a joint House subcommittee hearing on controls over unclassified scientific information that "It is time for the scientific community to accept that there is an outflow," and urged academic scientists to "set up their own mechanisms now" to limit it.[^10]
Senior administration officials said on April 23, 1982 that an "intense debate" over reorganizing counterintelligence operations had led indirectly to his resignation.[^11] The White House announced the resignation on Wednesday, April 21, 1982, and said he was leaving for private industry.[^12] A Philadelphia Inquirer account said he had submitted it about a month earlier, during a "heated internal debate" over a secret counterintelligence study, and that the study's scope had since been narrowed. Its sources said two topics that Inman, Casey and FBI Director William Webster had feared might be included, the organization of U.S. counterintelligence agencies and deceptive Soviet missile telemetry, were not on the agenda approved by an interagency working group chaired by John Kohler of the intelligence community staff.[^13] A CBS radio commentary of April 22, 1982 described [[William J. Casey]], the director, as "a professional politician" and noted that he had been Ronald Reagan's campaign manager.[^14]
In October 1982 Inman told the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]] that "the education system failed to produce the people with the skills and the ability of linguists in area studies," and that the country needed a "surge to deal with a whole range of burgeoning problems in the outside world."[^15]
CIA memoranda scheduled Inman and William Casey for breakfast with Secretary of State [[Alexander M. Haig, Jr.|Alexander Haig]] on October 6, 1981, and again on January 26, 1982.[^16][^17]
### Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, 1983 to 1986
Inman became the first president and chief executive of MCC on January 21, 1983. The Austin research consortium was financed by fourteen American companies.[^2] [[Michael Schrage]] wrote in a July 28, 1985 Washington Post profile that Inman "surprised and annoyed many of the members of his board" by rejecting many of the researchers the member companies offered. Inman told Schrage: "The management skills I've acquired through trial and painful error are serving me well here."[^18] He was chairman, president and chief executive of MCC from 1983 to 1986.[^19]
### Korean Air Lines Flight 007, 1983
In an interview published in the Washington Post on September 4, 1983, Inman offered a theory of the shootdown of [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007]]. He proposed that "the program put into the computer for driving the navigation system is in substantial error," so that the aircraft drifted off course while its crew believed it was on track. Asked how the error was made, he answered "Totally by the Koreans." He said that to the pilot "it appears that he is on his normal track," and that the Soviets "at that point had to be discussing how to get it to land."[^20]
### Inman Report on overseas security, 1985
Inman chaired the [[Advisory Panel on Overseas Security]], which the Secretary of State convened, and whose report is generally called the Inman Report after him. The panel's members were [[Warren B. Rudman]], [[Daniel A. Mica]], [[Lawrence Eagleburger|Lawrence S. Eagleburger]], [[Anne L. Armstrong]], [[D'Wayne Gray]] and [[Robert J. McGuire]], with [[Victor H. Dikeos]] as executive secretary.[^21] The report addresses "questions of organization within the Department, professionalism of those executing security responsibilities, international diplomacy to thwart terrorism," and the standards and building program required for overseas posts.[^21] The report calls for relocating a large number of American diplomatic facilities abroad to more secure locations and for retrofitting others against attack.[^22] It reviews the attacks on the [[United States Embassy in Beirut]].[^21]
### Westmark Systems and Tracor, 1986 to 1989
As of September 1986 Inman planned to step down as chief executive of MCC in January 1987 and become chairman and chief executive of a new holding company, [[Westmark Systems]], that would acquire companies in the high-technology defense business. The company was to be majority owned by [[Mason Best Co.]], a Texas merchant banking concern. Its planned board included [[Donald Rumsfeld]], [[Drew Lewis]], [[Robert S. Strauss]], [[David T. Kearns]] of [[Xerox]] Corp. and [[Clifford J. Grum]] of [[Temple-Inland]].[^23] By October 1987 he was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Westmark Systems of Austin, Texas.[^24] The Temple-Inland proxy statement of 1995 gives his Westmark chairmanship as beginning in September 1986 and his chief executive role as running from December 31, 1986 until December 31, 1989.[^25] The SBC proxy statement of 1995 gives "from January 1987 through December 1989" for his chairman and chief executive roles at Westmark.[^26]
Inman was chairman and chief executive of [[Tracor]], a Fortune 500 military contractor, from 1988 through December 1989, and the company filed for Chapter 11 protection about nine months after he left.[^27] A 1993 New York Times account described a leveraged buyout during his tenure that "eventually landed" the company in bankruptcy court.[^27] The newspaper described Tracor as "a casualty not only of Wall Street's excesses of the 1980s but of mismanagement, cost overruns and shrinking Pentagon spending." Inman told the Times that the company's problems had been caused by Wall Street bankers and lawyers whose excessive fees added costs to the purchase price and produced the debt, and he acknowledged that cost overruns and performance problems reduced its cash flow.[^27] The 1984 Texas State biography had already listed Tracor among the companies whose boards he sat on.[^2] At his news conference of January 1994 he cited a New York Times story critical of his operation of Tracor.[^28]
### Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and the LBJ School
Inman was an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin from 1987, and chairman of the [[Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas]] from 1987 through 1990.[^29] The Temple-Inland proxy statement of 1995 gives the chairmanship as January 1987 to December 1990.[^25] He was appointed to the [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] Centennial Chair in National Policy at the [[LBJ School of Public Affairs]] in August 2001, and was interim dean of the school in 2005 and from January 2009 to March 2010.[^29]
### Corporate boards
From March 1985 Inman was a director of Southwestern Bell Corporation (renamed [[SBC Communications]]), and he was first elected a director of Temple-Inland in 1987; the SBC proxy of 1995 lists him as a director of Fluor, Science Applications International Corporation, Temple-Inland and Xerox.[^26][^25] He chaired the Nominating Committee of the Fluor board and sat on its Organization and Compensation Committee, according to the Fluor proxy statement of February 1994.[^30] In 1984 Inman sat on the boards of [[Dravo Corporation|Dravo Corp.]], Science Applications Inc., [[Texas Eastern Corporation|Texas Eastern Co.]], Tracor Inc. and [[Western Union]] Corp.[^2]
Inman was a director of the company now named [[Massey Energy]] from 1985.[^31] The company was the former [[Fluor Corporation]]. A reverse spin-off completed November 30, 2000 separated the new Fluor Corporation, and the old company was renamed Massey Energy Company and kept its coal-related businesses.[^31] In 2002 Inman was also a director of the new Fluor Corporation, Science Applications International Corporation, SBC Communications and Temple-Inland.[^31]
Inman was a director of Science Applications International Corporation from 1982. He joined the company in April 1990 as a part-time employee and advises it on strategic planning.[^19] In the 1994 proxy statement he is listed as chairman of the executive committee, whose other members were J. R. Beyster, E. A. Frieman, L. A. Kull, M. R. Laird, J. W. McRary and B. J. Shillito.[^32] A CIA reading-room memorandum on parapsychology research at the company names Inman and [[Melvin Laird]] among its board members.[^33]
Inman chaired the Audit Committee of [[Dell Computer Corporation]] during its fiscal year 1994 (ended January 30, 1994) and resigned as a director on December 16, 1993, the date of his nomination as Secretary of Defense. The proxy statement filed May 24, 1994 does not state the year he joined the board.[^34]
The [[Council on Foreign Relations]] listed Inman among its directors, with a term expiring in 1988, in its 1984-1985 annual report, and he was one of eight candidates on its nominating slate for eight vacancies that year.[^35]
In 2011 Inman was an independent director of [[Xe Services]], the former [[Blackwater Worldwide]], alongside [[John Ashcroft]].[^36]
### International Signal and Control and James Guerin
The company's founder was [[James Guerin]]. A special proxy board of [[International Signal and Control]], made up of Inman, retired Army general [[John Guthrie]] and former assistant secretary of the Navy [[Barry Shillito]], was set up so that the London-listed company could handle classified American defense work.[^37] Glenn Frankel wrote in 1989 that Inman and Alexander Haig "lent their names to Guerin's business activities over the years."[^37]
In an April 27, 1992 letter to [[Louis Bechtle]], chief judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]], Inman called James Guerin a patriot.[^38] Inman has acknowledged having worked secretly with defense contractor James Guerin.[^38] He sought sentencing leniency for Guerin in 1992.[^38] Guerin was serving fifteen years for smuggling weapons to [[South Africa]].[^38]
### Nomination for Secretary of Defense, 1993 to 1994
Clinton named Inman on December 16, 1993 to succeed [[Les Aspin]] as Secretary of Defense. The White House described him as having "a bipartisan reputation as one of the nation's finest intelligence officers."[^1] Inman said at the time that he neither sought nor wanted the job, but accepted it out of "duty and country."[^4]
The Clinton Library finding aid for his board file states that President George H. W. Bush named Inman to the [[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]] in July 1991, that he served about thirty months, and that his term "was not renewed" after Clinton selected him for Defense.[^39] Timothy Good's 1991 book, published before that date, states that "In July 1990 he was appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board."[^40]
On January 18, 1994 Inman asked Clinton to withdraw the nomination and held a news conference in Austin.[^28] He described a "modern McCarthyism" practiced by newspaper columnists and Republican opponents, and said that [[William Safire]] of The New York Times had recruited Senator [[Bob Dole]] to launch a "partisan effort" against him.[^28] Inman said Safire's vendetta began when, in 1981, he took actions that limited Israel's access to certain U.S. intelligence data, and cited a Safire column that called him a media manipulator, a tax "cheat," a "flop" as a businessman and anti-Israel. He listed as further grievances the Tracor story and a White House leak of his failure to pay Social Security taxes on a household worker.[^28] Dole denied planning a partisan attack ("I have no idea what's gotten into Bobby Inman"), and two administration sources told the Washington Post that the FBI background check had provided nothing that would disqualify him.[^28] In a letter to Clinton he wrote: "I sense elements in the media and the political leadership of the country who would rather disparage or destroy reputations than work to effectively govern the country."[^28] The White House announced the withdrawal the same day.[^4]
### Warrantless surveillance, 2006
At a [[New York Public Library]] panel on eavesdropping in May 2006, Inman said of the warrantless NSA program: "This activity is not authorized." Asked whether the president had the legal authority to order the wiretaps, he replied that "someone else would have to give you the good answer." He also called for the CIA to be "broken up in two."[^41]
### Contacts with UFO researchers, 1988 to 1991
[[Timothy Good]]'s 1991 book Alien Liaison describes [[Bob Oechsler]], a former NASA mission specialist in Good's words, approaching Inman on May 13, 1988, outside the speakers' tent at the University of Maryland Science and Technology Center after Inman gave the keynote address at the groundbreaking for the NSA's supercomputer facility for the Institute for Defense Analyses. In Good's account Oechsler handed Inman a card listing robotics and security-surveillance expertise, and Inman put it in his breast pocket and said "OK."[^40] Good wrote that at his suggestion Oechsler telephoned Inman in July 1989, reminded him of the meeting, and asked for guidance toward access to a craft for technical research, and also on behalf of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hill-Norton, the former Chief of the Defence Staff.[^40] Good's acknowledgements thank "Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, for making the acquisition of some of that information possible."[^40]
The call was tape-recorded by Oechsler. In the transcript as reproduced in Loose Threads (2022), which dates the call to 1989, Inman says: "All of those are areas in which I am vastly out of date. When I made the decision to retire seven years ago, I made a conscious decision to sever ongoing ties with the U.S. Intelligence Community."[^42] He directs Oechsler to [[Everett Hineman]], the CIA deputy director for science and technology, and to retired rear admiral [[Sumner Shapiro]], "a former director of Naval Intelligence" who "has been a Vice President of [[BDM Corporation|BDM]]." Oechsler then asks: "Do you anticipate that any of the recovered vehicles would ever become available for technological research? Outside of the military circles." Inman answers: "Again, I honestly don't know. Ten years ago the answer would have been no. Whether as time has evolved they are beginning to become more open on it there's a possibility. Again, Mr. Hineman probably would be the best person to put that kind of question to."[^42] Earlier in the call Oechsler asks whether Inman understands "that there is a cultural dialogue going on" between "the parties that presumably are behind the technology in the crafts," and Inman replies "I honestly don't know. Have no exposure at all."[^42] The exchange appears on page 191 of the London edition of Alien Liaison.[^43]
