Ari Ben-Menashe

Ari Ben-Menashe is a self-proclaimed Israeli military intelligence officer, born in Tehran, Iran in 1951 to affluent Iraqi Jewish parents. He is multilingual, speaking Arabic, English, French, Farsi, Hebrew, and Spanish. His father, Gourdji, was involved with LEHI (Stern Gang) and knew Yitzhak Shamir.³

Ben-Menashe moved to Israel in 1966 at age 14. In 1969, while on Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon, he was involved in the Michael Dennis Rohan/El Aqsa Mosque arson incident. He was recruited by SHABAK in 1972 but declined a spying role. He was drafted into military service in 1974, assigned to Unit 8200 (Signals Intelligence) on the Iranian desk, where he claims to have broken the Iranian diplomatic code. In 1976, he claims involvement in uncovering a Lockheed bribe scandal involving Shimon Peres. After refusing an assignment to the Rome listening station in 1977, he was court-martialed and released from military service.³

Intelligence Career

The claims in this section are drawn from Ben-Menashe's own account in Profits of War and have not been independently verified. Multiple congressional investigations found Ben-Menashe's testimony "totally lacking in credibility" and "demonstrably false from beginning to end."²

In August 1977, he joined the External Relations Department of Israeli Military Intelligence (IDF/MI/ERD) as a civilian, serving as a liaison with Iranian intelligence (SAVAK) and exchanging technical information including details on Chobham armor. He claims to have met Mahmoud Amirian (Tudeh Party) and Sayeed Mehdi Kashani (Shi'ite opposition) at Tehran University in 1977 and to have warned Israeli intelligence of an impending Iranian Revolution in 1978. In March 1978, he claims to have undertaken a mission to Nicaragua to establish communication with the Sandinistas, where he met Marie Fernanda (Freddie), who later became pregnant with their daughter, Herut. The CIA dismissed his warnings about Iran in April 1978.³

In December 1978, he claims involvement in a plan to assassinate Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini alongside Rafi and Col. Assaf Heftez. Ruth Ben-David acted as an emissary between Menachem Begin and Khomeini in December 1978. The Shah left Iran in January 1979, and F-14 jets were flown out by Israeli aircrews. He attended an Israel-U.S. intelligence exchange conference in September 1979 at which he criticized the U.S. attitude, including that of Jack Varona, Robert Gates, and Stansfield Turner. Following the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in November 1979, he observed Jimmy Carter's handling of the situation and the involvement of the Hashemi brothers in arms-for-hostages contacts.³

October Surprise Allegations

The claims in this section are Ben-Menashe's own account from Profits of War and are presented as he recorded them. The House October Surprise Task Force found no evidence to substantiate his specific allegations.²

Miles Copeland's group of CIA-connected officers, along with William J. Casey, Robert McFarlane, and Earl Brian, became involved in secret negotiations with the Iranians. David Kimche (Mossad Tevel) initiated a secret arms supply to Iran via South Africa in September 1979. Rafi established a network with Senator John Tower, McFarlane, and Brian.³

The first Madrid meeting (March 1980) involved Mehdi Karrubi, Kashani, Ahmed Omshei, Casey, McFarlane, and Donald Gregg. Shimon Peres also secretly met with Karrubi. The sale of tires to Iran in April 1980 led to Jimmy Carter's anger. The Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission failed in April 1980. A second Madrid meeting in May 1980 included Karrubi, Kashani, Omshei, Khosro Fakhrieh, Casey, Gates, McFarlane, and Brian, where Republicans were observed delaying hostage release for political gain. The KGB made inquiries about Israeli intelligence in 1980. The Israeli Cabinet issued a directive in August 1980 to cooperate with the Republican camp.³

An Amsterdam meeting in August 1980 involved Kashani, Iranian officials, and Cyrus Husseinzadeh (SAVAMA), where an Iranian arms shopping list was presented. The Iraqi invasion of Iran occurred in September 1980. A fourth Madrid/Barcelona meeting involved George H.W. Bush and Karrubi.³

A Paris meeting in October 1980 included Bush, Casey, Karrubi, Gates, George Cave, Gregg, Kimche, Shmuel Morieh, Uri Simchoni, Rafi, Ben-Menashe, and Simon Gabbay, where the hostage release deal was sealed. Ben-Menashe received $56 million in Guatemala in December 1980 from a Saudi ambassador (Faissal Ghows), with $4 million designated for Brian and $52 million for Kashani. He met Gates at Miami airport for the money transfer. Profits from tire and wheelbase sales ($956,000) were used to initiate a slush fund. The hostages were released on Ronald Reagan's inauguration day, January 20, 1981.³

In the fall of 1980, the Iran-Israel Joint Committee was formed to supply arms to Iran, with initial members including Kimche, Morieh, Simchoni, Moshe Hebroni, Rafi, and Ben-Menashe. In February 1981, at a Vienna arms supply conference, a $1 billion deal was struck for F-4 parts, artillery shells, mortars, AK-47s, air-to-surface missiles, Chieftain tank engines, and C-130s. Ben-Menashe made his first trip to post-revolutionary Tehran in February 1981 under the alias "William Grace," meeting Iranian Defense Ministry officials and the Air Force commander. Concerns about the Iraqi nuclear reactor (Tammuz 17) led to a Mossad operation to plant a homing device.³

