Strange bedfellows in the arms trade: Polish intelligence, Monzer al-Kassar and the Iran-Contra affair

Abstract

ABSTRACT The exposure of the Iran-Contra Affair in November 1986 revealed an illegal scheme to sell arms to Iran involving senior officials in the Reagan administration. The profits from the sales were used to support the Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua, to whom the CIA was supplying arms manufactured in the Soviet Bloc. The aim of this article is to examine the behind-the-scenes role played by Polish intelligence services in the arms shipments to Iran and Nicaragua and to shed light on those services’ ties with Monzer al-Kassar, one of the 1980s’ most important arms merchants.