“My purpose was… to send a signal that the United States was prepared to replace the animosity between the U.S. and Iran with a new relationship… At the same time we undertook this initiative, we made clear that Iran must oppose all forms of international terrorism as a condition of progress in our relationship. The most significant step which Iran could take, we indicated, would be to use its influence in Lebanon to secure the release of all hostages held there.”

US President Ronald Reagan
(November 13, 1986)

January 17 2021 — Under the January 17 1986 Presidential Finding — which CIA director William Casey and CIA General Counsel Stanley Sporkin helped Colonel Oliver North put together — the U.S. Army sold the TOW missiles to the CIA, who in turn passed them on to general Secord, who then delivered them to Iranian agents. Crazy enough? The Reagan administration then used the proceeds of the arms sale to fund terrorists in Central America. This is not Fake News. This is History. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: On This Day — Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran’s Ultimate Party (Oct. 12-16 1971)

RELATED POST: On This Day — 1953 Iranian Coup d’État [August 19 – CIA Op TP/AJAX]

RELATED POST:  CIA Director Pompeo Compares Iran To ISIS

RELATED POST: One Year Ago — Michael Morell: “Let Us Kill Iranians and Russians in Syria!”

RELATED POST: Suspicious Aviation Tragedies — Iran Flight 655 (July 3 1988)

RELATED POST: Meet Trump’s new Iran Man: CIA Michael D’Andrea

RELATED POST: Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Takes Many Secrets to His Grave

“We used to look at them as kind of discrete events, not tied to each other, and seen in a vacuum. But from a distance, I think we can see more of a pattern.”

CIA Vincent Cannistraro

UPDATE (January 17 2022) — The Lockerbie Solution — Just take a look at this timeline. And think!

May 17 1985 — The Fuller memorandum — CIA officer Graham Fuller suggests that it would be wise to use Libya as a geopolitical punching bag (Nothing to fear and nothing to lose) while playing nice with the Iranian Ayatollah. “The study was instrumental in persuading some top-ranking Reagan Administration policy makers to begin considering covert contacts with Iranian leaders. It eventually led to the covert sale of United States weapons to Tehran in what became the Iran-contra affair.” [New York Time, 15 February 1988]

January 7 1986 — President Ronald Reagan announced economic sanctions against Libya. Despite major diplomatic efforts, all European countries refuse to join the US as they see no evidence of Libya’s involvement.

January 17 1986 — Reagan Approves Covert Arms Sales to Iran . Under the Presidential Finding — which CIA director William Casey and CIA General Counsel Stanley Sporkin helped Colonel Oliver North put together — the U.S. Army sold the TOW missiles to the CIA, who in turn passed them on to general Secord, who then delivered them to Iranian agents.The Reagan administration then used the proceeds of the arms sale to fund terrorists in Central America.

April 14 1986 — Ronald Reagan ordered a series of bombings directed against Libya under “Operation El Dorado Canyon. No evidence. All European countries opposed the operation, except Lady Thatcher..

July 23 1986 — The campaign of disinformation about Libyan terrorism reaches new high… [New York Times — August 11 1986] The MST-13 Timer appears…

October 2 1986 — Bob Woodward (Washington Post) published an extraordinary story: “Gadhafi Target of Secret U.S. Deception Plan”.

November 3 1986 — The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa exposed the Iran–Contra scandal. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.

December 21 1988 — N739PA — the Boeing 747 aircraft operating the transatlantic leg of Pan Am Flight 103 — broke up in flight over Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew died as well as 11 residents of Lockerbie.

March 1989 — The BBC (Farsi) began to publish Ayatollah Ali Montazeri’s letters condemning the post-war wave of executions. This event prompts the end of his political career.

March 1989 — The Lockerbie investigation came to a halt following a phone call between George H. W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher.

June 3rd 1989 — Ruhollah Khomeini dies. Ali Khamenei becomes the new Supreme Leader of Iran.

August 3rd 1989. — Hashemi Rafsanjani is elected Iran’s president. Rafsanjani was the central Iranian figure in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Late August 1989 — German police discovered the existence of a print-out at Frankfurt airport that indicated that the ‘primary suitcase’ had begun its journey in Malta.

