Israel: The Contra's Secret Benefactor
Hunter, Jane
"YOU FEEL AFTER A DAY LIKE YOU'VE 1.known them for years." Israeli television concealed the speaker's identity in shadows, as he told of the "outstanding" relationship between Israeli...
...With Washington threatening to terminate the Iran "initiative," Israel was fighting desperately to keep the operation alive...
...Christopher Dickey, With the Contras, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), p. 107...
...Miami Herald, September 4, 1986...
...Washington Post, August 5, 1986...
...These arms were delivered to El Salvador's Ilopango Air Base by Southern Air Transport, a former CIA "proprietary" and one of the companies in the network North called "Project Democracy...
...Israeli television concealed the speaker's identity in shadows, as he told of the "outstanding" relationship between Israeli advisers and their contra pupils...
...Warren B. Rudman (R-NH), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee, said the Israelis' cooperation was "excellent...
...Washington Post, May 19, 1984...
...82...
...Adolfo Calero's brother Mario would later purchase 10,000 more AK-47s in Israel...
...6 In the following weeks it would emerge that there was more than just a casual overlap in the personnel who ran the two operations-most notably the NSC's Oliver North and former Air Force Maj...
...Miami Herald, September 9, 1983...
...Some of the money Israel gave is said to have been passed through Oliver North...
...Noting the close ties between Nicaragua MARCH/APRIL 1987 21The Israeli Connection The Israeli Connection and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Bosco Matamoros, the rebels' Washington representative, urged Israel to help the contras...
...Ambassador to Nicaragua and subsequently deleted from the printed version of remarks President Reagan made to a Jewish audience, the charges of anti-Semitism would assume a life of their own, regularly revived by the Gorn and Stavisky families and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith before important votes on contra aid...
...Political-Military Committee in Washington...
...Meanwhile, Israel again increased its covert aid, according to Administration and contra sources, giving the insurgents just under $5 million (of a total of $15 million reportedly collected from various sources by September 1984).6 Part of Israel's contribution was in East-bloc and Chinese-made weapons, and part was in cash to "help the contras meet their $800,000 monthly payroll...
...9 5 Last winter, Sen...
...Al Schwimmer, former head of the state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries, worked with Nimrodi on arms sales to Iran until January 1986 when the two (along with Foreign Ministry Director David Kimche) were replaced by then Prime Minister Peres in favor of government personnel...
...8 4 Nir set the price the Iranians would pay, and in January 1986 he told North "that the Israelis would take funds from a residual account and transfer them to I I MARCH/APRIL 1987 23The Israeli Conhection a Nicaraguan account...
...only the CIA or the Israelis could give us these," he said...
...U. S. financing would have been part of the 1986 deal, as well...
...correspondent...
...3. New York Times, November 26, 1986...
...Davar, (Tel Aviv), April 27, 1984 [excerpt] in FBIS ME-A, April 27, 1984...
...weaponry to Iran...
...Based on estimates at the time, this would have armed one-quarter of the FDN's combatants...
...This was the deal to be put before David Kimche of the Israeli Foreign Ministry at an April 1984 meeting of the Israeli-U.S...
...Ha'aretz, April 4, 1984, excerpt transl...
...Boston Globe, November 30, 1986...
...This sentiment, coupled with the role Israel has played in arming rightist regimes throughout Latin America, has prompted the Sandinistas to adopt an avowedly anti-Zionist foreign policy...
...Daniel Inouye (D-HI), on a visit to Israel, expressed understanding for Israel's involvement in the Iran arms sales and said he believed Israel's assertion that it did not know anything about the diversion of profits to the contras...
...Ha'aretz,(Tel Aviv), May 20, 1982 in FBISME-A, May 21, 1982...
...9. Newsweek, December 15, 1986...
...In fact, in early 1984 the aid Israel gave the contras "became crucial to the war's continuation," in the view of Robert K. Simmons, a former staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee...
...New York Times, February 8, 1987...
...Reluctantly, the Administration issued a statement that Israel had not been asked to become involved in the contra program-and that no agreement had been reached on funding Israeli aid programs...
...Dispatches," The Nation, September 28, 1985...
...Administration to get Israel to supply the armies of the pro-American regimes [in Central America]" with the funds "the U.S...
...Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1987...
...Guardian, (London), October 11, 1985...
...Former U.S...
...These things are all handled by the U.S...
...New York Times, February 8, 1987...
...news of the contra link caused a brief sensation in Israel...
...What role can Israel be expected to play after 1988, if the Reagan term concludes without an invasion of Nicaragua...
...Panama City ACAN (dateline, San Jos6), 0045 GMT, April 24, 1984 in FBIS-LA, April 25, 1984...