Oechsler told Good that Shapiro "seemed to have knowledge that the United States was in possession of extraterrestrial space vehicles" and gave "every indication of having studied one at close quarters," after two meetings in 1989 and on June 21, 1990, the second of which ended abruptly with Shapiro suspecting false pretenses.[^44] Oechsler also described an August 10, 1989 meeting with Hineman, who telephoned on September 1, 1989 to say "I come to different conclusions than you do."[^44] Good wrote in Alien Contact that Oechsler invited Inman to give the keynote address at the Ozark UFO Conference in April 1990, and that Inman declined and "made it clear (via his executive assistant, Tom King) that any public discussion of the information which Bob had acquired from the former intelligence community directors would be in 'violation of national secrecy laws.'"[^45] Oechsler wrote in Alien Update that after validating his meeting with Hineman, [[Ronald Pandolfi]] asked Inman whether he had talked to Oechsler about UFOs, and that Inman "did not deny that such a conversation took place, but was unwilling to discuss any details."[^45]
The authors of Loose Threads state that notes from the inaugural "ATP TEN" meeting at BDM in 1985 name Inman in connection with a "major engineering project," and report that [[John B. Alexander]], asked about the note by a researcher, gave a brief reply rejecting the idea of Inman as an official topic of conversation.[^45] They also state that Inman directed the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office as a second post while Director of Naval Intelligence.[^46] Steven Greer said in a 2016 lecture that Barry Goldwater telephoned Inman at Greer's request and told him afterward that Inman "tore me apart"; Grant Cameron said he found a Goldwater file letter confirming that Goldwater telephoned Inman, and that Goldwater's daughter said she had never seen him so rattled.[^46]
Inman's written statements deny each element. On December 18, 1989 he wrote to Good, who had written to him on November 17 and December 7, 1989: "Unfortunately I do not know of any information which could be of assistance to you for your UFO report."[^43] On July 26, 1991 he wrote to Armen Victorian, who had sent him the pages of Alien Liaison on which he was quoted: "I believe all these allegations to be false. Concerning your comments on a group of scientists called MJ12, I have no such awareness and do not believe such a group exists. In summary, the book is filled with fabrication and distortions."[^43] On August 5, 1991, answering Victorian's request for an "ultimate clarification," he wrote that he had "no specific recollection of the receipt of a calling card from Mr Oeschler" before the call, that he "did not understand until well into his dialogue that his research was about Unidentified Flying Objects," that "Throughout 22 years of service in the intelligence community, I never encountered any credible evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial or interplanetary entities," and that Shapiro had told him Oechsler "totally misrepresented both the nature and content of their conversation."[^43] Loose Threads quotes a published review as reporting that when asked whether the "recovered vehicles" quote was essentially correct, Inman answered "What kind of vehicles is he talking about?" and "The conversation I recall . . . the reference was to underwater vehicles."[^46]
Shapiro told Victorian on August 3, 1991: "He met me on one occasion and I realised that he was a fraud," and that he had never met Oechsler in a restaurant as Good's page 195 describes.[^43] Victorian, writing in Lobster in 1992, reported that he had received a complete copy of the recording from Oechsler and that it contained "not a single specific reference to the subject of UFOs," and that [[John Dingley]], whom Oechsler named as another listener, confirmed on July 14, 1991 that he had heard the tape and that it had no reference to UFOs.[^43] Loose Threads describes Victorian as "a skeptical inquirer using a pseudonym."[^46]
### Footnotes
[^1]: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, "Biography of Bobby Ray Inman," December 16, 1993. https://clintonwhitehouse6.archives.gov/1993/12/1993-12-16-biography-of-bobby-ray-inman.html
[^2]: Texas State University, LBJ lecture series speaker biography, "Bobby Ray Inman," 1984 (birth date, University of Texas BA 1950, MCC appointment of January 21, 1983, and board seats). https://txst.edu/lbj-lecture-series/speakers/1984-bobby-ray-inman.html
[^3]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, Nomination of Admiral B. R. Inman to Be Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, hearing of February 3, 1981 (Washington: GPO, 1981), prepared statement, background, and Senator Biden's written questions. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/97inman.pdf
[^4]: Christian Science Monitor, January 19, 1994, "Inman withdraws from nomination," reporting the White House announcement of January 18, 1994, and Inman's December 1993 statement. https://www.csmonitor.com/1994/0119/19242.html
[^5]: George Bush, Chairman, National Foreign Intelligence Board, letter to Vice Admiral Bobby R. Inman, January 1977 (DCI/IC 77-0402), CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP80M00165A002600030024-8. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80M00165A002600030024-8
[^6]: Tim Harford, "Geeks v government: The battle over public key cryptography," BBC News, April 24, 2017. Harford's account of the agency's head and the 1977 episode is his own reading. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39341663
[^7]: U.S. Senate, Report of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, S. Rept. 103-1, Executive Summary, January 13, 1993 (testimony of Inman on NSA signals collection in Southeast Asia). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_rpt/pow-exec.html
[^8]: David C. Walsh, "Former NSA Officials Agree," Proceedings, June 2003, Vol. 129/6/1,204 (Inman interview of March 5, 2003; Kirby interview of February 14, 2003). https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2003/june/former-nsa-officials-agree
[^9]: White House Office of the Press Secretary, statements by Edwin Meese III, Admiral Bobby Inman, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, and Richard Willard, briefing of December 4, 1981, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP91-00901R000500210001-2. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500210001-2
[^10]: Robert Reinhold, New York Times, March 30, 1982 (Washington, March 29), on Inman's testimony at a joint hearing of two House Science and Technology subcommittees, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP90-00552R000505200002-9. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00552R000505200002-9
[^11]: New York Times, April 23, 1982 (Washington, April 22), "senior Administration officials" on the counterintelligence dispute and Inman's resignation, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP90-00552R000201480007-1. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00552R000201480007-1
[^12]: Washington Post, April 22, 1982, George C. Wilson and George Gardner Jr., "Leaving for Private Industry: Inman Quitting," CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP90-00552R000201230020-3. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00552R000201230020-3
[^13]: Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1982, Michael J. Sniffen, on the resignation and the counterintelligence study, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP90-00552R000201230017-7. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00552R000201230017-7
[^14]: CBS Radio network commentary, April 22, 1982, "Admiral Inman Resigns," CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP90-00552R000201230019-5. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP90-00552R000201230019-5
[^15]: Christian Science Monitor, October 29, 1982, "Former NSA chief Inman: We're far short of skills" (speech to the Association of Former Intelligence Officers on October 4, 1982), CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP91-00901R000500250003-6. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500250003-6
[^16]: CIA memorandum, "DCI and DDCI Meeting with Secretary of State Haig, Tuesday, 6 October 1981," September 29, 1981, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP84B00890R000300080051-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84b00890r000300080051-3
[^17]: CIA memorandum, "DCI and DDCI Meeting with Secretary of State Haig, Tuesday, 26 January 1982," January 19, 1982, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP84M00395R000600260026-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84m00395r000600260026-0
[^18]: Michael Schrage, "Adm. Inman in Command at Consortium," Washington Post, July 28, 1985, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP91-00901R000500230021-8 (also CIA-RDP90-00965R000705920003-9). https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500230021-8
[^19]: Science Applications International Corporation, definitive proxy statement, 2001 (EDGAR accession 0000912057-01-518019), director biographies: "B.R. INMAN, age 70," director since 1982; MCC chairman, president and chief executive 1983 to 1986; Westmark Systems chairman, president and chief executive 1986 through 1989. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/353394/000091205701518019/0000912057-01-518019.txt
[^20]: Washington Post, September 4, 1983, "Interview With Bobby R. Inman," CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP91-00901R000500240018-1. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500240018-1
[^21]: Report of the Secretary of State's Advisory Panel on Overseas Security (The Inman Report), introduction and list of panel members and staff. https://irp.fas.org/threat/inman/part01.htm ; https://irp.fas.org/threat/inman/part15.htm ; Beirut discussion at https://irp.fas.org/threat/inman/part04.htm
[^22]: Christian Science Monitor, June 26, 1985, report on the Advisory Panel on Overseas Security, "chaired by former CIA Deputy Director Bobby R. Inman." https://www.csmonitor.com/1985/0626/aemb.html
[^23]: Paul Duke Jr., "Inman to Head New Firm That Will Buy High-Technology Defense Companies," Wall Street Journal, September 25, 1986 (Westmark planned board, Mason Best Co. majority ownership, and Inman's planned departure from MCC in January 1987), CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP91-00901R000500230012-8. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500230012-8
[^24]: United Press International, "Inman Says Education Key to World Trade," Lincoln, Neb., October 15, 1987, CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP91-00901R000500230001-0. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500230001-0
[^25]: Temple-Inland Inc., definitive proxy statement filed March 24, 1995 (EDGAR 0000950134-95-000454): "Name and year first elected director," Inman 1987; Westmark chairman from September 1986 and chief executive from December 31, 1986 until December 31, 1989; Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas chairman "from January 1987 to December 1990"; retired from active duty July 1, 1982. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731939/0000950134-95-000454.txt
[^26]: Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC Communications), definitive proxy statement filed March 14, 1995 (EDGAR 0000732717-95-000004): "He has been a Director of SBC since March 1985"; Westmark "from January 1987 through December 1989"; directorships at Fluor, Science Applications International Corporation, Temple-Inland and Xerox. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/732717/0000732717-95-000004.txt
[^27]: Associated Press, "Inman linked to company's bankruptcy," Deseret News, December 20, 1993, summarizing a New York Times report on Inman's chairmanship of Tracor Inc. (dates 1988 through December 1989; Chapter 11 about nine months after he left; Inman's statements to the Times). https://www.deseret.com/1993/12/20/19082690/inman-linked-to-company-s-bankruptcy/
[^28]: Ann Devroy, "Adm. Inman Asks Clinton To Withdraw Nomination," Washington Post, reprinted in The Tech (MIT), vol. 113, no. 66, January 19, 1994 (Austin news conference of January 18, 1994; letter to Clinton; Safire and Dole charges; Dole's denial; Tracor story; Social Security tax leak; FBI background check). http://tech.mit.edu/V113/N66/inman.66w.html
[^29]: Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, faculty biography, "Bobby R. Inman" (adjunct professor from 1987; chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas 1987 through 1990; LBJ Centennial Chair, August 2001; interim dean 2005 and January 2009 to March 2010). https://lbj.utexas.edu/inman-bobby-r
[^30]: Fluor Corporation (CIK 37748, later Massey Energy), definitive proxy statement filed February 2, 1994 (EDGAR 0000898430-94-000061): "Director since 1985; Chairman of Nominating Committee and member of Organization and Compensation Committee." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/37748/0000898430-94-000061.txt
[^31]: Massey Energy Company, definitive proxy statements: 2001 (EDGAR 0000931763-01-000307, director since 1985), 2002 (EDGAR 0000950168-02-000299, director since 1985; directorships at Fluor Corporation, Science Applications International Corporation, SBC Communications Inc. and Temple-Inland Inc.; November 30, 2000 reverse spin-off), and 2003 (EDGAR 0000916641-03-001118). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/37748/000093176301000307/0000931763-01-000307-0001.txt ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000037748/000095016802000299/ddef14a.htm ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000037748/000091664103001118/ddef14a.htm
[^32]: Science Applications International Corporation, definitive proxy statement filed June 7, 1994 (EDGAR 0000912057-94-001982): director since 1982; joined April 1990 as part-time employee; executive committee chairman and members. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/353394/0000912057-94-001982.txt
[^33]: Memorandum, "Will the Real Scott Jones Please Stand Up?" (undated, numbered paragraphs; paragraph 14 names the parapsychology company and its board), CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP96-00792R000400300004-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-rdp96-00792r000400300004-7
