Ben-Menashe always at arms length By Natalie O'Brien, David Nason and Eric Ellis February 27, 2002 IN the shadowy world of international arms dealing, there is no more mysterious figure than former Mossad spy Ari Ben-Menashe.
Advertisement The spy turned arms dealer and now self-confessed double agent has achieved notoriety for his reported involvement in global scandals from the mysterious death of press baron Robert Maxwell, to the curious case of Mordecai Vanunu, the Israeli now serving life for leaking details of Israel's nuclear program, and, most recently, his role in exposing an alleged plot to assassinate Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe. During the past 15 years, there's barely been an arms scandal in which Ben-Menashe hasn't featured. He was even on the fringes of controversy surrounding the death of Princess Di in 1997. The 50-something Iranian-born man, who has in some quarters been labelled a liar and a fraud, also reportedly had a meeting with John Howard, when he was Liberal leader in the early 1990s, to discuss claims that Australia was involved in the Iran-Contra deal with shipments passing through the West Australian port of Fremantle. Ben-Menashe alleged that the Labor Party under Bob Hawke had received $8.5 million as a reward for allowing arms shipments to pass through Australia on the way to Iran. He told WA Inc Royal Commission investigators about his allegations and the Australian Federal Police were asked to investigate. However, they took no action because of a lack of evidence. Ben-Menashe wrote a book, much of it penned in Sydney where he lived in a luxurious Darling Point apartment, while unsuccessfully seeking political asylum. The book Profits of War is a thrilling read for conspiracy theorists. Ben-Menashe called it his insurance policy against Mossad assassins who were after him. Ben-Menashe claims he was a senior Mossad operative. Mossad says he was a lowly-ranked systems analyst. The book detailed many fantastic revelations, most notably that George Bush Sr was the point man who helped orchestrate, via Israel, the so-called October Surprise. This was the deal made with Iran to delay the release of the 54 Americans held hostage at their embassy in Tehran to coincide with Ronald Reagan's 1981 inauguration. Conspiracy theorists have described it as a covert coup that toppled the Carter presidency and there has subsequently been plausible evidence that links Republicans to some sort of plot. But the revelation that Bush Sr was involved is Ben-Menashe's alone. The father of the current US President called the charges "bare-faced lies". And 10 years later, through two Democratic terms and despite many phone calls to their own deep-throat contacts, no one has been able to substantiate Ben-Menashe's claims. Iran and Robert Maxwell are two of Ben-Menashe's abiding passions. He once claimed Maxwell intended to use profits made from arms sales to Iran to buy Melbourne's The Age newspaper during the struggling Warwick Fairfax era. It's true that Maxwell was pursuing The Age, but it is more likely he wanted to fund it with the pensions he stole from employees of his Mirror newspaper in Britain, as was revealed after his death. Ben-Menashe himself faced charges in the US in 1990 for selling military equipment to Iran. Naturally, he claimed the charges were brought by Washington to discredit him. But he seems to be quite adept at doing that himself. Dickens and Madson, the Montreal political-risk company he runs with an American, Alexander Legault, have admitted to being paid to lobby on behalf of Robert Mugabe's Government. The firm of Dickens and Madson is well-known in African political circles but exactly which countries they have worked for, when and exactly what capacity remains, typically, a riddle that Ben-Menashe is unwilling to solve. FROM http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,3853119%255E2703,00.html
