The Iran Deception : REAGAN’S GREATEST CRISIS : The Unfolding of the Iran Deception : A Chronology

After six years of magic, President Reagan broke the spell. By deceiving the nation, he and those around him badly damaged his presidency. This traumatic tale is still unfolding, with no end in sight. This is how it developed.

Nov. 4, 1979 Militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and hold 52 Americans hostage for the next 14 months, triggering a U.S. embargo on the shipment of arms and spare parts to the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Dec. 25-26, 1979: The Soviet Union airlifts troops to Afghanistan. September 1980 Iran-Iraq war begins. After the United States rejects an Iranian request two months later to buy spare parts for its U.S.-made F-14 warplanes, Iran goes into the international black market in an extensive and expensive effort to obtain parts to maintain its military arsenal. Jan. 20, 1981 American hostages in Iran are released. Jan. 20, 1981: Ronald Reagan inaugurated. August, 1981 Lt. Col. Oliver North joins the staff of the National Security Council. Early March, 1982 Reports surface that the Reagan Administration, charging Nicaragua has become a “Soviet bastion,” has begun efforts to support contras. June 6, 1982: Israel invades Lebanon. December 1982 Congress adopts restrictions on aid to the Nicaraguan contras. October 17, 1983

President Reagan names Robert C. McFarlane as National Security Advisor, North’s boss. October 23, 1983 In Beirut, 241 U.S. Marines are killed in a truck-bomb attack by a suicidal driver linked to a pro-Iranian Lebanese Shia group. November 1983 Reagan wins congressional approval of his request for $24 million in aid for the Contras. Early 1984 North reportedly develops a plan to use private Americans and third countries to funnel aid to the Contras in the face of mounting congressional opposition to U.S. military aid. March 7, 1984 Jeremy Levin, Beirut bureau chief for the U.S. Cable News Network, is kidnaped on a West Beirut street. March 16, 1984 William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, is kidnaped. April 1984 The disclosure that the CIA provided logistics and supervision for the mining of Nicaraguan harbors creates an uproar in Congress, where Reagan is seeking additional aid for the contras. May 8, 1984 American Presbyterian pastor Benjamin T. Weir is kidnaped on a West Beirut street. October 1984 Congress passes the so-called Boland Amendment, banning military aid to the contras. North turns to non-government intermediaries to handle many of the tasks for the contra supply operation. Nov. 6, 1984: President Reagan wins reelection. Dec. 3, 1984 Peter Kilburn, American University librarian in Beirut, fails to report to work, and the extremist group Islamic Jihad says he has been kidnaped.

