The Tower Panel: Laying Out the Brutal Facts

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Even if skillfully executed, the arms-for-hostages policy would still have been wrong. Such trades "could not help but create an incentive for further hostage-. . . They could only remove inhibitions on other nations from selling arms to Iran . . . ((The)) trades rewarded a regime that clearly supported terrorism and hostage-taking."

Were the arms sales to Iran approved in advance? It was not the panel's role to make judicial verdicts, but the report makes clear that the legality of the arms deals depended on whether the President formally waived in advance the provisions of various arms-export laws forbidding shipments to Iran.

On that critical issue, the President gave three different versions of his recollection of what he had done about Israel's sale of 100 U.S.-made antitank missiles to Iran in August 1985. This shipment started America's involvement in Iran arms sales, since it was conditioned on agreement that the U.S. would resupply Israel. Testifying to the Tower board this past Jan. 26, Reagan said he had approved the shipment sometime in August 1985. He even underlined a portion of McFarlane's testimony making the same point to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On Feb. 11, however, Reagan told the board that after discussing the matter with Regan, he realized he had been "surprised" on learning that the Israelis had shipped the weapons, and therefore must not have approved it in advance. That squared with Regan's testimony to Congress and the board. Two weeks ago Reagan sent a letter to the board saying "I'm afraid that I let myself be influenced by others' recollections" and "I don't remember -- period."

Interviewed three times by the board, McFarlane stuck firmly to his story that Reagan had personally given him approval by telephone to tell Israel the President supported the sale. McFarlane said he even reminded Reagan that Shultz and Weinberger opposed this move, but the President assured him he would take "all the heat for that." While the report says it cannot "conclusively" resolve the dispute, the board is "persuaded that ((the President)) most likely provided this approval prior to the first shipment by Israel."

Israel also made a shipment of 18 U.S.-made Hawk antiaircraft missiles to Iran in November 1985. The Iranians were furious because the missiles carried Israeli insignia. They demanded that the weapons be sent back to Israel. Again, the President's memory is cloudy on whether he gave an O.K. to the sale. At first he told the board he had objected, and that is why the shipment was returned. Later he said he and Regan had agreed that "they cannot remember any meeting or conversation about a Hawk shipment."

By the time the U.S. decided to sell arms directly to Iran, a formal presidential finding was necessary. Reagan signed one on Jan. 6, according to the report, but Regan told the board that the President had done so "in error." He signed another one on Jan. 17. Although the President did not read the covering memo explaining why the finding was needed, he does remember making the decision. He wrote in his diary, "I agreed to sell TOWs to Iran."