A Glossary of Terms Used by Participants in Investigation

Here is a glossary of terms that were used in the Iran- contra hearings Tuesday:

Hawks--Surface-to-air missiles sold to the Iranians as part of a U.S. plan to win the release of American hostages.

TOWs--Anti-tank missiles that also figured in the Iranian arms deals. The acronym stands for tube-launched optically-tracked wire-guided.

Residuals--Lt. Col. Oliver L. North’s term for money, left over from U.S. arms sales to Iran, that was sent to the Nicaraguan contras. Prices on the arms were marked up to generate what others have called “profits” that were “diverted” to the contras.

Second channel--The second group of Iranian go-betweens to which the United States turned after concluding that Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar was unreliable. Members of the group have never been precisely identified but are said to include a relative of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and a relative of Hashemi Rafsanjani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament.

PROFS notes--Electronic messages sent by National Security Council staff members to each other on computer terminals. PROFS stands for Professional Office System. North testified he thought he had gotten rid of messages by hitting the “delete” key, but they were saved in the system and retrieved by investigators.

Country 10: An unnamed nation from which North testified that he solicited operational support for Nicaragua’s rebels. Countries 1 to 9 also have been officially unidentified, but sources have identified seven of them as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Poland.