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t4'
;32 Friday, December 5, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
851-0555
datelined report by correspon-
dent Judith Miller, Saudi
Arabia began to warm up its
relations with Iran "after
Iranian troops stunned what
was judged to be militarily
superior Iraqi forces by cap-
turing the Iraqi port city of
Fao." After that Iraqi defeat,
the report said, "King Fand
approved in principle ship-
ments of badly needed fuel oil
to 'Teheran."
Meantime, the Saudis were
working closely with the U.S.
in funding anticommunist
rebels in Afghanistan and
Angola. The Saudis had
reached such a formal agree-
ment with the Reagan Ad-
ministration as part of the
American AWACS surveil-
lance aircraft sale to the
Saudis in 1981. During a
meeting between King Fand
and Central Intelligence
Agency Director William
Casey in February 1984, the
Saudis agreed to fund the
"contras" in Nicaragua as
well.
A key connection between
the.U.S. and Saudi Arabia in
the "contra" operation was
retired U.S. Air Force General
Richard Secord — today a
private arms dealer — who
had worked closely with the
Saudis during the AWACS
battle on Capitol Hill. Secord
is also very deeply involved in
channeling arms to the "con-
tras," according to several of-
ficials.
On the Israeli side, Nimrodi
was deeply involved in ar-
ranging the U.S. arms ship-
ments to Iran — as were
Kimche, Al Schwimmer, a
founder of Israel Aircraft In-
dustries and today an adviser
to Peres, and Amiram Nir, ad-
viser to the Prime Minister
on counter-terrorism and a
former military affairs cor-
respondent for Israel Iblevi-
sion. Nir, in fact, was the
fourth person on the military
transport plane which brought
former National Security Ad-
viser Robert McFarlane to
Teheran last May. The others
were North and George Cave,
a veteran Central Intelligence
Agency expert on Iran who
speaks Persian.
According to The New York
Times, Khashoggi has done
many favors for Israel and
vice versa. "Sources said it
was Mr. Khashoggi who in
the early 1980s introduced
Israeli officials to Gaafar al-
Nimeiry, then President of
the Sudan. Mr. Nimeiry even
met with a prominent Israeli
Cabinet minister at Mr.
Khashoggi's ranch in Kenya"
"It was through this con-
nection that Israel ultimate-
ly worked out the arrange-
ments for some 18,000 Ethio-
pian Jews to flee from their
homes in Ethiopia and across
into the northern Sudan," the
report continued.
Diplomatic sources in
Washington said that various
Israeli "representatives" have
also met over the years with
the Saudi Ambassador in
Washington, Prince Bandar.
Israel has also cooperated
with the U.S. in Central
America. Recently, for in-
stance, the two countries have
joined forces in trying to
strengthen the military forces
of Honduras. There are all
sorts of other joint projects
underway. Israeli officials
deny that they directly arm
or fund the contras. They also
deny that they knew
anything about the secret Ira-
nian arms funding to the con-
tras.
But over the past 18
months, as senior Israeli of-
ficials repeatedly denied that
any Israeli arms were being
sold to Iran, Israel was deep-
ly involved in such transac-
tions. The Israeli government
publicly confirmed what
Peres and Defense Minister
Yitzhak Rabin had earlier
flatly denied. Peres' personal
credibility has been severely
shaken in Congress because
he privately assured several
U.S. lawmakers, including a
recent delegation of pro-
Israeli members, that Israel
was not selling weapons to
Iran.
Thus, there is a prevailing
sense in Washington that so-
meone in Israel knew about
the contra funding — as
Meese has suggested. There
is also a suspicion that
Nimrodi and the other
"private" arms agents took a
healthy commission on the
sales.
Several members of Con-
gress have continued to press
for an independent
"Watergate" type Special
Counsel to investigate the
widespread allegations of
criminal activity on the part
of some Administration of-
ficials. They also want to
question Israelis implicated
in the deal, including
Nimrodi, Kimche, Schwim-
mer and Nir. Whether Israel
makes these people and
others available to U.S. in-
vestigators remains to be
seen. Some U.S. officials
believe that Reagan will per-
sonally ask for full Israeli
cooperation in the procedure.
What started off as a
demonstration of U.S.:Israeli
strategic cooperation with all
the promise of a public rela-
tions bonanza for Israel has
turned into a sordid mess for
everyone concerned. Things
are likely to get worse for
Reagan, the Israeli govern-
ment and others involved in
the deal before they get any
better.