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@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ aliases:
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- Iran/Contra
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- Iran-Contra scandal
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created: 2024-04-25
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updated: 2026-10-12
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updated: 2026-10-14
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tags:
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- Event
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- Political
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@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ relations:
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start: 1987
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end: 1988-12
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role: "Senate subcommittee on Contra drug links and Noriega"
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fn: 19
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fn: 22
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[Oliver North]]"
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reverse: true
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@ -68,21 +68,21 @@ relations:
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start: 1985-12
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end: 1986-11
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role: "national security adviser who authorized the diversion; convicted April 7, 1990, reversed November 15, 1991"
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fn: 18
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fn: 21
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[Richard Secord]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1984
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end: 1986-11
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role: "retired Air Force general who ran the Enterprise; pleaded guilty November 8, 1989"
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fn: 18
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fn: 21
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[Albert Hakim]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1984
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end: 1986-11
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role: "Enterprise financial manager; pleaded guilty November 21, 1989"
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fn: 18
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fn: 21
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[William J. Casey]]"
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reverse: true
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@ -110,14 +110,14 @@ relations:
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start: 1987
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end: 1993
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role: "14 persons charged, 11 convicted, 2 convictions overturned, 2 pardoned before trial, 1 case dismissed"
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fn: 18
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fn: 21
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[Joint Chiefs of Staff]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "Vessey, Gabriel and Crowe appear in 1985 Weinberger diary entries on Iran contacts, Saudi contra funding and hostage rescue"
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start: 1985-03
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end: 1985-11
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fn: 13
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fn: 16
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---
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The Iran-Contra Affair was the exposure, in October and November 1986, of two secret operations of the [[Ronald Reagan]] administration: the military support of the [[Nicaragua|Nicaraguan]] [[Contras]] during an October 1984 to October 1986 prohibition on such aid, and the sale of U.S. arms to [[Iran]] in contravention of stated U.S. policy. In late November 1986 officials announced that some of the proceeds of the Iran sales had been diverted to the Contras. The Independent Counsel's Final Report states that the two operations were coordinated by the staff of the [[National Security Council]] and merged when Iran sale funds were diverted to the Contra effort, and that "both the Iran and contra operations, separately, violated [[United States]] policy and law."[^1] The secrecy was pierced on October 5, 1986, when [[Sandinistas|Sandinista]] soldiers shot down an American cargo plane carrying supplies to the Contras and captured its sole surviving crew member, [[Eugene Hasenfus]]; on November 3, 1986 a Lebanese magazine reported the Iran sales; and on November 25, 1986 Attorney General [[Edwin Meese]] announced the diversion.[^1]
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@ -143,31 +143,35 @@ The Tower Commission report gives an account by [[George P. Shultz]] of a conver
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A January 17, 1986 Finding authorized direct U.S. sales to Iran with Secord as agent, and [[Amiram Nir]] replaced Kimche as the Israeli official in the deals. Ghorbanifar borrowed from the financier [[Adnan Khashoggi]]; between February 7 and 18, 1986 Khashoggi deposited $10 million into Lake Resources, of which $5 million came from his own account at the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] in [[Monte Carlo]] and the remainder from a wealthy woman in Monte Carlo and from Galliot Lines, owned by the Syrian banker [[Oussama Lababidi]]. North and Secord negotiated a price of $10,000 per TOW, while telling the [[Department of Defense|Defense Department]] and CIA that Secord would receive $6,000; the Pentagon sold to the CIA at $3,700. The Enterprise's direct expenses were about $716,000, leaving a surplus of $5.6 million. Between February 17 and 27, 1986 1,000 TOWs were shipped.[^6] The Tower Commission quotes Ghorbanifar as saying North was "greatly relieved" when told the Iranians would pay $10,000 rather than $6,500 per missile.[^11] On May 25, 1986 McFarlane, North and others flew to [[Tehran]] with HAWK spare parts and left on May 28 without a hostage release. An August 25, 1986 meeting in [[Brussels]] opened a "Second Channel" through a [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps|Revolutionary Guards]] officer; a further 500 TOWs were sent on October 28, 1986, and the Committees' chronology states that 2,004 TOWs were sent in all, not the 1,000 President Reagan cited at his November 19 press conference.[^3]
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### Clarridge and the November 1985 HAWK shipment
