http://www.rense.com/general28/iss.htm "...Already under the Iran's former Shah's regime, Israel had strong links with non-Arab government in the form of military and trade alliances such as oil-for-arms arrangements against their common Arab enemy Iraq. Against the backdrop of the 1980-1998 Iran-Iraq war, Israel continued to supply arms to Tehran when Ayatollah Khomeini took power and even after the 1979-1981 hostage crisis at the US embassy there. The most notorious case of the shadowy relations between the two countries was the "Irangate" scandal which broke in 1986 over the secret financing of the anti-Sandinista Contras guerrilla in Nicaragua through arms sales to Iran with Israel acting as an intermediary. http://www.arabia.com/afp/news/mideast/article/english/0,10846,276765,00.htm... Who Ari? Ben-Menashe, Ari. Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network. New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992. 394 pages. If this book is even half true, it means that less than ten percent of the Reagan and Bush administration double-dealing was ever revealed to the American public. Ari Ben-Menashe's description of the U.S.-Israeli arms network can only be described as "sensational." If you accept his scenario, it's apparent that an impotent U.S. Congress, once they got a whiff of the dimensions of the problem and considered their options, had no choice but to cover it all up. Some journalists who have verified portions of Ben-Menashe's story have found that his information is excellent. Others just wish he would disappear and are inclined to discredit him, because to accept him is to admit that you've been chasing your tail for ten years and missing it all. With Ben-Menashe, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Ben-Menashe was one of six on Israel's top-secret Joint Committee on Israel-Iran Relations, and spent years globe-trotting for them, setting up fronts and transferring millions in cash. In 1980 he saw George Bush in Paris meeting with a high Iranian official, and in 1986 he briefed Bush. In 1981 Robert Gates helped him with his suitcase containing $56 million. Others in this book include Margaret Thatcher's son Mark, Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen, and Paraguay's Alfredo Stroessner, to name a few. http://www.pir.org/sources/TO.html