Byline: Miguel Acoca and Knut Royce Hearst News Service
A tiny network of high-rolling international arms merchants, assisted by White House officials and retired intelligence operatives, formed the indispensable ingredient in the Iran-contra cauldron that has scorched the Reagan administration.
It was these mysterious adventurers who provided the weapons, contacts, transportation and financing for the shipment of arms to Iran and the presumed diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan rebels.
The known details of the complex operation, involving three continents and wars thousands of miles apart in Central America and the Persian Gulf, reveal how arms dealers operate in tandem with governments. They also demonstrate how back-channel diplomatic mercenaries contributed to reversing stated U.S. foreign policy, bypassing the will of Congress, and creating the worst crisis of Ronald Reagan's presidency.
Involved in the scheme were National Security Council officials, retired American military and Central Intelligence Agency officers, current and former Israeli and Iranian officials and weapons merchants, Saudi Arabian billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, and Southern Air Transport, a former CIA air cargo carrier.
The players and their backgrounds were such that it was easy for them to mesh the Iran initiative with the ongoing contra supply effort in contravention of a U.S. ban on sales of military equipment to Iran and the Nicaraguan insurgents.
They included influential individuals who, with a cryptic telephone call or Telex message, can command enough weapons to outfit entire armies fighting in the world's current ideological conflicts and who can raise millions of dollars from friendly Middle East …
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