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Dewey Clarridge, then chief of the CIA's European Division, was brought into the November 1985 HAWK shipment by North, who asked him for help obtaining landing clearances in a European country. The Independent Counsel's report states that Clarridge cabled CIA field officers in the European country on November 21 to 23, 1985, and arranged a CIA proprietary airline after the first El Al flight was refused clearance.[^12] The Tower Commission recorded that Clarridge told the board he had first become involved on the evening of November 21, and that he told a U.S. official to contact "Copp," whom he had been told was an alias for Richard Secord.[^13] Clarridge was indicted on November 26, 1991 on seven counts of perjury and false statements, and President [[George H.W. Bush]] pardoned him on December 24, 1992.[^14]
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### The diversion, exposure and cover-up
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On December 6, 1985 North told an Israeli official he planned to use profits from future arms sales to support the Contras; on April 4, 1986 he wrote an unsigned memorandum proposing $12 million in residuals "to purchase critically needed supplies for the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance Forces," which, the Tower Commission found, "no evidence has emerged" was ever placed before Poindexter, the President or any other official.[^3][^11] Poindexter told [[United States Congress|Congress]] he made the decision on his own, did not tell the President and believed he would have approved; North testified he believed the President authorized it. The Independent Counsel could not prove that Reagan authorized or knew of the diversion.[^1] In the Tower Commission's account Attorney General Meese told it that North said in their November 23, 1986 interview that the Israelis had handled the money and that he gave them numbers of three Swiss accounts opened by Calero; the March 1988 indictment charged that the statement about Calero was false.[^11][^12]
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On December 6, 1985 North told an Israeli official he planned to use profits from future arms sales to support the Contras; on April 4, 1986 he wrote an unsigned memorandum proposing $12 million in residuals "to purchase critically needed supplies for the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance Forces," which, the Tower Commission found, "no evidence has emerged" was ever placed before Poindexter, the President or any other official.[^3][^11] Poindexter told [[United States Congress|Congress]] he made the decision on his own, did not tell the President and believed he would have approved; North testified he believed the President authorized it. The Independent Counsel could not prove that Reagan authorized or knew of the diversion.[^1] In the Tower Commission's account Attorney General Meese told it that North said in their November 23, 1986 interview that the Israelis had handled the money and that he gave them numbers of three Swiss accounts opened by Calero; the March 1988 indictment charged that the statement about Calero was false.[^11][^15]
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North began shredding documents on November 21, 1986 after being told [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] officials would inspect his files; a Justice Department official found the April 1986 memorandum on November 22; on November 24 Meese told Reagan of the diversion, and on November 25 Reagan announced Poindexter's resignation and North's dismissal.[^3] Walsh found that "the President's most senior advisers and the Cabinet members on the National Security Council participated in the strategy to make National Security staff members McFarlane, Poindexter and North the scapegoats," and that notes of Reagan's chief of staff [[Donald Regan]] showed Poindexter and Meese attempting to create a false account of the 1985 shipments from Israeli stocks; [[Weinberger]]'s diary notes, withheld from investigators until late 1991, and the notes of [[Charles Hill]] and [[Nicholas Platt]] of the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] showed that Secretaries [[Caspar Weinberger]] and [[George Shultz]] knew more than they told Congress. Vice President [[George H.W. Bush]] "was fully aware of the Iran arms sales"; the Independent Counsel learned in December 1992 that he had not produced a diary containing contemporaneous notes, and the pardon of Weinberger on December 24, 1992 "pre-empted a trial in which defense counsel indicated that they intended to call Bush as a witness."[^1]
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North began shredding documents on November 21, 1986 after being told [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] officials would inspect his files; a Justice Department official found the April 1986 memorandum on November 22; on November 24 Meese told Reagan of the diversion, and on November 25 Reagan announced Poindexter's resignation and North's dismissal.[^3] Walsh found that "the President's most senior advisers and the Cabinet members on the National Security Council participated in the strategy to make National Security staff members McFarlane, Poindexter and North the scapegoats," and that notes of Reagan's chief of staff [[Donald Regan]] showed Poindexter and Meese attempting to create a false account of the 1985 shipments from Israeli stocks; [[Weinberger]]'s diary notes, withheld from investigators until late 1991, and the notes of [[Charles Hill]] and [[Nicholas Platt]] of the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] showed that Secretaries [[Caspar Weinberger]] and [[George Shultz]] knew more than they told Congress. Vice President George H.W. Bush "was fully aware of the Iran arms sales"; the Independent Counsel learned in December 1992 that he had not produced a diary containing contemporaneous notes, and the pardon of Weinberger on December 24, 1992 "pre-empted a trial in which defense counsel indicated that they intended to call Bush as a witness."[^1]
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### Investigations
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President Reagan created the President's Special Review Board, known as the [[Tower Commission]], on December 1, 1986 under Executive Order 12575, with former Senator [[John Tower]] as chairman. Its report of February 26, 1987 stated that Poindexter, North, Israeli participants and other key witnesses "refused to appear before the board," that the bank records could not be obtained, and that "there was considerable evidence before the board of a diversion to support the contras. But the board had no hard proof."[^3][^11] The [[Lawrence Walsh|Independent Counsel]] was appointed on December 19, 1986. The Senate and House select committees were set up on January 6 and 7, 1987, held televised hearings from May 5 to August 3, 1987 with more than 250 hours of testimony from 28 public witnesses, took North's testimony for six days beginning July 7 and Poindexter's for five beginning July 15, and issued their report on November 18, 1987.[^3]
