[ FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERS // Lawrence E. Walsh, Independent Counsel // August 4, 1993, Washington, D.C. // Volume I: Investigations and Prosecutions ]

Chapter 27

President Reagan



Footnotes

1 McFarlane, North Trial Testimony, 3/10/89, p. 3946.
2 See discussion on "The Iran Hostage Initiative, 1985-1986" later in this chapter.
3 In his written answers to interrogatories requested by Independent Counsel and the Grand Jury, Reagan stated that he did not monitor the details of the Iran arms sales and had no specific knowledge of such key matters as North's role or Secord's role. The President said he did not authorize any profits from the sale of arms to Iran and that he was unaware that there were excess proceeds and that some of them were diverted to aid the contras.
4 Two of the key meetings were on November 10 and November 12, where the principal account of the Iran initiative, given by Poindexter, left out the 1985 arms sales from Israeli stocks. At a meeting on November 24, Attorney General Meese said that the November 1985 HAWK shipment was possibly illegal but, he said, the President "didn't know."
5 Later, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel developed a purported defense for these sales. The participants in the November 24, 1986, meeting were concerned, however, with the question of legality, rightly or wrongly.
6 Former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger was indicted by a federal Grand Jury on June 16, 1992, on five counts of obstruction, perjury and false statements. He was to be tried on January 5, 1993. Weinberger was pardoned by President Bush on December 24, 1992.
7 Two of the key persons involved in the operations said they believed the President either had approved of their actions or would have approved of them had he been asked. Poindexter, who testified that he did not inform the President of the diversion, said he nevertheless believed the President would have approved it had it been presented to him. (Poindexter, Select Committees Deposition, 5/2/87, pp. 70-72.) North testified that he believed that the President had authorized the diversion. (North, Select Committees Testimony, 7/7/87, pp. 23-25.)
8 Answers of the President of the United States to Interrogatories, Answer to Question 10, In Re Grand Jury Investigation (hereafter, "Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories").
9 See Flow of Funds chapter.
10 See Minutes from National Security Planning Group Meeting, 6/25/84, ALU 007863-76. Although Vice President Bush and CIA Director William J. Casey felt third-country assistance would be legal absent any quid-pro-quo arrangement, Secretary of State George P. Shultz felt that a legal opinion should be obtained; and Casey agreed. The day after the NSPG meeting, Casey and CIA General Counsel Stanley Sporkin met with Attorney General William French Smith and two of his assistants and were told by the attorney general that
he saw no legal concern if the United States Government discussed this matter with other nations so long as it was made clear that they would be using their own funds to support the contras and no U.S. appropriated funds would be used for this purpose. The Attorney General also said that any nation agreeing to supply aid could not look to the United States to repay that commitment in the future.
An assistant to the attorney general, Mary Lawton, suggested that
a specific written statement might be developed to make clear to cooperating nations that any decision to provide further assistance to the resistance in Nicaragua would be made without any monetary promises or inducements from the United States Government which would expect them to take steps to assure that no U.S. appropriated funds would be involved in the program.
(Memorandum from Sporkin to the Record, 6/26/84, ER 21615.)
11 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answers to Questions 1-4.
12 The President denied knowledge of the diversion to the Tower Commission, in his sworn answers to Grand Jury Interrogatories, in his testimony in Poindexter, and in numerous public statements following the disclosure of the diversion by Attorney General Meese on November 25, 1986. (See, e.g. Reagan, Remarks at a Meeting with the President's Special Review Board, 12/1/86, Public Papers of the Presidents, 1986 Vol. II, 1986, p. 1591; Reagan, Address to Nation on Iran Arms and Contra Aid Controversy, 3/4/87, Ibid., p. 208-11; Reagan, Interview with White House Newspaper Correspondents, 4/28/87, Ibid., pp. 424-29; Reagan, Address to Nation, 8/12/87, Ibid., p. 942-45.)
13 Meese, Grand Jury, 2/17/88, pp. 51-56; Regan, Grand Jury, 2/3/88, pp. 43-47.
14 Poindexter, Grand Jury, 11/28/90, p. 115.
15 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 18. Alan D. Fiers, Jr., former head of the CIA's Central American Task Force, had a vivid memory of the NSPG meeting on May 16, 1986. According to Fiers, during a discussion of the need for funds to keep contras in the field until an expected congressional appropriation became available, President Reagan said: "Can't some of Ollie's people help out?" Regan quickly changed the subject. (Fiers, Grand Jury, 8/14/91, p. 39.) The official NSPG minutes record Reagan's remarks as: "What about the private groups who pay for ads for the contras. Have they been contacted? Could they do more than ads?" (Minutes of the May 16, 1986, NSPG Meeting, 6/4/86, AKW 018802-13.)
