Speaker 1: Pushkin. Oliver North had no formal training in covert operations.
Speaker 1: He had never seriously studied diplomacy either, or international relations
Speaker 1: or political science. He was a soldier. So when he
Speaker 1: found himself in charge of two top secret foreign policy programs,
Speaker 1: one in Nicaragua, the other in Iran, he kind of
Speaker 1: had to make it up as he went along. In Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: North was counting on Contra rebel leaders to allocate the
Speaker 1: millions of dollars he was raising on their behalf. Remember,
Speaker 1: the CIA had been forced by Congress to stop helping
Speaker 1: the Contras. Now in their absence, it seemed like a
Speaker 1: lot of money was being wasted or worse stolen.
Speaker 2: The problem was the Contress didn't know how to run
Speaker 2: their war. They were very bad managers.
Speaker 1: This is journalist Doyle McManus. You've heard from him before.
Speaker 1: He covered the Contra war for the Los Angeles Times
Speaker 1: and co authored a book about the Reagan administration called Landslide.
Speaker 2: The weapons were piling up in warehouses in Miami. The
Speaker 2: Contress had no reliable way to ship them to the battlefield,
Speaker 2: and there were persistent reports that there was corruption going on,
Speaker 2: that the Contras were either taking kickbacks from arms, merchants
Speaker 2: or just skimming money off the top.
Speaker 1: Oliver North and his superiors needed more control in Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: and they no longer wanted to rely on people they
Speaker 1: couldn't trust, so they enlisted the help of someone they
Speaker 1: could count on and who had the experience that North lacked.
Speaker 1: His name was Richard Seacord.
Speaker 2: Richard Seacord had precisely the expertise that Ali North and
Speaker 2: the Contra needed. He knew how to move equipment from
Speaker 2: one country to another in airplanes secretly.
Speaker 1: Richard Seacord was a retired Air Force general. He was
Speaker 1: known for his extensive experience with covert operations and as
Speaker 1: a strong believer in giving the president broad powers to
Speaker 1: undertake them. For his master's thesis at the Naval War College,
Speaker 1: Seacord wrote that when it came to covert ops, quote,
Speaker 1: bureaucratic obstacles should be dismissed out of hand. After carrying
Speaker 1: out secret missions in Vietnam and Laos, Seacords served in
Speaker 1: the Department of Defense. Then in nineteen eighty three he
Speaker 1: was forced to retire from government service under a cloud
Speaker 1: of scandal when one of his associates was convicted of
Speaker 1: illegally selling plastic explosives to Muimar Kadafi.
Speaker 3: Of interest to the Grand Jury. Sources say Major General
Speaker 3: Richard Seacord, a deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.
Speaker 1: With his career in Washington cut short. Seacord went into
Speaker 1: the private sector fascination, and while some of his former
Speaker 1: colleagues and government viewed him with suspicion due to the
Speaker 1: Kadafi scandal, there were those who felt he had been
Speaker 1: unfairly tarnished by it. Among them was the director of
Speaker 1: the CIA, who suggested to Oliver North that he brings
Speaker 1: Seacord in to help with the Contra war.
Speaker 4: I was asked if I could help out logistically keeping
Speaker 4: the contras in the field resupplied.
Speaker 1: I interviewed Major General Richard Seacoord in Florida in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: He died in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: They were next to Despert, you know, they knew that
Speaker 4: I knew Air and so forth, and so that was
Speaker 4: the beginning of it.
Speaker 1: In the summer of nineteen eighty five, about a year
Speaker 1: after Congress forced the CIA to stop funding the contras,
Speaker 1: Seacord and a business partner created a Swiss bank account
Speaker 1: to hold money being donated to the Contra cause. Using
Speaker 1: that money, Sea Court set about building a resupply operation
Speaker 1: for the Contras from scratch. That meant putting together what
Speaker 1: was essentially a mini CIA, or at least a mini airline.
Speaker 1: The operation required Seacord to buy a fleet of small
Speaker 1: planes and organize a network of airstrips near the Nicaraguan border.
Speaker 1: He jokingly called it Air Contra. It wasn't action hero
Speaker 1: type work, but it was exactly the kind of work
Speaker 1: Seacord was good at.
Speaker 4: Logistics are the senews of war military history writers going back.
Speaker 4: I know is far as Napoleon's time, right about that,
Speaker 4: but people tend to forget it because it's not very glamorous.
Speaker 4: The logistics is the chore. It's the long pole in
Speaker 4: that tent.
Speaker 1: A few months after Seacord started working with the Contras,
Speaker 1: Oliver North came to him for help with another matter,
Speaker 1: the White House's secret program to sell arms to Iran.
Speaker 1: As you heard in episode two, Ronald Reagan had approved
Speaker 1: the sale of missiles to Iran as part of an
Speaker 1: effort to free American hostages in Beirut. The administration was
Speaker 1: relying on Israel to serve as a go between, meaning
Speaker 1: Israel would sell American made weapons to Iran and then
Speaker 1: get their stocks replenished by the US Department of Defense.
Speaker 1: But the Israelis were making mistakes. In November of nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty five, a shipment of missiles to Iran had ended
Speaker 1: in disaster after Israel fumbled just about every aspect of
Speaker 1: the delivery. Here's Doyle McManus again.
Speaker 2: The Israeli plane got stuck in Portugal. The Portuguese couldn't
Speaker 2: figure out what this shipment was or why they should
Speaker 2: let it go through. A CIA plane had to be
Speaker 2: called in to take the arms to Iran. And when
Speaker 2: the Iranians opened the shipment, they were very unhappy because
Speaker 2: there weren't as many missiles as they expected. They were
Speaker 2: the wrong model, and some of the missiles even had
Speaker 2: the Israeli Star of David on them, and so the
Speaker 2: Iranians erupted in fury and refused to release any hostages
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 1: Oliver North briefed his boss, John Poindexter on what had
Speaker 1: gone wrong. Poindexter was Reagan's new National security advisor. In
Speaker 1: a memo, North acknowledged that the Iran initiative was a mess,
Speaker 1: but he argued we are now so far down the
Speaker 1: road that stopping could have even more serious repercussions. In
Speaker 1: a follow up memo to Poindexter titled Next Steps, North
Speaker 1: proposed they cut Israel out of the deal and sell
Speaker 1: the weapons to Iran themselves, bringing in Richard Seacord as
Speaker 1: the middleman. So that's what they did.