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The Joint Chiefs of Staff appear in the independent counsel's record of the Defense Department. Walsh's Part VIII records that General [[John W. Vessey, Jr.]], then chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], recalled that Weinberger told him "incredulously," after attending a White House meeting in the summer of 1985, that someone had proposed contacts with Iran.[^13] Vessey recalled that Prince Bandar bin Sultan told him on two occasions that the Saudis were funding the contras, that on each occasion he reported the statement to Weinberger, and that Weinberger responded that he did not want the issue to become public; in his April 17, 1987 deposition to the Select Committees he described one such occasion.[^14] Weinberger's daily notes for March 13, 1985, made after a meeting with Vessey ("Jack Vessey in office alone"), record that Weinberger "passed on to him Jack Vessey's report that Bandar is giving $25 million to Contras" in a call to Robert McFarlane the same day, with the suggestion that, if so, the United States go for "covert non-lethal aid of $14 mil."[^13] The memorandum for the record of Deputy Director of Central Intelligence [[John N. McMahon]] on the March 15, 1985 breakfast of Weinberger, William J. Casey and McMahon records Weinberger's statement that he had heard that Bandar had earmarked $25 million for the contras in $5 million increments.[^15] The diary entry for August 22, 1985 records a meeting in Weinberger's office with McFarlane, [[Colin Powell]] and General [[Charles Gabriel]], the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs, at which an Israeli message that two Iranians had offered to return some hostages was discussed.[^16] The diary entry for November 21, 1985 records [[William J. Crowe, Jr.]] in office, regarding the president's decisions at Geneva and hostage rescue attempts.[^17]
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The Joint Chiefs of Staff appear in the independent counsel's record of the Defense Department. Walsh's Part VIII records that General [[John W. Vessey, Jr.]], then chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], recalled that Weinberger told him "incredulously," after attending a White House meeting in the summer of 1985, that someone had proposed contacts with Iran.[^16] Vessey recalled that Prince Bandar bin Sultan told him on two occasions that the Saudis were funding the contras, that on each occasion he reported the statement to Weinberger, and that Weinberger responded that he did not want the issue to become public; in his April 17, 1987 deposition to the Select Committees he described one such occasion.[^17] Weinberger's daily notes for March 13, 1985, made after a meeting with Vessey ("Jack Vessey in office alone"), record that Weinberger "passed on to him Jack Vessey's report that Bandar is giving $25 million to Contras" in a call to Robert McFarlane the same day, with the suggestion that, if so, the United States go for "covert non-lethal aid of $14 mil."[^16] The memorandum for the record of Deputy Director of Central Intelligence [[John N. McMahon]] on the March 15, 1985 breakfast of Weinberger, William J. Casey and McMahon records Weinberger's statement that he had heard that Bandar had earmarked $25 million for the contras in $5 million increments.[^18] The diary entry for August 22, 1985 records a meeting in Weinberger's office with McFarlane, [[Colin Powell]] and General [[Charles Gabriel]], the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs, at which an Israeli message that two Iranians had offered to return some hostages was discussed.[^19] The diary entry for November 21, 1985 records [[William J. Crowe, Jr.]] in office, regarding the president's decisions at Geneva and hostage rescue attempts.[^20]
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Walsh's Final Report (August 4, 1993) states that the Iran operations were carried out with the knowledge of Reagan, Bush, Shultz, Weinberger, Casey, McFarlane and Poindexter, of whom only Weinberger and Shultz dissented, and that "large volumes of highly relevant, contemporaneously created documents were systematically and willfully withheld from investigators by several Reagan Administration officials." Casey, hospitalized with a fatal illness before the Independent Counsel was appointed, was never formally investigated. Walsh observed that the problems were "not those of rogue operations, but rather those of Executive Branch efforts to evade congressional oversight," and that grants of immunity to North, Poindexter and [[Albert Hakim]] by Congress, and the attorney general's discretion under the [[Classified Information Procedures Act]] to refuse to declassify information, undermined prosecutions.[^1]
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### Prosecutions and pardons
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After the Independent Counsel's appointment 14 persons were charged, 11 were convicted (two convictions being overturned on appeal), two were pardoned before trial and one case was dismissed when the Bush administration declined to declassify information needed at trial. Pleas: Carl Channell (April 29, 1987) and Richard Miller (May 6, 1987); McFarlane (March 11, 1988); Secord (November 8, 1989, one felony of false statements to Congress); Hakim (November 21, 1989, a misdemeanor of supplementing North's salary, with Lake Resources Inc. pleading to theft of government property); Fiers (July 9, 1991, two misdemeanors); [[Elliott Abrams]] (October 7, 1991, two misdemeanors, including his solicitation of $10 million from the Sultan of [[Brunei]]). Convictions at trial: Clines (September 18, 1990, four tax-related felonies, 16 months); North (May 4, 1989, three counts, vacated July 20, 1990, dismissed September 16, 1991); Poindexter (April 7, 1990, five felony counts, reversed November 15, 1991, certiorari denied December 7, 1992, indictment dismissed in 1993); George (December 9, 1992, two felonies, pardoned before sentencing). The case against Joseph Fernandez was dismissed on November 24, 1989 after Attorney General [[Richard Thornburgh]] blocked the disclosure of classified information ruled relevant to the defense; the Fourth Circuit upheld that ruling on September 6, 1990.[^18]
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After the Independent Counsel's appointment 14 persons were charged, 11 were convicted (two convictions being overturned on appeal), two were pardoned before trial and one case was dismissed when the Bush administration declined to declassify information needed at trial. Pleas: Carl Channell (April 29, 1987) and Richard Miller (May 6, 1987); McFarlane (March 11, 1988); Secord (November 8, 1989, one felony of false statements to Congress); Hakim (November 21, 1989, a misdemeanor of supplementing North's salary, with Lake Resources Inc. pleading to theft of government property); Fiers (July 9, 1991, two misdemeanors); [[Elliott Abrams]] (October 7, 1991, two misdemeanors, including his solicitation of $10 million from the Sultan of [[Brunei]]). Convictions at trial: Clines (September 18, 1990, four tax-related felonies, 16 months); North (May 4, 1989, three counts, vacated July 20, 1990, dismissed September 16, 1991); Poindexter (April 7, 1990, five felony counts, reversed November 15, 1991, certiorari denied December 7, 1992, indictment dismissed in 1993); George (December 9, 1992, two felonies, pardoned before sentencing). The case against Joseph Fernandez was dismissed on November 24, 1989 after Attorney General [[Richard Thornburgh]] blocked the disclosure of classified information ruled relevant to the defense; the Fourth Circuit upheld that ruling on September 6, 1990.[^21]
