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In August 1983 his boss wanted to send Ben-Menashe to the Israeli military attache's office in Washington to work as a translator. He then appeared before a committee for a routine job-qualification examination. The committee's report was blunt: "It was found that he has serious personality disorders."
Even so, some knowledgeable -- and skeptical -- experts do not dismiss Ben- Menashe as a gifted con man. His information, with its richness of detail and its grains of truth, was enough to win the attention of some journalists and investigators who are trying to piece together the truth behind the conspiracy theories. Gary Sick, the former Carter White House official whose lengthy investigations refocused attention on the "October surprise" story in April, admits that he was deeply suspicious of Ben-Menashe's tales at first. But one by one, at least some of Ben-Menashe's stories have turned out to be plausible. Among them: that Casey and the Iranians had met in March or April, as ABC News suggested. Previous accounts had the meetings taking place months later.
Likewise, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who is writing a book about Israel's nuclear program, has found some of Ben-Menashe's testimony credible. Ben-Menashe claims to have operated at one time out of Ayacucho, Peru, where he says his job was to protect supplies of minerals essential to Israel's nuclear program. At one point, Hersh devised his own test of the agent's veracity. He handed Ben-Menashe a list of 10 minerals, asking him to pinpoint the critical ones for nuclear-weapons production. Ben-Menashe checked three, and they were the right ones.
It might be easier to judge Ben-Menashe's credibility if anyone could pinpoint his motives. He portrays himself as a patriot who was angered at Gates for helping Israel's enemies. "I didn't do anything for myself," he told TIME. "I did it for Israel." He is also in the process of writing his memoirs, so he may be looking for some limelight. He says he is frightened and bitter at the Israelis for abandoning him.
Ben-Menashe, on balance, appears to be a practiced poseur. But his charges will continue to attract attention as long as questions linger about the Reagan Administration's bizarre dealings with Iran and Iraq. If Casey in fact cut a deal with Iran to delay the release of the hostages, the act would verge on treason. If no such bargain was ever struck, the reputations of innocent men have been smeared. Either way, it is long past time to get to the bottom of the mystery.