Speaker 4: We're running a successful air up down there. Why not
Speaker 4: this one? Yeah? And I guess point to extra figured
Speaker 4: that good old Dick Secord, the can't do guy. He'll
Speaker 4: get her done.
Speaker 5: With that.
Speaker 1: Seacord's responsibilities expanded. In addition to managing money and supplies
Speaker 1: for the Contras, this private citizen would now also be
Speaker 1: facilitating the sale of American weapons to Iran. This was
Speaker 1: the moment when the twin Engine scandal, now known as
Speaker 1: Iran Contra took off. I'm Leon Nahan from Prologue Projects
Speaker 1: and Pushkin Industries. This is fiasco Iran Contra.
Speaker 6: The issue is back paid for the Contras fighting the
Speaker 6: Nicaraguan government.
Speaker 7: North was very excited he had pulled it off.
Speaker 2: His secret visit to TAYHRANI.
Speaker 3: These kinds of escapades.
Speaker 7: He and had suicide pills and I had nothing.
Speaker 8: I was very convinced the President would agree it was
Speaker 8: the right thing to do.
Speaker 6: The President has thrown himself into this battle.
Speaker 9: I was going to go ahead and tell them my story.
Speaker 1: Episode four diverted, how Oliver North and Richard Seacord put
Speaker 1: the hyphen in Iran Contra, and how North ended up
Speaker 1: on a plane to Tehran.
Speaker 4: We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: In order to build the resupply operation for the Contras,
Speaker 1: Richard Seacord needed to hire a crew of airmen who
Speaker 1: could fly planes and knew how to make air drops.
Speaker 1: In December of nineteen eighty five, the word reached Ian Crawford,
Speaker 1: a soft spoken twenty nine year old who had served
Speaker 1: as part of the Army's elite Delta Force Unit. Crawford
Speaker 1: had recently returned to civilian life in Fayetteville, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: and he had started a business sowing custom vests, backpacks,
Speaker 1: and other military.
Speaker 9: Equipment and out of the field blue. At a New
Speaker 9: Year's Eve party, somebody is talking to my mother in law,
Speaker 9: of all people, and this person said that they needed
Speaker 9: to find some ex military people with a parachute background.
Speaker 1: Crawford just happened to be a certified parachute specialist, so
Speaker 1: his mother in law put him in touch with the
Speaker 1: guy from the party, who in turn put him in
Speaker 1: touch with a guy in Washington who worked for Richard Seacoord.
Speaker 1: That guy offered Crawford a job.
Speaker 9: He told me, I was going to air drop equipment
Speaker 9: to a newly formed group somewhere in the world he
Speaker 9: wouldn't tell me, and that I was being hired for
Speaker 9: my parachute and air drop specialties.
Speaker 1: A few months later, Crawford boarded a southbound plane packed
Speaker 1: with military fatigues, jungle boots, and tents. When the plane landed,
Speaker 1: he found himself standing on a dirt airstrip in Honduras.
Speaker 1: He had arrived at Aguacat, a bare bones military encampment
Speaker 1: that was being used as part of Secord's new resupply operation.
Speaker 9: When we finally landed in Awacati, Honduras, we knew that
Speaker 9: we were in a contract camp. It was a confined,
Speaker 9: primitive and secret base. The Hondurans knew about it, but
Speaker 9: they didn't want to advertise that they were allowing the
Speaker 9: contries to be on their side of the border.
Speaker 1: When Crawford first got to Aguacata, there was just one
Speaker 1: plane available to fly missions. It was a C seven
Speaker 1: Cariboo cargo plane, the same kind that was used in Vietnam.
Speaker 10: Soon you will be flying the C seven a Cariboo
Speaker 10: in remote, underdeveloped areas of the world.
Speaker 1: Crawford's job was to help the contras pack supplies into
Speaker 1: bundles and load them onto the Cariboo. Inside the bundles
Speaker 1: was a mix of food, ammunition, grenades, rockets, mortar shells,
Speaker 1: and AK forty sevens. Crawford would use a forklift to
Speaker 1: get them into the Cariboo, then line them up side
Speaker 1: by side and attach parachutes to them. Then he would
Speaker 1: take a seat as the plane took off for Nicaragua.
Speaker 10: Short primitive runways hacked from the jungle and desolate terrain
Speaker 10: make these parts of the world Cariboo country.
Speaker 9: I would fly in the back of the aircraft. We'd
Speaker 9: fly for twenty or thirty minutes to a drop zone.
Speaker 1: The pilot flying the Cariboo would get down as low
Speaker 1: as possible over the drop zones, which were located over
Speaker 1: sandbars in the Rio Cocoa. Contraforces would then pick up
Speaker 1: the supplies.
Speaker 10: If no airstrip exists or it is under enemy fire,
Speaker 10: a personnel drop maybe the only way to reinforce a
Speaker 10: Special Forces camp, and.
Speaker 9: I'd take a very large knife and cut a nylon
Speaker 9: strap that was holding these bundles back, and the pilot
Speaker 9: would raise the aircraft nose up and the bundles would
Speaker 9: roll out the back of the aircraft.
Speaker 1: Sometimes as the caribou flew over the jungle, Crawford would
Speaker 1: sit with his legs dangling from the back of the
Speaker 1: aircraft and watch for Sandinista helicopters. It was dangerous work.
Speaker 1: The threat of being shot down was real, but Crawford
Speaker 1: and his crew were also worried about their own plane
Speaker 1: giving out on them.
