Never Forget Reagan & Iran Contra

President Reagan and Iran Contra.....

Former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger was indicted by a federal Grand Jury on June 16, 1992, on five counts of obstruction, perjury and false statements. He was to be tried on January 5, 1993. Weinberger was pardoned by President Bush on December 24, 1992.

President Reagan has said he does not recall signing the December 1985 Finding, but Poindexter testified that the President signed it on December 5. Poindexter testified that it was kept in his office safe until he destroyed it on or about November 21, 1986. North testified in his trial that he and Commander Paul Thompson, the NSC's legal counsel, witnessed the destruction of the Finding
.
Abrams pleaded guilty October 7, 1991, to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress about secret Government efforts to support the contras during the Boland period. He was pardoned by President Bush on December 24, 1992.

JP [Poindexter] Say less about what we are doing, more about what we are not doing.
Regan Note, 11/10/86, ALU 024673-87. 

At his deposition in Poindexter, President Reagan stated that he could not recall whether he remembered the November 1985 HAWK shipment at the time he met with congressional leaders on November 12, 1986, or even whether he had heard about it before the Lebanese newspaper article revealed secret U.S. arms sales to Iran on November 3, 1986.

The President said he did not recall authorizing the August arms shipment in advance. He noted that very possibly, the transfer was brought to him as already completed.

In a subsequent letter to the Board received on February 20, 1987, the President wrote: ``In trying to recall events that happened eighteen months ago I'm afraid that I let myself be influenced by others' recollections, not my own . . .''

``. . . I have no personal notes or records to help my recollection on this matter. The only honest answer is to state that try as I might, I cannot recall anything whatsoever about whether I approved an Israeli sale in advance or whether I approved replenishment of Israeli stocks around August of 1985. My answer therefore and the simple truth is, `I don't remember -- period.' ''

The Board tried to resolve the question of whether the President gave prior approval to Israel's transfer of arms to Iran. We could not do so conclusively.

In his first meeting with the Board on January 16, 1987, the President said he did not remember how the November shipment came about. The President said he objected to the shipment, and that, as a result of that objection, the shipment was returned to Israel.

In his second meeting with the Board on February 11, 1987, the President stated that both he and Mr. Regan agreed that they cannot remember any meeting or conversation in general about a HAWK shipment. The President said he did not remember anything about a call-back of the HAWKs. 

The President said he had no knowledge of the diversion prior to his conversation with Attorney General Meese on November 25, [sic] 1986. 

The President told the Board on January 26, 1987, that he did not know that the NSC staff was engaged in helping the contras.

Of the President's statements to the Tower Commission on the four key subjects, only the President's claimed lack of knowledge of the diversion remains totally unimpeached. Nevertheless, the fundamental barrier to concluding that any of the President's various statements to the Tower Commission was criminally false is that it was virtually impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what the President remembered in January and February of 1987.

In an extensive interview of Reagan conducted in Los Angeles in July 1992, Independent Counsel satisfied himself that President Reagan's memory of the Iran initiative and much of his memory of contra support during the Boland cut-off period is now very faded.

Additionally, a diary kept by White House Counsel Peter Wallison indicates President Reagan's state of confusion as his staff tried to prepare him for the Tower Commission interview. 

In his Grand Jury Interrogatory answers and at his deposition, the President again provided information regarding the four key areas of his knowledge and authorization that have been identified above. In response to written interrogatories, the President in November 1987 made these key statements: 

I am aware that Robert McFarlane has testified that I was briefed on all of these matters while I was in the hospital. I do not recall, however, the precise date on which I was told of the delivery of TOW missiles by Israel to Iran, nor the precise date on which I authorized the replenishment of the TOWs by the United States to Israel. I do not recall any discussion of price whatsoever.

I have no recollection today whether I authorized or approved the shipment of HAWKs by Israel to Iran in November 1985, nor do I recall undertaking at that time a commitment to replenish those HAWKs from United States inventory. While I initially told the Tower Board that I disapproved the transfer, I later advised the Board that I simply had no recollection on this issue.

I do not recall signing a Finding relating to Iranian arms transactions in November or December 1985. I am aware that an unsigned version of such a Finding exists . . . although I am told that a signed version has not been found. I have been advised that the CIA was told contemporaneously that on December 5, 1985, I signed a Finding relating to this initiative. While I do not deny having signed such a Finding, I have no current recollection of doing so.

I can recall no conversation or discussion whatsoever of any such idea prior to my conversation with the Attorney General. 

I do not recall any discussion prior to that time concerning the proceeds of such sales, nor do I recall being asked for authority by anyone to use, control or retain these funds.
 
Until the plane carrying Mr. Hasenfus was shot down in October 1986, I do not recall knowing of specific individuals or groups engaged in this activity and was unaware of any connection with the U.S. Government. 

I do not recall anyone ever asking me to approve or authorize the transfer of any function or operation from the CIA to the NSC, and I do not recall ever discussing such transfer.

I do not now recall any authorizations or approvals of specific actions with respect to the Freedom Fighters.