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On December 24, 1992 President Bush pardoned Weinberger (indicted June 16, 1992, trial set for January 5, 1993), [[Duane Clarridge]] (indicted November 26, 1991 on seven counts of perjury and false statements, trial set for March 15, 1993), George, Abrams, Fiers and McFarlane. Fernandez, whose case had been dismissed, was not among those pardoned.[^18]
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On December 24, 1992 President Bush pardoned Weinberger (indicted June 16, 1992, trial set for January 5, 1993), [[Duane Clarridge]] (indicted November 26, 1991 on seven counts of perjury and false statements, trial set for March 15, 1993), George, Abrams, Fiers and McFarlane. Fernandez, whose case had been dismissed, was not among those pardoned.[^21]
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### The Contra network and drug trafficking
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The Kerry Committee's report of December 1988 stated that "individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers," and that "in each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter." It found that the State Department paid funds Congress had authorized for humanitarian assistance to traffickers, "in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges." It found no evidence that the Contra leadership participated directly in narcotics smuggling, but that the FDN "did move Contra funds through a narcotics trafficking enterprise and money laundering operation," and that "some officials may have turned a blind eye." It concluded that "there are serious questions as to whether or not U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua," citing the delay in dealing with [[Manuel Noriega]], the premature public announcement of the DEA's [[Barry Seal]] sting of Sandinista officials shortly before a crucial congressional vote on Contra aid, and the case of the Honduran General [[Jose Bueso Rosa|José Bueso-Rosa]], convicted of a plot to assassinate President [[Roberto Suazo Cordova|Roberto Suazo Córdova]] financed by a $40 million cocaine sale, who received a light sentence after U.S. officials intervened.[^19] The Kerry report also described Contra supply contractors paid by the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, the Contra supply officer [[Mario Calero]]'s agreement with the pilot [[Frank Moss]], and the passage of Contra funds through traffickers.[^19]
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The Kerry Committee's report of December 1988 stated that "individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers," and that "in each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter." It found that the State Department paid funds Congress had authorized for humanitarian assistance to traffickers, "in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges." It found no evidence that the Contra leadership participated directly in narcotics smuggling, but that the FDN "did move Contra funds through a narcotics trafficking enterprise and money laundering operation," and that "some officials may have turned a blind eye." It concluded that "there are serious questions as to whether or not U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua," citing the delay in dealing with [[Manuel Noriega]], the premature public announcement of the DEA's [[Barry Seal]] sting of Sandinista officials shortly before a crucial congressional vote on Contra aid, and the case of the Honduran General [[Jose Bueso Rosa|José Bueso-Rosa]], convicted of a plot to assassinate President [[Roberto Suazo Cordova|Roberto Suazo Córdova]] financed by a $40 million cocaine sale, who received a light sentence after U.S. officials intervened.[^22] The Kerry report also described Contra supply contractors paid by the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, the Contra supply officer [[Mario Calero]]'s agreement with the pilot [[Frank Moss]], and the passage of Contra funds through traffickers.[^22]
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The National Security Archive's briefing book prints North's notebook for July 12, 1985, in which Secord is quoted as saying that "14 M to finance [the arms in a Honduran warehouse] came from drugs," and North's August 9, 1985 entry that a Honduran DC-6 used for runs out of New Orleans "is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."; the briefing book also notes that DEA agents testified on July 28, 1988 that North had wanted $1.5 million in Cartel money carried by a DEA informant given to the Contras.[^12] The Kerry report states that the pilot [[Floyd Carlton]] testified that Noriega was paid $100,000 to $250,000 for each of four cocaine flights he piloted for the [[Medellin Cartel]], and that the same Panamanian general met North in June 1985 and again in [[London]] on September 22, 1986 to discuss sabotage in Nicaragua; when North proposed a meeting on August 23, 1986, Poindexter replied, "I have nothing against him other than his illegal activities," and Walsh records that the decision was made not to pay Noriega the $1 million.[^12][^19][^20]
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The National Security Archive's briefing book prints North's notebook for July 12, 1985, in which Secord is quoted as saying that "14 M to finance [the arms in a Honduran warehouse] came from drugs," and North's August 9, 1985 entry that a Honduran DC-6 used for runs out of New Orleans "is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."; the briefing book also notes that DEA agents testified on July 28, 1988 that North had wanted $1.5 million in Cartel money carried by a DEA informant given to the Contras.[^15] The Kerry report states that the pilot [[Floyd Carlton]] testified that Noriega was paid $100,000 to $250,000 for each of four cocaine flights he piloted for the [[Medellin Cartel]], and that the same Panamanian general met North in June 1985 and again in [[London]] on September 22, 1986 to discuss sabotage in Nicaragua; when North proposed a meeting on August 23, 1986, Poindexter replied, "I have nothing against him other than his illegal activities," and Walsh records that the decision was made not to pay Noriega the $1 million.[^15][^22][^23]
