But on whether Reed made any remark about obstructing Carter's October Surprise, Reed claimed he "does not specifically know what October Surprise refers to, Penich scribbled down. [For a text of the Penich notes, click here. To see a PDF file of the actual notes, click here.]
The task force lawyers didn't press hard. Most strikingly, the lawyers failed to confront Reed with evidence that would have impeached his contention that he had "no contact with Casey in 1980.
According to the sign-in sheets at the Reagan-Bush campaign headquarters, which the task force had obtained, Reed saw Casey on Sept. 11, 1980, less than two months before the election.
Weapons Flowing
After Reagan entered the White House, U.S. weapons were again flowing secretly to Iran through Israel. For instance, Northrop's affidavit stated that even before Reagan's inauguration, Israel had sounded out the new administration regarding its attitudes toward more weapons shipments to Iran and got "the new administration's approval.
By March 1981, millions of dollars in weapons were moving through the Israeli arms pipeline, Norththrop said, including spare parts for U.S.-made aircraft and tons of other hardware. Northrop said Israel routinely informed the new Reagan administration of its shipments.
On July 18, 1981, one of these weapons deliveries went awry, however. A chartered Argentine plane strayed off course on its return flight and was shot down by Soviet interceptors, threatening to reveal the clandestine deliveries that might have outraged the U.S. public if it were known that Israel was supplying weapons to Iran with Reagan's secret blessing.
After the plane was shot down, Nicholas Veliotes, a career diplomat who had been named Reagan's assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, tried to get to the bottom of the mysterious weapons flight.
"We received a press report from Tass [the official Soviet news agency] that an Argentinian plane had crashed, Veliotes said. "According to the documents " this was chartered by Israel and it was carrying American military equipment to Iran. "
"And it was clear to me after my conversations with people on high that indeed we had agreed that the Israelis could transship to Iran some American-origin military equipment.
"Now this was not a covert operation in the classic sense, for which probably you could get a legal justification for it. As it stood, I believe it was the initiative of a few people [who] gave the Israelis the go-ahead. The net result was a violation of American law.
The reason that the Israeli flights violated U.S. law was that no formal notification had been given to Congress about the transshipment of U.S. military equipment as required by the Arms Export Control Act.
In checking out the Israeli flight, Veliotes came to believe that the Reagan-Bush camp's dealings with Iran dated back to before the 1980 election.
"It seems to have started in earnest in the period probably prior to the election of 1980, as the Israelis had identified who would become the new players in the national security area in the Reagan administration, Veliotes said. "And I understand some contacts were made at that time.
Q: "Between?
Veliotes: "Between Israelis and these new players.
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