1.9 KiB
| category | tags | summary | born | location | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iran-Contra |
|
Allegations suggest that the CIA was protecting Al-Kassar's operation because he was cooperating with efforts to free U.S. | 1945 | al-Nabk, Syria |
Monzer Al-Kassar was a Syrian kingpin and arms dealer, often referred to as the world's biggest arms dealer. He was implicated by the private investigative firm Interfor as being behind the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Interfor claimed he oversaw a heroin smuggling ring connected to the Syrian regime.1
Allegations suggest that the Central Intelligence Agency was protecting Al-Kassar's operation because he was cooperating with efforts to free U.S. hostages in Lebanon. It was further alleged that a suitcase intended for heroin was covertly substituted with explosives by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Al-Kassar, unbeknownst to others involved in the alleged drug smuggling operation.1
Al-Kassar was also alleged to have provided Oliver North with drug profits to purchase arms for the Nicaraguan Contras. The United States Tower Commission probe into Iran-gate revealed that Al-Kassar had been paid $1.2 million by Oliver North's co-conspirator General Richard Secord to move weapons from Israel to the Contras.1
Barbara Honegger, in her book October Surprise, alleged that Al-Kassar's heroin smuggling network in Italy was used to launder North Atlantic Treaty Organization arms stocks for diversion to Iran with the help of corrupt Italian intelligence officials linked to the secretive fascist Masonic lodge, P2. Al-Kassar was reported to hold large tracts of land in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.1
Footnotes
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Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. ↩︎