With regard to Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim, I do not recall approving or authorizing any action concerning them with regard to the Freedom Fighters or of meeting either individual during this timeframe.

Reagan agreed to a final, extensive interview with Independent Counsel, it was obvious that the former President truly lacked specific recollection of even the major Iran/contra events which took place in 1984-1987.

Now THAT'S what I call "selective memory".

Completed Trials and Pleas

Elliott Abrams -- Pleaded guilty October 7, 1991, to two misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress about secret government efforts to support the Nicaraguan contra rebels during a ban on such aid. U.S. District Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., sentenced Abrams November 15, 1991, to two years probation and 100 hours community service. Abrams was pardoned December 24, 1992.

Carl R. Channell -- Pleaded guilty April 29, 1987, to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. U.S. District Judge Stanley S. Harris sentenced Channell on July 7, 1989, to two years probation. 

Thomas G. Clines -- Indicted February 22, 1990, on four felony counts of underreporting his earnings to the IRS in the 1985 and 1986 tax years; and falsely stating on his 1985 and 1986 tax returns that he had no foreign financial accounts. On September 18, 1990, Clines was found guilty of all charges. U.S. District Judge Norman P. Ramsey in Baltimore, Md., on December 13, 1990, sentenced Clines to 16 months in prison and $40,000 in fines. He was ordered to pay the cost of the prosecution. The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., on February 27, 1992, upheld the convictions. Clines served his prison sentence.

Alan D. Fiers, Jr. -- Pleaded guilty July 9, 1991, to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress about secret efforts to aid the Nicaraguan contras. U.S. District Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., sentenced Fiers January 31, 1992, to one year probation and 100 hours community service. Fiers was pardoned December 24, 1992. 

Clair E. George -- Indicted September 6, 1991, on 10 counts of perjury, false statements and obstruction in connection with congressional and Grand Jury investigations. George's trial on nine counts ended in a mistrial on August 26, 1992. Following a second trial on seven counts, George was found guilty December 9, 1992, of two felony charges of false statements and perjury before Congress. The maximum penalty for each count was five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth set sentencing for February 18, 1993. George was pardoned on December 24, 1992, before sentencing occurred.

Albert Hakim -- Pleaded guilty November 21, 1989, to a misdemeanor of supplementing the salary of Oliver L. North. Lake Resources Inc., in which Hakim was the principal shareholder, pleaded guilty to a corporate felony of theft of government property in diverting Iran arms sales proceeds to the Nicaraguan contras and other activities. Hakim was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell on February 1, 1990, to two years probation and a $5,000 fine; Lake Resources was ordered dissolved. 

Robert C. McFarlane -- Pleaded guilty March 11, 1988, to four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress. U.S. District Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., sentenced McFarlane on March 3, 1989, to two years probation, $20,000 in fines and 200 hours community service. McFarlane was pardoned December 24, 1992.

Richard R. Miller -- Pleaded guilty May 6, 1987, to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. U.S. District Judge Stanley S. Harris sentenced Miller on July 6, 1989, to two years probation and 120 hours of community service.

Oliver L. North -- Indicted March 16, 1988, on 16 felony counts. After standing trial on 12, North was convicted May 4, 1989 of three charges: accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell on July 5, 1989, to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours community service. A three-judge appeals panel on July 20, 1990, vacated North's conviction for further proceedings to determine whether his immunized testimony influenced witnesses in the trial. The Supreme Court declined to review the case. Judge Gesell dismissed the case September 16, 1991, after hearings on the immunity issue, on the motion of Independent Counsel. He is now a talk-show radio host.

John M. Poindexter -- Indicted March 16, 1988, on seven felony charges. After standing trial on five charges, Poindexter was found guilty April 7, 1990, on all counts: conspiracy (obstruction of inquiries and proceedings, false statements, falsification, destruction and removal of documents); two counts of obstruction of Congress and two counts of false statements. U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene sentenced Poindexter June 11, 1990, to six months in prison on each count, to be served concurrently. A three-judge appeals panel on November 15, 1991, reversed the convictions on the ground that Poindexter's immunized testimony may have influenced the trial testimony of witnesses. The Supreme Court on December 7, 1992, declined to review the case. In 1993, the indictment was dismissed on the motion of Independent Counsel.

Richard V. Secord -- Indicted March 16, 1988 on six felony charges. On May 11, 1989, a second indictment was issued charging nine counts of impeding and obstructing the Select Iran/contra Committees. Secord was scheduled to stand trial on 12 charges. He pleaded guilty November 8, 1989, to one felony count of false statements to Congress. Secord was sentenced by U.S. District Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., on January 24, 1990, to two years probation.

Pre-trial Pardons

Duane R. Clarridge -- Indicted November 26, 1991, on seven counts of perjury and false statements about a secret shipment of U.S. HAWK missiles to Iran. The maximum penalty for each count was five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene set a March 15, 1993, trial date. Clarridge was pardoned December 24, 1992. 