Late 1984 The late Don Fortier, then the NSC’s top global strategist, earmarks Iran as one of three world flashpoints where existing U.S. policy needs review and orders a reassessment to begin. Dec. 9, 1984: Iranians capture four hijackers and free nine hostages at Teheran airport. Late 1984-early ’85 NSC and CIA analysts study the chances of improving relations with Iran. Early 1985 Israeli defense ministry official David Kimche approaches McFarlane, with a list of hundreds of Iranian “moderates” and encourages the United States to open a dialogue with the Iranians. McFarlane gives list to the CIA. Jan. 8, 1985 The Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco is kidnaped in Lebanon, where he was director of Catholic Relief Services. Feb. 13, 1985 Hostage Levin escapes from his captors in Lebanon and is turned over to U.S. authorities by Syria. March 1985 After the CIA receives reports indicating Buckley is being tortured, Reagan appeals to Israeli Prime Minister Peres for help in obtaining his release. Peres subsequently contacts Israeli experts in the arms business. March 10, 1985: Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko dies. Mikhail Gorbachev succeeds him. March 16, 1985 Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, is kidnaped in Beirut. May 28, 1985 David Jacobsen, administrator of American University Hospital in Beirut, is kidnapped. June 1985 CIA Director William J. Casey distributes a paper, “Iran: Prospects for Near-term Instability,” hinting at disintegration in the Khomeini regime. McFarlane uses the paper as foundation for an NSC draft urging “material aid” to Iran to curry favor. Weinberger privately responds: “Absurd.” June 3, 1985 Buckley, according to Jacobsen’s account, dies at the hands of his captors. June 9, 1985 Thomas Sutherland, acting dean of agriculture at American University of Beirut, is kidnaped. June 14, 1985 Roy M. Furmark, a New York businessman and former legal client of Casey’s, introduces Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi to Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar in Hamburg, West Germany. June 19, 1985: In El Salvador, four U.S. Marines, two U.S. businessmen, and seven others are killed. June-July 1985 Iranian officials help win freedom for some of the hostages aboard TWA Flight 847 hijacked to Beirut, a development that produces what one U.S. source calls “a great stirring of interest” within the Administration in the prospects of improving releations with Iran. July 8, 1985 Reagan, in a speech to the American Bar Association, says Iran is part of a “confederation of terrorist states . . . a new, international version of Murder Inc.” July 13, 1985: President Reagan undergoes surgery for cancerous colon growth. Late July 1985 McFarlane meets with Kimche, who reportedly says Iranian “moderates” wish to established a dialogue with the Reagan Administration and are willing to obtain the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon in return for shipments of arms to Iran. Late summer 1985 McFarlane tells Reagan of the Israeli approach. McFarlane says Reagan approves an initial arms shipments; the White House says Reagan did not. August 1985 Congress approves $27 million in “humanitarian” aid to the contras but specifically forbids use of any of the funds for military aid. August-September 1985 Israel makes a two-part clandestine shipment of U.S. arms and spare parts to Iran. The financing is supplied by Khashoggi. Sept. 9, 1985 Weir is released after 16 months of captivity in Lebanon. November 1985 With logistical help from the CIA arranged by North, another Israeli shipment of arms goes to Iran. It is later returned because the missiles are obsolete. Nov. 19-20, 1985: President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev meet in Geneva. Dec. 4, 1985 McFarlane announces he is resigning as Reagan’s national security adviser; Adm. John M. Poindexter, his former deputy, is named to succeed him. Dec. 6, 1985 At a White House meeting, Reagan agrees to a suspension of arms sales and McFarlane is dispatched to London to inform the middlemen. Jan. 7, 1986 Issue of arms sales comes up again at a White House meeting. Shultz and Weinberger continue to express opposition, and Reagan does not indicate a lifting of the suspension. Jan. 17, 1986 Reagan signs secret order authorizing direct U.S. arms shipments to Iran through the CIA and other government conduits. The order instructs the CIA not to tell Congress of the operation. February 1986 Two chartered Boeing 707s deliver arms directly from U.S. military stockpiles to Tehran. Feb. 25, 1986 Reagan asks Congress to vote $100 million in aid for the contras , including $70 million in military assistance. April 2, 1986: Terrorists put a bomb on a TWA flight from Rome to Athens, killing four Americans. April 15, 1986 The United States bombs “terrorist” targets in Libya and applies heavy pressure on allies to isolate and punish “terrorist” states, in whose number it includes Iran. Spring 1986 The private arms pipeline supplying the contras accelerates as Reagan re-expresses his commitment to the “freedom fighters.” May, 1986 Texas millionaire H. Ross Perot is asked by North to deposit $2 million in a Swiss bank account, then to fly $1 million in cash to Cyprus for use as ransom. Perot says he agreed but the deal fell through for reasons he did not learn. May 4-6, 1986: Western leaders single out Libya in statement denouncing terrorism. May 28, 1986 McFarlane arrives in Tehran with North on a plane that also carries military equipment to the Iranians. Hostages understood to be released the same day remain in captivity. Americans depart after four days of “frustrating” talks with middle-level Iranian officials. McFarlane learns from North about the contra diversion, according to McFarlane’s later account, and he assumes it had been approved by “higher authority.” June 26, 1986 The House, for the first time in three years, approves a Reagan request for military aid for the contras. The legislation eventually signed into law by Reagan sets a date of Oct. 1 for resumption of the military assistance. July 1986 Another shipment of U.S. arms to Iran reportedly occurs, but never reaches Tehran. July 26, 1986 Father Jenco is released in Lebanon. Sept. 5, 1986: Terrorists take over Pan Am 747 plane in Karachi. 22 passengers and two gunmen are killed. Sept 9 and 12, 1986 Two more Americans, Frank H. Reed and Joseph J. Cicippio, are taken hostage in Lebanon. Oct. 5, 1986 A C-123 cargo plane carrying weapons and other supplies to the contras is shot down in Nicaragua. Three crew members, including two Americans, are killed, and U.S. mercenary Eugene Hasenfus parachutes to safety and is captured. Oct. 7, 1986 Furmark notifies Casey that two Canadian middlemen who helped finance the arms sales are threatening to sue--and blow the lid of secrecy off the deals--because their investment has not been fully returned. Oct. 11-12, 1986: President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, Iceland. Oct 21, 1986 American Edward A. Tracy is kidnapped in Lebanon. Late October, 1986 Another shipment of U.S. arms is reportedly sent to Tehran. For at least one of the 1986 shipments, some of Iran’s payments reimburse the Pentagon for the cost of the arms, but other funds are diverted to Swiss bank accounts in the names of North; retired Air Force Major Gen. Richard V. Secord, a key supplier of private aid to the contras, and Albert A. Hakim, an Iranian-born California businessman. Oct. 31, 1986 Beirut magazine Al Shiraa publishes a story disclosing McFarlane’s secret trip to Tehran in May. Nov. 2, 1986 Hostage Jacobsen is released in Beruit. Nov. 13, 1986 Reagan, in a nationally televised speech, acknowledges an 18-month “secret diplomatic initiative” involving the shipment of “small amounts of defensive weapons and spare parts” to Iran but denies any trade of arms for hostages. Nov. 15, 1986 Hasenfus is convicted by a tribunal in Nicaragua and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Nov. 19, 1986 Reagan tells a news conference he has ruled out any further arms deliveries to Iran but insists that the covert operation was not a mistake. Nov. 25, 1986 Reagan announces Poindexter’s resignation and North’s dismissal. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III discloses Iranian arms sales profits had been diverted to assist the contras. Dec. 17 Nicaragua releases Hasenfus from prison.