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Webb wrote that Kerry investigation director [[Jack Blum]] told him: "We were even dumped on by the Iran-Contra Committee. They wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole," and that during North's July 1987 testimony two men from Baltimore stood with a banner reading "Ask about the cocaine smuggling" before police removed them. Webb also wrote that the plane shot down over Nicaragua was a Fairchild C-123K called The Fat Lady, based at [[Mena, Arkansas]] before Barry Seal sold it, after which it flew weapons for North and the [[FDN]]; that Hasenfus was a former [[Air America]] cargo handler; that congressional records show North was regularly briefed by the CIA on Seal's joint CIA-DEA sting of the Sandinistas and allegedly leaked it to the press shortly before a critical vote on Contra aid; and that the Enterprise's flights from Ilopango reportedly brought cocaine back on return flights, with Hangar No. 4 there used by the CIA until it was turned over to North's operation in 1985. The Committees' account identifies the aircraft only as one belonging to the Enterprise, with a [[Southern Air Transport]] identification card found on the pilot.[^3][^8]
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@ -188,12 +192,15 @@ The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that the Iran-Contra Affair was a significant com
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[^9]: Report of the President's Special Review Board (Tower Commission), February 26, 1987. https://archive.org/details/towercommission00unit
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[^10]: Memorandum from Oliver North, September 1986, reproduced in the Tower Commission report. https://archive.org/details/towercommission00unit
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[^11]: Tower Commission, *Report of the President's Special Review Board* (February 26, 1987), Part I, "Contra Diversion" and "N.S.C. Staff and Support for the Contras" (excerpts published by the American Presidency Project). https://archive.org/details/tower-commission-report-excerpts-reagan
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[^12]: National Security Archive, "The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations," Electronic Briefing Book No. 2 (North notebooks of July 12 and August 9, 1985; North and Poindexter electronic messages of August 23, 1986). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html
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[^13]: Lawrence E. Walsh, *Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, Part VIII, notes 10 and 165 (Vessey, Select Committees deposition, April 17, 1987, pp. 30-31; Weinberger diary, March 13, 1985, ALZ 0039320B-C). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^14]: Walsh, Part VIII, notes 168-170 (Vessey, FBI 302, June 11, 1992, pp. 6-7; Vessey, FBI 302, February 11, 1987, p. 1; Vessey, Select Committees Deposition, April 17, 1987, pp. 5-9). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^15]: Walsh, Part VIII, note 167 (McMahon, memorandum for the record, March 15, 1985, ER 26,187-88 and ER 92-00116-17). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^16]: Walsh, Part VIII, notes 16-18 (Weinberger diary, August 22, 1985, ALZ 0039606-07; Weinberger calendar, LC-007474; Powell, Select Committees deposition, June 19, 1987, p. 5). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^17]: Walsh, Part VIII, citing Weinberger diary, November 21, 1985 (ALZ 0039802-03). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^18]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, "Summary of Prosecutions." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm
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[^19]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165 (December 1988), "Summary of Findings," chapters on the Contras and on Panama, and the Conclusions. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
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[^20]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 25, "United States v. Elliott Abrams," section on the September 19 and 20, 1986 meetings. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm
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[^12]: Lawrence Walsh, Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, vol. I, ch. 18, "United States v. Duane R. Clarridge," HAWK shipment section. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_18.htm
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[^13]: *The Tower Commission Report* (Bantam/Times Books, 1987), Clarridge section. https://archive.org/details/towercommission00unit
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[^14]: Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, Summary of Prosecutions, "Pre-trial Pardons." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm
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[^15]: National Security Archive, "The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations," Electronic Briefing Book No. 2 (North notebooks of July 12 and August 9, 1985; North and Poindexter electronic messages of August 23, 1986). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html
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[^16]: Lawrence E. Walsh, *Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, Part VIII, notes 10 and 165 (Vessey, Select Committees deposition, April 17, 1987, pp. 30-31; Weinberger diary, March 13, 1985, ALZ 0039320B-C). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^17]: Walsh, Part VIII, notes 168-170 (Vessey, FBI 302, June 11, 1992, pp. 6-7; Vessey, FBI 302, February 11, 1987, p. 1; Vessey, Select Committees Deposition, April 17, 1987, pp. 5-9). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^18]: Walsh, Part VIII, note 167 (McMahon, memorandum for the record, March 15, 1985, ER 26,187-88 and ER 92-00116-17). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^19]: Walsh, Part VIII, notes 16-18 (Weinberger diary, August 22, 1985, ALZ 0039606-07; Weinberger calendar, LC-007474; Powell, Select Committees deposition, June 19, 1987, p. 5). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^20]: Walsh, Part VIII, citing Weinberger diary, November 21, 1985 (ALZ 0039802-03). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_viii.htm
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[^21]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, "Summary of Prosecutions." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm
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[^22]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165 (December 1988), "Summary of Findings," chapters on the Contras and on Panama, and the Conclusions. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
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[^23]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 25, "United States v. Elliott Abrams," section on the September 19 and 20, 1986 meetings. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm
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@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ World War II was the global conflict fought from September 1, 1939, to September