Speaker 9: And there were actually holes in the dashboard where gauges
Speaker 9: had been taken out and sent back for maintenance, and
Speaker 9: we were all kind of shocked at the level of
Speaker 9: maintenance that the aircraft actually needed.
Speaker 1: Crawford chucked this up to penny pinching by the operation's
Speaker 1: top brass, and he wasn't happy about it.
Speaker 9: Management was trying to cut corners, spend the least amount
Speaker 9: of money to get whatever mission done the cheapest possible.
Speaker 1: When I asked Seacort about this, he flatly rejected the
Speaker 1: notion that his planes were in poor condition.
Speaker 4: Those airplanes were well equipped and being operated by a
Speaker 4: professional airmen who knew what the hell they were doing,
Speaker 4: which is why we had him.
Speaker 1: That's at least half true, as Seacoorts top operations manager
Speaker 1: would later testify, the airmen's Seacorts Company had recruited were
Speaker 1: fortunately the kinds of guys that could put together an
Speaker 1: operating aircraft with baling wire and chewing gum. In any event,
Speaker 1: there's no question that Seacord's budget was modest. As far
Speaker 1: as he was concerned, the resupply operation was only viable
Speaker 1: as a short term proposition. At some point the CIA
Speaker 1: would have to step back into the role it played
Speaker 1: before the Boland Amendment made it illegal.
Speaker 4: My belief was it was just a short term, a
Speaker 4: stopgap operation, a bridging operation. It became a bridge too far.
Speaker 1: Oliver North was feeling the pressure too. I'm not complaining,
Speaker 1: and you know that I love the work, he wrote
Speaker 1: to John Poindexter, but we have to lift some of
Speaker 1: this onto the CIA so that I can get more
Speaker 1: than two or three hours of sleep at night. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: for North, the CIA could not step back into Nicaragua
Speaker 1: unless Congress changed its mind about funding the Contras, and
Speaker 1: that didn't seem like it was in the cards, at
Speaker 1: least not yet. By the end of nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: the Contra aid program and the Iran weapons program were
Speaker 1: being managed by the same group of people. Oliver North
Speaker 1: was running the day to day with supervision from that
Speaker 1: security advisor John Poindexter, and Richard Seacord, the Air Force
Speaker 1: general turned arms deer, was overseeing logistics, procuring the weapons,
Speaker 1: and moving the money. All three of them had their
Speaker 1: own set of motivations, particularly when it came to Iran. North,
Speaker 1: by his own account, was dead set on bringing the
Speaker 1: hostages back from Beirut because he knew how strongly the
Speaker 1: President felt about it. North declined to be interviewed for
Speaker 1: this podcast, but here's how he explained himself. In nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven.
Speaker 11: The President very clearly articulated in the meetings I was
Speaker 11: in with him in the Oval Office on this issue.
Speaker 11: It was very clear that the President wanted as many
Speaker 11: Americans home, all of them home, as fast as possible.
Speaker 1: Richard Seacord had more personal reasons for getting involved. One
Speaker 1: of them was surely financial. He and his partner stood
Speaker 1: to make millions of dollars and commissions. But there was
Speaker 1: something else too. Remember, Seacord's career in the intelligence community
Speaker 1: had been cut short by scandal. He thought that helping
Speaker 1: out with the operation could help him get back in
Speaker 1: the fold.
Speaker 4: I was thinking about the possibility of taking over the CIA,
Speaker 4: no question about that. That was the right age, They
Speaker 4: had the right background. I would not have taken a
Speaker 4: job by than the director, but they needed some operator
Speaker 4: to run that place, and not a bunch of shoe clerks.
Speaker 1: So that's at least part of what was driving sea Cord.
Speaker 1: Then there was John Poindexter, who inherited the Iran initiative
Speaker 1: from his predecessor, Bud McFarlane. Poindexter's reasons for continuing to
Speaker 1: pursue the program have remained remarkably consistent over time. As
Speaker 1: he told me in late twenty nineteen, he saw the
Speaker 1: decision to sell weapons to Iran as part of the
Speaker 1: Reagan administration's plan to win the Cold War.
Speaker 8: I ran, from a geographic standpoint, occupies a very important
Speaker 8: position in the Middle East.
Speaker 1: This is John Poindexter.
Speaker 8: There on the east side of the what used to
Speaker 8: be called the Persian Gulf, and at the end the
Speaker 8: south end of the Gulf are the straits of Hormus,
Speaker 8: which is a very narrow body of water that connects
Speaker 8: the Gulf to the Indian Ocean. So the Soviet Union
Speaker 8: has always wanted access to the Indian Ocean, and one
Speaker 8: way for them to get that is to develop a
Speaker 8: cooperative relationship with Iran.
Speaker 1: Poindexter believed that in the long run, Iran would probably
Speaker 1: end up aligning itself with either the United States or
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. Even though the Komanian regime was fiercely
Speaker 1: anti American, Establishing a diplomatic opening with more moderate elements
Speaker 1: in the Iranian government was a way to make sure
Speaker 1: the United States came out on top in a post
Speaker 1: Komani world.
Speaker 8: We always thought that eventually there would be some kind
Speaker 8: of transition in Iran as Amede whenever he died, and
Speaker 8: it would have been foolish for us to think that
Speaker 8: the Soviet Union was not also interested in some future
Speaker 8: transition of the Iranian government. And it has never been
Speaker 8: in our strategic interest that the Soviet Union would gain
Speaker 8: that foothold in the Middle East.
Speaker 1: Later, when the Iran Contra scandal exploded into public view,
Speaker 1: Poindexter's high minded rationale for the weapons sales was buried
Speaker 1: under the simpler, more unsavory explanation that the White House
Speaker 1: had been trying to buy back hostages by paying ransom
Speaker 1: to terrorists, which explanation you believe comes down to how
Speaker 1: much credit you're willing to give the Reagan administration. But
Speaker 1: as even Poindexter concedes, the person who authorized the arm shipments,
Speaker 1: the only person who had the power to do so,
Speaker 1: was pretty clear about what was driving him.
