Between August 1985 and October 1986, the Reagan administration secretly sold anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to the Islamic Republic of Iran — an officially designated state sponsor of terrorism, in the middle of a war with Iraq. The cash went into Swiss bank accounts. From there a portion was diverted, in defiance of two congressional bans, to the Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The scheme was exposed by a Lebanese magazine, dismantled by a special commission, and partly prosecuted before President George H. W. Bush issued the pardons that ended the cases.
State & Intelligence Operations
1985-1987