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The [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) was established by military order on June 13, 1942, under the jurisdiction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The order directed it to collect and analyze strategic information for the Joint Chiefs and to plan and operate special services.[^2] It was headed by General [[William J. Donovan]] and created under President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. On August 25, 1945, Donovan told the Bureau of the Budget that the agency was "working under what is in effect a liquidation budget."[^3]
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President [[Harry S. Truman]] dissolved the OSS by Executive Order 9621 of September 20, 1945. The order moved its Research and Analysis Branch and Presentation Branch to an Interim Research and Intelligence Service in the State Department, transferred all other functions, personnel, records and funds to the War Department, and terminated the Office, including the office of the Director of Strategic Services, as of the opening of business on October 1, 1945.[^4] The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group dates the disbanding to October 1945.[^5] The War Department units that inherited the clandestine side were the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) and its successors. The [[Central Intelligence Group]] was created by presidential directive on January 22, 1946, and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] in September 1947.[^6][^5] The Working Group states that the CIA inherited intelligence operations and agents in Europe from the Army and from the organizations that succeeded the OSS, and that these operations later included the [[Gehlen Organization]].[^5]
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President [[Harry S. Truman]] dissolved the OSS by Executive Order 9621 of September 20, 1945. The order moved its Research and Analysis Branch and Presentation Branch to an Interim Research and Intelligence Service in the State Department, transferred all other functions, personnel, records and funds to the War Department, and terminated the Office, including the office of the Director of Strategic Services, as of the opening of business on October 1, 1945.[^4] The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group dates the disbanding to October 1945.[^5] The War Department units that inherited the clandestine side were the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) and its successors. The [[Central Intelligence Group]] was created by presidential directive on January 22, 1946, and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] in September 1947.[^5][^6] The Working Group states that the CIA inherited intelligence operations and agents in Europe from the Army and from the organizations that succeeded the OSS, and that these operations later included the [[Gehlen Organization]].[^5]
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[[General Walter Bedell Smith|Walter Bedell Smith]], who became CIA Director in 1950, had been Eisenhower's wartime chief of staff, and dozens of other senior CIA and military intelligence officials of the 1950s to 1970s had served in the OSS.
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@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ In a 1977 article in the CIA's journal Studies in Intelligence, [[Kenneth A. Kre
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[[Walter Schellenberg]], who headed the foreign intelligence branch of the [[Sicherheitsdienst]] (SD), wrote in his memoirs about the flight of [[Rudolf Hess]] to Scotland in May 1941. He stated that SD reports revealed Hess to have been a "silent adherent" of Rudolf Steiner and the anthroposophists, that Hess had made the flight "in accordance with astrological advice" and had close associations with astrologers, seers, mediums and nature therapists, and that collective arrests followed among both groups. According to Schellenberg, [[Heinrich Himmler]] told him that from the day of the flight Hitler's earlier interest in astrology "changed to an uncompromising antipathy," and Himmler was upset by the measures taken against the astrologers.[^28] Schellenberg also wrote that on April 28, 1945 he took an astrologer from Hamburg, whom Himmler knew and thought highly of, to a meeting with Himmler in Luebeck, in order to soften Himmler's reaction to the failure of a peace initiative, and that with the astrologer's help he obtained Himmler's permission to discuss the ending of the German occupation of Norway and the internment of the occupation forces in Sweden.[^29]
|
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|
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The astrologer [[Wilhelm Wulff]] recorded Schellenberg telling him that mystical belief systems were "a suitable vehicle for the propagation of political concepts and for the political control of a nation," as reported in Jacobsen's *Phenomena* and on the vault pages for Wulff and Schellenberg.[^30]
|
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The astrologer [[Wilhelm Wulff]] recorded Schellenberg telling him that mystical belief systems were "a suitable vehicle for the propagation of political concepts and for the political control of a nation."[^30]
|
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The [[Ahnenerbe]] is described in the opening statement of the prosecution in the Doctors' Trial before the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The tribunal's printed record states that the name "literally means 'ancestral heritage'," that the society was "originally devoted to scientific and psuedo-scientific researches concerning the anthropological and cultural history of the German race," and that an Institute for Military Scientific Research was later set up within it. [[Wolfram Sievers]], an SS colonel, was manager of the society and director of the Institute, a direct subordinate of Himmler as president of the Ahnenerbe, and a defendant.[^31] The prosecution quoted a February 1942 report from Sievers to Himmler (document NO-085) proposing the procurement of skulls of Jewish commissars to remedy a shortage of "Jewish race" specimens, and a September 1944 telegram from Sievers to Himmler's adjutant Rudolf Brandt about the skeleton collection assembled at the Reich University of Strasbourg under Professor August Hirt as the Allied armies approached.[^32]
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|
@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ The laboratory's first guided missile was the Corporal, first flown in an unguid
|
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|
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The atomic bomb program was placed under a Military Policy Committee chaired by [[Vannevar Bush]], with [[Leslie Groves]] named to sit with it as executive officer. The Smyth Report states that the creation of the committee in effect placed all phases of the project under the control of Bush, [[James B. Conant]], General Styer, Admiral Purnell and Groves.[^35] The [[Los Alamos]] laboratory was the principal site of the work.
