Turf Unlimited or: Do spy agencies ever stop at anything? *Spoiler* No

What if you woke up one day to check the NY Times, and there you’re hit with an outlandish headline: USA ships thousands of anti-tank missiles to…Iran. You rub your eyes, and stare at the screen for the missing ‘not’ or whatever might be the catch in that sentence. Finding nothing, you go down reading what’s it’s all about.

“The US wants to give Iran an arms shipment, but because the world superpower enacts an arms ban on the rebellious mullah state, they can’t give it to them at all.”

You ease out a troubled breath from your tight chest. Of course, you know there was a catch…

“So, they will use help from Israel. America’s staunchest ally in the region will hand over anti-tank missiles, from its own arsenal, to Iran; and then the US will resupply Israel…and in return will receive the payment that Israel had charged for that arms deal!!!!!”

Wait a minute, wasn’t Iran the number one enemy of the state of Israel, as well.

“And if Israel, for any reason, withdraws or bucks back, the US will entice arms dealers, asking them to be middle man with the mullah state; with the promise of a handsome spread, up to 42% of the total value of the trade.”

THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN…right?

Not even a third rate fiction writer would dare sketch it in his cheap pop fiction drivel.

It is so absurd, incredibly unfathomable… 

Yet it happened.

The year 1979 will always be remembered as a bad year for the US foreign affairs: of course for being the year the Islamic revolution took place in Iran, effectively depriving America of a strong ally, and forever changing the geopolitics of the Middle East boiling pot, right?

Well, not only for that.

Then of course, because, it was also the year the Soviets lost their minds and invaded Afghanistan?

Yet another thing… It was also the year the communists Sandinists finally assumed power in the bloody Nicaraguan Revolution.

The US fought simultaneously two proxy wars with the Soviets: financing and arming the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and the Contras in Nicaragua; as well as planning the rescue of dozens of hostages from Iran, and then from its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, during a vicious civil war.

The American nation was ready for a fight, and was never better prepared: a Republican President was in power, starting 1980: Ronald Reagan. The Americans stood the Soviets and their allies with valor, and capability.

However, the US trailed its enemies by a minor setback: democracy.

No one can challenge the huge value of democracy. However, it’s comes with a catch—the Congress.

Between 1982 and 1984, the Congress passed the Boland amendment; a series of legislative laws that prevented the US government from providing any assistance to the blood-thirsty barbaric Contras in Nicaragua, after a serious of atrocious crimes in those days.

Then there was the hostages held by the mullahs proxy party in the ongoing Lebanese Civil war, whom Iran refused to set free.

Here come the spies of Gideon to the rescue.

Back then, Israelis hated the Iranian mullahs alright…but they weren’t their number one enemy back then: Saddam Hussein was. And guess what? He was at war with the Iranians in the debilitating First Persian Gulf War (1980-88).

So, here was the simple plan devised by the CIA and Mossad: Israel will sell arms to the Iranians, who will use it to fight the vicious Iraqi dictator and his army, and at the same time, they will be grateful enough to order the release the American hostages in Lebanon.

The US will resupply Israel with arms and Israel will pass over the Iranian transaction money to the CIA.

With the money garnered through this operation, the CIA, off the books, funneled cash to the Contras in Nicaragua; thus the US could go on supporting their allies in the proxy war going on in the small Central American country, without awaiting an approval from Capitol Hill.

This part of history is also known as the ‘Iran-Contra affair’—a huge scandal for the Reagan administration.

If you were old enough to have lived those tumultuous times, or amply knowledgeable about the topic, feel free to share your insights and opinion below. Thanks.