- After endless and inconclusive investigations, could
the truth now finally be revealed? A former Portuguese prime minister may
have been murdered to conceal evidence of secret US government arms deals
with Iran under a deal to help the Republicans win back the White House,
writes Siobhan Mitchell.
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- The weapons deals are said to have been instigated by
senior American officials, and were smuggled through Portugal with the
help of military chiefs.However, Portugal's then defense minister stumbled
across the deal and tried to put a stop to it - but was assassinated, along
with the prime minister, before he could blow the whistle on the scandal.
The shocking new theory, to be revealed in a book published next week,
links the assassination of a Portuguese premier to a murky arms-for-hostages
deal allegedly struck between Tehran's fundamentalist leaders and George
Bush, former US President and father of the present Republican President-Elect.
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- Sa Carneiro, Portugal's popular leader, died in a mysterious
plane crash in Lisbon in 1980, alongside his defence minister and five
others. Relatives of the crash victims have long rejected the official
verdict of accidental death, and maintain that a senior Portuguese army
officer ordered the bombing. Now, a former Portuguese government minister
claims to have uncovered new evidence showing that the bombing was carried
out to prevent public disclosure of clandestine US weapons shipments to
Iran conducted with the help of Portuguese army officers.
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- Ricardo S Fernandes - lawyer for the victims' families,
and who resigned this week as junior finance minister in Ant¢nio Guterres'
government - Says that the then defence minister, Amaro da Costa, was the
intended victim, and not the prime minister, who had joined the flight
at the last minute. Sa Carneiro had in fact booked a seat on a TAP plane
to Oporto, where the two men were to speak at an election rally, but then
changed his mind so he would have time to dine first at his favourite Lisbon
restaurant. Amaro da Costa was targeted because he had stumbled across
documents showing that senior Portuguese officers were using a secret 'slush
fund' to help traffic arms to Iran as part of a deal struck by officials
linked to Ronald Reagan and George Bush, who in 1980 were campaigning to
become US President and Vice-President.
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- A number of journalists, former White House aides and
Middle East politicians have repeatedly claimed that George Bush was directly
involved in setting up the deal with Iran's fundamentalist leaders, promising
arms in return for a delay in the release of 52 US hostages held captive
in the Tehran Embassy. According to former Iranian President Bani Sadr,
the deal was struck in secret meetings held in Madrid and Paris in 1980
in order 'to handicap (President) Carter's re-election bid by preventing
the hostages' release before the American elections in November 1980.'
Reagan and Bush, it is said, feared that an early release of the hostages
would win votes for Carter, and so they asked the Iranians to hold onto
them until after the elections were over. If they agreed, the Iranians
would receive US$5 billion in weapons and spare parts - in spite of an
official ban on arms sales to the country - as well as US$40 million in
cash from a new Republican administration.
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- The extent of the alleged Portuguese connection in the
scandal has never been previously revealed. However, in a book to be published
next week, it is revealed that - just before he died - Portugal's defence
minister obtained documents from Middle East diplomats detailing the involvement
of Portuguese officers in the operation. Incriminating papers showing the
extent of the trade through Portugal were in Amaro da Costa's possession
when his plane exploded and crashed into the Lisbon suburb of Camarate,
killing everyone on board, including the prime minister. Among them are
said to have been profiles of Portuguese army officers, and details of
shipments passing through the ports of Lisbon, Set£bal and Leixes.
Costa, said a source, was 'eliminated because he was getting into dangerous
territory.'
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- They are also believed to have shown the theft of arms
from NATO stocks for its annual 'Reforger' exercise - staged to prepare
for an attack on Europe by Soviet bloc forces - and shipments from US bases
via Portugal that included HAWK missiles stowed on board Israeli El Al
airliners by Mossad secret agents. Other papers may, it is believed, may
have shown how fake end-user certificates were obtained in Turkey to disguise
some of the shipments as plumbing equipment and medicines.
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- Amaro da Costa is said to have originally stumbled across
the murky dealings after discovering the existence of a 'slush fund' originally
set up by the Portuguese army to finance clandestine operations during
its colonial wars in Africa, which had ended 6 years previously, now used
as a 'petty cash' account to facilitate transactions. Amaro da Costa reportedly
told colleagues that he was 'profoundly worried' about the documents' contents.
Portugal's former Ambassador to the US, Hall Themido, recently told in
his memoirs how the American secret service made a top-secret approach
to the Portuguese government itself , asking it to allow arms destined
for Iran to pass through its borders.
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- Moreover, a US Congressional inquiry in the mid-1980s
found evidence that Lisbon's airport was used in the undercover movement
of missiles from the US to Iran by Oliver North, the 'Contragate' scandal
figure later jailed for his role in diverting profits from the trade to
fund the right-wing rebel army in Nicaragua. A commission of inquiry by
Portuguese MPs last year concluded that Amaro da Costa's discoveries were
the probable motive behind his assassination. It discovered that a large
sum was transferred from the 'slush-fund' to an unidentified account shortly
before the crash, and found traces of bomb explosives on fragments of the
plane.
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- Sworn testimony by former members of a terrorist ring
linked to his death named an army officer who allegedly helped the bombers
to escape justice. One of the ring, Carlos Miranda, said: Amaro da Costa
was the intended victim. It was to do with the arms smuggling. There has
been repeated speculation that, as well as ordering the bombing, Portuguese
officers may have helped to cover up the crime, both by hiding the alleged
perpetrators and interfering with the official judiciary police (PJ) investigation
into the crash, which was overseen by an army officer. It emerged last
week that, just days after the crash, Scotland Yard detectives tipped off
Portuguese authorities about the man now thought to have planted the bomb
on board the plane. However Freitas do Amaral, Sa Carneiro's deputy prime
minister, said that evidence of the approach from Scotland Yard had now
mysteriously vanished from official files. Lee Rodrigues, who was under
investigation by British police for alleged gun smuggling and terrorist
offences, had been tailed by detectives to Lisbon, who saw him in the plane's
hangar the night of the crash. They immediately informed the Portuguese
Ambassador in London, who sent a telegram to Amaral, then acting prime
minister, who had it delivered by hand to the judiciary police (PJ) investigating
the disaster.
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- However, the telegram has now disappeared from PJ and
embassy files. Scotland Yard also offered to help the investigations, and
handed over Rodrigues whom they arrested when he arrived in London a few
days later. However, the PJ ordered his release after - they say - obtaining
an alibi from his mother and sister, whom it has now emerged had been dead
for 10 years. Durao Barroso, Portugal's opposition leader, has called for
a reopening of the case, saying that he was now absolutely convinced that
the death of Sa Carneiro and all those accompanying him was no accident.
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- Ricardo S Fernandes, who resigned from the government
after clashing with justice minister Antonio Costa over the affair, says
that he will present the new evidence in his book to be published next
week.
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