added]. ... The USG[overnment] will act to facilitate efforts by third parties and third countries to establish contacts with moderate elements within and outside the Government of Iran by providing these elements with arms, equipment and related materiel in order to enhance the credibility of these elements.... '' Of course, Bush, Casey and their Israeli allies had never sought to bolster moderate elements '' in Iran, but
overthrew them at every opportunity--beginning with President Abolhassan Bani-
Sadr.@s3@s8
January 7, 1986:President Reagan and Vice President Bush met at the White House with several other
administration officials. There was an argument over new proposals by Amiram Nir and
Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar to swap arms for hostages.
Secretary of State George Shultz later told the Tower Commission that George Bush
supported the arms-for-hostages deal at this meeting, as did President Reagan, Casey,
Meese, Regan and Poindexter. Shultz reported that he himself and Secretary of Defense
Caspar Weinberger both opposed further arms shipments.@s3@s9
January 9, 1986:Lt. Col. Oliver North complained, in his notebook, that Felix [Rodriguez] '' has been
talking too much about the V[ice] P[resident] connection. ''@s4@s0
January 15, 1986:CIA and Mossad employee Richard Brenneke wrote a letter to Vice President Bush
giving full details, alerting Bush about his own work on behalf of the CIA in illegal--but
U.S. government-sanctioned-- sales of arms to Iran.@s4@s1
Mid-January, 1986:George Bush and Oliver North worked together on the illegal plan.
Later, at North's trial, the Bush administration--portraying Colonel North as the master
strategist in the case!--stipulated that North prepared talking points for a meeting between Admiral Poindexter, Vice-President Bush, and [the new] Honduran President [Jose Simon] Azcona. North recommended that Admiral Poindexter and Vice-President Bush tell President Azcona of the need for Honduras to work with the U.S. government on increasing regional involvement with and support for the Resistance. Poindexter and Bush were also to raise the subject of better U.S. government support for the states bordering Nicaragua. '' That is, Honduras, which of course borders on Nicaragua, '' was
to get more U.S. aid and was to pass some of it through to the Contras. In preparation for
the January 1986 Bush-Azcona meeting, the U.S. State Department sent to Bush adviser
Donald Gregg a memorandum, which `` alerted Gregg that Azcona would insist on
receiving clear economic and social benefits from its [Honduras's] cooperation with the