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Iran-Contra

Central figures in the Iran-Contra affair and October Surprise.

Name	Description
Adnan Khashoggi	Khashoggi's sister, Samira Khashoggi Fayed, was the mother of Dodi Fayed, who was romantically involved with Diana, Princess of Wales.
Adolfo Chamorro	Adolfo Chamorro was a Contra leader who attended weapons sales presentations arranged by Ron Lister and Danilo Blandón as part of the Contra supply network.
Amiram Nir	Nir resigned from his TV job to work as a public relations adviser for Peres during the 1981 elections.
Anastasio Somoza	Anastasio Somoza Debayle was the dictator of Nicaragua whose family ruled the country for forty-six years until the Sandinista revolution in July 1979, after which his dispersed National Guard officers became the founding cadre of the Contras.
Aristides Sanchez	Wealthy Somoza-era landowner who became the head of supplies and logistics for the FDN, went on the CIA payroll, and allegedly served as the conduit for cocaine money from the Meneses drug ring in California.
Avi Pazner	Spokesman and national security adviser to Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir, involved in covert operations including arms sales and Iraq-related intelligence.
Carlos Amador	Carlos Amador was a pilot who planned to fly into Ilopango Air Base to pick up cocaine from Hangar No. 4 and transport it to Miami, according to a DEA cable.
Carlos Cardoen	Cardoen later resigned and became a private contractor, securing a deal to supply all blasting equipment to the Chilean Mining Corporation.
Che Guevara	Che Guevara was the Argentine revolutionary executed in Bolivia with the participation of CIA agent Felix Rodriguez, a Bay of Pigs veteran who later managed the Contra resupply operation.
Cyrus Hashemi	Iranian exile involved in secret arms sales and hostage negotiations during Iran-Contra who became a U.S. Customs informant before being found dead in London under suspicious circumstances.
Dagoberto Nunez	Dagoberto Nuñez was a Cuban Bay of Pigs veteran and CIA operative who worked with Oliver North in Costa Rica and was suspected of drug trafficking.
Daniel Ortega	Daniel Ortega was the Sandinista president of Nicaragua whose government the Reagan administration sought to overthrow through the Contra war and covert operations.
David Hall	David Hall was an Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Rafael Cornejo and warned Gary Webb that publishing the Dark Alliance story could endanger Danilo Blandón's life.
Donald Barrios	Wealthy Nicaraguan exile, FDN supporter, and relative of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro who introduced Norwin Meneses to Danilo Blandon and co-founded La Parrilla restaurant in Miami as a Contra gathering place.
Edgar Chamorro	Edgar Chamorro was a former FDN director who publicly confirmed that Norwin Meneses was a Contra leader involved in cocaine trafficking to fund the war.
Edgar Torres	Edgar Torres was one of the Nicaraguan Torres brothers who became major cocaine traffickers and key distributors for Danilo Blandón's drug network in Los Angeles.
Edmundo Chamorro	Edmundo Chamorro was the deputy commander of the UDN-FARN Contra faction, described by the DEA as "well known to The Company," and was captured on Costa Rican wiretaps discussing cocaine shipments.
Edward P. Boland	Edward P. Boland was the Massachusetts congressman who sponsored the Boland Amendments prohibiting U.S. military aid to the Contras.
Edwin Corr	Edwin Corr was the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador who received Celerino Castillo's reports about Contra drug trafficking at Ilopango and sent a secret cable to Washington.
Elliott Abrams	Elliott Abrams was the Assistant Secretary of State who oversaw Central American policy and pressured NHAO officials to hire Oliver North's associates for Contra supply operations.
Fawn Hall	Secretary to Oliver North during the Iran-Contra Affair and daughter of Robert McFarlane's secretary Wilma Hall.
Felipe Vidal	Felipe Vidal was a CIA contract agent who proposed creating a private army in Costa Rica to fight the Sandinistas, exemplifying the freelance military operations supporting the Contra war.
