Word: ghorbanifar
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Remember Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian expatriate who was permitted to play a central role in the ill-fated U.S. weapons-for-hostages deal with Iran, even though CIA lie-detector tests indicated that he was not to be trusted? After months of lying low, Ghorbanifar has been telling contacts in the U.S. that he was the intermediary who brokered the deal between Paris and Tehran that resulted in last month's release of the remaining three French hostages in Lebanon...
According to the contacts, the arrangement was that Ghorbanifar would help bring the hostages home just in time to ensure Premier Jacques Chirac's victory in the French presidential election last month. Then, after Chirac won, Ghorbanifar would receive the backing he needed to regain his status as a world-class businessman. But Chirac was defeated in the election, and Ghorbanifar once more found himself out in the cold...
Nevertheless, according to those to whom Ghorbanifar spoke, the Iranian is now saying he came away from the hostage transaction with millions of dollars in fees from the French, a claim that is hotly disputed. "Manucher can barely make rent these days," says a relative. Chirac has denied making payments to free the hostages. A member of the Chirac camp well briefed on the hostage case called Ghorbanifar's story a "big fat joke...
...reaction, reinforced by intense White House pressure to free American hostages in Lebanon, was to go along with what George called some "harebrained schemes." Casey ignored his aides' objections to using outsiders, such as retired Air Force Major General Richard Secord. The director also relied on Iranian Manucher Ghorbanifar as a middleman, despite CIA warnings that Ghorbanifar had been shown to be "dishonest and untruthful." When George learned that Casey nevertheless intended to seek Ghorbanifar's help, he took the rare step of telling his boss, "Bill, I'm not going to run this guy anymore...
Shackley was also used as a conduit by Iranian Middleman Manucher Ghorbanifar in 1984, when the Iranian first proposed swapping money for the release of the American hostages in Lebanon. Shackley dutifully reported the offer to the State Department, where it languished. But from that initiative grew the arms-for-hostages deal that North...