WASHINGTON -- An ex-Iranian arms dealer claimed that in the summer of 1980 he witnessed William Casey, manager of the Reagan-Bush presidential campaign, strike a deal with top Iranian officials for the release of 52 American hostages after the November election, ABC News reported Thursday.
Jamshid Hashemi claimed to have served as an interpreter for Casey and a leading Iranian cleric, Mehdi Kharoubi, during two sets of meetings in late July and mid-August at a Madrid hotel, according to ABC News Nightline, which said the story was virtually 'impossible to confirm.'
The network said it had accumulated circumstantial evidence to support aspects of Hashemi's claim, but not the central suggestion that the Reagan campaign got the hostages freed on Inauguration Day in exchange for third party arms shipments to Iran.
There has been renewed speculation about whether the Republican Reagan-Bush team orchestrated a deal to delay the hostage release until after the November election as a way to deny President Jimmy Carter a political benefit to enhance his fading chances for re-election. Carter, a Democrat, lost the election.
One rumor alleged a deal was struck at a meeting in October in Paris and that vice presidential candidate George Bush was present. Bush, who succeed Reagan as president after two terms as vice president, has denied knowledge of such a deal and has denied allegations he was in Paris at the time.
Hashemi said Bush was not at any of the meetings that the arms dealer attended.
Carter has called for an investigation of what has been dubbed the 'October Surprise' and Congress is considering whether it should launch a formal probe.
Hashemi's account of the alleged meetings in Madrid was told by Nightline host Ted Koppel, who said he met with the 'key witness' for four hours earlier this month.
The story begins in Paris in March or April 1980 when Casey met with Hashemi and his brother Cyrus, an arms dealer who is now dead. Through Koppel, Hashemi says Casey was looking for a close contact with Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni and the brothers agreed to act as go- betweens. A meeting was setup between Kharoubi and Casey in Madrid.
The Hashemi brothers acted as interpreters for Kharoubi and his brother Hassan and Casey and two unidentified Americans during the first set of meetings during the last week of July. The first meeting ended without any serious discussion about the hostages, much less a delay in their release.
The next day, the five principals sat down again and the talks became more substantive. The Iranians wanted to know what Casey could say about the release of Iran's assets, which were frozen by the Carter administration after the hostage seizure. Also, what could be done about shipments of Iranian weapons, also being held by the United States?
It is here that Casey brought up the hostages. Hashemi says Casey asked if Iran was ready to deal with the Republicans and hand over the hostages. Would they be well treated and would they be released after the election? If that happened, the Republicans would be grateful and would arrange for the release of Iran's frozen assets and the military equipment.
Kharoubi then said to his countrymen, not to Casey, 'I think we are now opening a new era and we are now dealing with someone who knows how to do business.'
The next round of meetings occurred in mid-August at the same Madrid hotel and Kharoubi told Casey that the hostages would be treated as 'guests' rather than prisoners and that the details of their release would be handled by third governments. He also said that the hostages would be released on the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated if the delivery of Iranian weapons could be arranged.
Hashemi reacalled that between August 1980 and January 1981 weapons were delivered to Iran through Israeli connections. The report said that Hashemi was certain all of the shipments were made before Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1981. The hostages were released minutes after Reagan's inauguration after 444 days in captivity.
ABC News said it obtained hotel records that could place the Iranians in Madrid at the time. However, the network produced no evidence to suggest any meetings occurred. The network also said that it found a newspaper article that said Casey had been 'abroad' during the final week of July 1980. But the article did not say where Casey was visiting and his campaign records for that period are sketchy. Casey, who became Reagan's CIA chief, died in 1987.
