Terrorists bombed Rome and Vienna airports, killing 20 people, including five
Americans. The Crisis Pre-Planning Group (CPPG), supervised by Bush's office and
reporting to Bush, blamed Libyans for the attack and began planning for a military strike
on Libya. Yet an unpublished CIA analysis and the Israelis both acknowledged that the
Abu Nidal group (in effect, the Israeli Mossad agency) carried out the attacks.@s3@s4
Bush's CPPG later organized the U.S. bombing of Libya, which occurred in mid-April
1986.
December 31, 1985 (Tuesday):Iranian arms dealer Cyrus Hashemi told Paris-based CIA agent Bernard Veillot that Vice
President Bush was backing arms sales to Iran, and that official U.S. approval for private
sales to Iran, amounting to $2 billion, was `` going to be signed by Mr. Bush and [U.S.
Marine Corps commandant] Gen. [Paul X.] Kelley on Friday. ''@s3@s5
Loudly and publicly exposed in the midst of Iran arms deals, Veillot was indicted by the
U.S. Then the charges were quietly dropped, and Veillot went underground. A few
months later Hashemi died suddenly of `` leukemia. ''@s3@s6
January 2, 1986 (Thursday):Israeli counterterrorism chief Amiram Nir met with North and Poindexter in Washington.
The Bush report on terrorism had now been issued within the government but was not yet
published. Bush's report was urging that a counterterrorism coordinator be named for the
entire U.S. government--and Oliver North was the one man intended for that slot.
At this meeting, Nir proposed specifically that prisoners held by Israeli-controlled
Lebanese, and 3,000 American TOW missiles, be exchanged for U.S. hostages held by
Iran. Other discussions between Nir and Bush's nominee involved the supposedly new
idea that the Iranians be overcharged for the weapons shipped to them, and the surplus
funds be diverted to the Contras.@s3@s7
January 6, 1986 (Monday):President Reagan met with George Bush, Donald Regan, McFarlane and Poindexter. The
President was handed a draft Presidential Finding '' that called for shipping arms to Iran through Israel. The President signed this document, drafted following the discussions with Amiram Nir. The draft consciously violated the National Security Act which had established the Central Intelligence Agency, requiring notification of Congress. But Bush joined in urging President Reagan to sign this finding '': `` I hereby find that the
following operation in a foreign country ... is important to the national security of the
United States, and due to its extreme sensitivity and security risks, I determine it is
essential to limit prior notice, and direct the Director of Central Intelligence to
refrain from reporting this finding to the Congress as provided in Section 501 of the
National Security Act of 1947, as amended, until I otherwise direct '' [emphasis