'ISRAEL HELPED SET UP U.S.-IRAN DEAL'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201430003-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 18, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 10, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201430003-2
;o;',i.LI APP RED NEW YORK POST
ON PAGE 10 November 1986 FILE ONLY
Israel go on trial in New York
n charges of arrang-
helped
set up
U.S.-Iran
deal'
By URI DAN
Mideast CorreWofldent
JERUSALEM - A re-
port surfaced here
today indicating that
Israel provided the con-
tacts to set up a series
of arms deals with Iran
that resulted in free-
dom for three Ameri-
can hostages held by
militants in Lebanon.
Israeli officials were
tight-lipped in their
refusal to either con-
firm or deny the report,
which was published in
Newsweek Magazine.
According to News-
week, a top Israeli for-
eign ministry official
suggested early last
year to then-Prime
Minister Shimon Peres
that Israel could help
arrange a swap.
The suggestion came
at a time when U.S. of-
ficials were beginning
to despair over getting
the hostages released
through Syrian chan-
nels.
Peres told the official,
Foreign Ministry Di-
rector Gen. David
Kimche, to go ahead
with the Idea, accord-
ing to Newsweek.
The magazine said
Kimche flew to Wash-
ington to propose it to
Robert McFarlane,
then chief of the Na-
tional Security Council.
Kimche reportedly
told McFarlane that
former Israeli Mossad
agent Jacob Nimrodi
- now a big-time arms
dealer - could make
available solid contacts
in Iran.
Both Israeli and
American sources
denied that a retired Is-
raeli general shout to
ing illegal arms sales
to Iran had anything to
do with the cloak-and-
dagger hostage swap.
Gen. Avraham Bar-
Am was arrested in
Bermuda and charged.
along with 16 other
men, in the arms
smuggling plot.
The post reported
last week in an exclu-
sive copyrighted
story that U.S. Attor-
ney Rudolph Giuliani,
who is prosecuting
Bar-Am, played a key
role in the arms deal
that reportedly led to
the freeing of three
hostages.
Giuliani refused to
discuss the matter,
telling The Post: "I
am once removed
from it."
According to News-
week, another Israeli
- American-born Al
Schwimmer, founder
of Israeli Aircraft In-
dustries - was
brought into the se-
cret team as a liaison
with McFarlane.
In addition. an Ira-
nian exile named Ma-
nucher Ghorbanifar, a
close friend of the Ira-
nian prime minister
and one of Iran's chief
suppliers of military
supplies, was also en-
listed.
Meanwhile, Time
Magazine said
wealthy Saudi Ara-
bian businessman
Adnan Khashoggi
also played a part in
the scheme, getting a
shopping list of mili-
tary hardware from
Tehran.
According to Time,
Khashoggi learned
that Iran wanted
Hawk anti-aircraft
missiles, radar-guid-
ance equipment, anti-
tank missiles and
made jet fighters. sent armed militia-
men to force the ex-
Newsweek said tremists to surrender
Ghorbanifar was
promised by Iranian
Prime Minister Hus-
sein Moussavi that
one hostage would be
released within 24
hours after one plane-
load of U.S.-made
weapons was de-
livered.
The Iranians did not
live up to their end of
the bargain until a
second planeload of
supplies was flown to
Tehran from Israel,
the magazine said.
On Sept. 14, 1985, the
first of the three hos-
tages, Rev. Benjamin
Weir. a 62-year-old
Presbyterian minis-
ter, was freed after 16
months in captivity.
The magazine said
Israeli officials
learned later that
when the militants
failed to deliver Weir
after the first plane-
him.
A third planeload of
supplies brought
more stalling from
the Iranians, and the
Rev. Lawrence Jenco
was not released until
last July, after ships
loaded with missiles,
ammunition and
spare parts sailed
from the Israeli port
of Eilat to the Iranian
port of Bandar Abbas.
Part of the delay
was the result of
McFarlane's resigna-
tion as national se-
curity chief and the
departure of Kimche,
Schwimmer and Nim-
rodi in a bureaucratic
power play, according
to Newsweek.
A third hostage,
David Jacobsen, was
released last week
after another ship-
ment of arms from
Eilat to Bandar
Abbas.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201430003-2