Table Of Content

. HARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY ^^TIONAL SCCURtrv CCUNC:l 31111014788036 NATIONAL SECURITY PLWJNING GROap MEETING Jun« 25, 1984; 2:00-3:00 P.M.; Situation Room SUBJECT: Central Am«ric4(U) PA.RTICIPANTS: Tha Pr«sid«nt Th« Vica Pr«8id«nt Iran-Contra Scandal riie THE DECLASSIFIED HISTORY CIA : Mr. William J. Cas€y Mr. Ouant'Clarridg* EDITED BY PETER KORNBLUH AND MALCOLM BYRNE FOREWORD BY THEODORE DRAPER JCS: G«n«rai John w, v«s««y, Jr, Admiral Arthur S. MorcAu Whit«HOU«4lJ Mr. Edvln M««<«, III- Mr. Robert C. McfArl4n« \ Admiral John M. Poind€xt«r NSC: A NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS READER Minuf « Mr.>U:farlan€ Th« p\irpo«« of thii m««ting is to focui on th« : political, conosLic, and military situation In Cantr»l Amarica SECR£T ^-„JI . . CS: CADR SECRET y '^ ^' ^ 1^^ > CIVIC CENTER III III nil II IIIII!II ii: iiiii mill iii i>k 3 01478 8036 1 C^t.1^-2? DATE DUE M > : ^ 2 3]QQt APR-TTia^ WAY 2199^ 1 'JUH 7 Q'19I4 ^ RA in kOCl 2 i-£- 5AMM4^5 m] 819C S FEq Q The Iran-Contra Scandal: THE DECLASSIFIED HISTORY EDITED BY PETER KORNBLUH MALCOLM BYRNE and NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS READER A THE NEW PRESS, NEW YORK 1993 I COPYRIGHT © 1993 THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR. PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES BY THE NEW PRESS, NEW YORK DISTRIBUTED BY W. W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. 500 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY lOllO LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Iran-ContraScandal:thedeclassifiedhisto—ry/ editedbyPeterKombluhandMalcolmByrne. 1sted. — p. cm. (TheNationalSecurityArchivedocumentseries) IncludesbibUographicalreferences. — ISBN 1-56584-024-0(cloth) ISBN i-56584-047-x(pbk.) — — 1.Iran-ContraAffair,1985-1990 History Sources. I.Kombluh,Peter. II.Byrne,Malcolm. III.Series. E876.I735 1993 — 973927 dc20 92-53732 CIP FirstEdition ESTABLISHEDIN 199OASAMAJORALTERNATIVETOTHELARGE,COMMERCIALPUB- LISHING HOUSES, THE NEW PRESS IS INTENDED TO BE THE FIRST FULL-SCALE NONPROFIT AMERICAN BOOK PUBLISHER OUTSIDE OF THE UNIVERSITY PRESSES. THE PRESS IS OPERATED EDITORIALLY IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, RATHER THAN FORPRIVATEGAIN;ITISCOMMITTEDTOPUBLISHINGININNOVATIVEWAYSWORKSOF EDUCATIONAL,CULTURAL, ANDCOMMUNITYVALUE,WHICH,DESPITETHEIRINTEL- LECTUAL MERITS, MIGHT NOT NORMALLY BE "COMMERCIALLY VIABLE." THE NEW PRESS'S EDITORIALOFFICES ARE LOCATED.ATTHECITY UNIVERSITYOFNEWYORK. FOR OUR SONS, GABRIEL KORNBLUH AND KIAN BYRNE SO THAT THEY WILL BETTER UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF RAN-CONTRA—THAT I THE REAL DANGER TO OUR DEMOCRACY COMES FROM WITHIN. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When the Iran-Contra scandal broke on November complete. Without their contributions, this book 25, 1986, the National SecurityArchivewas already couldnothavebeenfinished. conducting major documentation projects on the LynneQuintoandMaryBurroughscontributedto Contrawar,andU.S.policytowardIran.Underthedi- typesetting a numberofthe documents in the book. rection ofthe Archives founder and first Executive Karin Edlund provided indispensable support in or- Director, Scott Armstrong, whose long-standing in- ganizingthedocumentsandpreparingthem forpub- terestin,andFreedomofInformationAct(FOIA)re- lication,asdidSusanBreece. searchon,bothCentralAmericaandtheMiddleEast A number of the documents reproduced in this laid the initial groundwork for these projects, the bookwouldneverhaveseenthelightofpubhcscruti- Archive made the scandal a major focus ofits work. nyifnotforthelegaltalentsofseveralindividualsand — OnMay5, 1987 thedayCongressopenedhearings organizations.EleanorSmithofZuckerman,Spaeder, — on the scandal the Archive pubhshed its first book Goldstein, Taylor & Kolker, (formerlyofPubUc Citi- on the subject, The Chronology: The Documented zen) along with Sherv'l Walter, the Archives general Day-by-Day Account ofthe Secret Military Assis- counsel, waged a successful legal battle to force the tance to Iran and the Contras, edited by Malcolm declassification ofOliver Norths