...Israel was giving up its role as an independent arms dealer to assume a new role as a quasi surrogate for the United States, the Administration asserted...
...7 7 Meanwhile the Administration kept up the pressure, challenging Israel to make a success of the contras, who had never developed into an effective guerrilla force...
...Time, December 8, 1986...
...Ret...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, October 1985...
...We need a government...
...Assistance to the State of lsrael, US General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C...
...The government licenses the experts, approves their "security techniques" for export and "often passes less-desirable clients to private consulting firms...
...Middle East International, (London), April 3, 1987...
...cannot directly transfer to its allies in the region . . . paid to Israel directly from the United States...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, October 1985...
...Dickey, With the Contras, pp...
...Testimony of H6ctor Franc.s, an Argentine contra trainer, to Latin American Federation of Journalists, Mexico City, published in Barricada, (Managua) December 2, 1982, translated by Carmen Alegria in Black Scholar, March-April, 1982...
...New York Times, August 10, 1985...
...Ha'aretz, November 30, 1986 in FBIS-ME-A...
...Ha'aretz, November 11, 1983 in Israel Mirror (nd...
...Davar, cited in Guardian, (London), October 11, 1985...
...The first major step was taken in July 1985, when the Foreign Aid Bill (containing $27 million in "humanitarian" aid for the contras) was in a HouseSenate conference committee...
...Yediot Aharonot, December 5, 1986...
...Will Israel see the contras into the 1990s...
...Peres assigned Nir to the operation in January 1986, as a replacement for David Kimche and arms dealers Ya'acov Nimrodi and Al Schwimmer.82 North had also told Meese about a conversation he had with David Kimche, during which Kimche outlined three options for funneling money to the contras...
...Jerusalem Post, April 22, 1984...
...the Israeli press refers to Montealegre as Montenegro...
...When reminded of the substantial U.S...
...Yet in the United States, details of Israel's involvement were quickly submerged in reams of reportage on an affair which was assuming epochal proportions...
...on behalf of journalists Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey...
...Ha'aretz cited in Christian Science Monitor, January 13, 1987...
...A grateful Israel made use of the pictures in June 1981 when it bombed and destroyed the Iraqui installation...
...2. Tel Aviv IDF Radio, 0600 GMT, December 10, 1986 in FBIS Latin America, December 10, 1986...
...Assuming that the investigations by Congress and special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, coupled with public protest, will succeed in permanently turning off U.S...
...Sharon, who had signed the 1981 memorandum on behalf of Israel, was hoping to earn points in Washington...
...9 According to The Washington Times, Swiss bankers had identified as intermediaries in the scheme Israelis Al Schwimmer, Arnon Milchen, Shlomo Cohen and Marcus Kritz (sic-possibly David Marcus Katz, the Mexico-based Israeli weapons salesman...
...Years later, The Boston Sunday Globe would report that the campaign on Sandinista anti-Semitism had been devised at the highest levels...
...Consider the January 1986 trip to Israel by Julio Montealegre, a top aide to Adolfo Calero, head of the main contra army, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN...
...Richard V. Secord-and the front companies they used to move money and arms.' Israel's key role as an initiator of the arms sales to Iran was quickly passed over...
...A member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, confirmed that his government had agreed to Montealegre's request...
...Hasenfus and Ortega and 2,000 to the FDN in Honduras...
...5 All this to continue a war forbidden by Congress and opposed by a majority of the U.S...
...Time, December 8, 1986...
...74 Further, some of the 400 tons of weapons supplied to the contras by the "private" network coordinated by Oliver North came from Israel...
...The possibility of the fund being diverted to the contras was also discussed on All Things Considered, National Public Radio, April 27, 1984...
...financing and approval of the Kfir sale...
...Washington Post, November 28, 1986...
...Yet given its history in Central America, Israel's role in the contra side of the scandal could hardly be dismissed as a spontaneous gesture to help a friend...
...Alfonso Robelo, then ARDE's co-director, spoke of donations from U.S...
...Oliver North drove us crazy with his requests to supply arms to the contras," recalled an Israeli "senior security source...
...7 0 While the largest contribution was extracted from Saudi Arabia by Gen...
...Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1985...
...46-47...
...The FDN announced that it would appeal to Israel for aid...
...January 16, 1987...
...Dallas Morning News, December 10, 1986...
...Robert C. McFarlane, then an aide to Secretary of State Haig, began meeting with David Kimche, director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and formerly the number two man in Mossad, Israel's external secret service...
...approval 'of Israeli arms sales to Iran.72 There were no more public scenes over Israel's support for the contras...