[^34]: Dell Computer Corporation, definitive proxy statement filed May 24, 1994 (EDGAR 0000950134-94-000615): Audit Committee chairman during fiscal 1994; "Mr. Inman resigned as a director on December 16, 1993." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/826083/0000950134-94-000615.txt
[^35]: Council on Foreign Relations, Annual Report 1984-1985 (officers and directors list, and nominating committee slate of eight candidates for eight vacancies, May 1985), CIA CREST copy CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210066-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000100210066-5
[^36]: St. Louis Public Radio, May 4, 2011, "Ashcroft to advise security firm formerly called Blackwater." https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2011-05-04/ashcroft-to-advise-security-firm-formerly-called-blackwater
[^37]: Washington Post, September 29, 1989, Glenn Frankel, "British firm claims it was duped by Pa. arms maker" (special proxy board of Inman, Guthrie and Shillito; Inman and Haig "lent their names to Guerin's business activities over the years"). https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/09/29/british-firm-claims-it-was-duped-by-pa-arms-maker/5b675f69-e5e0-4c25-9aee-ced8b8e07efa/
[^38]: Tampa Bay Times, "Ties to convict could be questioned," December 17, 1993. The article says the April 27, 1992 letter described the subject as having "worked in the mid-1970s with U.S. intelligence agencies" in a sentence whose pronoun it does not resolve between Inman and Guerin. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/12/17/ties-to-convict-could-be-questioned/
[^39]: William J. Clinton Presidential Library, finding aid 2006-0997-F, "Admiral Bobby Ray Inman - PFIAB" (named to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board by George H. W. Bush in July 1991; served thirty months). https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/research/archives/finding-aids/2006-0997-f-admiral-bobby-ray-inman-pfiab
[^40]: Timothy Good, Alien Liaison (London: Century, 1991), chapter 10 and front matter, read through the archive.org in-book search of the lending copy (acknowledgements; photograph captions; the May 13, 1988 groundbreaking encounter; the July 1989 call; Inman biography stating a July 1990 appointment to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board). https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780712621946
[^41]: Military.com, May 9, 2006, "Ex-NSA Chief Blasts Taps, Calls for CIA Breakup," reporting Inman's remarks at a New York Public Library panel on May 8, 2006. https://www.military.com/defensetech/2006/05/09/ex-nsa-chief-blasts-taps-calls-for-cia-breakup
[^42]: Elizondo and the Hermetic Penetrator, "The Loose Threads Report," Anomaly Archives, 2022, pp. 33-38 (Oechsler-Inman transcript and Inman's comments). Sole source for the transcript as reproduced in this text. https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf
[^43]: Armen Victorian, "Curious Liaisons," Lobster, Issue 23 (1992), review of Timothy Good, Alien Liaison (Century, London, 1991). The review quotes Good's chapter 10 (p. 191), Inman's letter to Good of December 18, 1989, Inman's letters to Victorian of July 26 and August 5, 1991, and Victorian's account of the recording and of John Dingley's July 14, 1991 call. https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/?p=7448
[^44]: Loose Threads Report, pp. 38-41 (Oechsler's meetings with Sumner Shapiro in 1989 and on June 21, 1990, quoting Timothy Good, Alien Contact). Sole source for the passages so cited. https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf
[^45]: Loose Threads Report, pp. 33-34 and 53 (1985 inaugural ATP meeting notes and the "major engineering project"; Alexander's reply) and p. 48 (Good, Alien Contact, on the Ozark UFO Conference of April 1990 and Tom King; Oechsler, Alien Update, on Ronald Pandolfi). Sole source for the passages so cited. https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf
[^46]: Loose Threads Report, pp. 48-52 (Inman's "underwater vehicles" reply as quoted from a review; the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office passage; Greer and Cameron on Goldwater; the characterization of Victorian). Sole source for the passages so cited. https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf

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---
title: Ferenc Koszorús
aliases:
- Ferenc Koszorús
- Ferenc Koszorus
- Ferenc Koszorus Sr.
- Colonel Ferenc Koszorus
- Ferencz Koszorus
- Ferenc Koszorús Sr.
- Ferenc Kossorus
- Frank Kossorus
created: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-08
category: "Military"
tags:
- Person
- HungarianAmerican
- HungarianVeterans
- CIA
- OPC
- FBI
- NaziWarCrimesDisclosureAct
summary: "Hungarian army colonel who guarded Admiral Horthy in 1944, was cleared by the CIA in 1952 to organize Hungarian veterans in America, and was interviewed by the FBI in 1958; father of Frank Koszorus Jr."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[Hungarian Army]]"
role: "colonel, general staff"
start: 1918
end: 1944
fn: 1
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
role: "covert security clearance and recruitment files"
start: 1951
end: 1970
fn: 6
- type: investigated
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
reverse: true
start: 1958
end: 1958
fn: 4
- type: relative_of
with: "[[Frank Koszorus Jr.]]"
role: "father"
fn: 17
---
Ferenc Koszorús (born February 3, 1899, in [[Debrecen]]) was a Hungarian army colonel. His command guarded Admiral [[Miklós Horthy]] in July 1944. He reached the United States in 1951, and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] files released under the [[Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act]] record that the agency cleared him in 1952 to organize a Hungarian veterans' group in America. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] interviewed him in 1958. He was the father of [[Frank Koszorus Jr.]]
### Army service and emigration
The CIA's biographical sheet gives his parents as Ferenc Koszorús and Katalin Koszorús and his spouse as Gabriella Pulop Koszorús. It records service as a colonel on the general staff of the [[Hungarian Army]] from 1918 to 1944, with an education at the Military Academy in Budapest and the Hungarian General Staff Academy, and his admission to the United States in February 1951, with a farm job in [[Watsonville, California]], and then a job with the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]] there from September 1951.[^1] A 1951 CIA security summary records that he was a professional soldier, a professor at the military academy, and an opponent of the German alliance who left Hungary in April 1945.[^2]
A CIA memorandum states that a force under his command guarded Admiral Horthy in July 1944; it reports that after the war he served in 1945 as lay president of the [[Hungarian Reformed Church in Exile]] in Germany and that he became a member of the Hungarian veterans' association that the files abbreviate as UHBK. A report of July 20, 1949 describes him as the deputy in Germany of General Zakó, who had set up an organization of former Hungarian army officers in Austria and Germany for intelligence work. A source of undetermined reliability described him and [[Albin Kapitánffy]] as the only two leading members of the association who could be considered "democratic," and the memorandum reports that he was reputed to have led internal opposition to Zakó's leadership.[^3]
The FBI recorded in 1958 that he and his wife had been sponsored in coming to the United States by a Protestant minister in Watsonville and by the World Church Service, that they arrived in New York in 1951, and that they moved to Washington in 1952.[^4]
### CIA recruitment and clearance, 1951 to 1952
On October 9, 1951, a CIA officer telephoned Koszorús in Watsonville and asked whether he would accept employment in the United States to organize and manage Hungarian veterans of America, and whether he could travel East for an interview. The memorandum records that he was willing, subject to a personal conference about plans and terms, but that he did not want to jeopardize his new job.[^5] The request for a covert security clearance, dated December 6, 1951, described him as "one of the very few high ranking Hungarian ex-Army officers with a clean past, untainted by either Nazi-ism or Communism," proposed that he launch an organization for the "decent and reliable element of the Hungarian veterans" to combat the organization of "the notorious General Zako," and described the organization as subsidized by the agency with no connection to it other than through him, as a pool from which to draw recruits for paramilitary activities, with areas of operation in the United States, Germany, Austria and possibly France.[^6]
A memorandum for the record of December 1951 states that a redacted officer had contacted Koszorús, who "did not display any interest in working for us," and that the recommendation was to drop him as a prospect.[^7] On March 7, 1952 the agency's Special Security Division nevertheless granted a covert security clearance for his use as an autonomous principal agent to launch a Hungarian veterans organization, with the instruction that he was not to represent himself as an employee of the agency.[^8] A job description of April 7, 1952 in the file states that he would organize and direct the veterans organization and recruit desirable Hungarian veterans into it.[^9]
The file series in his name continues through 1952 with records of an agent under the pseudonym Edwin F. Mycroft. The pages read do not equate the pseudonym with Koszorús in so many words. The records under that pseudonym describe a married, Hungarian-speaking agent with poor English who was to be in charge of organizing and directing a proposed Hungarian veterans' organization, paid monthly through a case officer. They include an April 9, 1952 memorandum on a contract carrying a bonus of up to $500 for a six-month term, a covert training request of June 26, 1952 giving the United States as the assignment area, a July 7, 1952 request for an additional $50 a month, contact reports of August 1952 recording that he had sent money to his wife in California and was awaiting her departure, and a memorandum of September 12, 1952 stating that he had held cover employment from August 18 to 20, 1952 and no longer had it.[^10] Reports in the name Koszorús from the same months describe meetings with a case officer in Washington restaurants, the move of his wife from California, his search for cover employment and his monthly salary. An October 1952 contact report places him at a restaurant on Connecticut Avenue, working without pay in a sign painter's shop to learn the business and short of funds, and states that there was practically no conversation about the development of the Veterans Organization.[^11] A report of November 7, 1952 records that he asked to see a senior officer to discuss new plans for the project and had asked two Hungarian émigré acquaintances for help in finding a job.[^11]
A memorandum of December 3, 1952 states that the contract of Edwin F. Mycroft was terminating on December 11, 1952 and requests a bonus of $500 for satisfactory completion of his obligations, and a receipt dated December 12, 1952 in that name acknowledges $646.63, of which $500 is the bonus, and states that the contract "is now terminated."[^12]
### FBI inquiries, 1958
A memorandum of the FBI dated May 19, 1958, loaned to the CIA, concerns "Ferenc Koszorus, also known as Frank Kossorus." A confidential informant reported that on April 25, 1958 Vasile Baluse, third secretary of the Romanian legation in Washington, mentioned a letter and a fee of $10 and advised that a telephone number be called; a second informant reported that the number was subscribed to by Ferenc Kossorus of 4540 MacArthur Boulevard N.W. The FBI checked city directories, credit bureau and police records, employers, and telephoned Gabriella Koszorús under a pretext. It recorded that he was a draftsman earning about $390 a month at the Air Survey Corporation in Arlington, Virginia, a firm that made maps for commercial clients and for United States agencies such as the Army Map Service; that he had worked there from January 27, 1953, been laid off on July 28, 1955 and rehired in March 1958; that his earlier employers included the post exchange at Fort Ord (March to July 1952) and a children's home in Washington (August to September 1952); and that his wife did commercial and religious art for the [[American Hungarian Federation]], 1761 P Street N.W., and the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, 1801 P Street N.W. The vice president of Air Survey described him as patriotic and opposed to communism.[^13]
In an interview reported in a memorandum of October 1958, Koszorús and his wife told FBI agents at their apartment that they had had no contact with Soviet bloc officials, that he would have terminated any such contact, and that he would volunteer his military knowledge to the United States government. He described an incident before the war in which he was ordered to show Soviet diplomatic officials around the military academy and one tried to "pump" him for information. The FBI's director sent the memoranda to the CIA's Deputy Director for Plans under cover of October 26, 1958.[^14]
### Later records
In 1966 the CIA's Deputy Director for Plans sent the Department of State's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Security a copy of the September 5, 1951 memorandum on Koszorús, which had earlier been sent to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, in answer to a request received August 19, 1966. A CIA cross-reference sheet of January 16, 1970 notes his address in the 1969 Washington telephone directory.[^15] His son Frank Koszorus Jr. later wrote, in a letter to the editor of *[[The New York Times]]* on April 27, 1994, about "his father's role in saving Jews from deportation," according to the son's report of his activities to the Justice Department.[^16] The Hungarian American Coalition's obituary of the son names Ferenc and Gabriella Koszorús as his parents and records that his father died in 1974.[^17]
[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, biographical sheet on Ferenc Koszorus, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0001 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0001), released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act.
[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, clearance request summary on Colonel Ferenc Koszorus, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0002 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0002).