By September 1989, blaming Iran for Lockerbie would simply not serve the geopolitical interests of the US and UK anymore. But as Marcel Pagnol wrote: “A wise man does not look for the culprits of a crime. A wise man chooses the right culprits.”

September 1989 — The Lockerbie investigation goes straight to Malta and, from now on, Libya is the new and only focus.

September 1989 — At the US–Iran Claims Tribunal at The Hague, the US agreed to pay Iran $567,000,000. President Bush announced the payment on November 7 1989, remarking that he hoped, “Iran would use what influence it has” to release the US hostages held in Lebanon.

September 1989 – A very mysterious fragment of a circuit timer — known as PT/35(b) — appears in highly suspicious circumstances. This fragment will become the key piece of evidence linking Pan Am 103 to Libya.

September 1 1989 — The Lockerbie investigators suddenly noticed that an item of blast damaged clothing – a pair of dark brown checked trousers manufactured by the ‘Yorkie Clothing’ company in Malta — had a number (1705) stamped on a pocket lining. This number was enough to identify the store who had made the order, and therefore a individual who might identify the buyer.

October 1989 — Although the investigators officially linked Megrahi to the Lockerbie disaster in the Autumn of 1990, a CIA Cable dated October 17 1989 already connects Megrahi to Lockerbie! 

I have long believe that the ‘Lockerbie evidence’ [clothes from Malta, PT/35(b), and the infamous Toshiba radio] was planted to incriminate Libya.

A few days ago, I received a few documents which were not disclosed to the defense. I believe these documents prove that the evidence has been fabricated.

Stay tuned!

END of UPDATE

“I have known Mehdi Hashemi inside out since our childhood. He is a devout Muslim, a militant revolutionary, and a great admirer of the Imam.”

Ayatollah Montazeri
(September 1987)

UPDATE (January 17 2021) — Mehdi Hashemi, a senior official in the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, leaked the affair to the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa. The story was published on November 3 1986 and created a huge scandal.

Mehdi Hashemi was related by marriage to the family of Ayatollah Ali Montazeri.

Hashemi had nothing but contempt for Hashemi Rafsanjani, the man who turned out to be a central Iranian figure in the Iran-Contra scandal.

From an American point of view, the prognosis in the aftermath of the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 was rather straightforward and gloomy.

Montazeri was about to succeed Khomeini soon and there was no love in his heart for the Yankees.

Here is a short extract from my book “Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!” [Chapter IV : The ‘Wait & See’ Strategy].

The Fall of Montazeri — From November 1986 on, tensions between Montazeri and Khomeini began to surface in the public domain. [11]

Montazeri began to criticize the State. Specifically, he virulently denounced the mass execution of political prisoners in August 88. [12]

Then, in March 1989, the BBC (Farsi) began to publish his letters condemning the post-war wave of executions. [13]

That was the last straw. On March 26 1989, Khomeini strongly denounced Montazeri’s actions. A couple of days later, Khomeini announced that Montazeri ‘had resigned his post’. [14]

His pictures disappeared from public offices. The books were rewritten to deny his revolutionary credentials. The streets named after him were renamed. [15]

The demotion of Montazeri was a major “game changing” event.

After March 26 1989, it may very well be that it would no longer serve the US/UK geopolitical interests to blame Iran for Lockerbie.

Khomeini was known to be very ill. If a pragmatic new leader — “friendly” enough to seek a solution to the hostages crisis in Lebanon — could seize power in Tehran, it would be totally counter-productive to blame Iran for the actions ‘attributed’ to the old regime.

This would only serve the interests of the hard-liners, such as Motashami-Pur, the then Iranian minister of interior.

Thus, ‘Let us wait and see what happens next’ became the Lockerbie policy after March 1989.

The Death of Khomeini — Ruhollah Khomeini died on June 3rd 1989. Rafsanjani was instrumental in securing a quick solution to an urging crisis.

First, Ali Khamenei was elevated from the position of hojatoleslām to the rank of Ayatollah.

That title, and a modification of the Constitution which previously restricted the job to the few people such Montazeri who had the title of Grand Ayatollah, was then enough to promote him as the new Supreme Leader of Iran.

Next, Rafsanjani himself was elected Iran’s president on August 3rd 1989. Rafsanjani would not disappoint Western powers and their business interests.