...4 7 According to The New York Times, the Administration sought twice that year to use Israel "to circumvent a Congressional ban on military aid to the contras" with weapons, training and "bridging," or stop-gap financing...
...Davar, cited by Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, March 23, 1984...
...8 Even before Meese's announcement, the Los Angeles Times had learned that the Iran profits were being deposited in a Swiss bank account arranged by Adnan Khashoggi and that the account was run by Ya'acov Nimrodi...
...Selling arms to Iran, on the other hand, was of paramount interest to Israel...
...Simhoni," contra leader Adolfo Calero told Israeli Defense Forces Radio...
...56 At a breakfast with reporters after the meeting, Kimche adamantly denied he had "come to arrange how Israel is going to take over the contras," but "acknowledged that the talks had included discussion of how Israel might increase its technical assistance programs in Third World areas, including Central America...
...The money will be hard to trace, apparently because much of it was recycled in Israel...
...3 Israel adamantly denied it was acting as U.S...
...So far, Congress has avoided directing its scrutiny at Israel's role...
...La Nacidn Internacional, (San Jos6, Costa Rica) June 7-13, 1984...
...Singlaub and the Alabama-based Civilian Materiel Assistance were often in the news...
...Based on information gathered for the lawsuit filed by the Christie Institute in Washington, D.C...
...The activities were funded primarily by donations from foreign governments-Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, Brunei-as well as by lesser donations from right-wing individuals and corporations and the proceeds from drug dealing, a contra activity that was becoming ever harder to ignore...
...Specifically, it was the interplay of the Administration's obsession with Nicaragua and Israel's desire to harness the power and wealth of the United States to its own foreign policy objectives...
...Jerusalem Television Service, 1835 GMT, November 28, 1986, in Foreign Broadcast Information Service Middle East-Africa (FBIS-ME-A...
...Edy Kaufman, "The View From Jerusalem," Washington Quarterly, Fall 1984...
...AfriqueAsie, (Paris) April 25, 1983...
...During that 1985-1986 period when the contras were officially without U.S...
...2 5 ) In late 1982, Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon met with the directorate of the FDN in Honduras and is believed to have offered to take over the contras jointly with then Honduran strongman Gustavo Alvarez Martinez...
...New York Times, January 13, 1985...
...86 "I imagine that the money was handed directly over to the arms suppliers and the arms were sent to us," a contra leader said...
...2 2 In 1981 McFarlane had prepared an option paper for Haig entitled "Taking the War to Nicaragua...
...See Israeli Foreign Affairs, November and December 1986, January and April 1987...
...9 4 Israel's close ties with both countries presage its own continuing involvement with the contras, even as the investigation proceeds...
...SAPA (South African Press Association-Johannesburg) 1056 GMT, February 26, 1987 in FBIS-ME-A, February 27, 1987...
...if, as is now suspected, much of this money was immediately spent on weaponry, Montealegre was probably on an Israeli shopping spree...
...The "administration would like to see Israel encourage its own supporters in the Congress, the Jewish community and elsewhere to become more assertive in backing the 'contras,' " wrote the Jerusalem Post's U.S...
...Miami Herald, September 9, 1984...
...San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle, December 4, 1983...
...Tower Commission Report," p. C-9...
...Washington Post, July 27, 1983...
...3 9 Members of numerous Jewish organizations who traveled to Nicaragua to investigate the allegations found no proof of anti-Semitism--only lingering bitterness at the support Israel had given Somoza and "the sort of sympathy with the Palestinian cause that is de riguer [sic] among left-leaning Third World regimes...
...San Jose Mercury News, October 28, 1986...
...funding for its aid programs in Africa, where it was trying to recoup diplomatic losses suffered in 1973 when all but three independent nations broke relations...
...mercenary who worked with the contras and is now associated with the International Center for Development Policy in Washington, D.C...
...and Israel...
...Defense and Foreign Affairs cited in Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, (London), February 14, 1986...
...1 But the Israelis insisted on secrecy: contra leaders say they worked with Israel "quietly, usually outside Israel," obtaining weapons through the Israeli Embassy in Guatemala...
...San Jose Mercury News, October 28, 1986...
...Dallas Morning News, December 9, 1986...
...Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1987...
...Der Spiegel, (Hamburg) July 26, 1983 cited in Notimex, Unomdsuno, (Mexico City) April 23, 1984...
...Jewish groups on several occasions...
...7. Report of the President's Special Review Board (Hereafter "Tower Commission Report"), February 26, 1987, throughout...
...Sunday Times (London) August 30, 1983, in Unomdsuno, April 23, 1984...
