REAGAN TESTIMONY: A COMPARISON

A comparison of some of former President Ronald Reagan’s answers to his interrogators in the case against John M. Poindexter, his former national security adviser, and what has been said previously on the subject.

QUESTION: “Did you authorize the diversion of funds from the Iran arm sales to the Contras?”

REAGAN: “I had no knowledge then or now that there had been a diversion . . . . All I knew was that there was some money that came from some place in another account and that the appearance was that it might have been a part of the negotiated sale, and to this day I don’t have any information or knowledge that . . . there was a diversion.”

THE RECORD: Congressional Iran-Contra committees reported in November, 1987, that $3.8 million was diverted from the arms sales to the Contras. Poindexter has testified that Reagan was never told about the diversion of funds to the Contras.

QUESTION: “Tell the jury generally about what you knew about what Oliver North was doing with regard to helping the situation in Central America vis-a-vis the freedom fighters?”

REAGAN: “You have to have people that can be available to make contact with the leaders of the Contras and so forth, sometimes closer than just writing a letter . . . . It was my understanding . . . that that’s what he was doing . . . . I know there was another area too in which he participated. Well, for example, in the meeting with the Iranians, he was involved in that.”

THE RECORD: North has acknowledged that he not only assisted in negotiating the sale of weapons to Iran, but also directed a supply operation for the Nicaraguan resistance which raised $34 million from other countries and $2.7 million from private contributors, secured weapons from international suppliers and arranged for shipments of arms.

QUESTION: “Do you recall being informed generally about that shipment” of U.S. Hawk missiles to Iran in late 1985 by Israel--the first of the arms sales to Iran--during a 1985 meeting in Geneva with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane?

REAGAN: “I don’t have any recollection of when I was told about that or who told me . . . . I don’t have a clear recollection of what might have been discussed in that meeting of that kind over there in Geneva, there were so many meetings and so many different places . . . .

THE RECORD: McFarlane testified he told Shultz and Reagan that Israel was about to deliver 80 Hawk missiles to Iran from a warehouse in Portugal and that Israel wanted the United States to replace those missiles. The President earlier signed documents approving the sale to Iran.

QUESTION: “In a 1985 White House document approving the Iranian arms sale it says: ‘As part of these efforts, certain foreign material and munitions may be provided to the government of Iran which is taking steps to facilitate the release of American hostages.’ ”

REAGAN: “There was no involvement of the government of Iran in this at all and so, it was private citizens . . . . And our reward to them for taking that action was to sell them the missile shipment that they had asked for.”

THE RECORD: The Iran-Contra committees reported that American officials knew that the February, 1986, TOW missile shipment to Iran went to the ayatollah’s Revolutionary Guards. The so-called Second Channel, the Iranian with whom they negotiated later shipments, was identified by the congressional panel as a man “who had distinguished himself in the ranks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in the war with Iraq.”