(…)

By September 1989, blaming Iran for Lockerbie would simply not serve the geopolitical interests of the US and UK anymore.

END of UPDATE

“Iran is prepared to intervene on behalf of the hostages if the US acts in a reasonable manner.”

Hashemi Rafsanjani
(August 4 1989)

After receiving the information from Mehdi Hashemi — a senior official in the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution — the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa exposed the affair on November 3, 1986.

US Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.

They had hoped to fund the Contras in Nicaragua while at the same time negotiating the release of several U.S. hostages.

Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by US Congress.

This affair is usually regarded as one of the most important scandals in US modern history.

Hashemi was executed in Tehran in September 1987 before his verdict was announced.

This was reportedly done to preclude the intervention on Hashemi’s behalf by Ayatollah Montazeri.

The execution was a blow to Montazeri, who had pleaded with Ayatollah Khomeini on Hashemi’s behalf.

Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa exposes the affair on November 3, 1986

This was the first public reporting of the weapons-for-hostages deal. The operation was discovered only after an airlift of guns (Corporate Air Services HPF821) was downed over Nicaragua.

Eugene Hasenfus, who was captured by Nicaraguan authorities after surviving the plane crash, initially alleged in a press conference on Nicaraguan soil that two of his co-workers, Max Gomez and Ramon Medina, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

The scandal was compounded when Oliver North destroyed or hid pertinent documents between November 21 and November 25, 1986.

During North’s trial in 1989, his secretary, Fawn Hall, testified extensively about helping North alter, shred, and remove official United States National Security Council (NSC) documents from the White House. [Wikipedia]

According to the New York Times, enough documents were put into a government shredder to jam it.

COVER UP : Behind the Iran Contra Affair

“Ultimately the sale of weapons to Iran was not deemed a criminal offense but charges were brought against five individuals for their support of the Contras.

Those charges, however, were later dropped because the administration refused to declassify certain documents. The indicted conspirators faced various lesser charges instead.

In the end, fourteen administration officials were indicted, including then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Eleven convictions resulted, some of which were vacated on appeal.

The rest of those indicted or convicted were all pardoned in the final days of the presidency of George H. W. Bush, who had been vice-president at the time of the affair.”

UPDATE (January 17 2020) — BELGA is the Belgian national news agency and leader supplier of news from Belgium. The agency describes itself as a trusted source of reliable news regarding events related to Belgium.

On August 26 2019, La Libre — one of the leading Belgian newspapers — published a piece written by BELGA regarding the infamous Belgian arms dealer Jacques Monsieur. [Jacques Monsieur n’a pas tenté de se soustraire à sa condamnation, selon ses avocats]

The piece reveals no new facts about the case. But one sentence caught my attention.

“[Jacques monsieur] avait été condamné aux Etats-Unis en 2010 dans un dossier lié à l’affaire Iran-Contra, qui concernait la vente illicite d’armes iraniennes à des groupes rebelles.”

Translation: “[Jacques monsieur] was sentenced in the United States in 2010 in a case related to the Iran-Contra case, which concerned the illegal sale of Iranian weapons to rebel groups.”

This serious piece of disinformation deserves the Intel Today 2019 Fake News Award! Allow me to explain…

The Iran-Contra Affair was a US operation, run directly from the White House, during which Israeli weapons were provided to Iran despite an arms embargo.

The profit of these arms sales was used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua despite strict prohibition by an Act of Congress (the Boland Amendment).

There is no doubt whatsoever that BELGA journalists know full well the nature of the Iran-Contra scandal. So, the real question is: why are Belgian MSM lying about it?

My guess is that the Belgian Deep State is very worry about the revelations that Monsieur could make now that he is back in Belgium.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Monsieur was working in collaboration with various Western Intelligence Agencies. And he certainly has a lot of stories to tell…

RELATED POST: Biography — Jacques Monsieur [Belgian Arms Dealer]

And by the way, the Belgian government has just drafted a law that would make it illegal to publish any State Secret. All experts agree that this text is a clear violation of the Freedom of Press granted by the Constitution… It looks as if someone has hit the panic button.

END of UPDATE

REFERENCES

Iran–Contra affair — Wikipedia

=

On This Day — Reagan Approves Covert Arms Sales to Iran (January 17, 1986) [The Lockerbie Solution –Timeline]