...White House staffthreatening a presidential veto of the entire bill-sat down with Senators Richard Lugar and Claiborne Pell (the majority and minority chairs of the Foreign Relations Committee) and rewrote a Pell amendment forbidding the Administration to collude with third countries to pass some of their U.S...
...The Israelis have allowed only written questions from congressional select committees...
...2 Israel was not adverse to discreetly lending a hand...
...Ha'aretz, (Tel Aviv) December 5, 1986 in FBIS ME-A, December 5, 1986...
...The ADL re-issued its "White Paper" in 1986, charging Nicaragua with anti-Semitism, and, according to author's sources, distributed it to Congress before the 1986 vote on contra aid...
...The memorandum was suspended the following month, after Israel annexed the Syrian Golan Heights, and relations further deteriorated in the aftermath of Israel's June 1982 invasion of Lebanon...
...public...
...aid allocations to Israel...
...According to several reports, support began during the earliest days of the contras' existence, as straggling remnants of Somoza's National Guard were mustered in Honduras and Guatemala...
...aid, Israel "discreetly encouraged American Jewish bodies" to lobby Congress in favor of the $100 million the president was asking for the mercenaries...
...aid from a number of countries...
...Washington Post, April 28, 1984...
...Later the pool of money would grow bigger, and more confused...
...official described as "intransigent," Sen...
...6. Washington Post, November 26, 1986...
...diplomat Wayne Smith said that the CIA had used Sherwood as a front to purchase East-bloc arms from Israel for the contras...
...Army bases in Honduras...
...Enfoprensa,(Washington, D.C...
...3 Meese's November 25 bombshell came just three weeks after the world had learned that Israel and the Reagan Administration had been selling quantities of U.S...
...Madrid EFE, 022 GMT, September 25, 1984 in FBIS-LA, September 27, 1984, p. P-15...
...While it is known that Israeli advisers are paid top dollar-$6,500 to $10,000 a month, compared with the $5,000-$7,000 for Argentine advisers-and work from official Israeli military manuals and catalogs, their numbers and the precise nature of the "special" guerrilla training they give the contras are among the best kept secrets of the war against Nicaragua...
...Tower Commission Report," pp...
...8 8 But there were at least two other Israeli accounts connected with the operation...
...Newsweek, December 15, 1986...
...The only possible conclusion that Israel could draw from this benevolent obliviousness is that its hesitancy to become full partners in Reagan's secret war was unnecessarily cautious, that its fear of angering the Congress was overblown...
...2 6 The contras were in need of professional help...
...Although Israel refused one request to launder and pass along U.S...
...6 In early 1985, both Reagan Administration officials and members of Congress confirmed reports that Israel had increased its shipments of rifles, grenades and ammunition and sent more advisers to the contras...
...Private aid" was the name of the game as the efforts of contra backers such as Gen...
...6 3 Among the "dozens" of SA-7 surface-to-air missiles acquired by the contras--and used to down a Sandinista helicopter in December 1985--some were delivered by Israel, through either or both of its major dealers, Pesakh Ben Or (see box) or Sherwood International Export Corp., a U.S.-based firm widely assumed to be controlled by Israel...
...A pattern of inducement-partially successful-soon emerged as the dominant theme in U.S.-Israeli relations concerning Nicaragua...
...the president complied, signing National Security Decision Directive 111 in October 1983.'2 A month later, then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir came to Washington to jointly proclaim the new relationship, which Shamir said included "a dialogue on coordinating activity in the third world...
...Washington Post, April 27, 1984...
...5 One planeload of arms-including AK-47 rifles and ammunition--came directly from Israel to Honduras in November 1986.76 RANIAN FINANCING OF THE CONTRA WAR, as it were, began in January 1986...
...The CIA, said Chamorro, knew perfectly well that Stavisky and Gorn had been singled out for their collaboration with Somoza, not for their religion, but, the officers contended, "the media was controlled by Jews, and if we could show that Jews were being persecuted, it would help a lot.'41 After the failure of its blatant and somewhat clumsy attempt to enlist Israeli involvement in July 1983, the Administration worked quietly to accomodate Israel...
...Probably, unless citizen protest prevents it...
...Although refuted by the U.S...
...Jerusalem Post, January 23, 1987...
...Now a movie producer, Milchan has been involved in Israeli arms sales to South Africa, was responsible for laundering funds South Africa used during the influence-buying campaign which became known as Muldergate, and smuggled 810 krytrons (nuclear weapons switches) to Israel from the United States...
...Washington Post, August 5, 1986...
...These guys would like to have Israeli instructors for small units who would advise them and train them in the field," he said.' President Reagan, Donald Regan and Robert McFarlane "One time I met with Gen...
