It is especially hard to solve a mystery if all the people who actually know the truth are either accomplished liars, adamantly mute, or already dead. Such a conundrum is facing investigators who are still trying to unravel the Iran- contra scandal and other baroque plots that American officials may have hatched in the Middle East over the past decade. Last week, as yet more charges came to light, there was no shortage of fingerprints, plot twists or stool pigeons. But there was a desperate shortage of certainty, perhaps because when truth is stranger than fiction, the two are harder to separate.
There are a handful of people who could plausibly answer the frightening questions that date back to 1980. Did Reagan campaign officials conspire with Iran to delay the release of the hostages until after the election? For how long did U.S. officials secretly help supply weapons to Iran? Were they also helping the Iraqis to illegally acquire missile parts and chemical weapons? If they were willing, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani could probably answer; if they were still alive, former CIA Director William Casey, Israeli counterterrorism expert Amiram Nir and Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini could.
And so can I, claims Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer who clings like kudzu to every new conspiracy theory that sprouts in the thicket of conflicting tales. Since the others aren't talking, even his wild charges get a wide audience. He was among the first to leak the details of secret U.S. arms sales to Iran back in 1986. He is one of the sources behind the stories about a purported "October surprise" hostage deal in the 1980 campaign. And now he has told Senate investigators that between 1986 and 1988 the Reagan Administration was secretly supporting shipments of arms -- including chemical weapons -- to Iraq, despite pleas and complaints from Israel about the dangers that Baghdad posed to its neighbors.
As charges mount that the Reagan Administration consistently violated both the law and its own stated policies, the Senate Intelligence Committee seems compelled to at least hear out even the most outlandish tales that come its way. The lawmakers must decide whether to recommend confirmation of White House deputy for national security affairs Robert Gates as the new CIA director. Ben-Menashe's claims have provided another wrinkle, since he charges that Gates, while serving on Jimmy Carter's NSC staff and then as Casey's deputy at the CIA, participated in illegal operations.
Over Memorial Day weekend, Ben-Menashe arrived in Washington bearing allegations about Gates that went far beyond his handling of the Iran-contra scandal. Ben-Menashe charges that Gates was present at three 1980 meetings between William Casey, then manager of Reagan's election campaign, and Iranian officials in Madrid, at which they allegedly discussed delaying the release of the 52 American hostages in Iran in return for shipments of arms through Israel. Ben-Menashe also claims that Gates attended a final meeting in October in Paris, which included not only Casey but the vice-presidential candidate and former CIA chief, George Bush. President Bush has repeatedly denied being present at that meeting, calling the charges "bald-faced lies."