‘87 Israeli Memo Tells of Bush Iran Arms Briefing

A secret Israeli government report confirms that President Bush knew more about the Ronald Reagan Administration’s secret arms deals with Iran than he has maintained, ABC News has reported.

A report written in 1987 by Israeli counterterrorism chief Amiram Nir says that Nir briefed Bush on the arms-for-hostages deals in considerable detail, ABC said.

Bush, who was then vice president, has said that he did not know the details of the deals at the time and did not realize that the United States was trading weapons for hostages. But several other officials who were involved said that Bush was repeatedly briefed about the secret arms sales and actively supported the plan.

Nir’s memorandum is the fourth source to surface that contradicts Bush’s assertion. The others are former National Security Council aide Howard Teicher, who said he briefed Bush about the arms deals; retired Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, who said Nir told him about briefing Bush in 1986; and a memorandum by Bush’s own chief of staff, Craig Fuller, recounting Nir’s briefing.

According to Fuller’s memorandum, which was written immediately after the July 29, 1986, briefing, Nir told Bush that the United States and Israel had sought the release of all of the American hostages then held in Lebanon in exchange for a “fixed price” of 4,000 missiles; that the Iranians wanted, instead, to exchange one hostage at a time; and that the deals were being made “with the most radical elements” in the Iranian government.

Nir’s memorandum confirms those points, ABC said.

Bush said in 1988 that he never realized that the deals constituted a swap of weapons for hostages until Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.) explained the details to him in late 1986, six months after his briefing with Nir.

Bush also said he did not understand Nir’s reference to “radicals,” because the deals were initially intended to establish contact with Iranian moderates.

However, in a column written for today’s Los Angeles Times, Teicher says: “I participated in several meetings with Bush at which the core elements of the Iran initiative were discussed,” including a briefing shortly before Bush met with Nir in Israel.

At that briefing, Teicher writes, “Bush was offering his help” to keep the Iranian initiative going long enough to win the release of the remaining hostages.

During this year’s campaign, Bush has refused to respond in detail to any of the renewed charges about his role in the affair.

“I believe I’ve leveled with the American people, and I have nothing to add to it,” he said Sept. 25.