Word: iranian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Casey's 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...
...operation was not impressive in scope or execution, but it certainly took the prize for gall. With 30 invited foreign journalists looking on, the Iranian navy last week sent six ships and six U.S.-made helicopters into the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman to search for, of all things, mines. Iran itself is widely assumed to have put them there. After five days the Iranians declared they had exploded four of the devices. "Our mission is to sweep the area of mines," an Iranian commander said with a straight face. "We have no idea who planted them...
...Iranian officials responded to the U.S. military buildup with new warnings. Late in the week, Tehran Radio admitted that Iran was indeed sowing mines "to defend our coastline." Earlier, Hashemi Rafsanjani, the parliamentary speaker, had told an interviewer that Iran has factories "that can produce mines like seeds." Meanwhile, for the first time in the crisis the Iranian military went on the offensive. Two Iranian high-speed patrol boats fired on the Liberian-registered Osco Sierra, then boarded and searched the cargo ship...
...shown no inclination to confront U.S. forces directly. So far, that taunt-and-run strategy has paid off nicely. The U.S. presence has stopped Iraqi air attacks on Tehran's oil tankers, allowing Iran to increase its shipments out of the gulf and thereby accumulate much-needed cash. "The Iranians would like things to stay the way they are for as long as possible," says a Western diplomat. The mines, he adds, are passive and untraceable, frustrating the U.S. escort mission while driving a wedge between Washington and the gulf Arabs by reminding them that before the U.S. intervened...
Iran has also continued its imprecations against Saudi Arabia in the wake of the rioting at Mecca last month that left nearly 300 Iranian pilgrims dead. The strain was worsened by news last week that a Saudi diplomat had died from injuries suffered when he fell, or was pushed, out of a window while Iranian mobs sacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the Mecca riot...