66 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: Iran-Contra Affair
|
|
aliases:
|
|
- Iran-Contra Affair
|
|
- Iran-Contra
|
|
- Irangate
|
|
created: 2024-04-25
|
|
updated: 2026-05-17
|
|
tags:
|
|
- Event
|
|
- Political
|
|
- UnitedStates
|
|
- 1980s
|
|
- ContraWar
|
|
- Iran
|
|
- Nicaragua
|
|
- DarkAlliance
|
|
category: "Intelligence Scandal"
|
|
summary: "Political scandal involving the secret sale of arms to Iran to fund the Nicaraguan Contras in violation of the Boland Amendment, leading to indictments of multiple CIA and NSC officials."
|
|
start: 1985-01-01
|
|
end: 1987-01-01
|
|
location: "United States / Iran / Nicaragua"
|
|
---
|
|
The Iran-Contra Affair was a political scandal in the [[United States]] that came to light between 1985 and 1987, involving the secret sale of arms to [[Iran]] by the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration in exchange for American hostages held in [[Lebanon]], with the profits illegally diverted to fund the [[Contras]] in [[Nicaragua]] in violation of congressional prohibitions. The scandal exposed the agency's direct management of the Contra war and the National Security Council's transformation into an operational intelligence agency based inside the [[White House]].[^1][^2]
|
|
|
|
### Congressional Prohibitions
|
|
|
|
Between 1982 and 1986, Congress passed a series of amendments (known as the Boland Amendments) prohibiting the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the National Security Council, or any other U.S. government agency from providing military aid to the Contras. The Reagan administration circumvented these prohibitions through a network of private operatives and foreign governments.[^2]
|
|
|
|
### Key Figures
|
|
|
|
### Oliver North and the Enterprise
|
|
|
|
[[Oliver North]], a Lieutenant Colonel in the [[United States Marine Corps]] serving on the National Security Council staff, ran an illegal Contra resupply operation from the White House. He was alleged to have received drug profits from [[Monzer Al-Kassar]], a Syrian kingpin and arms dealer, which were then used to purchase arms for the Contras. The United States Tower Commission probe into Iran-gate specifically revealed that Al-Kassar had been paid $1.2 million by North's co-conspirator, General [[Richard Secord]], to facilitate the movement of weapons from [[Israel]] to the Contras.[^1][^3]
|
|
|
|
North's "Enterprise" used [[Ilopango Airbase]] in [[El Salvador]] to funnel weapons to the Contras and reportedly brought [[Cocaine]] back on return flights.[^4]
|
|
|
|
### Arms-for-Hostages Middlemen
|
|
|
|
[[Adnan Khashoggi]], an international arms merchant, and [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], an Iranian arms dealer, served as crucial middlemen in the arms-for-hostages exchange. Khashoggi was found to have borrowed money for these arms purchases from the now-bankrupt [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], with financial backing from Saudi and U.S. sources. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], a self-proclaimed Israeli military intelligence officer, played a role in exposing the scandal by tipping off an obscure Lebanese magazine. [[Barbara Honegger]], a former Reagan White House aide, alleged in her book *October Surprise* that Monzer Al-Kassar's heroin smuggling network in [[Italy]] was utilized to launder [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] arms stocks, diverting them to Iran with the assistance of corrupt Italian intelligence officials linked to the secretive fascist Masonic lodge, P2.[^1]
|
|
|
|
### Indictments and Pardons
|
|
|
|
[[Dewey Clarridge]], former chief of the CIA's Latin American Division, was indicted on seven counts of perjury. [[Joseph Fernandez|Joseph Fernández]], CIA station chief in [[Costa Rica]], was indicted on four counts. [[Alan Fiers]], who took over the Contra project in 1984, pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. All were pardoned by former CIA director [[George H.W. Bush]].[^2]
|
|
|
|
### Connection to Drug Trafficking
|
|
|
|
The [[John Kerry|Kerry]] Committee investigation found evidence of drug trafficking within the Contra supply network, but the Iran-Contra investigating committee refused to examine those connections. Kerry investigation director [[Jack Blum]] told [[Gary Webb]]: "We were even dumped on by the Iran-Contra Committee. They wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole."[^2]
|
|
|
|
During Oliver North's congressional testimony in July 1987, two men from Baltimore jumped up in the audience with a banner reading "Ask about the cocaine smuggling" and shouted questions about drug dealing before being dragged out by police.[^2]
|
|
|
|
### The Shootdown That Broke the Scandal
|
|
|
|
The scandal broke open when [[Barry Seal]]'s drug-hauling airplane, a Fairchild C-123K called The Fat Lady, was shot down over Nicaragua by a Sandinista soldier with a SAM-7 missile in 1986. [[Eugene Hasenfus]], a former [[Air America]] cargo handler, survived the shootdown. The plane had been based at [[Mena, Arkansas]] before Seal sold it and it began flying weapons-hauling missions for North and the [[FDN]]. Congressional records show North was being regularly briefed by the CIA on Seal's joint CIA-DEA sting operation against the Sandinistas and allegedly leaked the information to the press shortly before a critical vote on Contra aid.[^5]
|
|
|
|
### The Octopus Connection
|
|
|
|
The Iran-Contra Affair was a significant component of [[Danny Casolaro]]'s broader "[[The Octopus]]" investigation. Casolaro believed that this scandal was deeply interconnected with the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and the BCCI scandal. He obtained documents related to Iran-Contra arms deals, including photocopies of checks drawn on BCCI accounts for Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, from his confidante [[Bob Bickel]]. Bickel, in turn, had acquired these documents from [[October Surprise]] source [[Richard Brenneke]]. The name of [[Ian Stuart Spiro]] also appeared in Oliver North's personal notebooks documenting the Iran-Contra Affair, and Spiro's death was subsequently linked to a spy network and the affair itself.[^1]
|
|
|
|
### Footnotes
|
|
|
|
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
|
|
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know."
|
|
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 4: "I never sent cash."
|
|
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Cast of Characters.
|
|
[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty."
|