Carter, Ford Criticize Reagan for Arms Transfer to Iran

Former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that President Reagan appears to have paid a ransom in weapons to Iran for the freedom of American hostages in Lebanon and strongly condemned him for it.

Carter, the Democratic incumbent defeated by Reagan after the traumatic U.S.-Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81, said “this is a very serious mistake.” Ford, a Republican as is Reagan, said those responsible for the clandestine operation deserved wide condemnation.

In a related development, Administration officials disclosed that Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger a year ago dismissed as absurd a secret National Security Council proposal to ease the U.S. arms embargo on Iran.

The officials, who asked not to identified, said Weinberger wrote “this is absurd” across the document, which was sent to the Pentagon for review by the White House in June, 1985.

Carter said Tuesday, “We’ve paid ransom in effect to the kidnapers of our hostages, and whether we did it indirectly through Israel or indirectly through Danish ships is insignificant.

‘A Very Serious Mistake’

“The fact is that every terrorist in the world who reads a newspaper or listens to the radio knows that (when) they’ve taken American hostages, we’ve paid them to get the hostages back,” he said. “This is a very serious mistake in how to handle a kidnaping or hostage-taking.”

He demanded full White House disclosure of “the entire Iranian caper.”

Ford, appearing with Carter on NBC television’s “Today” program, said, “The minute you do what appears to have been done here, whether it’s true or not, the impression is that you paid ransom.

“Who initiated this, who carried it out, I think deserves some condemnation by certain people in the Congress, by people on the outside.”

Asked by reporters about the ex-Presidents’ criticism, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said only, “They weren’t briefed.”

Terrorist Sponsor

The Reagan Administration officially lists Iran as a state sponsor of international terrorism and has appealed to other nations to refuse it arms in its war with Iraq.

Reagan said in a televised address last week that he had approved the supply of a small amount of defensive arms and spare parts to Iran, but he denied it was ransom for hostages.

He said the United States wanted to renew a relationship with strategically-important Iran, end the six-year-old Iran-Iraq War, eliminate state-sponsored terrorism and effect the safe return of hostages.

Carter severed diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed an arms embargo after 52 Americans were taken hostage by student revolutionaries in Tehran and held for 444 days.

The crisis indelibly marred his presidency and helped win the election of Reagan, who had excoriated Carter’s record on the affair as humiliatingly weak and indecisive.

Speculation Over Shultz

Weinberger’s disclosure came as the White House struggled to defuse speculation that Secretary of State George P. Shultz might resign over the secret White House operation.

“Weinberger’s response (to the NSC memo) was that he did not share the assumption that Iran was about to undergo some kind of fundamental change and that we could deal with Tehran rationally,” one official said.

Pentagon officials said, however, that Weinberger remained a loyal member of the Reagan Cabinet and that once the President had made his decision, the secretary did “his part to carry it out.”

Asked to respond to Weinberger’s action, Speakes said only, “I don’t want to comment on any secret memo.”

Carter said the NSC, led by John M. Poindexter, had abused its privilege of secrecy by supplying the arms without notifying the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or fully informing Shultz or Weinberger.

‘Impossible Position’

He said the operation “put Secretary Shultz in an almost impossible position which casts doubt on his own integrity” because Shultz was sent to urge European allies not to supply arms to Iran at the same time U.S. arms were being sent there.

Carter noted public opinion polls showed most Americans were skeptical of Reagan’s statement that he had not paid ransom and said the Administration should reveal all details of the operation.

“I think a complete revelation of the entire Iranian caper should be made to the Congress and therefore to the American people,” he said.