[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, memoranda on Ferenc Koszorus, Internet Archive items KOSZORUSFERENC-0013 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0013) and KOSZORUSFERENC-0028 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0028), which compile reports of July 20, 1949 and September 19, 1950.
[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, memorandum of May 19, 1958, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0069 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0069).
[^5]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, October 9, 1951, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0016 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0016).
[^6]: Central Intelligence Agency, request for covert security clearance, December 6, 1951, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0019 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0019).
[^7]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, December 1951, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0018 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0018).
[^8]: Central Intelligence Agency, Special Security Division, memorandum of March 7, 1952, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0023 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0023).
[^9]: Central Intelligence Agency, job description of April 7, 1952, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0024 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0024).
[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, Internet Archive items KOSZORUSFERENC-0026 (memorandum of April 9, 1952), -0033 (covert training request, June 26, 1952), -0039 (July 7, 1952), -0042 (meeting memorandum, 1952), -0045 (August 1952), -0046 and -0047 (contact reports, August 1952) and -0054 (September 12, 1952), each at https://archive.org/details/ followed by the item identifier. The OCR of these pages is imperfect and the quoted phrase is taken from item -0039.
[^11]: Central Intelligence Agency, contact reports on Koszorus of October 1952 and November 7, 1952, Internet Archive items KOSZORUSFERENC-0060 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0060) and KOSZORUSFERENC-0061 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0061).
[^12]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum of December 3, 1952 and receipt of December 12, 1952, Internet Archive items KOSZORUSFERENC-0064 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0064) and KOSZORUSFERENC-0066 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0066).
[^13]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, memorandum of May 19, 1958 (note 4).
[^14]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, memorandum of October 1958 on the interview of Ferenc Koszorus and Gabriella Koszorus, and letter of October 26, 1958 from the Director to the Deputy Director (Plans), Central Intelligence Agency, Internet Archive item KOSZORUSFERENC-0070 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0070).
[^15]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Security, Department of State, 1966, and document transfer and cross-reference sheet of January 16, 1970, Internet Archive items KOSZORUSFERENC-0073 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0073) and KOSZORUSFERENC-0074 (https://archive.org/details/KOSZORUSFERENC-0074).
[^16]: Registration 4772, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Supplemental Statement for the six months ending September 30, 1994, Attachment on activity on his own behalf. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/4772-Supplemental-Statement-19940930-DHFIFJ02.pdf
[^17]: "In Memoriam: Frank Koszorus, Jr. (1947-2024)," Hungarian American Coalition. https://hacusa.org/in-memoriam-frank-koszorus-jr-1947-2024/

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---
title: Frank Koszorus Jr.
aliases:
- Frank Koszorus Jr.
- Frank Koszorus, Jr.
- Frank Koszorus Jr
- Frank Koszorus
- Frank Koszorús
- Frank Koszorús, Jr.
- Frank Koszorús Jr.
- Koszorus
created: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-08
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Person
- Lawyer
- IranContra
- Contras
- GeoMiliTech
- AmericanHungarianFederation
- HungarianAmerican
- FinleyKumble
- ForeignAgents
- FARA
summary: "Washington lawyer who wrote to the House Iran-Contra committee for Barbara Studley in 1987, signed Hungarian embassy lobbying registrations in 1993 and 2000, and later led the American Hungarian Federation."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey]]"
role: "attorney, Washington office"
start: 1987
end: 1987
fn: 4
- type: represented
with: "[[Barbara Studley]]"
start: 1987
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Laxalt, Washington, Perito & Dubuc]]"
role: "partner"
start: 1989
fn: 11
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Paul Hastings|Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker]]"
role: "attorney, signatory for registration 4772"
start: 1993
end: 1994
fn: 15
- type: represented
with: "[[Hungary]]"
role: "attorney for the Embassy of the Republic of Hungary under FARA registration 4772"
start: 1993
end: 1994
fn: 15
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC]]"
role: "of counsel"
start: 2000
end: 2002
fn: 18
- type: represented
with: "[[Hungary]]"
role: "attorney for the Embassy of Hungary under FARA registration 3694"
start: 2000
end: 2002
fn: 19
- type: member_of
with: "[[International Human Rights Law Group]]"
role: "pro bono attorney"
start: 1982
end: 1986
fn: 3
- type: head_of
with: "[[American Hungarian Federation]]"
role: "national president"
start: 2011
fn: 21
- type: relative_of
with: "[[Ferenc Koszorús]]"
role: "son"
fn: 1
---
Frank Koszorus Jr. (1947 to 2024) was a Washington lawyer, the son of the Hungarian army colonel [[Ferenc Koszorús]]. He wrote to the House Iran-Contra committee on behalf of [[Barbara Studley]] in 1987, signed [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]] papers for the Hungarian embassy in 1993 and in 2000, and later led the [[American Hungarian Federation]].
### Early life and the International Human Rights Law Group
Koszorus was born in 1947 in [[Münsing]], [[West Germany]], to Gabriella and Ferenc Koszorús. He graduated from [[American University]] in 1966 and received a juris doctor cum laude from [[DePaul University College of Law]], served as a judicial law clerk in [[Chicago]], and after his father's death in 1974 returned to [[Washington, D.C.]] to practice litigation.[^1]
On July 12 and 13, 1982, the Subcommittee on Trade of the [[House Committee on Ways and Means]] held hearings on extending most-favored-nation status to [[Romania]], [[Hungary]] and [[China]]. Koszorus appeared as an attorney for the [[International Human Rights Law Group]], which he described as a nonprofit legal organization established in September 1978 by the Procedural Aspects of International Law Institute with funding from the [[Ford Foundation]] and the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]].[^2]
On August 1, 1986, he testified as a pro bono attorney for the Law Group before the Subcommittee on International Trade of the [[Senate Committee on Finance]] on S. 1492 and S. 1817, "MFN Status for Romania." The Law Group asked for suspension of most-favored-nation status until Romania improved its human rights record, with particular attention to the Hungarian minority. The biography attached to the hearing record describes him as a member of the District of Columbia Bar, formerly law clerk to James B. Parsons, chief judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and a member of sections of the [[American Bar Association]], the [[American Society of International Law]] and the Washington International Trade Association.[^3]
### Finley Kumble and the letter of April 28, 1987
On April 28, 1987, Koszorus signed a letter on the letterhead of [[Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey|Finley, Kumble]], 1140 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Washington, to [[Kenneth Ballen]], assistant counsel of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran. The letter is marked "By Hand," carries the caption "Re: Barbara F. Studley/GMT" over the underlined line "Memorandum re Oliver North," and reads: "During your telephone conference with Paul L. Perito this afternoon, you requested a copy of the memorandum from Barbara F. Studley's file regarding Oliver North. Please find enclosed a copy of that memorandum which I also am forwarding to Chuck Kerr." The typed name beneath the handwritten signature is "Frank Koszorus, Jr."; the copy line reads "Enclosure" and "cc: Charles M. Kerr, Esq." A handwritten note at the upper right reads "Graham 5/26/87," and the letter is printed as an exhibit to the deposition of [[Daniel O. Graham]].[^4]
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York described Finley Kumble as a New York partnership that was the fourth largest law firm in the United States, with offices in California, Florida, Maryland, Texas, Louisiana and Washington, before several banks filed an involuntary Chapter 7 petition against it on February 24, 1988.[^5]
In the deposition of May 26, 1987, counsel asked Graham whether he had met "her attorney, Mr. Perito," and Graham answered, "The one I know is Perito."[^6]
### Representation of Studley, 1991 and 1992
[[Christopher Byron]] reported in [[New York Magazine]] in December 1991 that "Studley's lawyer, Frank Koszorus, last week denied that either Studley or GeoMiliTech had any involvement with Iran." Byron also reported that Koszorus refused to identify the company's place of business or a company spokesman and would not answer questions about the nature of the firm's work or the number of its employees.[^7]
The [[Hartford Courant]] reported in May 1992 that attempts to reach Studley through Koszorus had been unsuccessful. Koszorus said he did not think anyone should infer from Studley's deposition that she had a written document signed by [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.]] "I'm not at all certain that she was ever issued a written opinion," he said. "Justice doesn't give, as a general matter, written opinions to private individuals." The same article reported that Barcella left the United States attorney's office in June 1986 and went into private practice in Washington "initially at the same firm where Koszorus, Studley's lawyer, worked," without naming the firm, and that Barcella said he did not know Koszorus before joining it.[^8]
### Washington, Perito & Dubuc
The [[Washington Post]] reported on December 23, 1987 that "Former senator Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.) and Robert B. Washington Jr., partners in the dissolving national law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, yesterday announced the formation of a Washington-based firm they hope will avoid the bitter power struggles that brought down Finley Kumble."[^9] The bankruptcy court found that the partnership, Washington, Perito & Dubuc, was organized under District of Columbia law in January 1988, that thirty-one partners of Finley Kumble who practiced in its Washington office formed it together with certain other attorneys, and that at its height it had about thirty-six partners and offices in Washington, New York, Baltimore and Fairfax County, Virginia.[^5]
The Hungarian Reformed Federation of America's bulletin [[Fraternity-Testvériség|Fraternity]] reported in April 1989 that Koszorus, a partner of [[Laxalt, Washington, Perito & Dubuc]] in Washington, had been named one of four public members of the United States delegation to the Paris meeting of the [[Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe]], held from May 30 to June 23, 1989. The item reports his work with the International Human Rights Law Group on emigration and the protection of national and religious minorities in East-Central Europe and a pro bono service award from the group in 1986.[^10]
The [[Chicago Tribune]] reported in July 1991 that [[Katten Muchin Zavis & Dombroff]] had added Barcella, "a former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington and partner at Washington, Perito & Dubuc," to its Washington office.[^11] The Washington Post reported on July 20, 1991 that the firm was winding down and that Paul Perito, "one of the firm's name partners and head of its important white-collar litigation group," was moving on the following Monday with a half-dozen other lawyers to the Washington office of [[Paul Hastings|Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker]].[^12] The bankruptcy court found that the firm ceased its practice in August 1991; the Post reported in January 1995 that thirty-three of its partners had agreed to contribute $5.2 million toward its debts.[^5][^13] A Paul L. Perito is the lawyer named in the April 1987 letter, and a Paul Perito was a name partner of the firm in 1991; the records found do not state that the two are the same man.
