Manucher Ghorbanifar | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1945-05-09)9 May 1945 (age 80)[1] |
| Espionage activity | |
| Service branch | SAVAK |
| Service years | Unknown–1979 |
| Operations | NEQAB Iran–Contra affair |
| Other work | Arms dealer |
Manucher Ghorbanifar (Persian:منوچهر قربانیفر, nicknamedGorba; born May 9, 1945) is an expatriateIranian arms dealer and formerSAVAK agent.
According to theWashington Report on Middle East Affairs, Ghorbanifar was adouble agent for Iran andIsrael.[2] TheCIA directorWilliam Casey believed that Ghorbanifar was an Israeli agent.[3]
He is best known as a middleman in theIran–Contra Affair during theRonald Reagan presidency.[4] He re-emerged inAmerican politics during the lead-up to the2003 invasion of Iraq during the first term of PresidentGeorge W. Bush as a back-channelintelligence source "in order to report on any interaction and attempts at negotiations between Iranian officials and US ambassador to Iraq,Zalmay Khalilzad".[5]
Prior to the 1979Iranian Revolution Ghorbanifar was an agent of Iran'sSAVAK intelligence service, and a partner in an Israeli-Iranian shipping company, Starline Iran, which shipped oil from Iran to Israel.[6][7] Ghorbanifar knew Israel's military attache in Tehran,Yaakov Nimrodi, who helped build SAVAK.[8][9]
In 1980 Ghorbanifar was the liaison between the Shah's last Prime Minister,Shahpour Bakhtiar, in exile in Paris, and conspirators in the Iranian armed forces organising what is sometimes known as theNojeh Coup. The plot was exposed, and hundreds of officers were arrested at Nojeh Air Base on 9–10 July 1980.[10] Ghorbanifar had owned a shipping company and headed the logistics branch of the Niqab network which organised the civilian part of the plot. He had been recommended for the role by Bakhtiar.[11] Some Iranian sources later accused Ghorbanifar of leaking information to the Iranian government which helped thwart the coup plot.[12] In December 1985Adnan Khashoggi said in an interview that Ghorbanifar was head of European intelligence underMir-Hossein Mousavi (Prime Minister from 1981).[12]
In 1981 Ghorbanifar was the source for theWashington Post's stories aboutLibyanhit squads targeting Ronald Reagan and other senior US figures; in 1986 he said he had created the story "To hurt Libya, an enemy of Israel".[13] Ghorbanifar's contribution to the Libyan story contributed to the CIA's 1984 decision to issue a "burn notice" against Ghorbanifar.[12]
In the early 1980s Ghorbanifar accompaniedCyrus Hashemi to Israel to arrange a $50m arms shipment, codenamed "Cosmos", to Iran. The deal was cancelled at the last minute with much of the equipment already loaded onto a ship in Eilat.[14]
In the 1980s, Ghorbanifar's initial American contacts wereNational Security Council agentsOliver North andMichael Ledeen.[12] Ledeen vouched for Ghorbanifar toNational Security AdviserRobert McFarlane.Oliver North later claimed that Ghorbanifar had given him the idea for diverting profits fromTOW andHAWK missile sales to Iran to theNicaraguanContras.[4]
Ghorbanifar's suspected duplicity during the Iran–Contra deal ledCIA DirectorWilliam Casey to order three separatelie-detector tests, all of which he failed. Iranian officials also suspected Ghorbanifar of passing them forged American documents. The CIA issued aburn notice (or "Fabricator Notice") on Ghorbanifar in 1984, meaning he was regarded as an unreliable source of intelligence, and a 1987 congressional report on Iran–Contra by theCongressional Committees Investigating The Iran-Contra Affair cites the CIA warning that Ghorbanifar "should be regarded as an intelligence fabricator and a nuisance".[15]
His own cohorts in the arms-for-hostages affair were also incredulous. "I knew him to be a liar," North eventually acknowledged.Ronald Reagan had described Ghorbanifar as a “devious character.”[16]Robert McFarlane, the national-security adviser who approved the Iran–Contra arms trades, once described Ghorbanifar as "one of the most despicable characters I have ever met."[17] Former CIA official and Iran-Contra figureGeorge Cave, who was involved in the 1984 decision to issue the burn notice,[18] has described Ghorbanifar as "the most totally amoral person I have ever met".[19]Thomas Twetten, Chief of the Near East Division of the CIA's Directorate of Operations at the time,[20] said of him: "This is a guy who lies with zest."[21]
According to a report inTime, Ghorbanifar's links with the CIA led to internal disputes, with the counter-terrorism division supporting him and Middle East officers attempting to discredit him. Ghorbanifar's anger at being labelled a liar may have led him to urge Iranian contacts to leak the Iran-Contra story.[22][23] The affair first became public in a Lebanese newspaper, apparently leaked byMehdi Hashemi.
Ghorbanifar has been suspected of being a former FrenchDGSE informer, and allegedly accompaniedJean-Charles Marchiani, the right-hand man of former French Interior MinisterCharles Pasqua, during his meetings with the deputy Iranian foreign minister to negotiate the release of theFrench hostages in Lebanon in the mid-1980s.[24]
In December 2001Michael Ledeen organized a three-day meeting inRome,Italy between Manucher Ghorbanifar and USDefense Intelligence Agency officialsLarry Franklin andHarold Rhode.[25] Also present were two officials from Italy'sSISMI. In addition to a position at theAmerican Enterprise Institute, Ledeen was working as a consultant to then U.S.Undersecretary of Defense for PolicyDouglas Feith, who oversaw theOffice of Special Plans. The 2001 meeting took place with the approval of then-DeputyNational Security AdvisorStephen Hadley. The meeting concerned a secret offer from reportedly dissidentIranian officials to provide information relevant to thewar on terrorism and Iran's relationship withterrorists inAfghanistan.[26]
Prior to the Iraq War, Ghorbanifar had passed allegations to theBush administration that "enriched uranium was smuggled from Iraq into Iran and some may remain hidden in Iraq" which the CIA later discovered to be a fabrication created by Ghorbanifar.[27][28] Ghorbanifar was linked to theNiger uranium forgeries which were forged documents initially released bySISMI that would later be used partly as justification for theIraq War.[29]
Summer 2003 news reports of the meetings prompted an internal review, as well as an investigation by theU.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld characterized the meetings as insignificant, saying, "There wasn't anything there that was of substance or of value that needed to be pursued further." News reports also indicated that Ghorbanifar sought to be paid for the middleman role. Subsequent contacts with Ghorbanifar were abandoned.[4]
Manucher Ghorbanifar has emerged as the probable origin of the information cited byCongressmanCurt Weldon's book,Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information that Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America... and How the CIA has Ignored it (Regnery Publishing, June 2005)ISBN 0-89526-005-0. Weldon cites an anonymous source, "Ali," believed to beFereydoun Mahdavi, a former Iranian minister of commerce before theIranian Revolution who is a close associate of Ghorbanifar.[4]
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