The State Department maintained Wednesday that the sale to Saudi Arabia in 1981 of five AWACS radar planes was based entirely on United States concern for the security of the Persian Gulf.
But Department spokesman Charles Redman refused to deny directly a published report that Saudi support for anti-Commuist groups around the world, including the Contras who oppose the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, was part of the deal.
“The AWACS sale to Saudi Arabia was based on U.S. vital interests in the security of the Gulf, the free flow of oil and the security of Saudi Arabia,” Redman said. “These reasons for the sale stand on their own merits,” he said. “I have no indication of anything beyond those reasons.”
But when Redman was asked if he was denying the report published in The New York Times, he would go no further than his statement.
The Times quoted an unnamed businessman who said he refused a request by King Fahd and other Saudi officials to funnel $15 million to the Contras through retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Secord and his business partner, Albert Hakim.
The two have been identified by Congressional investigators as having been involved in the secret effort to provide funds for the Contras during the time Congress had forbidden any military aid to the rebel groups. Secord participated in the AWACS sale before his retirement.
The businessman told the Times that shortly after the Senate approved the $8.5 billion sale of AWACS and other material to the Saudis, he met with Fahd at the king’s home outside Riyadh. The businessman said Fahd told him that in return for a reduction of the number of Americans who were to operate some of the AWACS most secret equipment, the Saudis agreed to a U.S. request that they “fund movements to fight Communists.” Fahd told the businessman that the U.S. was to select the groups to be funded, according to the Times.
The newspaper said the businessman said the requests for his participation was made from late 1983 through 1986 by Fahd; Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Ambassador in Washington; and other Saudi officials. Bandar told the businessman, who has had extensive dealings in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, that the proposal had the Reagan Administration’s approval since “we’ve had similar arrangements with the U.S. for a long time, since I was involved in the AWACS sale,” the Times reported.
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