TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/120991/1209004.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.7 KB | 119 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 44

MIDDLE EAST

Have Cloak, Will Travel


In his zeal to free the Western hostages, Terry Waite was closely
involved with U.S. -- and Israeli -- secret schemes

By BRUCE W. NELAN -- Reported by Michael Duffy and Jay Peterzell/
Washington and William Mader/London


    Two weeks after his release from 1,763 days as a hostage
in Lebanon, Terry Waite remains incommunicado at a Royal Air
Force base near London. Outside, unanswered questions are piling
up. Considerable evidence has appeared showing that Waite was
a willing front man for U.S. efforts -- which included swapping
arms to Iran -- to free the Westerners held prisoner by
Hizballah extremists in Lebanon. The central question is whether
he knew precisely what he was fronting for.

    While Waite, during most of his 2 1/2 years as a hostage
negotiator, worked intimately with Lieut. Colonel Oliver North,
the point man in the Irangate operation, he indicated to his
Anglican church colleagues that he assumed Washington was also
using other channels in its efforts on behalf of the captives.
And to the day he was kidnapped, he insisted that he had not
known the U.S. was shipping arms to Iran in return for the
piecemeal release of Americans. Waite's friends and colleagues,
including North, who directed the arms deals, confirmed his
denials.

    But the picture is murkier. After a meeting with Waite in
December 1985, an Israeli diplomat reported to Jerusalem that
Waite seemed to know that the U.S. was at least contemplating
a deal that would help Iran in its war with Iraq. Waite,
according to the diplomat, said he had that word from Washington
officials, including some at the highest level -- no less than
President Reagan and then Vice President George Bush.

    According to the diplomat, Waite asked to meet him in a
European capital in December 1985, apparently to seek Israel's
assistance in freeing the hostages. At that meeting, the Israeli
reported, Waite confided that senior U.S. officials had told him
that if the hostages were released with Iran's help, it "would
influence directly the fate of the war" between Iran and Iraq.
Waite told the Israeli that the Americans had not spelled out
how that influence would be secured, but added, "I assume by
giving important strategic armaments" to the Iranians. By that
time, Washington had already authorized two shipments from
Israel to Iran of TOW antitank and Hawk antiaircraft missiles.
Waite gave no indication to his Israeli contact that he knew
such shipments had been made.

    A White House official who sat in on a November 1985
meeting between Waite and Bush denied last week that the topic
of exchanging arms for hostages ever came up. "It wasn't an
action-oriented conversation," he recalled. "It was general
stuff." Another Administration official said Waite occasionally
telephoned the White House Situation Room during the mid-1980s
and usually asked for North.

    According to the Israeli diplomat, Waite claimed to know
of another covert U.S. plan. In his report of the December 1985
meeting, the Israeli said Waite suggested that the Americans
would also use their influence to swap Arab prisoners for the
Western hostages. "If the deal were to come off," he quoted
Waite as telling him, "they would release all the detainees in
Kuwait." Waite did not identify the detainees but seemed to be
referring to 17 terrorists imprisoned there for car bombings,
including attacks on the U.S. and French embassies, in 1983.

    Publicly, the Reagan Administration was then supporting
Kuwait's adamant refusal to respond to Hizballah demands by
making any deals for the 17. A senior official at the White
House said last week that the U.S. had little influence with
Kuwait at the time and could not have forced it to release the
prisoners even if Washington had so desired. Waite, said another
official, was "never, never, never" told that the U.S. would
contemplate such a deal.

    Like North, Amiram Nir, the anti-terrorism adviser to then
Prime Minister Shimon Peres, apparently found Waite a useful
vehicle for pursuing the interests of Israel, which was
assisting the U.S. hostage campaign mainly to curry favor with
Washington. In November 1985 Nir proposed to his government that
it bolster Waite's bargaining power by arranging to free some
of the Hizballah members held in El-Khiam prison in southern
Lebanon by Israel's proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army.

    Hizballah had not yet demanded their release as part of a
hostage trade, but Nir suggested that Waite appeal directly to
General Antoine Lahd, head of the S.L.A., to release Hizballah
members who had not been involved in murder; Waite would make
his plea on humanitarian grounds, and Lahd would agree, at
Israel's behest. Nir felt the proposed releases from El-Khiam
would provide a plausible explanation for the hoped-for
liberation of Western hostages so the media would not seek out
the more important cause: U.S. arms sales to Iran.

    On Jan. 5, 1987, as Waite prepared for his last trip to
Beirut, he spoke by phone with Nir. According to a tape
recording of that conversation, Nir, who later died in the crash
of a chartered plane in Mexico, informed Waite that the Israeli
government had decided to "see if we can do anything to give you
more in hand so as to facilitate your chances." Waite replied,
"That would be very helpful."

    According to Samir Habiby, a canon of the American
Episcopal Church who worked closely with Waite on behalf of the
hostages, Waite hoped to meet Lahd in Lebanon after his trip to
Beirut. The plan died when Waite was kidnapped.