Caspar W. Weinberger -- Indicted June 16, 1992, on five counts of obstruction, perjury and false statements in connection with congressional and Independent Counsel investigations of Iran/ contra. On September 29, the obstruction count was dismissed. On October 30, a second indictment was issued, charging one false statement count. The second indictment was dismissed December 11, leaving four counts remaining. The maximum penalty for each count was five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan set a January 5, 1993, trial date. Weinberger was pardoned December 24, 1992.

Dismissal

Joseph F. Fernandez -- Indicted June 20, 1988 on five counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing the inquiry of the Tower Commission and making false statements to government agencies. The case was dismissed in the District of Columbia for venue reasons on the motion of Independent Counsel. A four-count indictment was issued in the Eastern District of Virginia on April 24, 1989. U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton dismissed the four-count case November 24, 1989, after Attorney General Richard Thornburgh blocked the disclosure of classified information ruled relevant to the defense. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., on September 6, 1990, upheld Judge Hilton's rulings under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA). On October 12, 1990, the Attorney General filed a final declaration that he would not disclose the classified information.

This is a list of just the ones George Bush pardoned...... 

Caspar W. Weinberger

 Weinberger was Secretary of Defense during the course of the Iran-Contra affair. In June, 1992, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of concealing from congressional investigators and prosecutors thousands of pages of his handwritten notes. The personal memoirs, taken during high level meetings, detailed events in 1985 and 1986 involving the Iran-Contra affair. Weinberger claimed he was being unfairly prosecuted because he would not provide information incriminating former President Ronald Reagan. Weinberger was scheduled to go on trial January 5, where the contents of his notes would have come to light and may have implicated other, UN-indicted, conspirators. While never directly linked to the covert operations of the Iran-Contra affair, he is believed to have been involved in the cover-up of the ensuing scandal.

According to Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, Weinberger's notes contain evidence of a conspiracy among the highest-ranking Reagan administration officials to lie to Congress and the American public. Some of the notes are believed to have evidence against then Vice-President George Bush. 

Elliott Abrams
Abrams was appointed by President Reagan in 1985 to head the State Department's Latin American Bureau. He was closely linked with ex-White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver North's covert movement to aid the Contras. Working for North, Abrams coordinated inter-agency support for the contras and helped solicit illegal contra funding from foreign powers as well as domestic contributors. Abrams agreed to cooperate with Iran-Contra
investigators and plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced in 1991, to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service.

Abrams has been recently associated with the conservative Hudson Institute.

Robert C. McFarlane
McFarlane became Reagan's national security adviser in October 1983, and became well-known as a champion of the MX nuclear missile program in his role as a White House liaison to congress. In 1984, McFarlane initiated the review of U.S. policy towards Iran that led directly to the arms deal. He also supervised early National Security Council efforts to support the Contras.

Shortly after the Iran-Contra scandal was revealed in early 1987, McFarlane took an overdose of the tranquilizer Valium, in an attempt on his own life. He explained, "What really drove me to despair was a sense of having failed the country," upon his release from the hospital. 

McFarlane plead guilty to four misdemeanors and was sentenced to two years' probation, 200 hours of community service and fined $20,000. 

Alan D. Fiers
Fiers is the retired chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force. The ex-spy plead guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding information from Congress about North's activities and the diversion of Iran arms sale money to aid the Contras. He was sentenced to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service. Fiers agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, and his testimony gave a boost to the long-running criminal investigation. Fiers told prosecutors that he and three CIA colleagues knew by mid-1986 that profits from the arms sales to Iran were being diverted to the Contras months before it became public knowledge. One of the officials implicated by Fiers was Clair George. 

Clair George
George is the retired chief of the CIA's covert operations division. In August 1992, a hung jury led U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to declare a mistrial in the case of George, who was accused of concealing from Congress his knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair. 

In a second trial last December on charges of perjury, false statements, and obstruction, the spy was convicted of lying to two congressional committees in 1986. Before Bush's pardon, George faced a maximum five-year sentence and a possible $250,000 fine for each of the two convictions. His sentencing had been scheduled for Feb. 18.

Jurors cleared George of five other charges, including two counts of lying to a federal grand jury that would have carried a mandatory 10 months in prison upon conviction.
 
Duane R. "Dewey" Clarridge
Clarridge was the head of the CIA's Western European Division, and headed the CIA's counter-terrorism center. He was indicted on Nov. 26, 1991, of lying to Congress and the Tower Commission that investigated Iran-Contra. Clarridge was charged with five counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements for allegedly covering up his knowledge of a Nov. 25, 1985, shipment of Hawk missiles to Iran. Clarridge is also suspected of diverting to the Contras weapons originally intended for the Afghan mujahadeen guerrillas. 

Clarridge, who later became an executive of General Dynamics Corp., has maintained his innocence. Before the Christmas eve pardon, he was facing trial in March.

Sources: The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Chronology (National Security Archive, Warner Books, 1987), Men of Zeal (US Senators William Cohen and George Mitchell, Penguin Publishing, 1988).

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