16 PROFs Note from North to Poindexter, 5/16/86, Poindexter GX 66.
17 See McFarlane and Casey chapters; see also Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answers to Questions 11-13.
18 McFarlane, Grand Jury, 4/29/87, pp. 36-37.
19 Minutes from National Security Planning Group Meeting, 6/25/84, ALU 007863-76.
20 McFarlane, North Trial Testimony, 3/10/89, pp. 3941-30; Ibid., 3/15/89, pp. 4626-29.
21 Ibid., 3/13/89, pp. 4201-6.
22 Poindexter, Select Committees Deposition, 6/17/87, pp. 268-69. For discussion of McFarlane and North involvement in solicitation of third-country funds for the contras, see McFarlane chapter.
23 Ibid., pp. 76-79.
24 Poindexter, Grand Jury, 3/6/91, pp. 52-54.
25 Recommended Telephone Call, 4/25/85, ALU 0097413-14.
26 Memorandum from McFarlane Re: "Meeting with Honduran President Suazo", 5/21/85, ALU 0086547-60.
27 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, p. 109.
28 Poindexter, Grand Jury, 11/28/90, pp. 60-63.
29 Reagan, Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With Southeast Regional Editors and Broadcasters, 5/15/87, Public Papers of the Presidents, 1987, Vol. I, p. 514: "These [the contras] are people who are fighting for democracy and freedom in their country. And here there's no question about my being informed. I've known what's going on there. As a matter of fact, for quite a long time now, a matter of years, I have been publicly speaking of the necessity of the American people to support our program of aid to those freedom fighters down there in order to prevent there being established a Soviet beachhead here in the Western Hemisphere, in addition to the one we already have in Cuba. And to suggest that I am just finding out or that things are being exposed that I didn't know about_no. Yes, I was kept briefed on that. As a matter of fact, I was very definitely involved in the decisions on the support to the freedom fighters. It was my idea to begin with."
30 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 8.
31 Ibid., Answer to Question 9.
32 Ibid., Answer to Question 10.
33 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, pp.131-38.
34 Ibid., 2/17/90, p. 170.
35 Ibid., p. 192.
36 Ibid., 2/16/90, p. 21.
37 Ibid., p. 121.
38 Ibid., p. 122.
39 McFarlane, Select Committees Testimony, 5/13/87, p. 98.
40 Poindexter, Select Committees Deposition, 5/2/87, pp. 221-22; Ibid., 6/17/87, pp. 315-16; Poindexter, Select Committees Testimony, 7/15/87, pp. 138-41; Ibid., 7/20/87 pp. 3, 10.
41 Poindexter, Grand Jury, 11/28/90, p. 72.
42 Ibid., pp. 71-73.
43 Memorandum from North to McFarlane, 10/30/85, ALU 0060483-86.
44 Poindexter, Grand Jury, 11/28/90, p. 86-87.
45 The OIC was permitted to read excepts from the President's diary entries from 1984-87 deemed relevant to Iran/contra by White House counsel. The OIC reviewers were not permitted to make copies, so the references to President Reagan's Diary quoted here, except where otherwise attributed, reflect OIC attorneys' notes of the excerpts.
46 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 9. When asked whether he authorized Casey, among others, to take action with respect to the contras during the Boland cut-off period, the President said the question was too broad to be answered specifically. He conceded that Administration policy was to support the contras. "Thus, Administration officials were generally authorized to implement that policy." (Ibid.)
47 See North chapter.
48 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, pp. 53-54.
49 Ibid., 2/17/90, p. 235.
50 The President was briefed in advance on each group of weapons sold to Iran. With respect to the November 1985 HAWK shipment, the President was also told what happened to it (see Regan, Grand Jury, 2/3/88, p. 61-64; see also Poindexter Notes, 11/25/85, 000037-38). On December 5, 1985, President Reagan signed a Finding to validate it retroactively.