### Paul Hastings and the Hungarian embassy, 1993 to 1995
Registration 4772 of the Foreign Agents Registration Act lists Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker as registrant for the Republic of Hungary, Embassy. The Exhibit A, filed March 1, 1993, gives the registrant's address as 1050 Connecticut Avenue N.W. and the principal's address as 3910 Shoemaker Street, Washington, and names Ambassador Pál Tar as the official with whom the registrant deals.[^14] The Exhibit B of the same date, signed by Koszorus as "Attorney," attaches a retainer agreement between the firm and the Embassy of the Government of the Republic of Hungary for December 1992 through December 1993. Its services included assistance with "administrative and legislative strategies relating to the Government's interests," help in "securing economic aid and assistance from the Government of the United States," and work to "enhance good will in the U.S." and the priority accorded Hungary in United States funding, foreign policy, trade and finance deliberations. The fee was $8,334 per month, and the agreement anticipated total payments of $100,000. The Exhibit B states that the registrant may communicate with executive and legislative branch personnel on United States policy affecting diplomatic and economic relations with Hungary.[^15]
The registrant's supplemental statement for the six months ending September 30, 1994, sworn by Koszorus before a notary on December 16, 1994, reports a payment of $49,999.98 from the Embassy of the Republic of Hungary on May 27, 1994 for legal fees and costs. It lists the registrant's activities for the embassy in connection with Budapest Expo '96: conferring with private-sector members interested in an official United States presence through the [[United States Information Agency]]; coordinating with Representative [[Tom Lantos]]'s office on possible USIA support and on legislation (section 241 of H.R. 2333 and section 217 of S. 1281); and conferring with Ambassador [[Donald Blinken]] and staff of the United States embassy in Budapest and with USIA and Commerce Department officials. Communications with Lantos's office are listed on fifteen dates from April 18 to July 30, 1994, with USIA officials on five dates, with the embassy in Budapest on eleven dates, with the Commerce Department on April 28 and with State Department staff on June 22.[^16]
The same supplemental statement lists [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.]] as having become a partner of the registrant on July 18, 1994, and Christopher A. Barreca as having become a partner on July 26, 1994. Under the heading of activity on his own behalf that benefited the principal, it records that on September 28, 1994 Koszorus took part in a panel discussion on Central Europe and the protection of national minorities at Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and that he wrote letters to the editor of the Budapest Sun (April 12, on historical inaccuracies and minorities), The New York Times (April 27, on the Holocaust in Hungary and his father's role in saving Jews from deportation) and The Washington Post (September 8, similar to the Times letter).[^16]
A registrant's amendment received May 1, 1995 corrects the supplemental statement to show that the Embassy of the Republic of Hungary ceased to be a foreign principal on August 5, 1994, and that the statement for the period ending September 30, 1994 was the registrant's final one. The Justice Department's bulk data list the principal's termination as May 1, 1995, the date of that amendment.[^17]
### Collier Shannon Scott and the Hungarian embassy, 2000 to 2002
[[Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC]] had held registration 3694 since June 24, 1985. By a letter of September 14, 2000 on its letterhead, which gives Koszorus's direct telephone line and e-mail address, the firm told Ambassador [[Géza Jeszenszky]] that the Embassy of Hungary had engaged it to represent the embassy on foreign operations legislation, with a monthly retainer of $10,000, a one-year term, and a request for a waiver of conflicts. The Exhibit A and Exhibit B, filed September 25, 2000, name the Ambassador as the official dealing with the registrant, and the Exhibit B is signed by Koszorus as "Of Counsel." It states that the registrant may communicate with executive and legislative branch personnel on policy affecting diplomatic and economic relations, "including foreign assistance," between the United States and Hungary.[^18]
The supplemental statement for June 25 to December 24, 2000 describes the registrant's work for the embassy as monitoring foreign military programs and representing the embassy before members of the Senate and House and their staffs and before officials of the [[National Security Council]], the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]], the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] and the [[Helsinki Commission]]. Its list of political activity names Koszorus in telephone conferences or meetings on September 18, 2000 with Robin Cleveland, majority staff clerk of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and with staff of Senator [[Barbara Mikulski]]; on September 21 and 22 with Robert Hand of the Helsinki Commission staff and on September 22 and 26 with Philip T. Reeker, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs, about United States monitoring of elections in Yugoslavia and minority rights; on September 30 at a dinner at the Hungarian embassy with Representative Tom Lantos and the Ambassador; on October 13 with Cameron Munter of the National Security Council about foreign military assistance to Hungary; on October 18 with the legislative director of Representative Sonny Callahan; on October 23 with an official of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for NATO at an embassy reception; and on October 31 with a legislative assistant to Senator [[Mitch McConnell]]. The firm's receipt history for the period shows no payment from the Embassy of Hungary.[^19]
On May 20, 2002 the firm filed an amendment to terminate Koszorus's short-form registration and the registration of the Embassy of Hungary. It states: "Although Mr. Koszorus is still employed by the firm, he is no longer actively involved in the representation of any of the firm's foreign principals," and that the embassy "is no longer a client of the firm."[^20]
### Hungarian American leadership
The American Hungarian Federation, founded in 1906, describes itself in Koszorus's statement as an umbrella organization for the Hungarian American community. In July 2011 Koszorus submitted a statement as "National President, American Hungarian Federation" to the Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia of the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs]] for its hearing "Eastern Europe: The State of Democracy and Freedom." The statement's first issue is "minority rights as the prerequisite to democracy in the multi-national states of Romania and Slovakia," and it addresses "the intolerance of and discrimination against the Hungarian minorities living there."[^21]
His obituary states that he testified before congressional committees on Hungary's [[NATO]] accession and on minority rights and submitted written statements to the Helsinki Commission on minority rights in Eastern Europe and on the state of democracy in Hungary, without giving dates. It records that Hungary awarded him the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit in 2014, that the [[Hungarian National Council of Transylvania]] gave him its Báthory Award, and that he died on May 24, 2024 at his home in [[Great Falls, Virginia]], aged 76.[^1]
[^1]: "In Memoriam: Frank Koszorus, Jr. (1947-2024)," Hungarian American Coalition. https://hacusa.org/in-memoriam-frank-koszorus-jr-1947-2024/ The obituary names Ferenc and Gabriella Koszorús as his parents.
[^2]: Extension of MFN Status to Romania, Hungary, and the People's Republic of China, hearings before the Subcommittee on Trade of the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, 97th Congress, 2nd Session, July 12 and 13, 1982, statement of Frank Koszorus, Jr., attorney, International Human Rights Law Group. Internet Archive item micro_IA41152659_0288, https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152659_0288
[^3]: MFN Status for Romania, hearing before the Subcommittee on International Trade of the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, 99th Congress, 2nd Session, on S. 1492 and S. 1817, August 1, 1986, statement and prepared statement of Frank Koszorus, Jr., for the International Human Rights Law Group, with the Law Group's exhibits and biographies of its delegation. Internet Archive item micro_IA41152829_1087, https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152829_1087
[^4]: Letter from Frank Koszorus Jr., Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, Washington, to Kenneth Ballen, Assistant Counsel, House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, April 28, 1987, Re: Barbara F. Studley/GMT, Memorandum re Oliver North, in Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Depositions), printed p. 1040 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234, https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152840_0234). Read from the page image.
[^5]: In re Washington, Perito & Dubuc, 154 B.R. 853 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. June 2, 1993), statement of facts, paragraphs 1 to 3, 17 to 19 and 21. https://static.case.law/br/154/cases/0853-01.json
[^6]: Deposition of Daniel O. Graham, May 26, 1987, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234, https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152840_0234).
[^7]: Christopher Byron, "Did Convict Arif Durrani Help Set the Stage for Iran/Contra?," *New York*, December 16, 1991, pp. 42, 44. https://books.google.com/books?id=6ugCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42
[^8]: Lyn Bixby, "Head of Iran Hostage Probe Linked to Arms Deal," *Hartford Courant*, May 29, 1992. https://www.courant.com/1992/05/29/head-of-iran-hostage-probe-linked-to-arms-deal/
[^9]: Karlyn Barker and Kathleen Day, "Robert Washington, Laxalt Team Up to Replace Failed Law Firm," *The Washington Post*, December 23, 1987. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/12/23/robert-washington-laxalt-team-up-to-replace-failed-law-firm/71c2b588-772c-47c4-acdb-68bc9bdfe123/
[^10]: "Frank Koszorús, Jr. Selected as U.S. Public Delegate to Paris Human Rights Conference," *Fraternity-Testvériség*, 1989 (67. évfolyam), issue of April 1, 1989, no. 2, Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/view/TestverisegFraternity_USAHUN_1989/?pg=45
[^11]: "Kinder, gentler profession urged," business column, *Chicago Tribune*, July 23, 1991. https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/07/23/kinder-gentler-profession-urged/
[^12]: Sharon Walsh and Saundra Torry, "Washington, Perito Law Firm Losing Additional Attorneys; Name Partner Among Those Leaving," *The Washington Post*, July 20, 1991. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1991/07/20/washington-perito-law-firm-losing-additional-attorneys/0a7d8d2e-2958-4283-9860-874855bd0ca6/
[^13]: Saundra Torry, "In the Struggle Over a Dead Firm's Debts, Nobody Wins," *The Washington Post*, January 23, 1995. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/01/23/in-the-struggle-over-a-dead-firms-debts-nobody-wins/88d3a9d7-ef4b-4e02-83a3-2fea87ad65e5/
[^14]: U.S. Department of Justice, Foreign Agents Registration Act, registration 4772, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Exhibit A, filed March 1, 1993. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/4772-Exhibit-AB-19930301-D1Y3N102.pdf
[^15]: Registration 4772, Exhibit B, March 1, 1993, with Retainer Agreement between Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker and the Embassy of the Government of the Republic of Hungary (same document as note 14, pages 3 to 8).
[^16]: Registration 4772, Supplemental Statement for the six months ending September 30, 1994, with Attachments 1 to 4, sworn December 16, 1994. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/4772-Supplemental-Statement-19940930-DHFIFJ02.pdf The short-form record for Koszorus, Frank, Jr., is dated March 1, 1993 in the Justice Department's FARA_All_ShortForms.csv bulk file (https://efile.fara.gov/).
[^17]: Registration 4772, Amendment received May 1, 1995. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/4772-Amendment-19950501-DHFJ1K02.pdf Foreign principal termination date as listed in FARA_All_ForeignPrincipals.csv.
[^18]: U.S. Department of Justice, Foreign Agents Registration Act, registration 3694, Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC, Exhibits A and B with engagement letter of September 14, 2000, filed September 25, 2000. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/3694-Exhibit-AB-20000925-GTYJTV01.pdf
[^19]: Registration 3694, Supplemental Statement for June 25 to December 24, 2000, Attachments 2 to 4 (activities, political activity, receipt history); amended April 10, 2001 as to political contributions. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/3694-Supplemental-Statement-20001224-GKCAF601.pdf The firm's registrant record is in FARA_All_Registrants.csv (registration date June 24, 1985; terminated December 23, 2003).
[^20]: Registration 3694, Amendment, May 20, 2002. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/3694-Amendment-20020520-GWISEQ03.pdf
[^21]: Statement of Frank Koszorus, Jr., National President, American Hungarian Federation, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia, hearing "Eastern Europe: The State of Democracy and Freedom," July 26, 2011. https://www.americanhungarianfederation.org/docs/AHF_CongressionalStatement_2011-07-26.pdf

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@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
---
updated: 2026-10-08
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
- Person
@ -24,6 +25,10 @@ The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] reproduced the
[[Robert Mueller]] told the subcommittee that the first letter was "ambiguous at best" and that "I do not know what initiated it." The report concluded: "The obvious explanation for what happened is that Saphos was personally lobbied by people he knew who had formerly been with the Justice Department and now represented BCCI on the outside, and agreed to do them a favor."[^5]
### Closure of Bayshore Bank of Florida, 1987
On August 7, 1987, Lewis, as Florida State Comptroller, closed [[Bayshore Bank of Florida]] in [[Miami]], and the [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]] was named receiver.[^6] The Eleventh Circuit later summarized the sequence: the Comptroller declared the bank insolvent on August 7, 1987, named the FDIC as liquidator under the Florida statute then in force, and the FDIC accepted the appointment shortly afterward.[^7] The FDIC's news release of that day gave the bank's total assets at closing as $40.4 million and said its insured deposits had been transferred to [[Eagle National Bank of Miami]].[^6] The Miami Herald had reported in June 1987 that the bank's president, [[Louis Petrillo]], had resigned just as federal authorities began investigating the transactions at the bank.[^8]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10.
@ -31,3 +36,6 @@ The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] reproduced the
[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 375.
[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 374.