...According to Newsweek, except for about $5 million used by the resupply network, "a good number of millions, went straight back from Switzerland to Israel to buy weapons for the contras...
...20 Israel also hoped for U.S...
...Dallas Morning News, December 10, 1986...
...Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, (99th Congress), Report on Preliminary Inquiry, (Hereafter "Senate Committee Report") Washington, D.C., January 29, 1986, p. 53 and throughout notes the testimony of a CIA analyst to this effect...
...Quoting Washington intelligence sources, ANN, ANSA, AP and EFE, Unomdsuno, (Mexico City) July I, 1983...
...Newsweek, December 6, 1986 and October 10, 1983...
...Discounting other variables, two main factors appear necessary to continue the war and Israel's interest in that war: money and a complaisant Congress...
...29 An arrangement was made at the time of Sharon's visit to funnel East-bloc arms-artillery pieces, mortar rounds, mines, hand grenades and ammunition-Israel had captured in Lebanon to the contras through Honduras...
...Times (London), January 12, 1987, citing secret evidence given to the "Senate Intelligence Committee...
...military and intelligence officials, and coordinated by National Security Council (NSC) staffer Lieut...
...in Israleft No...
...I heard that he might be of service to us once he retired...
...Fred Francis, NBC Nightly News, 5:30 p.m...
...By September Pastora was able to increase his guerrilla force from 300 to between 2,000 and 3,000, thanks to "increased donations from individuals in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and some European countries," as well as "private American organizations and some Jewish groups...
...36 (It is not clear whether these "Jewish organizations" refer to Israel...
...Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1986...
...Ha'aretz, nd, presumably another fragment of the April 4 report, cited in AP, New York Times, April 22, 1984...
...It turned out, of course, that this "private aid" was a smoke screen for the more devious-and lucrative--efforts coordinated by Oliver North out of the White House...
...AP, Washington Post, September 15, 1985...
...4 3 At the same time Israel was promised increased U.S...
...Secretary of State Shultz acknowledged as much...
...4. Wall Street Journal, November 28, 1986...
...We have looked for private money, but there isn't enough," said Adolfo Calero...
...In my relations with this [Israeli] government, it has always been honest with me," he told Israeli radio in March...
...3 4 That same month, Ed6n Pastora had been down to his last $3,000 and about to throw in the towel...
...But by August, Pastora was showing off new weapons...
...New York Times, September 4, 1984...
...The cargo included Uzi submachine guns and ammunition which the contras planned to use in a commando raid on Managua...
...Several contra leaders confirmed they had made arrangements to secure Israeli assistance...
...Inouye has since been appointed to head the Senate Select Committee investigating the scandal...
...Egypt profited in similar fashion, but probably to a much lesser extent...
...Guardian, (New York), April 16, 1986...
...Israel's ability to operate in the region-and its political clout with liberals in Congress and the media-appealed to the Reagan Administration, which sought to enhance longstanding intelligence ties between the two countries and secure Israel's full participation in its Central American scheme...
...In Washington, the deals were variously justified as desirable diplomacy, as attempts to strengthen "moderate" successors to Ayatollah Khomeini or excused as efforts to ransom U.S...
...Appreciative of Administration backing of its Iran policy, Israel was now clearly coming through...
...112, 119, 123-124, 145-146, 155156...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, July, 1986...
...2 These were only two of a number of reports connecting Israel to the contras that appeared in the Israeli media last winter, following the stunning revelation by U.S...
...244, May 4, 1984...
...New York Times, July 21, 1983...
...8 3 Kimche-who denies having had such a conversation-reportedly contended that it was a cardinal rule of covert professionals never to merge two operations...
...When McFarlane left the State Department to become the president's national security adviser, he established the U.S.-Israel Political-Military Committee, to maintain the dialogue between Kimche and senior State Department officials on a regular twice-yearly basis...
...9 " The Israeli ambassador to Honduras is named Shlomo Cohen...
...3 3 Israel's response was apparently sufficiently forthcoming to cause Administration officials to note that "Israel's cooperation in Central America" had helped to improve relations between the two countries...
...Le Monde (Paris, in English Section of Manchester Guardian), May 6, 1984...
...Los Angeles Times, (in San Francisco Chronicle) April 16, 1984...
...aid, short-term economic credits, concessions on the sales of Israeli weapons systems to the United States and a free trade agreement...
...Boston Sunday Globe, January 18, 1987...
...9 6 Congress has long ignored Israel's military and nuclear cooperation with South Africa, as well as its support for Somoza and its role in Guatemala...
...and Israel...
...Jerusalem Post, November 11, 1986...
...PDT), April 23, 1984...
...Israel was already skimming some of the Iran profits for "other projects of the U.S...