personal notebooks Byrne, ScottArmstrong,andTomBlanton.Twoyears in 1990 after the FOIA requests ofthe Archive and later,theArchivepubUshed(withChadwyck-Healey) Pubhc Citizen for the notebooks were denied. Kate The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making ofa Scandal, Martin, Gary Stem, and Mark Srere ofthe ACLU's igS^-igSS, an indexed microfiched collection of Center for National Security Studies obtained, 4,600documentsrelatingtothescandal. throughaFOIAlawsuit,theinternalCIAinvestigative This volume has evolved from these earlier pub- records relating to the Joseph Fernandez case. The lications and reflects the prodigious efforts of the Pubhc Citizen Litigation Group's Kathy Meyer, many former colleagues, individuals, and organiza- Michael Tankersley, and Alan Morrison, along with tionswhocontributedtothem.Wearedeeplyindebt- SherylWalterandKateMartin,havealsobeeninstru- ed to ScottArmstrongfor estabhshingthis issue as a mental in winningcourt orders prohibiting the Rea- toppriority, andtotheothermembersoftheoriginal ganandBushadministrationsfromdestroyingbackup Iran-Contrateam. computer tapes of the White House's electronic — — Toproducethisbook,theeditorsdrewontheener- mail or PROFS system. The documents released giesofatalentedanddedicatedArchivestaff.Beyond pursuant to this lawsuit, and those that will be re- her official job of tracking FOIA requests on Iran- leasedinthefuture, makeamajorcontributiontothe ContraandotherArchiveprojects, LyndaDavispro- historv'oftheIran-Contraoperations. vided a steady copyeditors eye for error, and a thor- Years ofUtigation work and research on the Iran- ough dedication to finafizing the manuscript. Tom Contrascandalwouldnothavebeenpossiblewithout Blanton,theArchive'sexecutivedirector,providedhis the generous fiscal and moral support of the late unparalleled knowledge of the Iran-Contra opera- Philip M. Stem, the Roderick MacArthur Founda- J. tionstoassurethatthebookwasfactuallycorrectand tion,theRuthMottFund,theMar)'ReynoldsBabcock ;vii] Foundation, the Area Foundation, C.S. Fund, Deer scandal,andwhograciouslyprovidedtheforewordto CreekFoundation,TheFundforConstitutionalGov- thisvolume. ernment,TuneWarner Inc.,The Rockefeller Family Finally, we are indebted to the work ofIndepen- Fund, and indi\idual donors too numerous to list dentCounsel LawrenceWalsh andhis office, notfor here,butwhodeserveourthanks. assistance on this book (none was requested orpro- Theeditorsalsowishtoacbiowledgetheworkofa vided) but for substantiallv advancing the documen- numberofreportersandauthorswhoha\econtinued tarv record on the scandal. Against considerable toinspireourinterestandadvanceourknowledgeof political odds, Walsh's sLx-year investigation has the Iran-Contra operations and other U.S. govern- fundamentallychanged thewaythe Iran-Contraop- ment\entures that e\ol\ed from those covert activi- erations, and the Reagan and Bush administrations' ties.We,and manvotherpeople, bethe\'researchers effortstocoverthemup,willbeunderstoodbyfuture orconcernedcitizens,havebenefitedfromtherecent historians.Foritsunparalleledcontributiontouncov- investigativejournalism ofLarry Bensky, John Can- ering the truth in the face ofexecutive branch ob- ham-Cl\Tie, David Com, Brian Donovan, Sevrnour struction and presidential pardons, the Office ofthe Hersh, James G. Hershberg, Martha Honey, David IndependentCounselmustbecommended. Johnston, George Lardner, Sam Meddis, Robert This is the Archive's second collaboration with Fany,WalterPincus,DavidRogers,CraigUnger,and Andre Schiffrin andthe specialists atthe NewPress. MurrayWaas. We particularlywant to recognize the The expertise, guidance, and patience ofour editor unmatchedcontribution to recentscholarshipon the David Stembach, copyeditor Ted Bvfield, designer Iran-Contra affairs ofTheodore Draper, whose arti- Charles Nix,production managerKimWavTner,pub- cles in theNew YorkReviewofBooks andextraordi- licistClaudiaGuerra, andothermembers ofthisim- narybook, A Very Thin Line, helped to focus atten- portant publishing house, were essential to this pro- tion on thedeeperconstitutionalissues raisedbvthe jectandwillbetomanymore. viii]