[^5]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm
[^6]: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, news release PR-139-87, "FDIC Transfers Insured Deposits of Bayshore Bank of Florida, Miami, Florida," August 7, 1987. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/press-releases-federal-deposit-insurance-corporation-7031/fdic-transfers-insured-deposits-bayshore-bank-florida-miami-florida-641646
[^7]: *Bayshore Executive Plaza Partnership v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.*, 943 F.2d 1290 (11th Cir. 1991). https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2861994068766344132
[^8]: "Newspaper says banker involved in loans for Contra arms," United Press International, dated June 10, 1987, reporting a *Miami Herald* story. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/06/10/Newspaper-says-banker-involved-in-loans-for-Contra-arms/9700550296000/

2
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@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ In 1992, Hamilton co-chaired the House October Surprise Task Force alongside Rep
The Task Force's January 1993 final report found "no credible evidence" of such a deal. However, the investigation has been criticized on several grounds. A U.S. Embassy Madrid cable indicating [[William J. Casey]] was in Madrid in summer 1980 "for purposes unknown" was withheld by Bush administration officials and never provided to the Task Force. The Russian intelligence report confirming Casey's Madrid and Paris meetings with Iranians arrived in January 1993 after the Task Force had closed, and was buried in raw files until journalist [[Robert Parry]] discovered it later.[^2]
In 1992 Hamilton selected E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr. as chief counsel. Hamilton selected him in March 1992, saying then that he sought "someone that had a large amount of international experience." Asked about the lawyer's 1985 legal opinion on a contra arms shipment in a May 29, 1992 newspaper account, Hamilton said he would "investigate all aspects of criticisms of staff, including Larry or anybody else."[^3]
In 1992 Hamilton selected E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr. as chief counsel. Hamilton selected him in March 1992, saying then that he sought "someone that had a large amount of international experience." Asked in a May 29, 1992 *Hartford Courant* account about a 1985 legal opinion on a contra arms shipment that the paper attributed to the lawyer, Hamilton said he would "investigate all aspects of criticisms of staff, including Larry or anybody else."[^3]
Barcella told Parry that substantial new evidence arrived in the final month of the inquiry and that he asked Hamilton to extend it three months. Barcella said Hamilton, recognizing how nasty the Republican reaction would be, turned down the request.[^4] In Meldon's 2008 article, Barcella is quoted as saying that Hamilton cited the complexity of getting the task force reauthorized in a new Congress.[^5] Hamilton told Parry in 2010 that he might have explained the problem of the authorization running out at the end of the session: "All I could have done is go before the next Congress and request reauthorization."[^6] Hamilton told Parry in 2010 that he had no recollection of such a proposal, and in 2011 that he had no recollection of the request.[^7][^8] Parry also wrote that Barcella recommended the extension to Hamilton, and that Hamilton did not extend the task force.[^5]

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@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ aliases:
- Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid
summary: "President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, whose government borrowed billions through the Atlanta branch of the BNL and received American export licenses, credit and intelligence during the Iran-Iraq War."
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-10-07
updated: 2026-10-08
born: 1937-04-28
died: 2006-12-30
location: "Al-Awja, Iraq"
@ -43,13 +43,13 @@ relations:
- type: relative_of
with: "[[Hussein Kamel]]"
role: "son-in-law"
fn: 17
fn: 20
---
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was born on April 28, 1937, near the town of [[Tikrit]] in central [[Iraq]], to a landless family, and held the presidency from July 16, 1979 until the [[Iraq War]] of 2003.[^1] He joined the [[Ba'ath Party]] in 1957.[^1]
### The 1959 attempt on Qassim
At a [[National Security Council]] meeting on October 1, 1959, [[Allen Dulles]] said that [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] "had urged the assassination plotters not to move too fast" and that, although rumors were generally wrong, "it was possible an attempt would be made on Kassem's life in the next two months."[^2] On October 7, 1959 Prime Minister [[Abd al-Karim Qassem]] was wounded in the shoulder in an assassination attempt, and the Director of Intelligence and Research, [[Hugh Cumming]], suggested to Secretary of State [[Christian Herter]] that it might be the beginning of the coup about which the United States had been picking up rumors.[^2] A [[Central Intelligence Agency]] memorandum on the attempt dated October 13, 1959 is printed in the same volume with its text not declassified.[^2]
At a [[National Security Council]] meeting on October 1, 1959, [[Allen Dulles]] said that [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] "had urged the assassination plotters not to move too fast" and that, although rumors were generally wrong, "it was possible an attempt would be made on Kassem's life in the next two months."[^2] On October 7, 1959 Prime Minister [[Abd al-Karim Qassem]] was wounded in the shoulder in an assassination attempt, and the Director of Intelligence and Research, [[Hugh Cumming]], suggested to Secretary of State [[Christian A. Herter|Christian Herter]] that it might be the beginning of the coup about which the United States had been picking up rumors.[^2] A [[Central Intelligence Agency]] memorandum on the attempt dated October 13, 1959 is printed in the same volume with its text not declassified.[^2]
On April 10, 2003 the journalist [[Richard Sale]] reported in [[United Press International]], citing almost a dozen former U.S. diplomats, British scholars and former U.S. intelligence officials, that Saddam Hussein was part of a "CIA-authorized six-man squad" tasked with assassinating Qasim. Sale wrote that a former senior State Department official said Saddam, in his early twenties, was installed in an apartment opposite Qasim's office to observe him, and that the writer [[Adel Darwish]] said the CIA handler was an Iraqi dentist working for the CIA and Egyptian intelligence. According to the report the attempt was "completely botched," Saddam escaped to Tikrit and then crossed into [[Syria]], and was transferred by Egyptian intelligence to [[Beirut]], where "the CIA paid for Saddam's apartment and put him through a brief training course," after which the agency "helped him get to" [[Cairo]], where he was "watched over by CIA and Egyptian intelligence operatives." The report quotes [[Roger Morris]], a former NSC staff member, as saying the CIA chose the Ba'ath Party "as its instrument," and says the CIA veteran [[Miles Copeland]] told UPI in the mid-1980s that the agency had "close ties" with Qasim's ruling Ba'ath Party. The report states that the CIA declined to comment.[^3]
@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ A [[Department of Defense]] memorandum of February 8, 1963 from Stephen O. Fuqua
[[Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt]] wrote that [[Eric Jacobsen]]'s article in *Diplomatic History* shows that American officials "were indeed in close contact with Iraqi Baathists before, during, and after their 1963 putsch," and that the CIA assisted the Ba'ath in "a systematic purge of Iraqi communists" in the days after February 8; the review quotes [[Peter L. Hahn]] as having written that declassified documents "offer no evidence" of Ba'ath contacts with American officials before the coup.[^5] The historian [[Bryan Gibson]] told [[Rudaw]] in 2015 that "there is enough evidence available today to question whether the US was behind the coup," while stating that U.S. policy from 1958 to 1975 led to "covert operations to support groups inside Iraq that were opposed to Moscow's imperial designs, like the Baath Party in the early 1960s."[^6]
King Hussein of [[Jordan]] told [[Mohamed Hassanein Heikal]], editor of *[[Al-Ahram]]*, in a conversation published on September 27, 1963 that "what happened in Iraq on 8 February had the support of American Intelligence" and that "on 8 February a secret radio beamed to Iraq was supplying the men who pulled the coup with the names and addresses of the Communists there."[^7] The historian [[Hanna Batatu]] wrote that arrests after the coup "were made in accordance with lists prepared beforehand" and that "it cannot be unerringly established where these lists came from or who compiled them"; he gave a Communist reckoning of no fewer than 5,000 killed from February 8 to 10, a figure of 340 Communists from a source in Iraq's Directorate of Security, and about 1,500 from a foreign diplomatic observer.[^7] Sale reported in 2003 that, according to former U.S. intelligence officials, the CIA gave Iraqi National Guardsmen lists of suspected communists who were then "jailed, interrogated, and summarily gunned down." The same report quotes a former very senior CIA official who denied the CIA was behind the coup ("We were absolutely stunned"), and quotes the writer [[Con Coughlin]] as saying that [[James Critchfield]], then a senior CIA Middle East official, regarded the killing of Qasim and the communists "as a great victory."[^3]
King Hussein of [[Jordan]] told [[Mohamed Hassanein Heikal]], editor of *[[Al-Ahram]]*, in a conversation published on September 27, 1963 that "what happened in Iraq on 8 February had the support of American Intelligence" and that "on 8 February a secret radio beamed to Iraq was supplying the men who pulled the coup with the names and addresses of the Communists there."[^7] The historian [[Hanna Batatu]] wrote that arrests after the coup "were made in accordance with lists prepared beforehand" and that "it cannot be unerringly established where these lists came from or who compiled them"; he gave a Communist reckoning of no fewer than 5,000 killed from February 8 to 10, a figure of 340 Communists from a source in Iraq's Directorate of Security, and about 1,500 from a foreign diplomatic observer.[^7] Sale reported in 2003 that, according to former U.S. intelligence officials, the CIA gave Iraqi National Guardsmen lists of suspected communists who were then "jailed, interrogated, and summarily gunned down." The same report quotes a former very senior CIA official who denied the CIA was behind the coup ("We were absolutely stunned"), and quotes the writer [[Con Coughlin]] as saying that [[James H. Critchfield|James Critchfield]], then a senior CIA Middle East official, regarded the killing of Qasim and the communists "as a great victory."[^3]
### The Ba'ath return and the presidency
@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ Sale reported in 2003, citing a former [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] official,
Teicher states that in the spring of 1982 Iraq "teetered on the brink of losing its war with Iran," that Iran found a gap in the Iraqi defenses between Baghdad and Basra, and that "United States intelligence, including satellite imagery," detected both the gap and the Iranian massing of troops opposite it. He states that Reagan decided in June 1982 that the United States "could not afford to allow Iraq to lose the war to Iran," and that Reagan formalized the policy in a National Security Decision Directive that Teicher co-authored with another NSC staff member, Geoff Kemp, which Teicher says is classified "even its identifying number."[^14]
Teicher states that Casey "personally spearheaded the effort to ensure that Iraq had sufficient military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to avoid losing the Iran-Iraq war," and that the United States supplied Iraq with "billions of dollars of credits," provided "U.S. military intelligence and advice," and acted "by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq." He states that in 1986 Reagan sent a secret message to Saddam Hussein that Iraq should step up its air war and bombing of Iran, delivered by Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]] to Egyptian President [[Hosni Mubarak]], who passed it to Saddam, and that Teicher wrote Bush's talking points for the meeting with Mubarak.[^14] He states that he attended meetings in which Casey or Gates "noted the need for Iraq to have certain weapons such as cluster bombs and anti-armor penetrators," that Casey was "adamant that cluster bombs were a perfect 'force multiplier,'" and that "the CIA knew of, approved of, and assisted in the sale of non-U.S. origin military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to Iraq."[^14]
Teicher states that Casey "personally spearheaded the effort to ensure that Iraq had sufficient military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to avoid losing the Iran-Iraq war," and that the United States supplied Iraq with "billions of dollars of credits," provided "U.S. military intelligence and advice," and acted "by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq." He states that in 1986 Reagan sent a secret message to Saddam Hussein that Iraq should step up its air war and bombing of Iran, delivered by Vice President [[George H.W. Bush|George H. W. Bush]] to Egyptian President [[Hosni Mubarak]], who passed it to Saddam, and that Teicher wrote Bush's talking points for the meeting with Mubarak.[^14] He states that he attended meetings in which Casey or Gates "noted the need for Iraq to have certain weapons such as cluster bombs and anti-armor penetrators," that Casey was "adamant that cluster bombs were a perfect 'force multiplier,'" and that "the CIA knew of, approved of, and assisted in the sale of non-U.S. origin military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to Iraq."[^14]