...Time, May 7, 1984...
...Boston Sunday Globe, January 18, 1987...
...The charges were based on the expropriation of property owned by Somoza associates Isaac Stavisky and Abraham Gorn...
...among these objectives, Nicaragua ranked quite low, given Israel's overriding concern that its involvement with the contras be kept a secret-especially from its liberal Democratic supporters in Congress, who were among the most adamant foes of Reagan's Central America policy...
...We have been trying to get those arms for a long time," an unidentified contra leader told the Dallas Morning News...
...Israel recalled that ship only days before the MARCHIAPRIL 198719 MARCH/APRIL 1987 19 Nicaraguan dictator fell.'o It is ironic that while Washington had gone to great lengths to downplay the contras' Somocista past, the "democratic resistance" itself was apparently comfortable claiming its legacy as Somoza's rightful heir...
...Cited in New York Times, February 8, 1987...
...This time, it was the contras who went to the media...
...funds for the contras...
...aid to the contras...
...8 ' Testifying later to congressional committees, Attorney General Meese expanded on his November 25 announcement, saying that Oliver North had told him that he had discussed using profits from Iran for the contras with Amiram Nir, an adviser to Prime Minister Peres...
...AP, San Francisco Chronicle, December 5, 1986...
...Backdoor Help for Contras, Replaces Congress-Voted Aid," This Week: Central America and Panama, (Guatemala City), September 17, 1984...
...Newsweek, December 15, 1986...
...21 Y ET IT WAS DURING THIS PERIOD THAT Col...
...III- 4-6...
...The new version approved by Congress enjoined the president from using foreign aid to coerce recipients into funding the contras...
...T HE CONTRA SCANDAL HAD ACTUALLY begun to unfold in October, when the Sandinistas downed a cargo plane loaded with weapons for the contras...
...company, Globe Air-leased planes to Southern Air Transport in 1986 for the contra air drops...
...9 In retrospect, the two-week visit appears timed to the first diversion of Iran arms profits to the contras...
...5o UT THE ADMINISTRATION SOON MADE IT clear that it wanted more from Israel...
...agencies and operatives in the secret war, the media, the Congress and thus the public, soon lost sight of Israel...
...Northern California Jewish Bulletin, January 9, 1987...
...It was condemned by the UN...
...The proposed aid fund"independent of the [Israeli] government budget"would also allow Israel to serve as a conduit for U.S...
...It is also possible that Israel was part of a "holding operation" building the rudiments of a Nicaraguan "opposition" until Ronald Reagan took office...
...Jerusalem Domestic Service, 1700 GMT, February 2, 1987, in FBIS ME-A, February 3, 1987...
...Secretary of State George Shultz and then Deputy National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane urged President Reagan to re-establish "strategic cooperation" with Israel...
...Israel's position, a former Israeli diplomat would later explain, was that it was willing to help the Administration in a joint attack on Nicaragua, but not "to get the onus for assisting the contras while the U.S...
...In return for this cornucopia, Israel seemed to be offering nothing...
...New York Times, July 21, 1983...
...At the time of the meeting Uri Simhoni was Israeli military attache in Washington...
...5 4 And FDN military chief Enrique Bermidez appeared on NBC Nightly News to corroborate the network's report that booty from Israel's Lebanon invasion had armed 25% of the contra combatants...
...Jerusalem Post, December 4, 1981 in Israel Shahak, Israel's Global Role, Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Belmont, MA, 1982, pp...
...8 Also early on in the Reagan Administration-whether 1981 or 1982 is unclear-Israel agreed to sell the CIA East-bloc weapons for the contras.' 9 In November 1981, Washington and Tel Aviv signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooper-The Israeli Connection ation...
...Oliver L. North-under the close tutelage of the late CIA director, William Casey, it would later turn out...
...Tower Commission Report," p. III-4...
...Richard Secord, Israel was MARCH/APRIL 1987 22Eoen Pastora in the advantageous position of receiving some of the Saudi money-and perhaps that of other donors-when funds were used to purchase arms for the contras from Israeli sources.71 In August 1985, National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane orally conveyed U.S...
...The surviving crewman, Eugene Hasenfus, began talking in captivity, providing the basic outline of a contra supply network manned by former U.S...
...New York Times, December 30, 1986...
...Franz Schneiderman, Bending Swords Into Plowshares: An Investigation of the Tensions between Israel and Nicaragua, special report by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Washington D.C., November 26, 1985...
...New York Times, December 29, 1985...
...other parts of article cited in Latin America Weekly Report, (London), May 4, 1984...
...Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1987...
...5 Amidst intense media speculation, Kimche met with Under-Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger on April 26, 1984...
