Iran-Contra Figure the New Bush Iranian Intelligence Asset?:Conyers

Larisa at Raw Story is reporting that the Vice-President's office and the Department of Defense has been working with Manucher Ghorbanifar during its recent increased interest in Iran. For those of you that don't remember Ghorbanifar, he was the Iranian arms dealer and central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal through whom the Reagan White House armed the Contra militias in El Salvador in direct violation of Congress and federal law.

The CIA has issued a "burn notice" on Ghorbanifar meaning he is not to be trusted and shouldn't be considered a source for intelligence. However, Raw Story reports that Cheney and DoD are operating beyond the agency, having already placed the arms dealer on payroll and using him as an intelligence asset to monitor U.S. diplomatic efforts in Iran. Knight-Ridder reports that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra and the second-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee Curt Weldon met secretly with one of Ghorbanifar's associates in Paris last week.

The suggestion that the Bush Administration is becoming more involved with figures from the Iran-Contra scandal is very troublesome. You may recall that Bush hired Elliot Abrahms and John Poindexter at the beginning of the administration, two figures pardonned by Reagan for their roles in that episode. We must keep a close watch on these developments

http://www.conyersblog.us/


Knight Ridder Report
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/12181224.htm

I am just waiting for Adnan Khashoggi to surface.

And so soon. Naughty naughty!

But I remember Ghorbanifar as the person who went to the press about the Iranian arms deals. Ghorbanifar set himself up as a middleman between North and the Iranians. The plan was to sell missiles to Iran at a huge mark up. Ghorbanifar set up a meeting between North and the Iranians. As soon as North met Ghorbanifar's contacts, North no longer needed Ghorbanifar, so North dealt directly with the Iranians and cut Ghorbanifar out of the middle and his share. Ghorbanifar was furious and went to the press.

The whole thing about the burn notice sounded fishy to me because everybody the CIA deals secretly with is dishonest. It looks to me more like the CIA burned Ghorbanifar because he went to the press and exposed what was going on.

The fact this player is still alive proves he goes both ways.