Teicher also states that one of the reasons the United States refused to license or sell U.S.-origin weapons to Iraq was that non-U.S. supply "was sufficient to meet Iraq's needs," and that under Casey and Gates the CIA "made sure that non-U.S. manufacturers manufactured and sold to Iraq the weapons needed by Iraq." He states that "the highest levels of the United States government" decided in certain instances to make a key weapon component available to Iraq directly or indirectly, and that the provision of anti-armor penetrators was "a case in point."[^14] He describes a CIA program known as "Bear Spares," under which the United States made sure that spare parts and ammunition for Soviet-style weaponry were available to countries seeking to reduce their dependence on the Soviets, with Israel transferring captured stocks "to third countries or insurgent movements (such as the Afghan rebels and the Contras)" and [[Egypt]] manufacturing Soviet-design weapons and spare parts for Iraq and other countries, which Teicher states the United States "approved, assisted and encouraged."[^14]
@ -101,45 +101,49 @@ According to Teicher, the Chilean manufacturer [[Carlos Cardoen]] supplied clust
Teicher states that the highest levels of the United States government, including the NSC staff and the CIA, "were well aware of Cardoen's arrest in 1983 in Miami in a sting operation relating to the smuggling of night vision goggles to Cuba and Libya," and of the arrest and conviction of two Cardoen employees and Industrias Cardoen. He also states that Casey "directed the Secretaries of State and Commerce Departments that the necessary licenses required by Cardoen were not to be denied."[^14]
The former Israeli intelligence officer [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote in *Profits of War* that Cardoen was introduced in 1982 through a person at the South African arms company [[ARMSCOR]] to the Iraqi deputy chief of the General Staff for Procurement, that by early 1985 Cardoen was selling arms to Iraq "with the support of certain people connected with the U.S. government," among them [[Alan Sanders]], "who had links to the CIA," and that Cardoen was producing cluster bombs "with a covert U.S. license." Ben-Menashe wrote that in August 1988 Prime Minister Shamir convened a task force headed by [[Avi Pazner]] to halt the flow of chemical weapons, missiles and nuclear technology to Iraq from the West, with Cardoen Industries the focus of the group's attention.[^15]
[[Robert Parry]] reported that the government sealed the January declaration as a state secret while attacking Teicher's credibility, and that Teicher was blocked from testifying; Consortium News reported that a federal grand jury heard testimony on a complaint over the defense's filing of an affidavit in the case.[^15][^16]
The United States served a corrective declaration signed by Teicher on October 3, 1996, with a notice of filing served November 8, 1996. In it Teicher wrote that attorneys for [[Teledyne Wah Chang Albany|Teledyne]] had prepared the January 31, 1995 declaration and faxed it to him; that he had not reviewed his National Security Council files since 1987; that his statements in paragraphs 15 through 18, the paragraphs on his files and on the CIA and Cardoen, were his best memory and belief and not "categorical statements of fact"; and that he is "not aware of any specific evidence that the United States government or any government official or agency took steps to help Cardoen obtain any U.S.-origin components for use in cluster bombs." As to paragraph 17 he wrote that, although he understood Cardoen had been arrested, "the other information in this paragraph is incorrect." The corrective declaration does not address paragraphs 1 through 14 of the January declaration.[^17]
The former Israeli intelligence officer [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote in *Profits of War* that Cardoen was introduced in 1982 through a person at the South African arms company [[ARMSCOR]] to the Iraqi deputy chief of the General Staff for Procurement, that by early 1985 Cardoen was selling arms to Iraq "with the support of certain people connected with the U.S. government," among them [[Alan Sanders]], "who had links to the CIA," and that Cardoen was producing cluster bombs "with a covert U.S. license." Ben-Menashe wrote that in August 1988 Prime Minister Shamir convened a task force headed by [[Avi Pazner]] to halt the flow of chemical weapons, missiles and nuclear technology to Iraq from the West, with Cardoen Industries the focus of the group's attention.[^18]
### Commerce Department licenses and the 1994 Riegle hearing
On May 25, 1994 the [[Senate Banking Committee]] held a hearing printed as S. Hrg. 103-900, *United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian Gulf War Veterans*, on "United States Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Persian Gulf War."[^16] The committee chairman, [[Donald Riegle]], told the witnesses of a hearing in late fall 1992 at which the committee "found that some licenses had been granted by our own Commerce Department to ship certain dual-use items over there," and that "some of them had been shipped directly to Iraqi military installations."[^16]
On May 25, 1994 the [[Senate Banking Committee]] held a hearing printed as S. Hrg. 103-900, *United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian Gulf War Veterans*, on "United States Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Persian Gulf War."[^19] The committee chairman, [[Donald Riegle]], told the witnesses of a hearing in late fall 1992 at which the committee "found that some licenses had been granted by our own Commerce Department to ship certain dual-use items over there," and that "some of them had been shipped directly to Iraqi military installations."[^19]
[[Gordon C. Oehler]], Director of the CIA's Nonproliferation Center, testified for the Intelligence Community that before 1991 "there were four instances in which the Department of Commerce sought information on Iraqi export license applications, all dated in 1986." He said that Commerce asked for review "primarily when the licenses had significance to intelligence collection equities," and that the concern "was not so much Iraq, but whether there was a possibility the equipment would be diverted to the Soviet Union or other communist countries." His prepared statement says Iraqi procurement officers, "knowing full well the licensing thresholds, requested items that fell just under the denial thresholds."[^16] A committee report printed in the same volume lists biological materials provided by the [[American Type Culture Collection]] that were exported to agencies of the government of Iraq under export licenses issued by the Department of Commerce.[^16]
[[Gordon C. Oehler]], Director of the CIA's Nonproliferation Center, testified for the Intelligence Community that before 1991 "there were four instances in which the Department of Commerce sought information on Iraqi export license applications, all dated in 1986." He said that Commerce asked for review "primarily when the licenses had significance to intelligence collection equities," and that the concern "was not so much Iraq, but whether there was a possibility the equipment would be diverted to the Soviet Union or other communist countries." His prepared statement says Iraqi procurement officers, "knowing full well the licensing thresholds, requested items that fell just under the denial thresholds."[^19] A committee report printed in the same volume lists biological materials provided by the [[American Type Culture Collection]] that were exported to agencies of the government of Iraq under export licenses issued by the Department of Commerce.[^19]
### Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
On August 10, 1992 the chairman of the House Banking Committee, [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], delivered a special order on the House floor, printed in the Congressional Record under the heading "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network." He said that the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] branch in [[Atlanta]] "loan[ed] over $4 billion to Iraq between 1986 and 1990 without reporting the loans to bank regulators or the bank's headquarters in Rome," and that "over $2 billion of the BNL loans went to Iraq's [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]] otherwise known as MIMI."[^17]
On August 10, 1992 the chairman of the House Banking Committee, [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], delivered a special order on the House floor, printed in the Congressional Record under the heading "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network." He said that the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] branch in [[Atlanta]] "loan[ed] over $4 billion to Iraq between 1986 and 1990 without reporting the loans to bank regulators or the bank's headquarters in Rome," and that "over $2 billion of the BNL loans went to Iraq's [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]] otherwise known as MIMI."[^20]
Gonzalez stated that "our Government knew about the network, and as I have shown before, decided to tolerate its activity," and that "the policy was designed to see if Saddam Hussein could be turned into a reliable ally, according to the President, Secretary of State, and other officialdom of this Government." He said that "the Bush administration approved dozens of export licenses that allowed United States and foreign firms to ship sophisticated U.S. dual-use equipment to MIMI-controlled weapons factories." He also said that Saddam had entrusted MIMI to his son-in-law, [[Hussein Kamel]], in 1988, and that the CIA believed Kamil was "probably the second most powerful man in Iraq."[^17]
Gonzalez stated that "our Government knew about the network, and as I have shown before, decided to tolerate its activity," and that "the policy was designed to see if Saddam Hussein could be turned into a reliable ally, according to the President, Secretary of State, and other officialdom of this Government." He said that "the Bush administration approved dozens of export licenses that allowed United States and foreign firms to ship sophisticated U.S. dual-use equipment to MIMI-controlled weapons factories." He also said that Saddam had entrusted MIMI to his son-in-law, [[Hussein Kamel]], in 1988, and that the CIA believed Kamil was "probably the second most powerful man in Iraq."[^20]
In the [[BNL Scandal|BNL]] prosecution, the Atlanta branch's manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], was charged in the Northern District of Georgia with wire fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to government agencies, on the government's allegation that he concealed unauthorized loans and credit extensions totaling several billion dollars to agencies and instrumentalities of Iraq. He pleaded guilty in June 1992 to sixty counts of a 347-count indictment, and the district court allowed him to withdraw the plea on October 1, 1992. On September 2, 1993 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] reversed the district court's denial of the government's motion to take depositions of Italian nationals in Rome.[^18]
In the [[BNL Scandal|BNL]] prosecution, the Atlanta branch's manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], was charged in the Northern District of Georgia with wire fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to government agencies, on the government's allegation that he concealed unauthorized loans and credit extensions totaling several billion dollars to agencies and instrumentalities of Iraq. He pleaded guilty in June 1992 to sixty counts of a 347-count indictment, and the district court allowed him to withdraw the plea on October 1, 1992. On September 2, 1993 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] reversed the district court's denial of the government's motion to take depositions of Italian nationals in Rome.[^21]
### Gerald Bull and Project Babylon
On April 10, 1990 [[HM Customs and Excise]] officers at [[Teesport]] detained eight large steel tubes destined for Iraq. In a statement to the [[House of Commons]] on April 18, 1990 Trade and Industry Secretary [[Nicholas Ridley]] said Ministry of Defence experts advised that the tubes were components of a large-calibre armament, that the goods were "consistent with what is known of Dr. Bull's design" (referring to "the late Dr. Gerald Bull"), and that in 1988 the Department of Trade and Industry had been asked by Walter Somers and Sheffield Forgemasters whether licences were needed and had decided they were not.[^19] The engineer [[Gerald Bull]]'s large gun was the basis of the [[Project Babylon]] program for Iraq.
On April 10, 1990 [[HM Customs and Excise]] officers at [[Teesport]] detained eight large steel tubes destined for Iraq. In a statement to the [[House of Commons]] on April 18, 1990 Trade and Industry Secretary [[Nicholas Ridley]] said Ministry of Defence experts advised that the tubes were components of a large-calibre armament, that the goods were "consistent with what is known of Dr. Bull's design" (referring to "the late Dr. Gerald Bull"), and that in 1988 the Department of Trade and Industry had been asked by Walter Somers and Sheffield Forgemasters whether licences were needed and had decided they were not.[^22] The engineer [[Gerald Bull]]'s large gun was the basis of the [[Project Babylon]] program for Iraq.