...Jerusalem Domestic Service, 1700 GMT, February 2, 1987, in FBIS MEA, February 3, 1987...
...We think the Israelis would be the best, because they have the technical experience...
...Newsday, January 18, 1987 cited in Guardian, (New York), February 4, 1987...
...The anonymous Israeli recounted that he himself had negotiated with the contras for weapons, ammunition and advisers, telling the television audience that more Israelis have been going to help the contras...
...Yediot Aharonot, December 4, 1983, FBIS ME-A, December 6, 1983...
...5 2 As it had the previous July, the Administration sought to pressure Israel by calling public attention to its role in Central America...
...IN EARLY 1987, AS THE CONTRA SCANDAL swirled through Washington, it was reported that Israeli advisers were training contras at U.S...
...Unbeknownst to its Administration partners, Israel had been kicking back some of its windfall to Iranian "moderates," according to Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer whose participation in the Iran-contra affair was not his first covert foray with the Israelis...
...New York Times, February 8, 1987...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, March 1986...
...7 It also sent at least six shiploads of East-bloc assault rifles, grenade launchers and ammunition to Honduras for the contras...
...Interview in Hatzofe, December 16, 1983 in FBISME-A, December 19, 1983...
...aid, and CIA chief Casey and Vernon Walters, then the president's special emissary, had launched an intense search for alternative financing...
...3 0 Israel also supplied East-bloc AK-47 rifles to the contras: 500 to ARDE, the Costa Rica-based Revolutionary Democratic Alliance led by Ed6n Pastora...
...Miami Herald, September 9, 1984...
...Israel: The Contras' Secret Benefactor 1. Dallas Morning News, December 7, 1986...
...Jerusalem Television Service, 1815 GMT, November 28, 1986, in FBIS-ME, December 1, 1986...
...ABC news cited by Christian Science Monitor, February 27, 1987...
...6 2 In February 1985 alone, two ships laden with Israeli weaponry were slated to arrive in Honduras-where corrupt officers signed for and passed arms along to the contras in return for a 30% commission...
...On November 25 a financial link (estimated at the time at $10 to $30 million) was established between this secret war against Nicaragua and the U.S.-Israeli dealings with Iran...
...Congressional Democrats warned Israel not to become involved with the contras and just prior to the meeting, Israeli diplomats in Washington relayed their government a message "that the growing controversy over the Administration's policy in Central America could damage Israel's standing with Congress...
...policy in Central America" with funding for development projects suggested by Israel...
...aid they receive," both Israel and Egypt contributed...
...8. Ibid., p. IV-12...
...help in marketing its weapons...
...8 0 The suggestion to use some of the funds to beef up the mercenary war came from Israel-from then Prime Minister Shimon Peres himself, according to one report...
...5. Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1987...
...Tower Commission Report," p. IV-12 and passim...
...After the Iran-contra scandal broke, former FDN leader Edgar Chamorro recalled his meeting with three CIA officers in Coral Gables, Florida in the spring of 1983, where it was decided to "target" American Jews with stories about Sandinista anti-Semitism...
...3 2 It was not long after Sharon's visit to Honduras that the Administration, battling growing congressional skepticism over its policies, began actively recruiting Israel's help in Central America...
...Attorney General Edwin Meese that Israel had passed profits from the sales of U.S...
...In the first few months of the Reagan term, Israel received satellite pictures of Iraq's nuclear reactor "within the framework of an appeal to Israel for help to the contras...
...The Reagan White House had let itself be drawn into dealing with Iran by a persistent Israeli government eager to sell weapons, and to perpetuate the bloody war beMARCH/APRIL 1987 18tween Iran and Iraq in order to keep its potential enemies occupied...
...3 7 ) MARCH/APRIL 1987 >, rJ ),' i "' 'NCREASINGLY WORRIED THAT CONGRESS might clamp down on its activities in Central America, the Administration not only directly requested Israel to arm the contras during the summer of 1983, but also sought to pressure its ally into open support of the mercenaries by publicly revealing details of Israel's activities in Central America to The New York Times...
...New York Times, April 20, 1986...
...23 Their talks focussed on cooperation outside the Middle East...
...6 8 This rewrite was apparently taken to authorize efforts by CIA Director Casey and UN Ambassador Vernon Walters already underway to extract kickbacks on U.S...
...Senate Committee Report," p. 43...
...hostages held by pro-Iranian factions in Lebanon...
...6 5 In early 1983 diplomatic sources said that 50 Israeli specialists in guerrilla and psychological warfare had gone to El Salvador and Honduras.66 According to the anonymous informant who spoke on Israeli television last fall, the contras are eager for more Israeli trainers...
