File 015 · 1985–1987 · Arms scandal

The Iran-Contra Affair

Officials in the Reagan administration secretly sold missiles to Iran and used part of the proceeds to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua, even though Congress had banned that aid.

Background

In the mid-1980s the United States officially refused to deal with Iran's government and had an arms embargo against it. At the same time several Americans were being held hostage in Lebanon by groups linked to Iran. In 1985 and 1986 members of the administration arranged shipments of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, in the hope of winning the hostages' release and building ties with Iranian moderates.

Separately, Congress had passed the Boland Amendments restricting US military aid to the Contras, the rebels fighting Nicaragua's left-wing government. Staff on the National Security Council, led on the ground by Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, set up a private network to keep the Contras supplied. Money from the Iran sales was diverted into it.

What the record shows

• Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh charged 14 people. Eleven were convicted; two convictions, those of North and Poindexter, were later overturned on appeal because of the immunized testimony they had given to Congress.
• Walsh's final report (1993) concluded that the program was run in violation of the law and that officials misled Congress, and said it found no credible evidence that President Reagan himself broke a criminal law.
• The Tower Commission and the congressional investigation both documented the missile sales and the diversion of funds.
• The 1992 pardons ended the remaining cases and Walsh publicly criticized them.

Timeline

• 1984 Congress bars US military aid to the Contras (Boland Amendment).
• 1985–86 Secret missile shipments to Iran are arranged, partly through Israel and private intermediaries.
• 3 Nov 1986 A Lebanese magazine, Ash-Shiraa, reveals the arms-for-hostages dealings.
• 25 Nov 1986 Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits were diverted to the Contras; North is dismissed and Poindexter resigns.
• Feb 1987 The Tower Commission criticizes the president's management style and the NSC staff.
• Mar 1987 Reagan tells the public that what began as a strategic opening to Iran 'deteriorated' into trading arms for hostages.
• 1987 Joint congressional hearings, including testimony from North.
• Dec 1992 President George H. W. Bush pardons six people, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.

Checking the claims

The claim: the whole affair was a secret government plot. What investigators found: it was a real secret operation, proven by documents, bank records, testimony and the participants' own admissions. What was never settled is how much the president personally knew. Reagan said he had not known about the diversion, and investigators did not find evidence that disproved this.

A related, separate claim is that the CIA deliberately flooded American cities with cocaine through Contra-linked networks. The CIA Inspector General's 1998 report did find that the agency kept working with Contra-connected people it had reason to suspect of drug trafficking, and did not always report it. It did not find a policy of the agency to bring drugs into the United States.

Claimed, but not shown

The claim that the CIA ran a deliberate program to sell cocaine in the United States is not supported by the official investigations, which did find serious failures to act on drug-trafficking allegations.

Verdict

Sources

• Report of the President's Special Review Board (Tower Commission), 1987
• Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (1987)
• Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (Walsh), 1993
• CIA Office of Inspector General, Report of Investigation: Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking (1998)

Connected files (red threads)

• Watergate — Cover-up and congressional oversight, a decade apart
• The Church Committee and the 'Family Jewels' — Covert action under congressional scrutiny, again

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