On April 27, 1990 [[Gordon Brown]] asked in written questions in the House of Commons when the trade department had first been made aware "that Iraq was acquiring export material for a major gun or launcher," and what information it held on "non-military research done by the Space Research Corporation." Ridley answered that, "in the light of charges laid against an individual on 25 April, and in the light of the continuing investigation by Customs and Excise, it would be inappropriate to give any further information."[^20]
On April 27, 1990 [[Gordon Brown]] asked in written questions in the House of Commons when the trade department had first been made aware "that Iraq was acquiring export material for a major gun or launcher," and what information it held on "non-military research done by the Space Research Corporation." Ridley answered that, "in the light of charges laid against an individual on 25 April, and in the light of the continuing investigation by Customs and Excise, it would be inappropriate to give any further information."[^23]
### Matrix Churchill and the Scott Inquiry
Gonzalez told the House on August 10, 1992 that [[Matrix Churchill]] Corporation of [[Cleveland, Ohio]] was the United States base of the Al-Arabi Trading Company network, which he described as the mechanism MIMI used to acquire other front companies, and that through the London holding companies Technology Development Group and Technology Engineering Group Iraq controlled more than a dozen [[United Kingdom]] firms including TMG Engineering and Matrix-Churchill Ltd.[^17]
Gonzalez told the House on August 10, 1992 that [[Matrix Churchill]] Corporation of [[Cleveland, Ohio]] was the United States base of the Al-Arabi Trading Company network, which he described as the mechanism MIMI used to acquire other front companies, and that through the London holding companies Technology Development Group and Technology Engineering Group Iraq controlled more than a dozen [[United Kingdom]] firms including TMG Engineering and Matrix-Churchill Ltd.[^20]
On November 10, 1992 Attorney General Sir [[Nicholas Lyell]] told the House of Commons that prosecution counsel in the Matrix Churchill case had informed the court that, in light of the evidence given by [[Alan Clark]] in cross-examination, it would no longer be right to seek a conviction, and that Lord Justice [[Richard Scott]] had agreed to conduct an independent inquiry.[^21] The [[Scott Inquiry]] into the [[Arms-to-Iraq|export of defence equipment and dual-use goods to Iraq]] reported in February 1996. In the House of Commons debate of February 26, 1996 Trade Secretary [[Ian Lang]] said the Government welcomed "the central conclusions of the report: that there was no plot secretly to arm Saddam Hussein, and no attempt to suppress documents that could have led to a miscarriage of justice." [[Menzies Campbell]] asked whether the Government accepted the report's central conclusion that policy was changed and that the change was deliberately kept from Parliament, and Lang answered: "No, I do not; there is a difference between the Government and Sir Richard on that matter."[^22]
On November 10, 1992 Attorney General Sir [[Nicholas Lyell]] told the House of Commons that prosecution counsel in the Matrix Churchill case had informed the court that, in light of the evidence given by [[Alan Clark]] in cross-examination, it would no longer be right to seek a conviction, and that Lord Justice [[Richard Scott]] had agreed to conduct an independent inquiry.[^24] The [[Scott Inquiry]] into the [[Arms-to-Iraq|export of defence equipment and dual-use goods to Iraq]] reported in February 1996. In the House of Commons debate of February 26, 1996 Trade Secretary [[Ian Lang]] said the Government welcomed "the central conclusions of the report: that there was no plot secretly to arm Saddam Hussein, and no attempt to suppress documents that could have led to a miscarriage of justice." [[Menzies Campbell]] asked whether the Government accepted the report's central conclusion that policy was changed and that the change was deliberately kept from Parliament, and Lang answered: "No, I do not; there is a difference between the Government and Sir Richard on that matter."[^25]
### Bank of Credit and Commerce International
The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], published as Senate Print 102-140 in December 1992, states that the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] "also made loans to Iraq, although of a substantially smaller nature" than those of BNL. The report says BNL "was, according to federal indictments, a significant financial conduit for weapons to Iraq." Its appendix lists the relationship among matters for further investigation, which "could produce further understanding of Saddam Hussein's international network for acquiring weapons."[^23]
The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], published as Senate Print 102-140 in December 1992, states that the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] "also made loans to Iraq, although of a substantially smaller nature" than those of BNL. The report says BNL "was, according to federal indictments, a significant financial conduit for weapons to Iraq." Its appendix lists the relationship among matters for further investigation, which "could produce further understanding of Saddam Hussein's international network for acquiring weapons."[^26]
### PROMIS
The former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe wrote in *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (1992) that he believed he was arrested in 1989 on an arms charge because he had threatened, on behalf of the Israeli government, to expose "what the Americans were doing with Promis if they continued their support of chemical weapons being supplied to Saddam Hussein's Iraq."[^15] In an affidavit of February 17, 1991 in the [[Inslaw]] litigation, Ben-Menashe stated that in 1989 in Chile Carlos Cardoen told him that Cardoen had brokered a sale of [[PROMIS Software Scandal|PROMIS]] by [[Earl Brian]] to a representative of Iraqi Military Intelligence, as summarized in the report of the [[Department of Justice]] special counsel [[Nicholas Bua]].[^24] The same report, dated March 1993, rejected "conclusively" Inslaw's assertion that Ben-Menashe had personal knowledge of Brian's distribution of Inslaw's software, and stated that Ben-Menashe "makes a number of extraordinary claims, most of which are not subject to corroboration" and that the program he described was a different software said to have been developed by the [[National Security Agency]].[^24]
The former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe wrote in *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (1992) that he believed he was arrested in 1989 on an arms charge because he had threatened, on behalf of the Israeli government, to expose "what the Americans were doing with Promis if they continued their support of chemical weapons being supplied to Saddam Hussein's Iraq."[^18] In an affidavit of February 17, 1991 in the [[Inslaw]] litigation, Ben-Menashe stated that in 1989 in Chile Carlos Cardoen told him that Cardoen had brokered a sale of [[PROMIS Software Scandal|PROMIS]] by [[Earl Brian]] to a representative of Iraqi Military Intelligence, as summarized in the report of the [[Department of Justice]] special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua|Nicholas Bua]].[^27] The same report, dated March 1993, rejected "conclusively" Inslaw's assertion that Ben-Menashe had personal knowledge of Brian's distribution of Inslaw's software, and stated that Ben-Menashe "makes a number of extraordinary claims, most of which are not subject to corroboration" and that the program he described was a different software said to have been developed by the [[National Security Agency]].[^27]
### Gulf War, Iraq War and execution
On August 2, 1990 the Security Council adopted Resolution 660 on the invasion of [[Kuwait]] by Iraq.[^25] In the [[Gulf War]] a U.S.-led military campaign forced Iraq to withdraw in February 1991, and a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 toppled his government.[^1] Saddam was captured on December 13, 2003 at ad-Dawr, south of Tikrit, and [[L. Paul Bremer]] announced the capture on December 14.[^26] On November 5, 2006 an Iraqi court sentenced him to death after a trial over the killing of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s, and he was hanged in northern Baghdad on December 30, 2006.[^27]
On August 2, 1990 the Security Council adopted Resolution 660 on the invasion of [[Kuwait]] by Iraq.[^28] In the [[Gulf War]] a U.S.-led military campaign forced Iraq to withdraw in February 1991, and a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 toppled his government.[^1] Saddam was captured on December 13, 2003 at ad-Dawr, south of Tikrit, and [[L. Paul Bremer]] announced the capture on December 14.[^29] On November 5, 2006 an Iraqi court sentenced him to death after a trial over the killing of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s, and he was hanged in northern Baghdad on December 30, 2006.[^30]
### Footnotes
@ -157,16 +161,19 @@ On August 2, 1990 the Security Council adopted Resolution 660 on the invasion of
[^12]: Department of State cable State 086663, Shultz to Embassy Khartoum, "Briefing Notes for Rumsfeld Visit to Baghdad," March 24, 1984, secret, paragraph 2, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82, document 48. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq48.pdf
[^13]: Department of State cable State 352124, memorandum of conversation, "Secretary's Meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, November 26, 1984," secret, paragraphs 3, 4 and 10 (transmitted November 29, 1984), National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82, document 60. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq60.pdf
[^14]: Declaration of Howard Teicher, *United States v. Carlos Cardoen et al.*, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case No. 93-241-CR-HIGHSMITH, executed January 31, 1995, caption and paragraphs 1 to 18 (paragraph 1 service; 3 and 4 spring 1982; 6 June 1982 decision and NSDD; 7 Casey, credits, 1986 message; 8 cluster bombs; 9 non-U.S. weapons; 10 Israeli offer; 11 non-U.S. manufacturers; 13 Bear Spares; 14 Cardoen cluster bombs; 15 NSC files; 16 Cardoen and the CIA; 17 and 18 Cardoen arrest and licenses), National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82, document 61 (the briefing book's description of the case appears in its document list). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq61.pdf Sole source for the passages so cited; a sworn declaration of a witness, not an adjudicated finding.
[^15]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (Sheridan Square Press, 1992; reprinted by TrineDay, 2015), chapter 9, "Promis," and chapter 17, "Agricultural Project." Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^16]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, *United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian Gulf War Veterans*, hearing of May 25, 1994, S. Hrg. 103-900 (subtitle: *United States Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Persian Gulf War*), including the testimony and prepared statement of Dr. Gordon C. Oehler, the chairman's remarks, and the May 25, 1994 committee report. https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesdual00unit
[^17]: Henry B. Gonzalez, "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," Special Order, *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992, pp. H7871-H7881 (loans and the "tolerate its activity" passage at H7871; export licenses and Hussein Kamil at H7872; Matrix-Churchill and the holding companies at H7873 and H7875). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm (the host page is titled "US Armed Iraq Through BNL").
[^18]: *United States v. Drogoul*, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993) (No. 93-8964, decided September 2, 1993). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/001/1.F3d.1546.93-8964.html
[^19]: House of Commons, "Gun Components (Iraq)," statement by Nicholas Ridley, HC Deb, April 18, 1990, vol. 170, cc1425-32. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1990/apr/18/gun-components-iraq
[^20]: House of Commons, written answers, "Iraq (Arms Component Exports)," HC Deb, April 27, 1990, vol. 171, cc352-3W. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written_answers/1990/apr/27/iraq-arms-component-exports
[^21]: House of Commons, "Matrix Churchill," statement by Sir Nicholas Lyell, HC Deb, November 10, 1992, vol. 213, cc743-58. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/nov/10/matrix-churchill
[^22]: House of Commons, "Scott Report," HC Deb, February 26, 1996, vol. 272, cc589-694 (Lang's opening statement and the exchange with Menzies Campbell at c590). https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1996/feb/26/scott-report The report is Sir Richard Scott, *Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions* (HMSO, HC 115, 1995-96).
[^23]: John Kerry and Hank Brown, *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,* Senate Print 102-140, December 1992, ch. 24, "Appendix: Matters for Further Investigation." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/24appendic.htm
[^24]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, section on Ari Ben-Menashe, including the summary of his affidavit of February 17, 1991 (p. 73). Sole source for the Iraq passages cited to Ben-Menashe.
[^25]: United Nations Security Council, Resolution 660 (1990), adopted at the 2932nd meeting, August 2, 1990. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/94220
[^26]: Kathleen Ridolfo, "Saddam Hussein Captured near Tikrit," *RFE/RL Iraq Report* 6, no. 52, December 15, 2003. https://www.rferl.org/a/1343152.html
[^27]: "Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq," BBC News, December 30, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6218485.stm
[^15]: Robert Parry, "Iraqgate: Confession and Cover-up," *Extra!* (FAIR), 1995, as reposted at https://scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00074.htm.
[^16]: Consortium News, "Iraqgate Cover-Up Goes After Defense Lawyers," undated, https://consortiumnews.com/archive/story1.html.
[^17]: Declaration of Howard R. Teicher (corrective), *United States v. Carlos Cardoen et al.*, No. 93-241-CR-Highsmith (S.D. Fla.), dated October 3, 1996, with the United States' notice of filing served November 8, 1996, paragraphs 2 to 7, https://archive.org/details/utf-893cr-241-de-679.
[^18]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (Sheridan Square Press, 1992; reprinted by TrineDay, 2015), chapter 9, "Promis," and chapter 17, "Agricultural Project." Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^19]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, *United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian Gulf War Veterans*, hearing of May 25, 1994, S. Hrg. 103-900 (subtitle: *United States Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Persian Gulf War*), including the testimony and prepared statement of Dr. Gordon C. Oehler, the chairman's remarks, and the May 25, 1994 committee report. https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesdual00unit
[^20]: Henry B. Gonzalez, "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," Special Order, *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992, pp. H7871-H7881 (loans and the "tolerate its activity" passage at H7871; export licenses and Hussein Kamil at H7872; Matrix-Churchill and the holding companies at H7873 and H7875). https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm (the host page is titled "US Armed Iraq Through BNL").
[^21]: *United States v. Drogoul*, 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993) (No. 93-8964, decided September 2, 1993). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/001/1.F3d.1546.93-8964.html
[^22]: House of Commons, "Gun Components (Iraq)," statement by Nicholas Ridley, HC Deb, April 18, 1990, vol. 170, cc1425-32. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1990/apr/18/gun-components-iraq
[^23]: House of Commons, written answers, "Iraq (Arms Component Exports)," HC Deb, April 27, 1990, vol. 171, cc352-3W. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written_answers/1990/apr/27/iraq-arms-component-exports
[^24]: House of Commons, "Matrix Churchill," statement by Sir Nicholas Lyell, HC Deb, November 10, 1992, vol. 213, cc743-58. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/nov/10/matrix-churchill
[^25]: House of Commons, "Scott Report," HC Deb, February 26, 1996, vol. 272, cc589-694 (Lang's opening statement and the exchange with Menzies Campbell at c590). https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1996/feb/26/scott-report The report is Sir Richard Scott, *Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions* (HMSO, HC 115, 1995-96).
[^26]: John Kerry and Hank Brown, *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,* Senate Print 102-140, December 1992, ch. 24, "Appendix: Matters for Further Investigation." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/24appendic.htm
[^27]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, section on Ari Ben-Menashe, including the summary of his affidavit of February 17, 1991 (p. 73). Sole source for the Iraq passages cited to Ben-Menashe.
[^28]: United Nations Security Council, Resolution 660 (1990), adopted at the 2932nd meeting, August 2, 1990. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/94220
[^29]: Kathleen Ridolfo, "Saddam Hussein Captured near Tikrit," *RFE/RL Iraq Report* 6, no. 52, December 15, 2003. https://www.rferl.org/a/1343152.html
[^30]: "Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq," BBC News, December 30, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6218485.stm