Speaker 8: The President was probably more interested in the short term
Speaker 8: objectives than the long term objectives. So I've convinced that
Speaker 8: he believed in what we were trying to do, but
Speaker 8: he probably, in hindsight, did put more emphasis on the hostages.
Speaker 1: This question of who was motivated by what takes on
Speaker 1: even more significance when you consider how badly the Iran
Speaker 1: initiative was going By the start of nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: The White House's key Iranian contact, Minuture Garboni Phar, had
Speaker 1: revealed himself to be erratic and unreliable. The moderates Gorbonifar
Speaker 1: was supposedly speaking for had given no indication that they
Speaker 1: even existed. On multiple occasions, the US had sent Iran weapons,
Speaker 1: only to have the terms of the deal change in
Speaker 1: the middle and yet the negotiations continued, just as Bud
Speaker 1: McFarlane had feared they would. From the outside, and with
Speaker 1: the benefit of hindsight, you look at all these red
Speaker 1: flags and think, how could this have continued? How could
Speaker 1: Poindexter and North and Reagan all have convinced themselves that
Speaker 1: this was a good idea? I think the answer probably
Speaker 1: lies and what drove each of them to pursue it
Speaker 1: in the first place. Whatever it was, it seems to
Speaker 1: have made them all either giddy with optimism or deluded
Speaker 1: by desperation. Not long into John Poindexter's tenure as National
Speaker 1: Security Advisor, the determination was made that the US needed
Speaker 1: to speak directly with the Iranian moderates that Manuchaerir Gurbanifhar
Speaker 1: claimed to represent. After months of negotiation, North and Gurbanifhar
Speaker 1: finalized plans for an in person meeting between senior American
Speaker 1: officials and a group of high ranking members of the
Speaker 1: Iranian government. The meeting would take place in a hotel
Speaker 1: room in Tehran.
Speaker 8: Because of the importance of establishing some kind of working,
Speaker 8: real life relationship with Iran, it made sense to send
Speaker 8: a delegation to Tehran to try to meet with people
Speaker 8: that we hoped would be moderate and began a dialogue.
Speaker 1: Poindexter's understanding was that this would be the final exchange
Speaker 1: of weapons for hostages. As North explained the agreement to
Speaker 1: Poindexter in a memo, the US delegation would bring a
Speaker 1: load of spare missile parts to Tehran, and the Iranians
Speaker 1: would bring about the release of the hostages still being
Speaker 1: held in Beirut. The American delegation to Tehran would include
Speaker 1: Oliver North, a CIA officer who could serve as a translator,
Speaker 1: and strangely enough, former National Security Advisor Bud McFarlan. McFarlan
Speaker 1: had been out of government for months at this point,
Speaker 1: and as you heard in episode two, he had profound
Speaker 1: misgivings about the Iran initiative. But when Poindexter asked him
Speaker 1: to go to Tehran, McFarlan accepted.
Speaker 8: You know, he sort of was a secret emissary. He
Speaker 8: wasn't in government. He had been a former senior government official,
Speaker 8: so he had credentials and it would be clear to
Speaker 8: the Iranians that this was a presidentially approved mission. So
Speaker 8: Bud was a logical person to go, and so we
Speaker 8: sent him.
Speaker 1: Also along for the trip was a senior staffer from
Speaker 1: the National Security Council named Howard Titcher, an expert on
Speaker 1: the Middle East. Like Poindexter, Tycher saw the arm sales
Speaker 1: as a path to improving relations with Iran in a
Speaker 1: way that would serve the US's long term goal of
Speaker 1: protecting the Middle East from Soviet influence.
Speaker 7: Actually was exciting, you know, this was the chance to
Speaker 7: change the course of history and protect American interest in
Speaker 7: a very fundamental way. And you know, so this was
Speaker 7: a risk worth taking.
Speaker 1: Tycher's wife was more apprehensive. She was a lawyer in
Speaker 1: the State Department, and based on what her husband was
Speaker 1: telling her, she suspected that the arms deal might be illegal.
Speaker 1: She also thought it was possible, if not downright likely,
Speaker 1: that in their quest to free the hostages, her husband
Speaker 1: and the other members of the delegation would end up
Speaker 1: getting kidnapped themselves, you know.
Speaker 7: And I talked to Colonel North about this and he said,
Speaker 7: I want you to know everything's taken care of. And
Speaker 7: I said, so there's a plan, And all he would
Speaker 7: say was, don't worry, everything's taken care of. So he
Speaker 7: did his best to assure me that that was a case.
Speaker 7: That there was some rescue plan in the event that
Speaker 7: we were not allowed to leave, and in the circumstances
Speaker 7: I later learned that he and McFarlane had suicide pills
Speaker 7: and I had nothing. So I presume that was the plan,
Speaker 7: that they would take their lives and the rest of
Speaker 7: us would be left to deal with the Iranians.
Speaker 1: According to Oliver North's memoir, he actually had enough suicide
Speaker 1: pills for everyone, and he got them directly from the
Speaker 1: head of the CIA. That underscore is just how big
Speaker 1: a risk the administration was taking. Who knew what was
Speaker 1: waiting for North, farl And and Titcher in Tehran. There was
Speaker 1: no longer an American embassy there. The country was a
Speaker 1: black box. All the Americans had to go on was
Speaker 1: the word of Manuture or Bonifi, and so far that
Speaker 1: had not proven to be worth very much.
Speaker 8: We hadn't had any kind of a diplomatic approach to
Speaker 8: Iran up to that point that I'm aware of today,
Speaker 8: and so it was momentus to decide to send a mission.
Speaker 8: You know, the odds were not in our favor of
Speaker 8: it working out, but we thought because of the importance
Speaker 8: of returning Iran to a more constructive physician, it was worth.
Speaker 1: The risk, as it happened. Days before North and his
Speaker 1: team embarked on their trip, French officials were working to
Speaker 1: free their citizens who had been kidnapped in Lebanon by
Speaker 1: Islamic militants. According to news report Sort, France was negotiating
Speaker 1: with the Iranians.
