U.S. Held Dropping Probe of 2 Colonels Tied to Arms Deal

U.S. officials are dropping an investigation of two U.S. Army colonels who allegedly plotted while on active duty to sell munitions to Iran, a report published Sunday said.

The report in the New York Times said Col. Ralph Mark Broman and Col. William H. Mott IV were linked to Paul S. Cutter, a former diplomat who is now serving a five-year sentence after his conviction in a Florida federal court in October, 1985, for trying to smuggle TOW anti-tank weapons to Iran.

Broman and Mott, now retired from the military, were allegedly involved in a plan to sell Iran F-4 jet fighters and other munitions that they allegedly intended to obtain illegally from U.S. stocks in Europe, the paper said. One deal was reportedly started as early as 1983.

It was not clear how many weapons may actually have reached Iran, the paper said. Broman and Mott, who are alleged to have carried on the dealings while assigned to U.S. embassies in Paris and London, have reportedly denied the allegations.

Army investigators learned 18 months ago of the alleged scheme and turned the information over to the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, the report said.

“They were not interested in pursuing it,” said one government official quoted by the paper. “The investigation is being closed.”

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Edwina Palmer, said the Defense Department had no comment on the report.