both Jewish, were attempting to divert the money but it was too late. Rumors were circulating the Saudis had already transferred the funds. But where was it? The Banque Francais de Commerce Exterieur, Thirion’s designated bank of deposit in Paris had not received the money nor had the Afghan Government-In-Exile, the intended beneficiaries, received anything.
Thirion asked Saudi Prince Abdullah if they Saudis had transferred the funds. The Prince, after enquiring, told Thirion to have Zahir Shah, the former king of Afghanistan, call his father, King Fahd. When Zahir Shah called, Thirion said King Fahd told Zahir Shah, “I am honored to have been able to have been of assistance to my Moslem brethren. The money has been sent through the Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C. to an account controlled by the CIA in Switzerland.”
Thirion’s $10 million 2% fee for soliciting $500 million in Saudi funds would never be paid and the U.S. Government, one year later, would charge Thirion with accepting illegal loan fees, extradite him from Monaco, and would sentence him to five years in federal prison - a charge Thirion firmly believed was trumped up by those in the Reagan White House to discredit him should he reveal what had happened. Thirion, protesting his innocence, upon conviction immediately filed an appeal.
It was to be two years later in March 1987 when Thirion’s appeal was denied that I was asked to write his story for safekeeping. Thirion had a plan to gain his release from prison and events in the press had now confirmed elements of Thirion’s extraordinary tale.
Three months previous, on December 4, 1986, the Los Angeles Times reported proceeds from the Iran-Contra arms deal had been discovered in a secret CIA Swiss bank account, a bank account that also contained $500 million of Saudi and U.S. funds intended for the Afghan resistance.
“Part of millions paid by Iran for U.S. made weapons was deposited in a $500 million CIA-managed bank account secretly used by the United States and Saudi Arabia to buy arms for the anti Soviet Afghan resistance. The account in question includes $250 million in deposits from both the United States and Saudi Arabia that are used to buy Soviet bloc weapons for distribution to resistance forces battling the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.”
The Los Angeles Times article confirmed not only Thirion’s story but it also confirmed General Cushman and Rabbi Rosenthal had purchased the Soviet arms from Israel and resold them to the Afghan resistance. The Times article additionally raised an even more interesting question. It stated the fund was composed of $250 million contributed by the U.S. and $250 million from Saudi Arabia. Had Wilson and Cushman received the $500 million in Saudi funds solicited by Thirion, then replaced $250 million of the Saudi money with U.S. government funds and embezzled the remaining Saudi $250 million for themselves and the President?
The Afghan government-in-exile was never to receive any of the money solicited on its behalf. Three weeks after the secret CIA Swiss bank account was revealed, Dr. Kamrany, in an article, U.S Aid fails to reach Afghan Fighters, in the December 25, 1986 L.A. Times, asked about the money meant for the Afghan government-in-exile:
“Where does it go? Who gets it? Why doesn’t the United States ask what happened to it?”
Three months later, Newsweek Magazine, on March 23, 1987, reported:
“Word is beginning to get out in Washington that millions of dollars’ worth of aid intended for the freedom fighters cannot be accounted for...and last week an investigator for the General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, began to look into the allegations that aid meant for the mujahedin had been diverted on a scale that could make Ollie North look like a piker.”
I was stunned. The General Accounting Office had now discovered large amounts of money meant for the Afghan resistance had been diverted from government accounts, apparently confirming the embezzlement by the Reagan White House of the Saudi funds.
I wondered what Thirion was going to do. As Thirion had requested, I had written down his version of the events that had transpired between himself and Transglobal Productions and others. I then put away the papers for safekeeping and waited for what Thirion planned to do next. His next move was to surprise even me.
THIRION’S TALE - PART II
Norman Thirion’s plan to get out of prison was brilliant. The fact that it didn’t work didn’t mean it wasn’t brilliant; it only meant it didn’t work. In fact, when Norman first told me what he was about to do, I thought his plan was very good. And, it was. It was just that Thirion’s plan was different than what I thought it was.
When Norman had discovered that his appeal had been turned down by the appellate court, he had taken me to his quarters, showed me some documents and asked if I would write down the story he was about to tell and keep a copy of it for safekeeping. Norman said he needed the story in the hands of a third party in order to ensure his safety because of what he was about to do.
At the time, the spring of 1987, the White House and the federal prison system were very much in the control of the Reagan inner circle, the very men Thirion believed responsible for framing him and sending him to prison. A presidential election was coming up the next year in 1988 and Thirion reasoned that the last thing the Republicans wanted was a scandal linking them to the disappearance of perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars intended for the Afghan freedom fighters, a link he could easily provide if they didn’t use their influence to get him an early release and pardon.
Once Thirion knew I had written down his story, he wrote a letter addressed to Otis Chandler, the owner/publisher of the Los Angeles Times. In it, Thirion referred to the times, when in the employ of Howard Hughes, he had met Chandler and his wife on different occasions. He said the purpose of his letter was that he, Thirion, could shed some light on events that had recently been reported in Chandler’s L.A. Times. Events that included the discovery of a secret CIA Saudi fund meant for the Afghan resistance that Dr. Nake Kamrany of USC in the L.A. Times said never reached them.
I thought Thirion’s letter was wonderful for it would soon expose the corruption of the Reagan White House for all to see. The only trouble was, although Thirion had addressed the letter to Otis Chandler, he never intended to send it to him. Instead, Thirion had enclosed a copy of the Chandler letter with a letter he had mailed to a prominent Republican lawyer with close ties to the Republican Party hierarchy—a lawyer who knew Thirion from his days with Howard Hughes and one who could immediately inform the Reagan White House of what Thirion was threatening to do. Thirion’s letter to the lawyer also stated that the details of his story were now in the hands of a third party who would release the story to the press if anything unfortunate and unexpected should happen to Thirion while he was still in prison.
Thirion’s letter to the Republican lawyer had an immediate effect. Shortly thereafter, Thirion received a phone call from the lawyer telling him to do nothing with the information. He told Thirion to sit tight until he came to see him, which would be soon. Thirion’s plan was working.
Within a week, Norman was informed that he had a lawyer’s visit and to report immediately to the visiting room. When Norman returned, he was elated. There, he said, he had met with three men—the lawyer to whom he had written the letter, and two others, both relatives of high ranking and prominent members of the Republican Party. One was related to Paul Laxalt, Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign manager in 1980 and ’84, former governor of the state of Nevada, and soon to be candidate for the 1988 Republican nomination for the presidency. The other visitor was a relative of Orrin Hatch, ranking Republican senator from the state of Utah, and himself a candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency some years later.
Norman said the meeting had gone well. He had explained to his visitors how he had fallen from grace. Once banker to Howard Hughes and now a federal inmate arrested in Monaco
