Podbit · Stuff You Should Know
Iranian businessman Manucher Ghorbanifar, the key middleman in the Iran arms deal, was so untrustworthy that the CIA issued a 'burn notice' on him in 1983 — warning all allied intelligence services to stay away. Oliver North decided to work with him anyway.
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At 15:52 · chapter starts 14:30
North, who had been running the Contra operation for years and was no longer the covert novice he once was, was brought in to broker the Iran deal. He traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode, with an E,' using a fake passport. According to North's later congressional testimony, CIA Director William Casey gave him cyanide pills so he could end his own life rather than be tortured by the Iranians if the visit was a setup. He returned safely. His main Iranian contact was Manucher Ghorbanifar, an arms dealer described as 'ten shades of shady' — so untrustworthy that the CIA had issued a formal burn notice on him in 1983, warning all allied intelligence services to stay away. Oliver North's response was essentially: sounds good, I'll deal with him.
In the first round of the secret arms deal, 508 TOW missiles were transferred from Israel to Iran in exchange for hostage releases.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
The official narrative: John Poindexter wanted to help the Contras, tapped Oliver North, and North went rogue — creating the entire network, brokering the Iran deal, all without Reagan or Bush knowing anything. The American public was not impressed.
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