Speaker 5: US officials fear of the French willingness to negotiate will
Speaker 5: only harden the kidnappers resolve and encourage others to kidnap
Speaker 5: for ransom.
Speaker 1: The journey to Tehran began Washington's Dallas Airport on May
Speaker 1: twenty third, nineteen eighty six. It would involve multiple legs,
Speaker 1: with stops at an air Force base in Frankfurt and
Speaker 1: in Tel Aviv. Everyone in the group carried fake passports.
Speaker 1: The plan was that if anyone asked, they would say
Speaker 1: they were part of a trade delegation from Ireland. Here's
Speaker 1: Howard Titcher again.
Speaker 7: That was the cover, they decided. And so I was
Speaker 7: asked to come up with a legend that, you know,
Speaker 7: I could remember about being born in Ireland. So if
Speaker 7: somebody in iranset, so why are you here? I'm Irish traders?
Speaker 7: Where are you from? Are you from Dingle Oh? I
Speaker 7: never went to Dingle. What's it like in Dingle? You know?
Speaker 7: So I became Tim mcgahann and that became the the
Speaker 7: Irish passport.
Speaker 1: Titcher asked the obvious question, would they have to use
Speaker 1: fake Irish accents? The answer was eh.
Speaker 7: They told us that they didn't think anybody who we
Speaker 7: were going to encounter would have any idea what an
Speaker 7: Irish accent sounded like.
Speaker 1: In Tel Aviv, the delegation with rendezvous with Richard Seacord, who,
Speaker 1: as usual, would be in charge of logistics. It was
Speaker 1: not an easy assignment. Seacord had to ensure that the
Speaker 1: trip was one hundred percent secret.
Speaker 4: We borrowed an airplane from Israel.
Speaker 1: Here's Seacord again, one of.
Speaker 4: Their VIP airplanes, and sanitized it. We went over every
Speaker 4: bit of that airplane and anything that would indicate it
Speaker 4: was Israeli, an aeroplane with the marks or stars of
Speaker 4: David or whatever. We got rid of it.
Speaker 1: Seacord himself was not going to Tehran. He would stay
Speaker 1: in his hotel room in Tel Aviv, managing the trip
Speaker 1: remotely and staying in touch with the pilots through a
Speaker 1: secure communications rig set up in his window. The plane
Speaker 1: was set to take off at midnight from Ben Gurion Airport.
Speaker 1: In addition to its human cargo, it would also be
Speaker 1: carrying some, but not all, the spare missile parts the
Speaker 1: Americans had promised the Iranians. As soon as the hostages
Speaker 1: were freed, Secord would send a second plane to Iran
Speaker 1: with the rest of the weapons parts. Before takeoff, North
Speaker 1: decided he wanted to bring some kind of gift to Tehran.
Speaker 1: As Tyer understood it, North wanted something that would break
Speaker 1: the ice and serve as a gesture of goodwill.
Speaker 7: At one point, North had said to Gorbani far what
Speaker 7: should we bring, you know, as a gift, and he goes, oh,
Speaker 7: bring the weapons and bring a cake. It is a
Speaker 7: tradition among Persians when you've had us a feud or
Speaker 7: a or a spat with your girlfriend or friends, you
Speaker 7: make up by bringing each other pastries.
Speaker 1: So, according to Titcher, North boarded the plane carrying a
Speaker 1: chocolate cake purchased from an Israeli bakery. He decorated the
Speaker 1: cake with a key intended to represent the opening of
Speaker 1: relations between the US and Iran.
Speaker 7: North was, you know, very excited again. You know, he
Speaker 7: had started this process some months before. You know, and
Speaker 7: he had had a couple of probably dodgy meetings with
Speaker 7: you know this arms merchant Manu shark or Banifhar, and
Speaker 7: now he had pulled it off.
Speaker 1: North's jubilation was premature, which became obvious almost as soon
Speaker 1: as the plane landed in Tehran. He was a little
Speaker 1: after seven in the morning on May twenty fifth, but
Speaker 1: when North, McFarlane, and Tycher got off the plane, the
Speaker 1: only person there to greet them was an airport worker
Speaker 1: who didn't know who they were. Finally, Gorbanifar showed up,
Speaker 1: apologizing for the delay. He led the delegation to a
Speaker 1: caravan of old, beat up cars that were waiting outside
Speaker 1: the airport. The cars were driven by armed revolutionary guards.
Speaker 1: In his memoir, North described the vehicle's belching blue and
Speaker 1: black smoke from their exhaust pipes. As they drove through Tehran,
Speaker 1: they passed landmarks once associated with the Shah that were
Speaker 1: now covered in graffiti praising the Iyatola Comani. After half
Speaker 1: an hour, the cars pulled up to the entrance of
Speaker 1: the Independence Hotel and the Americans were taken to a
Speaker 1: suite on the fifteenth floor. Gorbanifhar did not make a
Speaker 1: powerful first impression on Howard tier.
Speaker 7: He struck me as someone in his early fifties, early
Speaker 7: to mid fifties, very nondescript, balding, no tie, sort of
Speaker 7: typical Iranian garbed, you know, suit shirt, no tie, overweight.
Speaker 7: He didn't come across like the people we see in
Speaker 7: movies of these vicious evil arms merchants, you know, with
Speaker 7: giant mustaches and bandoliers. I mean, he looked like a
Speaker 7: business person.
Speaker 1: It seemed like Gorbanifard just wanted to make everyone happy.
Speaker 1: At one point, when it turned out the hotel was
Speaker 1: short on food, he had his mother cook the group
Speaker 1: an elaborate Persian feast. But hospitality was not what the
Speaker 1: Americans were worried about. As morning turned to afternoon on
Speaker 1: their first day in Tehran, there was no sign of
Speaker 1: any high ranking Iranian officials. Instead, at five PM, a
Speaker 1: man entered the suite and introduced himself by a name
Speaker 1: the Americans didn't recognize. He brought a disconcerting message, no
Speaker 1: hostages could be released until after the Americans handed over
Speaker 1: the spare weapons parts they had promised. In fact, he
Speaker 1: said there was no certainty that Iran would be able
Speaker 1: to get the hostages released at all, but if all
Speaker 1: the weapons were delivered, they would be willing to try.