...Even if the Government of Israel actively worked to begin the initiative and to keep it going, the U.S...
...New York Times, July 21, 1983...
...On leaving Honduras, Sharon asked the United States to finance the proposed $100 million sale of 12 Israeli Kfir fighter aircraft to Honduras (see box...
...Ma'ariv, February 1, 1987 in FBIS ME-A, February 2, 1987...
...The United States tilted toward Britain in the war...
...The Israeli ambassador to Costa Rica supplied the fledgling contras with passports and aliases, facilitating travel within Central America...
...the Argentine trainers engaged by the CIA in 1981 were pulling out in the wake of the Malvinas-Falklands War...
...Washington was willing to reward this "higher Israeli political profile in support of U.S...
...9 2 The Administration had engaged South African pilots to drop supplies to the contras, Reuters reported, and a South African freight company, Safair, had-through its interest in the U.S...
...9 3 Evidence began to mount as well that the Guatemalan military had played a more significant role in the contra supply operation than previously thought-and that there was an Israeli connection...
...Reuters, January 28, 1987 in Guardian, (New York) February 11, 1987...
...8 In the flow of outrageous details of lawbreaking by U.S...
...John Singlaub also arranged the delivery of SA-7s...
...2 But Sharon was out of favor, both in Israel and in Washington, where there was also reluctance to introduce a new level of sophisticated aircraft to Central America...
...Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1984...
...Washington Post, February 1, 1987...
...is standing aside and keeping their hands clean...
...New York Times, November 26 and 27, 1986...
...Avirgan was injured in the 1984 assassination attempt on contra leader Ed6n Pastora...
...Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, February 14, 1986...
...Ma'ariv,(Tel Aviv), April 10, 1984 in FBIS ME-A, April 10, 1984...
...Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1987...
...Washington Post, June 15, 1986...
...2 8 Four years later, the subject of the Kfirs for Honduras would come up again, when Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin offered White House staffer Oliver North 20-50 Spanish-speaking advisers for the contras in exchange for U.S...
...According to Jack Terrell, a U.S...
...45 The Reagan-Shamir agreement was formally signed in March 1984.4 Only days later the contras had spent the last of their U.S...
...2 4 (It was to McFarlane that Kimche went in July and August 1985 with the request that Washington endorse Israeli arms sales to Iran...
...funds, South Africa would be the most logical replacement benefactor for the contras...
...He was also, according to a contra leader, trying to arrange for delivery of the last shipment of arms Israel sold to Somoza in 1979...
...EEMINGLY BIZARRE, THE CONCATENAtion of the Iranian arms sale and the unauthorized war against Nicaragua was quite logically the product of six years of collaboration between the government of Israel and the Reagan Administration...
...Even though they have dragged their feet in a manner one U.S...
...Washington Times, December 16, 1986...
...These would be a continuing theme in Administration efforts to involve Israel more fully in Central America-as would charges of anti-Semitism, leveled against the Nicaraguan government simultaneously with the "leak" to The New York Times...
...All Things Considered, National Public Radio, December 6, 1986...
...Although Tel Aviv has tried to distance itself from the activities of a growing phalanx of advisers in Central America and elsewhere, there is compelling evidence that few of these retired military officers are mercenaries, or that the firms that employ them are totally independent operations, as the Israeli government claims...
...the isolated white minority regime has an obvious interest in supporting right-wing governments and insurgencies...
...78 Given the previous dynamic of Israeli dealings with the Reagan Administration, it is not difficult to understand what happened next...
...June 24, 1983, Uncensored draft obtained and released by American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, p. 38...
...Besides "strategic cooperation"--a euphemism for joint action in the developing world-Israel expected to gain U.S...
...arms through Swiss bank accounts to the contras...
...surrogate, even as Reagan officials offered motives: "to oppose the Soviet Union, to combat reported PLO support for Nicaragua and to expand the market for Israeli arms...
...67 FTER FAILING FOR THE SECOND TIME TO persuade Israel to openly embrace the contras, the Reagan Administration tried other means to tap the power of its "strategic" ally...
...Washington Post, November 21, 1986...
...Government is responsible for its own decisions," concluded the Tower Commission appointed by the president to investigate...
...Yet it seems inconceivable that the apartheid state would undertake E ca r 'D' C W Adolfo Calero such a project except in alliance with Israel...
...Jerusalem Post, December 2, 1986...
...funds to the contras, it responded to Administration appeals with several million dollars, believed to have been funneled secretly through a South American intermediary and reimbursed via U.S...
...In June 1983 the Political-Military Committee met and discussed "the intention of the U.S...
Vol. 21 • March 1987 • No. 2
