FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Posted by Clinton/Gore Email October 29, 1992 NEW IRAN-CONTRA EVIDENCE RELEASED BY PROSECUTOR SHOWS BUSH FLATLY LIED ABOUT HIS ROLE IN ARMS-FOR-HOSTAGES [Statement by George Stephanopoulos, Communications Director] The new indictment filed today by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh is the smoking gun showing that George Bush lied to the American people about his role in the arms-for- hostages affair. The indictment, filed against former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, quotes contemporaneous notes by Weinberger describing a key arms-for-hostages meeting: "Met with president, Shultz, Poindexter, Bill Casey, Ed Meese, in Oval Office. President decided to go with Israeli-Iranian offer to release our 5 hostages in return for sale of 4000 TOWs to Iran by Israel. George Shultz + I opposed Bill Casey, Ed Meese + VP favored as did Poindexter." [emphasis added] For years, Bush has denied that he attended the key White House meeting on January 7, 1986 where the arms-for-hostages plan was debated; this memo shows that Bush was there. For years, Bush denied knowing about the arms-for-hostages deal. After claiming that he was "not in the loop" and unaware that arms were being exchanged for hostages, this shows he attended a meeting that was specifically called to discuss the details of the swap. For years, Bush claimed that he didn't know George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger were opposed to the arms-for-hostages deal; this memo shows that they argued the opposite sides in the meeting. Here is a partial listing of Bush's lies to the American people about this affair: BUSH'S LIE: Bush said he didn't know it was an arms-for- hostages deal. * "I sensed that we were sending arms. And I sensed that we were trying to get the hostages out. But not arms for hostages." [AP, 1/8/88] * "I wish with clairvoyant hindsight that I had known that we were trading arms for hostages . . . I would have weighed in more heavily with the president." [to CBS News, 3/15/87] * "I didn't say I didn't know that anything that was going on. I said it never became clear to me, the whole arms-for-hostages thing, until it was fully debriefed, investigated and debriefed by Sen. Dave Durenberger [in December, 1986]." [CBS Evening News, 6/9/88] THE RECORD NOW SHOWS: As this memo shows, this meeting was specifically to discuss arms-for-hostages, not just arms-to-Iran. BUSH'S LIE: Bush has consistently claimed that he didn't know Shultz and Weinberger were strongly opposed to the arms-for-hostages swap. * "If I'd have sat there and heard George Shultz and Cap [ Weinberger] express it strongly maybe I would have had a stronger view. But when you don't know something it's hard to react. . . . We were not in the loop." [W. Post, 8/6/87] * "As it turned out, George Shultz and Cap Weinberger had serious doubts, too. If I had known that and asked the President to call a meeting of the NSC, he might have seen the project in a different light, as a gamble doomed to fail." George Bush, Looking Forward [9/87] * "I never really heard them [Shultz and Weinberger] that clearly. And the reason is that the machinery broke down. It never worked as it should. The key players with the experience weren't ever called together to review the decision that were made at a lower level." [David Frost interview, 12/5/87] THE RECORD NOW SHOWS: * Notes by a Shultz aide, released on August 25 in the Weinberger case, read: Weinberger called Schultz and said that Bush had said he was "not exposed to Cap or my arguments on Iran arms. Cap called me + sd [and said] that's terrible. He [Bush] was on the other side. It's on the record. Why did he say that." * Shultz testified before the Tower Commission that at the January 7, 1986 meeting, "I expressed myself as forcefully as I could. That is, I didn't just sort of rattle these arguments off. I was intense. The president knew that. . . It was clear to me by the time we went out that the president, the vice president" and others favored the operation while Shultz and Weinberger opposed. [WP, 1/7/88] BUSH'S LIE: Bush has even claimed not to have attended the meeting, or to have been out of the room at the time the issue was discussed. * "Bush yesterday contended that he did not attend the meeting, one of two he described as 'key meetings where they [Weinberger and Shultz] almost got into a shouting match, I'm told.'" [W. Post, 10/14/92] * "He reiterated that he was unaware of Secretary of State George P. Shultz's angry comments during a Jan. 7, 1986, meeting with high Administration officials that the plan violated U.S. law. Bush said he may have been out of the room when Shultz voiced objections, although Shultz has said Bush was present. 'I don't recall it at all,' Bush said. 'The President told me he remembered George Shultz sitting in my chair.'" [L.A. Times, 2/8/88] * "Bush has said that he doesn't remember any such opposition [by Shultz and Weinberger], and an aide suggested to one reporter that perhaps Bush was out of the room at the time." [W. Post, 6/10/90] THE RECORD NOW SHOWS: * C. Boyden Gray, the president's Counsel, wrote last month: "Indeed, he attended only one of these meetings [where Shultz and Weinberger objected] -- on Jan. 7, 1986." * Bush momentarily forgot his own story. In 1988, Bush told the Post, "records indicate I probably attended an ad hoc meeting on Jan. 7, 1986 . . . but I do not recall any strenuous objection" to the arms sales to Iran. [W. Post, 10/14/92] - 30 -