Speaker 7: We now understood that the Iranian government had not committed
Speaker 7: to it, certainly not guaranteed that it was going to
Speaker 7: bring about the release of the hostages. And yet we
Speaker 7: had shown up and we had given them a palette
Speaker 7: load half of the load of hawk spare parts. And
Speaker 7: you know, we faced considerable embarrassment because you know, we
Speaker 7: were not going to succeed.
Speaker 1: Bud McFarlane was furious. It was now clear that the
Speaker 1: Iranian emissaries who had been sent to meet the American
Speaker 1: delegation were not nearly a senior as the officials Garbanifar
Speaker 1: had told North to expect.
Speaker 7: North confronted Gorbani Phar, and he made him tell us,
Speaker 7: he goes, well, I basically, you know, exaggerated a little
Speaker 7: bit in order to you know, get you guys here.
Speaker 7: And we were appalled.
Speaker 1: So began a standoff that would last three long days
Speaker 1: over the course of several torturous meetings. McFarlane was uncompromising.
Speaker 1: There would be no more weapons delivered to the Iranians
Speaker 1: until the hostages in Beirut were free.
Speaker 7: Farland was just fed up and believe that the appropriate
Speaker 7: posture to take was you guys have misled us. You
Speaker 7: did not deliver what you said. You could say whatever
Speaker 7: you want about what we were going to do. What
Speaker 7: Colonel North told or Bonnie faire we were going to do,
Speaker 7: we did it. You didn't do what we were told
Speaker 7: you're going to do. We're out of here.
Speaker 1: Oliver North had a different read on the situation. He
Speaker 1: thought there was still a chance for a positive outcome
Speaker 1: despite the false pretenses that had brought both parties to
Speaker 1: the table. He really wanted the deal to work.
Speaker 7: He and where Bonnie Faarr had similar interest. Right, they
Speaker 7: both wanted it to work. North was patient, right, he
Speaker 7: had worked months to get to this point. You know,
Speaker 7: it's like, let's give him a little more time.
Speaker 1: But McFarlane's patience was running out. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: After three days of negotiation in Tehran Bud, McFarlane decided
Speaker 1: the time to cut bait. He made arrangements for the
Speaker 1: American delegation to be taken to the airport and back
Speaker 1: to Tel Aviv. One of the Iranian officials MacFarlane had
Speaker 1: been dealing with begged him to stay and work it out,
Speaker 1: but McFarlane was firm, it's too late. He said, you're
Speaker 1: not keeping the agreement. We are leaving. When the Americans
Speaker 1: landed on the tarmac and Tel Aviv, North could tell
Speaker 1: that MacFarlane was disappointed. According to North Spmoir, he tried
Speaker 1: to cheer McFarlane up. Well, Bud, it's not a total loss.
Speaker 1: North quotes himself saying part of the money from these
Speaker 1: transactions is going to help the Nicaraguin resistance. McFarland would
Speaker 1: later testify that the comment left him a little startled,
Speaker 1: but as they made their way off the plane, he
Speaker 1: did not ask North to elaborate. It's worth pausing here
Speaker 1: to talk about that offhand comment Oliver North made on
Speaker 1: the tarmac because the idea of taking money generated by
Speaker 1: the ear Ran weapons sales and spending it on the
Speaker 1: Contra war would end up becoming the single most explosive
Speaker 1: aspect of the Iran Contra scandal. In fact, without it,
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be an Iran Contra scandal. The money was
Speaker 1: the thing that joined the two operations together. It came
Speaker 1: to be known simply as the diversion, and there are
Speaker 1: a few conflicting accounts of when and where the idea originated,
Speaker 1: but according to Oliver North, it happened in January of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, five months before the Tehran trip. In
Speaker 1: North's version of the story, he was in London for
Speaker 1: a meeting with Manuchair Gorbonifar aimed at getting the arms
Speaker 1: for Hostages deal back on track. During that meeting, as
Speaker 1: part of a private conversation in a hotel bathroom, Gorbonifar
Speaker 1: suggested to North that he could use the profits from
Speaker 1: the arm sales to fund the Contras. Gorbonifar made the
Speaker 1: comment in an apparent effort to convince North that continuing
Speaker 1: with the weapons sales would be worth the trouble, and
Speaker 1: it worked. North was into it, and when he came
Speaker 1: back to the United States he put the idea in
Speaker 1: front of John Poindexter.
Speaker 8: Ali suggested, since Dick was also running the logistics pipeline
Speaker 8: to the Contras, that Dick used those excess profits to
Speaker 8: provide funding for the Contra support program. Would you think
Speaker 8: I thought it was a good idea.
Speaker 1: You have to admit there's a certain elegance to it.
Speaker 1: By combining their two covert operations, financially, the US would
Speaker 1: be able to take money they weren't supposed to be
Speaker 1: making in Iran and spend it on something they weren't
Speaker 1: supposed to be spending it on, the Contra war.
Speaker 8: I knew it was going to be controversial, but I
Speaker 8: also didn't see anything illegal about it. It was not
Speaker 8: US government money. The Defense Department was being paid exactly
Speaker 8: what they asked for for the weapons, so that there
Speaker 8: was no cost to the US government, and so I
Speaker 8: thought it It was perfectly legal on the one hand.
Speaker 8: But on the other hand, I knew the Democrats, if
Speaker 8: they found out about it, would object and claim all
Speaker 8: sorts of wild theories, which is typical of the Democrat Party.
Speaker 1: Poindexter says this was why he made the decision not
Speaker 1: to tell the President about the diversion.