Felix Saborio	Dr. Felix Saborio was a Nicaraguan pediatrician and childhood friend of Danilo Blandón who served as Eden Pastora's representative to the Cuban community, media liaison, and ARDE fundraiser.
Fernando Chamorro	Commander of UDN-FARN, an early Contra faction based in Costa Rica, a former Sandinista whose army included Cuban-American drug traffickers, and who was approached by Norwin Meneses about hauling cocaine.
Frank Arana	Frank Arana was an FDN director who flew to San Francisco with Edgar Chamorro in 1982 to establish the Contra support network in California.
George Cave	In February 1989, Cave was spotted in Paraguay with Earl Brian, visiting Gen.
Gunther Karl Russbacher	Wilcher was working daily for Russbacher and wanted to ask Janet Reno, the new Attorney General, to grant immunity from prosecution to Russbacher so that he might testify to the government about activities inside the CIA.
Hashemi brothers	The Hashemi brothers were a trio of Iranian brothers living in the West who claimed to have connections in Iran with Ahmed Khomeini, the son of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Henry Grunwald	Editor-in-chief of Time magazine who vetoed publication of the North-Nir story that later became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.
Hugo Spadafora	Dr. Hugo Spadafora was a Panamanian revolutionary doctor and Contra fighter who was tortured and decapitated in September 1985 while attempting to publicly expose Manuel Noriega's cocaine trafficking operations with the Contras.
Jacinto Torres	Jacinto Torres was one of the Nicaraguan Torres brothers who managed the East Los Angeles cocaine distribution hub for Danilo Blandón's trafficking network.
Jamshid Hashemi	One of the Hashemi brothers, involved in secret arms sales to Iran and later became an informant for U.S. Customs.
John Tower	After the Iran-Contra Affair scandal broke, Tower was appointed to head a presidential commission of inquiry into the affair.
Jorge Ochoa	Jorge Ochoa was a leader of the Medellín Cartel who controlled the Miami cocaine market and was approached by a DEA agent to implicate the Sandinistas in drug trafficking.
Jose Macario	Exiled Nicaraguan judge and FDN operative who became Danilo Blandon's business partner and immigration lawyer in Miami, helping arrange travel papers for Contra soldiers while investing drug profits in legitimate businesses.
Juan Matta Ballesteros	Juan Matta Ballesteros was Honduras's biggest drug trafficker whose air cargo company SETCO was the principal transportation provider for the Contra army.
Juan Rafael Bustillo	Juan Rafael Bustillo was the Salvadoran Air Force commander who provided hangar space at Ilopango Air Base for Felix Rodriguez's Contra resupply operation.
Julio Bonilla	FDN coordinator in San Francisco who connected Contra supporters with the organization's leadership.
Lawrence Pezzullo	Lawrence Pezzullo was the U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua who negotiated with Anastasio Somoza during the final days of his regime, assuring him the United States was willing to preserve the National Guard.
Mario Calero	Mario Calero was the brother of FDN leader Adolfo Calero who operated air cargo companies used for Contra supply missions and cocaine smuggling.
Mark Thatcher	In 1983, Thatcher introduced Gerald Bull to Gen.
Mehdi Bazargan	First prime minister of revolutionary Iran under Khomeini who sought to normalize relations with the U.S. before being ousted by extremists.
Menachem Schneerson	Large amounts of money were funneled through his institutions to Drexel Burnham, a brokerage house where Michael Milken built his junk-bond fortune.
Michael Milken	Large amounts of money from the arms sales to Iran were funneled through American banks and held at Drexel Burnham, contributing to Milken's firm's stature and its ability to underwrite huge quantities of junk bonds.
Michael Palmer	Michael Palmer was a Detroit drug dealer whose aviation company received U.S. government contracts for Contra supply missions despite the CIA knowing he was a narcotics trafficker.
