IN TOTO: OUTRAGEOUS

"It doesn't matter whether you're a $25 whore or a $50 whore. It's the same principle." —Jody Powell

First reactions are generally honest. In the case of administration dealings with Iran, the verdicts are in from US journalists, elected leaders of both parties, and the public:

Trading deadly weapons for use against other people in exchange for release of our own? Immoral.
Encouraging an Iranian military victory that would be a disaster for US friends? Criminal.
Preaching one policy to allies while practicing another? Hypocritical.
Risking the last shreds of national honor and credibility on not getting caught? Stupid.
In toto: Outrageous.

Whether those involved do the honorable thing and resign, or do the customary thing and obfuscate, one piece of history that will be quickly rewritten is how a plan for exploratory contacts was perverted into this ransom-paying scandal. The explanation lies in the incredible US-Israeli relationship.

From the start of the Iraq-Iran war Israel supplied spare parts and replacements for the US military equipment the Ayatollah Khomeini inherited from the Shah. Israel wanted an Iranian victory and the money. When George Shultz became Secretary of State he told Israel to stop the sales, which violate US law. In 1983 Israel said it had. But it hadn't.

Here are current reports from two US "newspapers of record"' about what happened next. The Nov. 7, 1986 Washington Post reports:

"Sources said the covert White House program began in early 1985 after it became apparent that US hostages held by the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad would not respond to pressure for their release unless it came from Tehran. At that point ... Israeli officials who had kept contacts in Iran proposed opening up a channel of communications for the Americans. As discussion progressed, the Iranian officials made it clear they wanted military parts and equipment if anything was to be done on the hostage issue."

Steven Engleberg writes in the Nov. 8 New York Times:

"President Reagan approved a broad plan 18 months ago for secret contacts with Iran ... The plan did not mention supplying arms and spare parts to Iran, Administration officials said. But shortly afterward, the White House accepted an Israeli offer to use its contacts in Iran to deliver American-made arms ... Several sources here and in Israel ... said the efforts to gain the release of the hostages quickly eclipsed the broader diplomatic aspects of the policy. . . One knowledgable Israeli source said the idea for the parts shipments to Iran was initially broached with the United States by Israel, which had been covertly supplying Iran since the fall of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi in 1979 . . . 'The deal was done at our initiative,' the Israeli source said. 'We had the contacts and we approached the Americans. We said, 'Look, we have these contacts; why don't you take advantage of them."

By early 1986 the scale of Israeli arms sales to Iran was widely known because Israelis had been caught. Walter Pincus writes in the November 8 Washington Post what happened then:

"At a White House meeting last January Reagan listened to arguments against the covert program ... from Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, sources said. Shultz and Weinberger said the program contradicted the administration's well-publicized policy of not negotiating with terrorists and of isolating Iran as a supporter of terrorism ... Support for the program came from CIA Director William J. Casey, Robert C. McFarlane, who had retired the previous month ... and Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, McFarlane's replacement ... Reagan sided with Shultz and Weinberger and temporarily "closed down" the operation ... In succeeding months, however... Reagan approved resumption of the program ... He ordered, however, that information about it be kept from top State Department officials and sharply limited in the Pentagon."

Reagan's is not the first administration to mire itself in violations of US and international law while trying to appease its Israeli clients and their powerful American friends. Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter also listened to bad counsel from trusted members of their staffs with pro-Israel agendas, and they paid a price in honor. It cost Ronald Reagan his first secretary of state, who the Israelis said had given the 'green light' to their bloody invasion of Lebanon. Now it's cost Reagan whatever was left of his credibility and his country's honor.

If the Israelis, and their supporters on his own staff, have ruined the best friend they ever had in the White House, they won't lose sleep. They're off the hook. When those Israelis go on trial in New York for their part in selling millions of dollars worth of US military equipment to Iran—if they do at all now—they can claim they were doing it for rather than against the United States.

Let's hope, therefore, that when the pressure builds up on the next American President, he turns out to be a little smarter than the Israel-firsters on his staff. That would make history.

—Richard H. Curtiss