EX-CAPTIVE WEIR REGRETS 'ARMS FOR HOSTAGES' DEAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302490010-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: November 9, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302490010-4
ARTICLE P ~ APPUM
WASHINGTON POST
9 November 1986
Ex-Captive Weir Regrets
`Arms for Hostages' Deal
7' By Walter Pincus
Washington Pat Stall Writer
The Rev. Benjamin Weir the
first American hostage in Lebanon
released after Whits House-a
proved covert arms shipments be-
gan oin to Iran, said he re retted
the "trading of arms for hostages.-
calling it a " uestionable tactic.
Appearing Friday on the ABC
News program "Nightline," Weir said
that although "I certainly want to see
those [U.S. hostages] that I know
released, I would not want to see an
escalation of the war between Iran
and Iraq as part of that price."
Weir's remarks came as Reagan
administration officials attempted
to deal with public disclosure of the
secret White House program that
was opposed by Secretary of State
George P. Shultz and Defense Sec-
retary Caspar W. Weinberger.
Begun in 1985, it led to the release
of three U.S. hostages held in Leb-
anon by Islamic Jihad, a group of
pro-Iranian terrorists.
The program was exposed last
week after the speaker of the Iran-
ian parliament announced that for-
mer White House national security
adviser Robert C. McFarlane had
visited Tehran in September on a
secret mission.
In the wake of that disclosure.
sources in Washington described
covert meetings involving c Far-
lane and others in the administra-
tion that paved the way for Israeli
shipments of arms to Iran.
State Department officials who
opposed the Iran arms-for-hostages
program said privately yesterday
that the White House has the re-
sponsibility not only to handle pub-
lic questions about the program but
to find a way to explain it to U.S.
allies .nd Arab nations that have
cooperated with Washington's pub-
lic antiterrorism policies.
The arms shipments ran counter
to President Reagan's public posi-
tion that the United States not pay
ransom for hostages and to U.S.
efforts-noted by Shultz at a meet-
ing of Arab foreign ministers last
month-to stop allied arms ship-
ments to the regime of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, which Reagan
labeled a terrorist state on July 8,
1985.
"They created this mess, and
they have to clean it up," one official
said yesterday. He said career dip-
lomats and other officials may use
the expected congressional hear-
ings on the Iran program as a forum
to disclose what they called ques-
tionable White House-directed ac-
tions that harmed U.S. foreign pol-
icy objectives.
Illustrating the kinds of problems
the White House now faces is the
question of how administration of-
ficials will square past public state-
ments with the covert operation.
Last August, for example, a
month when one reported shipment
of arms associated with the U.S.
hostages reached Iran, Assistant
Secretary of State Richard W. Mur-
phy, the department's top Mideast
expert, told a House subcommittee
that the Tehran regime had gained
"the strategic initiative" in the six-
year-old war with Iraq.
"A victory by a radical Iran would
be a major setback for U.S. inter-
ests in the region," Murphy told the
House Foreign Affairs subcommit-
tee on Europe and the Middle East.
man o the s P rmanent Select
ommittee on Intelligence, Ham-
ilton joined Re o. Dante B. Fascell
(D-Fla.) in calling on Reagan to ro-
vide details Of the a ministrati n's
activities wit ran.
Shultz, who has refused to com-
ment on the program, has been the
administration's main spokesman
on terrorism. In April 1985, after
news reports that the pro-Iranian
terrorists might have killed one of
the American hostages, Shultz sent
a message warning Iran of the con-
sequences of such an action.
Officials familiar with the pro-
gram said yesterday that the Islam-
ic Jihad, which had been active
against U.S. citizens, had not seized
any since the secret program be-
gan. They also said that McFar-
lane's surprise trip to Tehran had
been undertaken because the for-
mer national security adviser
thought that he could establish con-
tacts that might lead to ending the
Gulf war and reestablishing U.S.-
Iranian relations.
"He didn't understand the Iran-
ians," one government official said
)yesterday.
Despite the secrecy surrounding
the program, there have been hints
about its existence.
On Sept. 19, 1985, one day after
Reagan announced Weir's release,
the president was interviewed by
television evangelist Marion G.
(Pat) Robertson on the latter's
Christian Broadcasting Network.
During that interview, Robertson
said "word reached us" that a White
House staff member had been sent,
the day before Weir's release "to
Iran to seek the release of the re-
maining ... hostages." Robertson .
asked: "Is there any word on that
that might give hope to us?"
Reagan responded: "Well, I can't
really talk about what we are doing,
because I don't want to do anything
that will endanger the others being
freed."
Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302490010-4