-Caveat Lector-
Iran-Contra Files Seized in Israel
By LAURIE COPANS
.c The Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) - Documents and tapes linked to the Iran-Contra affair have
been seized from the office of an Israeli newspaper publisher and one-time
arms dealer, a lawyer in the case said Thursday.
The office of Yaakov Nimrodi, acting publisher of the Maariv daily, was
searched this week as part of an investigation involving Nimrodi's son, Ofer,
who is suspected of having plotted the murder of a state witness in a
wiretapping scandal.
Police are not renewing an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair, said
spokesman Ofer Sivan. He would not say what material was taken from Nimrodi's
office.
The Iran-Contra scandal erupted in the mid-1980s when Israel and the United
States secretly sold weapons to Iran, while publicly condemning arms sales to
the country. The weapons, including anti-tank missiles, were sent to Iran in
exchange for Iran's agreement to work for the release of U.S. hostages held
in Lebanon by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim extremists.
Nimrodi, a former agent in Iran for Israel's Mossad secret service, was one
of three Israeli middlemen in the deal. Part of the profits were funneled to
anti-Sandinista insurgents in Nicaragua known as Contras.
Yitzhak Shamir, prime minister at the time, said the United States always
knew what Israel was doing, but did not always agree. ``Our interests were
different, though very close,.'' he told Israel television.
Nimrodi's lawyer, Yossi Cohen, said Thursday that his client was writing a
book about the scandal and that while the documents and tapes in his
possession were of historical importance, they were not secret. Cohen said,
however, that Nimrodi hadn't looked at the material in 15 years.
A reference to Irangate first emerged Wednesday when police said they had
found a secret document linked to the scandal in the office of private
investigator Oded Ben-Dov. Police suspect Ben-Dov was hired as a hitman by
Nimrodi's son in the alleged plot against the witness.
Ben-Dov said the Iran-Contra document he had was sent to him by an overseas
client several years ago, the Haaretz newspaper reported. Israel television
reported that the document was a secret Israeli government inquiry into the
scandal.
The younger Nimrodi stepped down as Maariv publisher after police announced
last month they were investigating him in connection with the alleged murder
plot. Nimrodi was arrested a week ago. Earlier this year, he had served
four-and-a-half months in jail on charges he wiretapped phones of a rival
newspaper, Yediot Ahronot.
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