Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

The Iran-Contra Affair

The Iran–Contra affair(Persian: ماجرای ایران-کنترا‎,Spanish: Caso Irán–Contra), popularized in Iran as the McFarlaneaffair, the Iran–Contra scandal, or simply Iran–Contra, was apolitical scandal in the United States that occurred during thesecond term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administrationofficials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeinigovernment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject ofan arms embargo. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of thearms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the BolandAmendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had beenprohibited by Congress.

The official justification for the armsshipments was that they were part of an operation to free sevenAmerican hostages being held in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a paramilitarygroup with Iranian ties connected to the Islamic Revolutionary GuardCorps. The plan was for Israel to ship weapons to Iran, for theUnited States to resupply Israel, and for Israel to pay the UnitedStates. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in theirpower to achieve the release of the hostages. The first arms salesauthorized to Iran were in 1981, prior to the American hostageshaving been taken in Lebanon.

The plan was later complicated in late1985, when Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National SecurityCouncil diverted a portion of the proceeds from the Iranian weaponsales to fund the Contras, a group of anti-Sandinista rebels, intheir insurgency against the socialist government of Nicaragua. WhilePresident Ronald Reagan was a vocal supporter of the Contra cause,the evidence is disputed as to whether he personally authorized thediversion of funds to the Contras. Handwritten notes taken byDefense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on 7 December 1985 indicate thatReagan was aware of potential hostage transfers with Iran, as well asthe sale of Hawk and TOW missiles to "moderate elements"within that country. Weinberger wrote that Reagan said "hecould answer to charges of illegality but couldn't answer to thecharge that 'big strong President Reagan passed up a chance to freethe hostages.'" After the weapon sales were revealed inNovember 1986, Reagan appeared on national television and stated thatthe weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United Statesdid not trade arms for hostages. The investigation was impeded whenlarge volumes of documents relating to the affair were destroyed orwithheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. On 4March 1987, Reagan made a further nationally televised address,taking full responsibility for the affair and stating that "whatbegan as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in itsimplementation, into trading arms for hostages".

The affair was investigated by the U.S.Congress and by the three-person, Reagan-appointed Tower Commission.Neither investigation found evidence that President Reagan himselfknew of the extent of the multiple programs. In the end, fourteenadministration officials were indicted, including then-Secretary ofDefense Caspar Weinberger. Eleven convictions resulted, some of whichwere vacated on appeal. The rest of those indicted or convicted wereall pardoned in the final days of the presidency of George H. W.Bush, who had been Vice President at the time of the affair.

Background

The United States was the largestseller of arms to Iran under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the vastmajority of the weapons that the Islamic Republic of Iran inheritedin January 1979 were American-made. To maintain this arsenal, Iranrequired a steady supply of spare parts to replace those broken andworn out. After Iranian students stormed the American embassy inTehran in November 1979 and took 52 Americans hostage, U.S. PresidentJimmy Carter imposed an arms embargo on Iran. After Iraq invadedIran in September 1980, Iran desperately needed weapons and spareparts for its current weapons. After Ronald Reagan took office asPresident on 20 January 1981, he vowed to continue Carter's policy ofblocking arms sales to Iran on the grounds that Iran supportedterrorism.