North Reportedly Spoke of Plan to Assassinate Iranian Officials

Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the White House aide fired in the Iran- contra affair, told a U.S. military official that one of his plans was to accomplish the assassination of Iranian officials, it was reported Saturday.

A U.S. News & World Report article said that in discussions on how to undermine the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one Iranian group asked for assistance in a plot to assassinate Khomeini.

The magazine said that congressional investigators are checking allegations of assassination plans and whether any Americans were involved in such discussions.

A presidential executive order forbids direct or indirect participation by U.S. government employees in assassination attempts.

The discussions occurred, the magazine said, during meetings in 1985 and 1986 in which U.S. and Israeli representatives attempted to establish relations with so-called moderate elements in Iran who might assume leadership if Khomeini could be ousted. The talks led to the clandestine U.S. arms sales to Iran, first by Israel and later by the United States.

A significant portion of the arms sale profits was siphoned off to subsidize pro-Western Iranian politicians, who, the magazine said, were believed to be willing to change the Iranian government.

The magazine cited congressional sources and foreign documents, including transcripts of secretly recorded meetings in Europe, letters of Iranian officials and classified Israeli documents.

Congressional sources reportedly have information that North told a military official last year of one of his plans to assassinate Iranian officials. The magazine did not name the military official.

North’s attorney, Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., declined on Saturday to comment on the report.

The magazine reported that sources close to an Israeli participant in the talks said a group of Iranian clerics, led by Khomeini adviser Hassan Karoubi, requested help in the Khomeini assassination plan, and that an explosive device was even readied to blow up a briefcase that was to be given to the ayatollah.