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It's an odd quaker faith that the entire reason that the Iran-Contra story was revealed,

and Reagan's presidency affected by it, is not because of any events in the United States,

but because of a conflict within the Iranian government and a battle for power in that country.

But here's what we know is we discussed on the full episode, White House on Fire of My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, part of the dozen Ronald Reagan series, it's actually number eight.

We discussed in that episode on November 4th, 1986, the New York Times published a story

that exposed one of the more bizarre U.S. foreign policy initiatives of modern times, that the

Reagan administration, who had entered office on this very conservative hardline

policy, was trading arms with Iran using Israel as a conduit.

Their account was based largely on a newspaper account from Lebanon.

The day before November 3rd, Lebanese magazine had reported that Ronald Reagan had been

emashed in secret negotiations with Iran over the fate of American hostages being held by forces

in Lebanon.

The administration had reportedly sent an envoy, former national security advisor Robert Bud McFarlane, to Tehran

in order to talk. The revelations came as a particular shock to American Reefs because the State

Department had identified Iran as a sponsor of international terrorism. Well, what happens? The key player behind the revelation of the Iran-Contra story that started so many events

in the United States is Mehdi Ha'u Khami.

Now, not to be confused with two other people that have the same name.

One is an actor, an Iranian actor, and the other is the son of the former president

Raphazjani, who's also currently involved in some trouble in Iran.

We're talking about another figure, Medi Hashemi, who was the leaker of the story.

Now, the key thing to remember is he wasn't just somebody kind of on the outskirts here.

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