Westlake Village Man on Trial in Arms Case : U.S. Sales to Iran Rejected as Defense

A federal judge said Tuesday that he could not accept the Reagan Administration’s Iranian arms sales as a defense for a Pakistani man from Westlake Village accused of smuggling Hawk missile parts to Iran.

Arif Durrani asked the judge for U.S. documents that he claimed will prove his arms deal with Iran had official government approval. Prosecutors opposed his request.

“I will tell you right now I do not regard that as a defense in this case, what the White House was doing,” Chief U.S. District Judge T.F. Gilroy Daly told Durrani’s attorney, William Bloss.

Durrani, 37, held without bail since his Oct. 3 arrest, claims he was asked by U.S. officials to locate out-of-stock Hawk missile parts as part of the effort to free American hostages held in Lebanon.

Jury selection in the case is set for Monday and Daly delayed ruling on the government’s motion to quash the request for documents.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Holly Fitzsimmons called the defense request for all documents relating to U.S. arms sales to Iran “a fishing expedition” that is “casting smoke over the actual issues in this case.”

The National Security Council has said it will provide four classified documents relating to the Iran arms sales, already mentioned in the Tower Commission report, but 5 of 10 CIA documents requested can’t be located, Fitzsimmons said.

Frank Machak of the State Department and Lee R. Carle of the CIA were in court Tuesday testifying that retrieving the documents requested would be a long process.

Fitzsimmons also questioned whether such documents would even be admissible.

Durrani claimed in a Feb. 4 affidavit that he was approached by a man he now believes was Lt. Col. Oliver North, the fired National Security Council aide who spearheaded the arms sales to Iran.

Fitzsimmons said a preliminary investigation showed North was in Washington on both occasions when Durrani claimed he spoke with him, first in Lisbon and then in London.

Durrani is charged in a three-count federal indictment with willfully exporting arms without a license, with attempting to export arms without a license and with doing business exporting arms without being registered with the State Department.