51 The January 17, 1986, Iran arms Finding listed three purposes: "(1) establishing a more moderate government in Iran; (2) obtaining from [elements in Iran] significant intelligence not otherwise obtainable, to determine the current Iranian Government's intentions with respect to its neighbors and with respect to terrorist acts, and (3) furthering the release of the American hostages held in Beirut and preventing additional terrorist acts by these groups." (Presidential Finding, 1/17/86, AKW 001921.)
52 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, p. 16-19.
53 See the December 5, 1985, retroactive Finding referred to in footnote 50.
54 22 U.S.C. § 2753(a).
55 50 U.S.C. § 413. The Foreign Assistance Act, 22 U.S.C. § 2314, is arguably inapplicable. It concerns government-to-government transfers, not sales to individuals.
56 Meese, Select Committees Testimony, 7/28/87, pp. 6, 26; ibid., 7/29/87, pp. 45-46.
57 P.L. 99-169, § 502(b).
58 Memorandum from Cooper to Meese, 12/17/86, pp. 5-6, ALV 077747-48.
59 22 U.S.C. § 662.
60 Memorandum from Cooper to Meese, 12/17/86, p. 17, ALV 007760.
61 Ibid., p. 5, ALV 007748. Ironically, Meese maintained that the Boland Amendment, which restricted actions of "intelligence agencies," did not apply to the NSC because it was not an "intelligence agency." Meese testified that "certainly the NSC is not an intelligence agency" and in his "opinion the NSC staff would not be considered an intelligence agency within the general meaning of the term. (Meese, Select Committees Deposition, 7/8/87, p. 33.)
62 50 U.S.C. § 413(b).
63 Meese, Select Committees Testimony, 7/28/87, pp. 197-98.
64 President Reagan has said he does not recall signing the December 1985 Finding, but Poindexter testified that the President signed it on December 5. Poindexter testified that it was kept in his office safe until he destroyed it on or about November 21, 1986. North testified in his trial that he and Commander Paul Thompson, the NSC's legal counsel, witnessed the destruction of the Finding.
65 Poindexter, Grand Jury, 3/6/91, pp. 140-41.
66 Abrams pleaded guilty October 7, 1991, to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress about secret Government efforts to support the contras during the Boland period. He was pardoned by President Bush on December 24, 1992.
67 McDaniel Notes, 11/6/86, ALU 0128263-64.
68 "Remarks on Signing the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986," 11/6/86, Public Papers of the Presidents, Ronald Reagan, 1986, Vol. II, pp. 1521-22.
69 "Remarks and an Informal Exchange with Reporters Prior to a Meeting with David Jacobsen," 11/7/86, Public Papers of the Presidents, Ronald Reagan, 1986, Vol. II, pp. 1533-34.
70 McDaniel Note, 11/7/86, ALU 0128264.
71 North, North Trial Testimony, 4/7/89, pp. 7032, 7036-37.
72 Reagan, An American Life, p. 527 (Simon & Schuster 1990).
73 Regan, Grand Jury, 2/26/88, pp. 32-34.
74 DCI (Casey) schedule, 11/10/86, ER 326-27.
75 Regan Notes, 11/10/86, ALU 024673-87; Memorandum from Weinberger to the Record, 11/10/86, ALZ 0041725-27; Meese Notes, 11/10/86, ALV 065209-12; Keel Note, 11/10/86, AKW 047247-55.
76 Hill Notes, 11/10/86, ANS 0001766-67, 0001762-64.
77 Regan Note, 11/10/86, ALU 024673-87.
78 Ibid., ALU 024687.
79 Statement by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Speakes on the American Hostages in Lebanon, 11/10/86, Public Papers of the Presidents, Ronald Reagan, 1986, Vol. II, p. 1539.
80 Thompson Notes, 11/12/86, 11/13/86, 11/21/86, AKW 001390-463.
81 Meese Note, 11/12/86, ALV 065197-99.
82 Thompson Note, 11/12/86, AKW 001402.
83 Ibid.
84 Meese Note, 11/12/86, ALU 065197-99.
85 Regan Note, 11/12/86, ALU 0139141.
86 Reagan, An American Life, p. 528.
87 Reagan, Address By the President to the Nation, 11/13/86, ALU 018811-14.
88 Background Briefing by Senior Administration Official, 11/13/86, AKW 028978-79.
89 Regan, Grand Jury, 2/26/88, p. 41.
90 Subject: Background and Chronology of Special Project, AKW 010038-40; Index of Logs Used By Poindexter, Poindexter GX 124.