Speaker 8: I was very convinced the President would agree that it
Speaker 8: was the right thing to do, but I thought it
Speaker 8: was better to keep him out of that direct loop.
Speaker 8: It was a judgment called on my part, and I
Speaker 8: wanted to give the President some deniability of authorizing it.
Speaker 1: In the end, investigators concluded that at least three point
Speaker 1: six million dollars were diverted from the Iran weapons sales
Speaker 1: to the Contras. It was a modest sum in the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things, But for Richard Seabord, who was
Speaker 1: struggling to keep the Contra resupply operation going, it was
Speaker 1: a welcome bit of additional funding at a time when
Speaker 1: resources were running low. It was May of nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: about a year had passed since Seacourt accepted the Contra
Speaker 1: aid assignment, and he was getting fed up. One flight
Speaker 1: to Nicaragua's southern border had ended with a plane getting
Speaker 1: stuck in the mud. Another faltered due to unexpected fog,
Speaker 1: which caused the pilot to clip the top of a
Speaker 1: tree and knock out one of his plane's engines. The
Speaker 1: operation needed more money, and soon, luckily, the Reagan White
Speaker 1: House was gearing up to persuade Congress to lift the
Speaker 1: Bowland Amendment and allow the administration to once again start
Speaker 1: funding the Contras.
Speaker 6: The issue is back aid for the contrast fighting the
Speaker 6: Nicaraguan government. President Reagan reported he has decided that the
Speaker 6: CIA should have day to day's supervision of the renewed
Speaker 6: and widened, undeclared war against Nicaragua.
Speaker 1: As John Poindexter wrote in a memo to NSC staff
Speaker 1: in May of nineteen eighty six, the President is ready
Speaker 1: to confront the Congress on the constitutional question of who
Speaker 1: controlled foreign policy.
Speaker 6: The President has thrown himself into this battle, claiming that
Speaker 6: a defeat will mean the establishment of a Soviet military
Speaker 6: beachhead within the defense perimeter of the United States.
Speaker 1: More than a year had passed since Congress forced the
Speaker 1: CIA to stop helping the Contras. In that time, the
Speaker 1: situation in Nicaragua had changed. The Sandinista government had become
Speaker 1: increasingly repressive against suspected Contra sympathizers. The Sandinistas also seemed
Speaker 1: to be growing closer to the Soviet Union. President Don
Speaker 1: yell Ortega had recently visited Moscow and the Nicaraguan army
Speaker 1: was receiving Soviet made weapons. By the summer of nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty six, Congress had become more receptive to the idea
Speaker 1: of supporting the Contras. Sensing an opportunity, the administration asked
Speaker 1: for one hundred million dollars in aid and the issue
Speaker 1: went up for a vote.
Speaker 6: The President's men feel aid to the Contras as a
Speaker 6: top priority, and in the coming congressional battle, they'll use
Speaker 6: every advantage they can.
Speaker 1: The stakes for the Contras were high. If the US
Speaker 1: pumped one hundred million dollars worth of guns, grenades, and
Speaker 1: food to the rebels. It would be a huge boost
Speaker 1: to the anti Sandinist to movement. Also, getting a green
Speaker 1: light from Congress would mean the US Contra aid operation
Speaker 1: could be taken over by the actual government again instead
Speaker 1: of a network of private citizens recruited by Oliver North.
Speaker 1: Just before Congress was set to vote, Reagan gave a
Speaker 1: televised dress from the White House imploring Congress to back
Speaker 1: the Contras.
Speaker 12: My fellow citizens, Members of the House, let us not
Speaker 12: take the path of least resistance in Central America again.
Speaker 12: Let us keep faith with these brave people struggling for
Speaker 12: their freedom. Give them, give me your support. Let us
Speaker 12: send this message to the world that America is still
Speaker 12: a beacon of hope, still alight under the nations. Thank you, God,
Speaker 12: bless you.
Speaker 1: On June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty six, the House voted
Speaker 1: on the President's proposal.
Speaker 6: The House of Representative has approved one hundred million dollars
Speaker 6: in additional American aid for the Contras.
Speaker 1: The aid package passed the House two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: one to two hundred and nine, with fifty one Democrats voting.
Speaker 1: The President's way.
Speaker 6: The vote was a political triumph for President Reagan.
Speaker 1: The era of the Bowlan Amendment was coming to an end.
Speaker 1: For Richard Seacord. That meant he could finally disentangle himself
Speaker 1: from the mess in Central America. As soon as the
Speaker 1: new funding was approved, sea Court started pushing for the
Speaker 1: CIA to take over the resupply operation he had built.
Speaker 1: How this handoff was supposed to work is a matter
Speaker 1: of some disagreement. One of Seacord's associates testified before Congress
Speaker 1: that Seacord wanted the CIA to buy his assets in
Speaker 1: Central America. The assets were valued at around four million
Speaker 1: dollars that consisted of five airplanes, an airstrip in Costa Rica,
Speaker 1: and a ship. It was all stuff sea Court had
Speaker 1: bought using money either donated to the Contract Cause or
Speaker 1: generated through this sale of weapons to Iran. Seacord has
Speaker 1: always held firm that he was desperate to hand everything
Speaker 1: over to the CIA as soon as possible, free of charge.
Speaker 4: We never proposed to sell it to see. I proposed
Speaker 4: to give it to him. The bowl And Amendment was
Speaker 4: repealed in the summer of eighty six. Time marches on
Speaker 4: the CIA can't get their act together to take over
Speaker 4: my operation. They were just dilly dow ain't around. They
Speaker 4: could have if they wanted to, they really motivated, were
Speaker 4: ordered to, they could have taken over my operation in
Speaker 4: a day or two.
Speaker 1: The reason Seacord sounds upset when he talks about this
Speaker 1: is that he can still picture an alternate reality in
Speaker 1: which the CIA did take over the contrary supply as
Speaker 1: soon as Congress restored the AID, And in that alternate reality,
Speaker 1: it's possible that Seacord and the White House could have
Speaker 1: avoided what happened next.
