Word: secretes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Special envoys traveling to a hostile nation under false credentials. Ferocious power struggles among Islamic zealots in a country torn asunder by revolution and war. Private arms dealers earning millions in commissions. Mysterious air drops to Central American guerrillas. Secret bank accounts. Hostages...
These are just some of the strands that have been woven together in a bizarre tapestry of intrigue that stretches across two continents and several years. As each day brings fresh revelations about the scheme to skim profits from secret U.S. arms sales to Iran and channel them to the contras in Central America, the tale assumes the drama and sweep of an epic thriller. Some chapters are still murky, and the ending remains to be played out over the next few months, even years, but the story already rivals the most intricate of spy novels...
...this year, Reagan held a second full-scale discussion. Shultz and Weinberger again argued strenuously against the arms sales, but they left the conference feeling uncertain that they had swayed an enthusiastic Reagan and his equally gung-ho NSC and CIA advisers. Ten days later the President signed a secret intelligence "finding," thus permitting "occasional" arms transactions with Iran in spite of the continuing embargo. He assigned management of the deals to the CIA and instructed Casey to conceal the project from Congress. At the same time, Reagan ordered that intelligence traffic on the arms shipments be kept from...
...contras may have been overseen by a loose but complicated network of arms dealers and other powerful men with ties to Government officials. By coordinating the moves among such a quasi-board of directors, someone like North could avoid the bureaucratic tangles and congressional oversight that might thwart secret operations. Aside from other players, the Saudis may have taken a major role, though they deny it. According to the New York Times, the Saudis and the U.S. began in 1983 to discuss supplying arms to the contras. Those involved included North, Secord and Secord's business partner, Albert Hakim...
...great guy," he told me, "Why, he'd give you the shirt off your back. Of course, first you'd have to pay for the shirt in gold bullion, to be deposited in a secret Swiss bank account, but the principle's the same. And he's a guy who knows how to take initiative. I had him over to my house once for dinner--I went to the kitchen to open some beer and by the time I got back he had subletted half the place to foreign agents. You have to admire that kind of spunk...