U.S. Senate report implicates Irangate figures in misleading Pentagon on war with Iraq
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 02:17 12/06/2008
By Yossi Melman
Nearly two decades after luring the United States and Israel into selling arms to Iran's ayatollahs in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon, in a deal that became known as Irangate or the Iran-Contra affair, Michael Ledeen and Manouchehr Ghorbanifar are back in the spotlight, starring in a new political and intelligence scandal.
This time, however, they are involved not only in an attempt to go behind the backs of the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency and to persuade the Bush Administration to establish secret contacts with the Iranian regime but are also suspected of being manipulated, unwitting, by Iranian intelligence. A new report by the U.S. Senate suggests that Iranian intelligence used Ledeen and Ghorbanifar to feed disinformation to neoconservatives in the administration of President George W. Bush in a bid to encourage a U.S. invasion of Iraq in order to defeat Saddam Hussein, Iran's arch-enemy.
The new affair is another chapter in the book of Bush administration intrigues, plots and conspiracies, all aimed at fabricating evidence to justify its decision to invade Iraq. The report, by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, focuses on secret contacts in Rome in 2001-2003.
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Last update - 02:17 12/06/2008
By Yossi Melman
Nearly two decades after luring the United States and Israel into selling arms to Iran's ayatollahs in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon, in a deal that became known as Irangate or the Iran-Contra affair, Michael Ledeen and Manouchehr Ghorbanifar are back in the spotlight, starring in a new political and intelligence scandal.
This time, however, they are involved not only in an attempt to go behind the backs of the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency and to persuade the Bush Administration to establish secret contacts with the Iranian regime but are also suspected of being manipulated, unwitting, by Iranian intelligence. A new report by the U.S. Senate suggests that Iranian intelligence used Ledeen and Ghorbanifar to feed disinformation to neoconservatives in the administration of President George W. Bush in a bid to encourage a U.S. invasion of Iraq in order to defeat Saddam Hussein, Iran's arch-enemy.
The new affair is another chapter in the book of Bush administration intrigues, plots and conspiracies, all aimed at fabricating evidence to justify its decision to invade Iraq. The report, by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, focuses on secret contacts in Rome in 2001-2003.
--MORE--