Speaker 6: Who is cargo plane carrying ammunition to the anti government
Speaker 6: countries were shot down I inside Nicaraguay yesterday.
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of October fifth, nineteen eighty six, a
Speaker 1: young Sandinista soldier patrolling the jungles of southern Nicaragua looked
Speaker 1: up at the sky and saw a plane covered in
Speaker 1: camouflage paint. He raised his Essay seven rocket launcher, took
Speaker 1: aim and fired. The plane went down in flames, killing
Speaker 1: three of the four people aboard. The lone survivor was
Speaker 1: taken prisoner by the Sandinistas, who quickly determined that he
Speaker 1: was an American.
Speaker 6: Market camera crews were taken to the crash site. They
Speaker 6: were shown a loan survivor who was identified as Eugene Haw.
Speaker 1: His name was Eugene Hasenfuss. He was forty five years
Speaker 1: old and he was originally from Wisconsin.
Speaker 3: The man captured by the Sandinista is it from Marinette,
Speaker 3: Wisconsin and apparently joined the mercenary operation this summer.
Speaker 1: Hassenphuss was paraded in front of reporters.
Speaker 3: My name is Jeen Hausenfuss.
Speaker 7: When I was captured.
Speaker 1: Yesterday, Hassenfuss said that he had been delivering weapons to
Speaker 1: the Contras as part of an operation overseen by US
Speaker 1: government officials.
Speaker 3: Eugene Hassenfuss said today he was paid three thousand dollars
Speaker 3: a month to smuggle arms to the Nicaraguan control rebels.
Speaker 1: The Reagan White House categorically denied that Hastenfuss had any
Speaker 1: connection to the government. They maintained this stance even as
Speaker 1: the Sandinistas charged Hastenfuss with terrorism and threatened him with
Speaker 1: a thirty year prison sentence. As American journalists scrambled to
Speaker 1: find out anything they could about Hassenfuss, the young parachute
Speaker 1: rigger Ian Crawford received a phone call in his sewing
Speaker 1: shop in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Speaker 9: I pick up the phone and the guy started asking
Speaker 9: me all these questions about who I was, how I
Speaker 9: had a connection to Eugene Haussenfuss, and such like that.
Speaker 9: I ended up hanging up the phone.
Speaker 1: Crawford had quit working for Richard Seacord's resupply operation just
Speaker 1: a few months earlier. Crawford says Hassenpfuss had replaced him,
Speaker 1: and as it turned out, he'd kept Crawford's business card
Speaker 1: in his wallet. Soon more reporters tracked Crawford down, and
Speaker 1: he came around to sharing with them what he knew.
Speaker 9: I decided I was going to go ahead and tell
Speaker 9: them my story.
Speaker 3: Ian Crawford is a master parachute rigger, a former member
Speaker 3: of Delta Force, and one of the first men hired
Speaker 3: for the covert effort to fly guns to the Contras.
Speaker 5: There were three individuals who I later recognized as being
Speaker 5: Colonel North and Richard Seacourd, and a third member I
Speaker 5: still haven't recognized.
Speaker 1: The shootdown of Eugene Hasenphuss's plane had exposed Ronald Reagan's
Speaker 1: secret war in Nicaragua again, and it had happened just
Speaker 1: days before one hundred million dollars in federal aid money
Speaker 1: was supposed to start flowing legally to the Contras. But
Speaker 1: before the issue could provoke yet another round of debate
Speaker 1: in Congress, something else happened. A month after the Hassenphuss crash,
Speaker 1: one of the remaining American hostages in Beirut was released.
Speaker 1: The very next day, a Lebanese magazine called Chirau published
Speaker 1: a stunning article. It revealed that the US had sold
Speaker 1: missiles to Iran and that former National Security Advisor Bud
Speaker 1: McFarlane had recently traveled to Tehran as part of a
Speaker 1: diplomatic mission.
Speaker 3: In a bizarre tale worthy of a thriller, Robert McFarlane,
Speaker 3: President Reagan's former national security advisor, recently made a secret
Speaker 3: visit to Tayarai.
Speaker 1: When American newspapers picked up the al Cherral report, they
Speaker 1: made no mention of the Contra War, because at this point,
Speaker 1: no one had any clue the two stories were connected.
Speaker 1: That was about to change. Up Next on Fiasco, a
Speaker 1: special bonus episode featuring two journalists, Martha Honey and her
Speaker 1: husband Tony Avrigan, who found themselves in the crossfire of
Speaker 1: the Contra War.
Speaker 12: Anybody who had their mouth close that the moment of
Speaker 12: glass went off had their ear drums punctured because of
Speaker 12: the force.
Speaker 1: For a list of books, articles and documentaries we used
Speaker 1: in our research, follow the link in the show notes.
Speaker 1: Fiasco is a production of Prolog Projects and it's distributed
Speaker 1: by Pushkin Industries. The show is produced by Andrew Parsons,
Speaker 1: Madeline kaplan Ula Culpa and me Leon Mayfock. Our editor
Speaker 1: was Camilla Hammer. Our researcher was Francis Carr, with additional
Speaker 1: archival research from Caitlin Nicholas. Our music is by Nick Sylvester.
Speaker 1: Our theme song is by Spatial Relations. Our artwork is
Speaker 1: by Teddy Blanks at Chips and y Audio, mixed by
Speaker 1: Rob Buyers, Michael Rayfield and Johnny Vince Evans. Copyright council
Speaker 1: provided by Peter Yassi at Yassi Butler PLC. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Malcolm Byrne, Shane Harris, Kathy Hoyt, Richard Murphy, Paul Richter,
Speaker 1: An Rowe, as well as Sam Graham Felsen, Sireya Shockley
Speaker 1: and Katcha kum Kova. Special thanks to Luminary and thank
Speaker 1: you for listening. Binge. The entire season of Fiasco Iran
Speaker 1: Contra AD free by subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Sign up
Speaker 1: on the Fiasco show page on Apple Podcasts, or at
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