9/11 As Sequel to Iran-Contra: Armitage, Carlucci and Friends

For some reason, Green has made a point of being secretive about his connection to another company created and run by Frank Carlucci.  His resume does not list the company name but only refers to it as a “Major Consulting and Marketing Company.”[26] From 1989 to 1996, Green was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of this mysterious firm.  Through his political contributions, we can see that this was IPAC, or the International Planning and Analysis Center.[27]

IPAC was the “consulting arm” of SWT.  And although SWT lasted only four years after suffering huge, inexplicable losses, IPAC went on for years after that and conducted business in a secret way similar to that used to accomplish the Iran-Contra crimes.  As author Dan Briody wrote, “Using a subsidiary of SWT called the International Planning and Analysis Center, Carlucci consulted on the buying and selling of anti-aircraft missiles, radar, jets, and other military equip­ment for the United States and Canada.  IPAC was loaded with ex-military, and also provided consulting to Third World countries. But nobody within SWT even knew about it.”[28]

Given the fact that anti-aircraft missiles were just the kind of arms that Iran was being sold as part of the Iran-Contra crimes, and that SWT was conducting this consulting at the very same time, it is highly likely that Carlucci’s company was coordinating the arms sales to Iran.  The Philadelphia Inquirer suggested exactly that, saying, “this hallowed American institution [Sears] served as consultant in the Iranian arms sale.”[29] Furthermore, the SWT-consulted arms sales were said to be accomplished with “funding from the State Department’s Agency for International Development.”  The leaders of the U.S. State department at the time included Assistant Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was Deputy Secretary of Defense on 9/11.

A familiar failure to investigate and prosecute

In November 1986, just a month after SWT was dissolved, the Tower Commission was appointed by Reagan to investigate the Iran-Contra scandal.  The commissioners included Senator John Tower, former NSA Brent Scowcroft, and former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie.  Stephen Hadley, who would be Deputy NSA on 9/11, was Counsel for the commission. It was revealed that military arms including TOW anti-tank missiles and Hawk anti-aircraft missiles were sent to Iran with the help of two middlemen: Manucher Ghorbanifar and Adnan Khashoggi.  CIA Director William Casey was thought to have conceived the plan. Casey was reported to be stricken ill hours before he would testify and he died under mysterious circumstances just six days later.

In November 1987, a report was issued by the “Congressional committees investigating the Iran- Contra Affair,” led by Democrat Lee Hamilton (who later was vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission) and Republican Dick Cheney.  The report stated that Reagan’s administration exhibited “secrecy, deception and disdain for the law.”  Hamilton chose not to investigate Reagan or Vice President Bush, however, saying that he did not think it would be “good for the country” to put the public through another impeachment trial.[30]

Hamilton’s report mentioned that the missiles involved “were sold from Israeli stock with U.S. approval.  The remaining materiel came from U.S. stocks.”  In other words, at least some of the weapons sold to Iran as part of the Iran-Contra crimes came through the Army Materiel Command (AMC), at the time managed by Barry McDaniel and his colleagues.

During the years when Carlucci was running SWT and IPAC, McDaniel was the Deputy Director for Readiness at the U.S. AMC.  McDaniel was the main logistics administrator for AMC’s commanding general, Richard H. Thompson.  Thompson and McDaniel were responsible for procuring and fielding all of the weapons systems for the Army—a job that entailed spending tens of billions of dollars to buy and maintain tanks, helicopters, missiles, sensors, and communications equipment.

In an interview as he was leaving the job in 1988, McDaniel recalled his supervision of the military’s acquisition officers worldwide.[31]  He also made mention of the importance of the Southwest Asia Petroleum Distribution Project (SWAPDOP) during his tenure.  Apparently, pipelines and petroleum in this area of the world, which includes the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, had something to do with the deployment of U.S. Army materiel during the mid-1980s. What McDaniel’s role in that deployment was, and what it might have had to do with arming the Mujahideen, is not yet clear.

Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh continued the appearance of an investigation into Iran-Contra until issuing his final report in 1993. It gradually emerged that Secord, Armitage, Casey, Clines, Oliver North, John Singlaub, and Edwin Wilson were involved in the conspiracy to provide arms to the Contras.  Walsh accused Armitage of providing false testimony during the investigation.

Although NSA John Poindexter and Oliver North were convicted in the case, those convictions were ultimately overturned.  And none of the investigations pursued links between Frank Carlucci, SWT or IPAC in the Iran-Contra affair.  Ironically, Carlucci came back to the Reagan Administration just as these investigations were beginning as a replacement for Poindexter, in order to calm public concerns.  Carlucci was backed for the job by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz and CIA Director Casey.[32]

When George Bush became president, he set about rewarding those who had helped cover up the Iran-Contra crimes.  Bush appointed Armitage as a negotiator and mediator in the Middle East.  Brent Scowcroft became his NSA, and John Tower was nominated to be Secretary of Defense. When the Senate refused to confirm Tower, Bush gave the job to Cheney.  Later, six people who had been charged with offenses related to Iran-Contra, including PNAC members Weinberger and Elliott Abrams, were pardoned by Bush.

Carlucci’s tenure as Secretary of Defense resulted in an investigation into vast corruption at the Pentagon, called Operation Ill Wind.  This investigation initially focused on Melvyn Paisley, who was a Navy contracts specialist in DOD and a consultant for BDM International.  Not long afterward, the Carlucci-run Carlyle Group bought BDM and Carlucci became chairman of the company.  He immediately brought in former Kissinger assistant Phillip Odeen and future Stratesec COO Barry McDaniel.

McDaniel’s choice to leave his long career in military acquisitions to go into industry could be understandable, despite the fact that he was on track to become an Assistant Secretary of the DOD by his own assessment.  And BDM International, although mired in the Operation Ill Wind scandal at the time he joined them, was a lucrative company to hire onto considering all the “black projects” they began to secure.  But it seems unusual that McDaniel later gave all that up to become Chief Operating Officer for Stratesec, a badly performing, relatively small operation.  It is also odd that McDaniel’s expertise in military logistics just happened to be the right fit for running that airport and World Trade Center security outfit.  That is, all of that is odd unless McDaniel’s move had less obvious benefits like those of Carlucci when he made what seemed to be an inexplicable decision to quit his powerful position at the DOD to join SWT.

In any case, the lack of thorough investigation and prosecution of those responsible for Iran-Contra led to “strengthening the very institutions that made their abuses possible.”[33] As a result, long-time covert operatives like Richard Armitage and Frank Carlucci were able to carry on with the same kinds of special operations that subvert democracy through secrecy and abuse of the public trust.  Years later, Armitage and Carlucci, along with colleagues like Cheney, McDaniel, Green, and Rumsfeld, were in positions to make the attacks of September 11 an extraordinary sequel to the Iran-Contra crimes.  If and when an honest and independent investigation into 9/11 occurs, these men should certainly be among those investigated.