A meeting in southern France in March 1981 between Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr and Moshe Arens fixed June 7 for the reactor attack. The Israel Air Force attacked Tammuz 17 on June 7, 1981, with pilots including Col. Yoram Eitan and Yair Shamir. Weapons flights from Ben-Gurion Airport to Tehran via Argentinean charters began in March 1981. A KGB inquiry about the flights led to a Soviet shootdown of a cargo plane in July 1981.³

The Ora Group was formed as a flagship for the slush fund. A New York operation on John Street was established for electronic equipment but was compromised when a Swiss woman leaked information to Leslie M. Gelb of the New York Times. Rafi used South African intelligence to deal with the Swiss woman.³

A strategic U.S.-Israeli agreement involving Ariel Sharon, Gates, and McFarlane allowed the resale of older U.S. arms. Money from arms sales was routed through U.S. banks including Chicago-Tokyo Bank, Chemical Bank, Bank One, and Valley National Bank of Arizona. Smokescreen operations involved private arms brokers including John Hortrich (alias John de Laroque) and Bernard Velliot. Nicholas Davies, foreign editor of the London Daily Mirror, was recruited by Mossad.³

A TOW missile deal in 1983 involved Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Kashani, with a deception campaign involving Arieh Jacobson and Abraham Bar David. A T-80 tank was acquired from Iran in 1985. The slush fund financed the Likud Party (under Yitzhak Shamir and Ehud Olmert) and "black" operations.³

Mohammed Radi Abdullah, a former Jordanian Army Colonel, was involved in "black" operations selling arms to Palestinian groups including Abu Nidal for intelligence purposes. The Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985 is described by Ben-Menashe as an Israeli "black" propaganda operation. Contributions were made to AIPAC and the Jewish Reform Movement. The Mossad European headquarters moved to London in 1982.³

During the Falklands War, Israel froze arms sales to Argentina, and the United Kingdom reimbursed Israel. Australia was used for "parking purposes" for C-130s from Vietnam, artillery shells from North Korea, TOW missiles, and Silkworm missiles from China.³

A contribution was made to the West Australian Labor Party in February 1987, involving Richard Babayan, Brian, Hadron, Yosef Goldberg, Alan Bond, John Curtin Foundation, Robert Maxwell, and the Pergamon Press Trust Fund.³

PROMIS Affidavits and INSLAW

After Danny Casolaro's death in August 1991, Ben-Menashe called Bill Hamilton, president of INSLAW, and claimed that two FBI agents from Lexington, Kentucky — including one named E.B. Cartinhour — had been en route to Martinsburg to give Casolaro evidence that the FBI was illegally using PROMIS software. He stated one agent was disaffected because his superiors had refused to indict senior Reagan officials for their October Surprise role.¹

In two affidavits dated February 17 and March 21, 1991, submitted to the Bankruptcy Court, Ben-Menashe claimed personal knowledge of Brian's involvement in international PROMIS distribution. He alleged Brian made a 1987 presentation to Israeli Military Intelligence's External Relations Department claiming ownership of PROMIS rights and stating that the CIA, NSA, DOJ, and Israeli intelligence had been using the software since 1982. He further alleged a 1982 meeting at which Rafael Eitan received PROMIS from Brian and McFarlane for the Israeli Defense Force Signals Intelligence unit. He claimed knowledge of the 1987 sale of Enhanced PROMIS to the Israeli intelligence community and the Singapore Armed Forces, a public-domain version sold by the Israeli government to the Soviet Union, and an enhanced version sold to Canada.²

Credibility Assessment

Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's investigation found Ben-Menashe's claims unsupported by credible evidence. When interviewed, Ben-Menashe provided a substantially different account: he stated he had no knowledge of the transfer of INSLAW's proprietary software by Brian or DOJ. He claimed the "PROMIS" in his affidavits referred not to INSLAW's PROMIS but to an NSA program called "Milon" (phonetic), a dictionary-compilation tool developed independently of INSLAW before the company existed. He admitted he allowed the Hamiltons and others to assume he meant INSLAW's PROMIS "to promote his book." The NSA confirmed its internal Product Related On-line Management Information System, also called PROMIS, was written in M204 rather than COBOL, served entirely different functions, and was wholly unrelated to INSLAW's software.²

The House October Surprise Task Force, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Special Counsel all found Ben-Menashe's testimony "totally lacking in credibility," "fabricated," and "demonstrably false from beginning to end." The October Surprise Task Force found no evidence for his specific allegations regarding a Casey-Brian trip to Iran. The Special Counsel concluded that Ben-Menashe's account offered no evidentiary support for the allegation that DOJ and Brian conspired to steal and distribute INSLAW's software.²