Saudi Rulers ‘Just Said Yes’ to Nancy : Aided Anti-Drug Drive While Seeking Jets, Reports Say

The Saudi royal family helped bankroll Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign at the same time the country sought to win controversial approval to buy U.S. military aircraft, published reports said today.

Reports of the Saudi connections to the “Just Say No” charity championed by the First Lady and secret funding of the Nicaraguan Contras at President Ronald Reagan’s request were published by the Washington Post and the New Republic.

James Rosebush, former chief of staff to Mrs. Reagan, denied the $2 million in Saudi-generated donations to her charity influenced White House views on the Saudi military aircraft deal. He said it also had no bearing on the Reagan Administration’s policy on the U.S.-backed Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

“That’s why we set up this arm’s-length fund,” said Rosebush, to insulate the family from that kind of allegation.

Mrs. Reagan established the Nancy Reagan Drug Abuse fund in 1985 under the auspices of the Community Foundation of Greater Washington, which also administered other charitable causes.

The Post reported that the charity distributed $1.4 million to drug abuse prevention programs across the country from 1985 to 1988.

Mrs. Reagan moved her fund--an estimated $3.6 million funded primarily by the two Saudi donations--to Los Angeles last year, establishing a charity exclusively under her name.

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia donated $1 million to Mrs. Reagan’s Washington fund prior to his visit to the United States in February, 1985. In March of that year, the Saudi government chipped in $24 million to the Contra cause, the reports said.

And in 1986, the Administration began delivery to the Saudis of the long-awaited AWACS surveillance aircraft. A fighter plane deal for the Saudis supported by Reagan was blocked by Congress.

After the Fahd contribution, foundation officials said they received a call from “the White House” asking them to meet with Mouaffak Al Midani, who donated $1 million to the charity.

Little is known about Midani. Post sources described him as a millionaire with utility and telecommunications links in Saudi Arabia and other business interests in California and Europe. Midani threw a lavish “welcome home” party for the Reagans last year when they returned to Los Angeles from the White House.

In another case detailed in the Post and the New Republic, the Sultan of Brunei in 1983 donated $500,000 to the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth, a charity suggested by Mrs. Reagan, the reports said.

Three years later Reagan Administration officials tapped the sultan for a $10-million check to the Contras.