91 U.S./Iranian contacts and the American Hostages, 11/20/86, AKW 000151-73.
92 Shultz, Select Committees Testimony, 7/23/87, p. 110.
93 News Conference by the President, 11/19/86, ALU 016823.
94 Statement by the President, 11/19/86, ALU 016815.
95 Shultz, Select Committees Testimony, 7/23/87, pp. 111-14.
96 Regan, Select Committees Testimony, 7/15/87, pp. 39-42.
97 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 49.
98 Hill Note, 11/22/86, ANS 0001883.
99 See Poindexter and Casey chapters.
100 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/17/90, pp. 250-51.
101 Hill Note, 11/22/86, ANS 0001888.
102 Meese, OIC Interview, 5/11/92, pp. 55-56.
103 Meese, North Trial Testimony, 3/28/89, p. 5750.
104 North, North Trial Testimony, 4/13/89, p. 7669.
105 Poindexter, Select Committees Deposition, 7/2/87, pp. 12-13; Poindexter, Select Committees Testimony, 7/20/87, p. 127.
106 Ibid., pp. 188-89.
107 McFarlane, North Trial Testimony, 3/14/89, p. 4277.
108 Poindexter, Select Committees Testimony, 7/15/87, pp. 50, 53.
109 Poindexter, Grand Jury, 11/14/90, pp. 88-91.
110 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, p. 160; Ibid., 2/17/90, p. 267.
111 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 50.
112 Meese, Grand Jury, 2/17/88, pp. 51-56; Regan, Grand Jury, 2/3/88, pp. 43-47.
113 Regan Note, 11/24/86, ALU 0139379.
114 Weinberger Meeting Note, 11/24/86, ALZ 0040669LL.
115 Richardson Note, 11/25/86, Cong. Ex. EM-53.
116 "Remarks Announcing the Review of the National Security Council's Role in the Iran Arms and Contra Aid Controversy," 11/25/86, Public Papers of the Presidents, 1986, Vol. II, p. 1587.
117 Ibid.
118 Transcript of Meese's News Conference, 11/25/86.
119 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 51.
120 Earl, Grand Jury, 5/1/87, pp. 117-19. ("Colonel North turned and confided, `And you know what'_again I don't have the exact wording so I'm just going to relay the thrust of what he said_that the President had told him that it was important that he not know; that he was told that it was important that he not know.")
121 North, Select Committees Deposition, 7/1/87, pp. 17-18.
122 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/17/90, p. 152.
123 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 49.
124 Tower Commission Report at III-7.
125 Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, pp. 37-38.
126 OIC Review of Reagan Diary, 1987.
127 An American Life, p. 510.
128 OIC Review of Reagan Diary, 1987.
129 Hill Note, 11/22/86, ANS 0001883.
130 Hill Note, 11/24/86, ANS 0001894-909.
131 Reagan was interviewed by the Tower Commission on January 26, 1987 and on February 11, 1987, and by OIC on July 24, 1992, and he provided interrogatory answers to the Grand Jury in late 1987.
132 Tower Commission Report at III-7-8; see also ibid. at B-19-20.
133 Ibid., p. III-9; ibid., at B-37.
134 Ibid., p. III-21.
135 Ibid., III-24; ibid., at C-14.
136 In an extensive interview of Reagan conducted in Los Angeles in July 1992, Independent Counsel satisfied himself that President Reagan's memory of the Iran initiative and much of his memory of contra support during the Boland cut-off period is now very faded.
137 Additionally, a diary kept by White House Counsel Peter Wallison indicates President Reagan's state of confusion as his staff tried to prepare him for the Tower Commission interview. See Regan chapter.
138 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 23; see also Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, pp. 16-20; ibid., 2/17/90, pp. 226-28.
139 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 24; see also Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, pp. 35-37; ibid., 2/17/90, p. 229.
140 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Question 27; see also Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/17/90, pp. 231-32.
141 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Questions 36-38; see also Reagan, Poindexter Trial Testimony, 2/16/90, pp. 29, 155-57; ibid., 2/17/90, pp. 236-37, 243-44, 276-82, 289-90.
142 Reagan, Grand Jury Interrogatories, Answer to Questions 14-17.
143 Ibid., Answer to Question 8.
144 Ibid., Answer to Question 9.
145 Ibid., Answer to Question 10.
146 For a full account of the President's testimony in Poindexter, see Poindexter chapter.


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