Miles Copeland	Retired CIA officer who helped restore the Shah in 1953 and later gathered anti-Carter CIA veterans during the Iranian hostage crisis.
Mohammed Radi Abdullah	Colonel Mohammed Radi Abdullah was a former colonel in the Jordanian Army.
Monzer Al-Kassar	Allegations suggest that the CIA was protecting Al-Kassar's operation because he was cooperating with efforts to free U.S.
Oliver North	Marine lieutenant colonel and National Security Council staff member who ran the illegal Contra resupply operation from the White House, central figure in the Iran-Contra Affair implicated in drug trafficking, arms dealing, and obstruction of justice.
Ora Ben-Shalom	After the deaths of Freddie and Herut (Ari Ben-Menashe's daughter), Ora and Ari Ben-Menashe began a relationship in late 1986, eventually living together in Jerusalem.
Orlando Murillo	Nicaraguan economist and former Central Bank official under Somoza who laundered cocaine proceeds for Danilo Blandón through banks in Panama and Miami.
Pablo Escobar	Pablo Escobar was the leader of the Medellín Cartel who allegedly made a deal with Vice President George Bush's administration and whose cocaine empire supplied Contra-connected trafficking networks.
Reza Hashemi	Iranian arms dealer and one of the Hashemi brothers involved in secret arms sales and hostage negotiations related to Iran-Contra.
Ricardo Lau	Ricardo Lau was a former Nicaraguan National Guard intelligence officer who co-founded the FDN Contra army and served as its death squad leader and chief torturer.
Rob Owen	Rob Owen was Oliver North's courier and liaison to the Contra leadership who reported on drug trafficking by Contra supply companies.
Robert Parry	American investigative journalist who broke early stories on Contra drug trafficking, produced Frontline documentaries on Iran-Contra, and argued the CIA's secret agreement with Justice was designed to protect narcotics traffickers.
Roger Mayorga	Roger Mayorga was a former Sandinista intelligence officer who headed criminal investigations for the Nicaraguan National Police narcotics unit and monitored Norwin Meneses for years.
Ron Lister	Ron Lister was a former Laguna Beach police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claiming high-level CIA connections.
Sandra Smith	Sandra Smith was a DEA agent who filed an affidavit in 1981 documenting Norwin Meneses's involvement in cocaine trafficking, years before the Frogman Case.
Socrates Sofi-Perez	Socrates Sofi-Perez was a Cuban Bay of Pigs veteran and DEA informant who described the Contra drug trafficking scheme at Ilopango Air Base to Celerino Castillo.
Spencer Oliver	Chief counsel for the House Foreign Relations Committee involved in Iran-Contra hearings, later admitting the hearings were a cover-up.
Stephen Trott	Stephen Trott was the Associate Attorney General who intervened to reduce the sentence of Contra-connected drug trafficker José Bueso Rosa.
Sun-Myung Moon	Sun Myung Moon was the Korean religious leader whose Unification Church had connections to the Contra support network through its anti-Communist political activities.
Timothy Phelps	Middle East correspondent for Newsday who received early details of the Iran-Contra story from Ari Ben-Menashe.
Uri Simchoni	Brigadier General Uri Simchoni was a member of the Iran-Israel Joint Committee.
William Colby	William Colby was a former CIA director who was William Nelson's mentor and oversaw earlier CIA covert operations that set precedents for the Contra war.
William Downing	William "Bill" Downing was Ronald Lister's partner in the Mundy Security Group who designed a laser sighting device for AR-15 assault rifles and was involved in procuring weapons sold to Danilo Blandón and crack dealers in Los Angeles.
William French Smith	William French Smith was the U.S. Attorney General who signed the secret 1982 Memorandum of Understanding with CIA director William Casey that exempted CIA assets from drug crimes reporting.
Wilma Hall	Secretary to Robert McFarlane at the NSC and mother of Fawn Hall who helped expose McFarlane's contacts with Rafi Eitan.