CIA LEAK 43“No, H. K. There was no misunderstanding. Believe me, this is what
Galbraith told the president. What should we do? Should we permit
Iranian weapons shipments to continue on to Bosnia?”
“Uh, I’ll have to get back to you on that, Ivan.”
My mind was racing. What should I do? It is not the job of CIA offi-
cers to report on the activities of other US officials. But this was potentially
illegal activity.
I did not immediately report it in official channels, but I shared it with
my colleague when he returned to Zagreb to relieve me a few days later. It
fell to him to deal with the matter in official channels, and with the local
aftermath. I did not envy him, and I heard afterward that CIA-Galbraith
relations in Croatia were soured for a very long time as a result. In fact,
according to a subsequent US congressional investigation into Iranian
arms shipments to Bosnia, Galbraith later improperly retaliated against
the CIA for quite properly unmasking the harebrained scheme.^5
My understanding was that only three American officials (besides me)
knew of this secret policy: President Clinton, National Security Adviser
Anthony Lake, and Galbraith. Lake’s subsequent nomination to be CIA
director was derailed at least in part because of his involvement in this ill-
conceived policy.
At the time, several moderate, pro-US governments (like Turkey and
Saudi Arabia) had indicated a willingness to provide arms to the Bosnians.
While this would strike some as duplicitous—we impose an arms embargo
and then violate it with arms shipments—there were compelling human-
itarian reasons to arm the Bosnians. Common sense would dictate that
any country would be preferable to Iran in this situation. Yet the Clinton
administration, for reasons that are still not credible, decided that Iran was
to be the supplier of arms and influence in Bosnia.
By the time I showed up in war-torn Sarajevo in July 1995 to make
initial contact with the Bosnian security service, two US administrations—
one Republican and one Democrat—had ignored my intelligence and
made disastrous policy decisions, which directly led to the malignant Iranian
influence and my brush with death in Bosnia. After which the CIA leaked
classified information to James Risen about Bosnia’s betrayal of me to the
Iranians, in order to pressure Bosnia to kick out the Iranians. Dizzy yet?