Excerpts: Not Heroics, It’s a Business Situation

Following are excerpts from testimony Friday by Iranian-born businessman Albert A. Hakim before the congressional committees investigating the Iran-contra affair:

The Porsche

(Hakim was asked by Senate chief counsel Arthur L. Liman about a withdrawal from a Swiss bank account by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord.)

Question: . . . Exhibit 29A reflects a withdrawal which was charged to Gen. Secord’s account for $31,817. . . . Are you familiar with that transaction?

Answer: Yes, I am, sir.

Q: And does that transaction reflect the purchase of a Porsche automobile by Gen. Secord?

A: Yes, it does.

Q: And that was a car to be used for personal use, not for the contras, correct?

A: That’s the right conclusion.

(Liman asked Hakim additional questions about Gen. Secord’s spending habits.)

Q: Do you recall at all, being asked by Gen. Secord, to disburse this $52,500 from the Korel account, to him?

A: I cannot remember that--

Q: Well, maybe I can refresh you. Do you recall any occasion when he told you he wanted to buy a plane for his personal use--a Piper Seneca?

A: Yes.

Surplus Profits

(Liman asked Hakim about the profits from the U.S. sale of arms to Iran, estimated as high as $15 million, still held in Swiss bank accounts.)

Q: Are you prepared to deed over this money to the U.S. government?

A: Mr. Liman, I have so many questions about this money and the enterprise in my mind that you cannot imagine. . . . So not being able to clarify those questions in my mind, I don’t think I am in a position to do so.

Q: Well, there’s one acid test of whether you consider the money yours and your partner’s, or whether you consider it money that belongs to the United States, and that’s whether you are prepared to deed it over. I take it the answer is you’re not.

(Following a brief interruption by Hakim’s attorney, Hakim responded.)

A: It’s not a question of acid test. This is--there are commitments, it’s a business, you have to look at it, you see who are the people who are involved. Definitely the U.S. government is one of the elements. What I’m saying is it’s not a question of doing a heroic thing and passing any acid test. It’s a business situation and should be treated as such.

An Assessment

(Following his questioning of Hakim, Sen . Paul S. Trible Jr. (R-Va.) requested “the indulgence of the chair” to offer some thoughts on the progress of the investigation to date.)

Trible: Mr. Chairman, I must say, all this smacks of a soap opera. It’s a saga of venality and greed, and a flair for the dramatic. It’s part James Bond and part Jimmy Durante. And it would be very laughable, but for the destructive consequences for people and policy. What we’ve established, I think through this testimony, is the sheer folly of operating outside official channels, without oversight and accountability, consultation, checks and balances, people and policy to get into big trouble.

(The chairman of the Senate investigating panel, Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), also took the occasion of his questioning of Hakim as an opportunity to comment on his feelings about the events as a whole.)

Q: During the past two days, panel members and citizens in the audience have chuckled over some of your responses. They have found your testimony fascinating and exotic. But I must confess to you that I found it rather sad. To be told that here we had an American citizen, not just one, but two, not cleared to handle certain classified material, sharing the secrets of this nation--secrets that even we, here, have been denied.

I’d be tempted to show you one of the documents that this committee received from one of our agencies. And it says: “Reviewed and cleared.” And all it has is a blank piece of paper. You were given the KL-43, a most secret device, something that the KGB would love to grab hold of. And now we are told that it’s lying in an attorney’s safe or closet. We have been told that phony passports were issued by this government. We are told that persons not cleared have had access to the (White House) Situation Room. And I doubt if three of us on this panel have ever seen the Situation Room, it is considered so secret.

And then, to find that Iranians who have been sneaked in in the dark of night, been given a special tour of the White House--to say that it is stranger than fiction is an understatement. . . .

And then, to come out that we will participate in deposing a chief of state of a country--and we’re supposed to be neutral in that area. Did these things bother you? I realize you’re not a diplomat or a politician. But I think of all the people in this room, you are the most knowledgeable of what is happening in the Middle East. Did, then, these all concern you? That something was drastically wrong?

A: When I look back to it, Mr. Chairman, I share your opinion. At the time, it didn’t occur to me.