|
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|
||||
[[Operation Alsos]] followed the advancing forces into Germany to investigate the German nuclear energy project and to prevent German scientists from being moved beyond reach. [[Samuel Goudsmit]], chosen as chief scientist at a meeting called by Vannevar Bush at the Office of Scientific Research and Development, was its scientific head. Its military commander, Colonel [[Boris Pash]], wrote that the plan agreed with Goudsmit gave the scientific section the choice of targets (personnel, installations or equipment) and gave Pash the task of seizing and protecting them. Pash described Werner Heisenberg as the first priority, and described the occupation of Haigerloch and the securing of the laboratory of Otto Hahn.[^36] Goudsmit published his own account, *Alsos*, in 1947.[^37]
|
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[[Operation Alsos]] followed the advancing forces into Germany to investigate the German nuclear energy project and to prevent German scientists from being moved beyond reach. [[Samuel Goudsmit]], chosen as chief scientist at a meeting called by Vannevar Bush at the Office of Scientific Research and Development, was its scientific head. Its military commander, Colonel [[Boris Pash]], wrote that the plan agreed with Goudsmit gave the scientific section the choice of targets (personnel, installations or equipment) and gave Pash the task of seizing and protecting them. Pash described Werner Heisenberg as the first priority, and described the occupation of Haigerloch and the securing of the laboratory of Otto Hahn.[^36] Goudsmit published his own account, *Alsos*, in 1947. He wrote that Pash, not waiting for the Bavarian Redoubt to fall, took six men to Urfeld, south of Munich, to take Heisenberg.[^37]
|
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|
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### Abwehr
|
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|
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|
|
@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ The Office of Alien Property Custodian's annual report for March 11, 1942 to Jun
|
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|
||||
The prosecution's opening statement in the Farben case before the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg described the agreements between I.G. Farben and [[Standard Oil]] of New Jersey. The statement says that a 1929 agreement recognized Farben's priority in chemicals and Standard's priority in oil outside Germany, that a 1930 agreement created the jointly owned Joint American Study Company (Jasco) to develop new processes "on a basis of equality (50-50)," and that Frank A. Howard of the Standard Oil Development Company wrote in 1936 that "the IG may be said to be our general partner in the chemical business." It states that Standard turned over its butyl rubber process to Farben while Farben delayed the transfer of its buna rubber processes, and that after the outbreak of war in September 1939 Howard met Farben representatives at The Hague, where Farben transferred its Jasco interest to Standard but not the necessary know-how.[^50] The indictment charged that the cartel agreements delayed the development and production of buna rubber in the United States until 1940.[^51] The Tribunal's judgment in the Farben case describes the 1939 Hague transactions as having been held by the U.S. Federal courts in Standard Oil Co. v. Markham (S.D.N.Y.) and Standard Oil Co. v. Clark (2d Cir., September 22, 1947) to be "sham transactions designed to create an appearance of Jersey ownership of property interests which, nevertheless, continued to be regarded by the parties as IG owned."[^52]
|
||||
|
||||
The New York law firm [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] had German clients in the 1930s, according to Frank Lipsius and Nancy Lisagor's history of the firm, and [[John Foster Dulles]] and [[Allen Dulles]] were partners of the firm.[^53] [[IBM]]'s German subsidiary, Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft ([[Dehomag]]), is the subject of [[Edwin Black]]'s account. Black wrote that Dehomag, "with the knowledge of its New York headquarters," custom-designed devices and applications for the Reich as an official corporate undertaking, and that IBM's New York management understood from 1933 that it was doing business with the upper echelon of the Nazi Party.[^54]
|
||||
The New York law firm [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] had German clients in the 1930s, according to Nancy Lisagor and Frank Lipsius's history of the firm, and [[John Foster Dulles]] and [[Allen Dulles]] were partners of the firm.[^53] [[IBM]]'s German subsidiary, Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft ([[Dehomag]]), is the subject of [[Edwin Black]]'s account. Black wrote that Dehomag, "with the knowledge of its New York headquarters," custom-designed devices and applications for the Reich as an official corporate undertaking, and that IBM's New York management understood from 1933 that it was doing business with the upper echelon of the Nazi Party.[^54]
|
||||
|
||||
### War crimes trials and the disclosure record
|
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|
||||
|
|
@ -184,14 +184,14 @@ The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, Public Law 105-246 of October 8, 1998, direc
|
|||
[^27]: Annotated bibliography entry on Paul A. Dietz, "A successful psychometric experiment with the clairvoyant E. Hanussen," *Tijdschrift voor Parapsychologie*, 1930/31, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00792R000700690004-2. The parenthetical about Hitler is the bibliographer's annotation.
|
||||
[^28]: Walter Schellenberg, *The Labyrinth: Memoirs of Walter Schellenberg* (Harper, 1956; Pyramid Books ed. as *Hitler's Secret Service*, 1974), chapter "The Mystery of Rudolf Hess," pp. 190-191.
|
||||
[^29]: Schellenberg, *The Labyrinth*, chapter on the Himmler talks of April 1945 (Pyramid ed., pp. 393-394).
|
||||
[^30]: Wilhelm Wulff, *Zodiac and Swastika* (1973), as reported in Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017); the quotation appears on the vault pages for Wilhelm Wulff and Walter Schellenberg.
|
||||
[^30]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. New York: Little, Brown, 2017, p. 17, citing Wilhelm Wulff, *Zodiac and Swastika* (1973), p. 94.
|
||||
[^31]: *Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10*, vol. I (The Medical Case), list of defendants (Sievers, "Reich Manager of the 'Ahnenerbe' Society and Director of its Institute for Military Scientific Research") and the prosecution's opening statement on the defendant Sievers. https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/NT_war-criminals.html
|
||||
[^32]: *Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals*, vol. I, indictment (the skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg) and the prosecution's opening statement quoting documents NO-085 and NO-087 and Sievers's telegram of September 1944.
|
||||
[^33]: Erik M. Conway, "From Rockets to Spacecraft: Making JPL a Place for Planetary Science," *Engineering & Science*, Caltech, no. 4 (2007), pp. 2-3. https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/702/2/Spacecraft.pdf
|
||||
[^34]: Conway, "From Rockets to Spacecraft," pp. 3-5 (Aerojet; Parsons and Forman; the Corporal and the WAC Corporal; the Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel and captured V-2 instruments; Redstone Arsenal).
|
||||
[^35]: Henry DeWolf Smyth, *Atomic Energy for Military Purposes* (Princeton University Press, 1945), sections 5.25 to 5.27 (Military Policy Committee; General Groves as executive officer). https://archive.org/details/atomicenergyform00smyt_0
|
||||
[^36]: Boris T. Pash, *The Alsos Mission* (1969), chapters on the formation of Alsos (Goudsmit as chief scientist; the division of tasks between the scientific section and Pash), the priority list headed by Heisenberg, and the occupation of Haigerloch and Otto Hahn's laboratory.
|
||||
[^37]: Samuel A. Goudsmit, *Alsos* (Henry Schuman, 1947).
|
||||
[^37]: Samuel A. Goudsmit, *Alsos* (New York: Henry Schuman, 1947; Woodbury, N.Y.: American Institute of Physics Press, 1996), p. 111.
|
||||
[^38]: Joint Publications Research Service, *Translations on USSR Science and Technology: Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences* (FOUO 37/78, December 6, 1978), CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500430001-1. The characterization belongs to the translated Soviet article.
|
||||
[^39]: U.S. Senate, *Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce*, Hearings before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, Part 7 (New York-New Jersey) (1951), testimony of George H. White, pp. 1180-1181 (index entry "White, Col. George H., narcotics agent, United States Treasury, 1180-1187"). https://archive.org/details/investigationofo07unit
|
||||
[^40]: *Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce*, Part 7, testimony of George H. White, pp. 1181-1182 (Del Grazio, May 1943).
|
||||
|
|
@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, Public Law 105-246 of October 8, 1998, direc
|
|||
[^50]: *Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals*, vol. VII (The Farben Case), prosecution opening statement, pp. 162-167 (1929 and 1930 Standard Oil agreements, Jasco, Howard's letter of 1936, butyl and buna, the Hague conference of September 1939; documents NI-10550, NI-10433, NI-10431, NI-10455). https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/NT_war-criminals.html
|
||||
[^51]: *Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals*, vol. VII, indictment, paragraph 57.
|
||||
[^52]: *Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals*, vol. VIII (The Farben Case), Decision and Judgment of the Tribunal, pp. 1273-1290 (Standard Oil agreements; *Standard Oil Co. v. Markham*, 64 F. Supp. 656 (S.D.N.Y.), and *Standard Oil Co. v. Clark*, 163 F.2d 917 (2d Cir. 1947), as quoted by the Tribunal).
|
||||
[^53]: Frank Lipsius and Nancy Lisagor, *A Law Unto Itself: The Untold Story of the Law Firm Sullivan & Cromwell* (William Morrow, 1988), pp. 99-101 and 132-134.
|
||||
[^53]: Nancy Lisagor and Frank Lipsius, *A Law Unto Itself: The Untold Story of the Law Firm Sullivan & Cromwell* (New York: William Morrow, 1988), pp. 95, 120-127, 132-133, 141 and 144.
|
||||
[^54]: Edwin Black, *IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation* (Crown, 2001), introduction.
|
||||
[^55]: *Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal*, Proceedings Volumes, The Avalon Project, Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/imt.asp
|
||||
[^56]: Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, Public Law 105-246, 112 Stat. 1859 (October 8, 1998), Section 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-105publ246/pdf/PLAW-105publ246.pdf
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