Cutting Off Arms To the Ayatullah

Though the U.S. has banned arms sales to Iran since the outbreak of the hostage crisis in 1979, Washington has long suspected that American weapons are still finding their way to Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's Shi'ite armies. Last week the Justice Department unveiled a web of smuggling plots that would have netted Iran $2.5 billion worth of U.S. equipment. Federal authorities filed conspiracy charges against 17 people, including a London-based American lawyer and a retired Israeli general. It was the biggest arms bust that the feds had ever staged.

Prosecutors said the undone deals involve a veritable supermarket of weaponry: 18 F-4 and 13 F-5 fighter aircraft, five C-130E transport planes, more than 20 helicopters and thousands of missiles. Iran spent $17 billion on U.S. military equipment under the Shah in the 1970s, and is desperate to get new supplies and parts to continue waging its 5 1/2-year war of attrition with Iraq. It stands ready to deal with anyone who can deliver.

The man who located several such prospective suppliers, according to prosecutors, was Samuel Evans, 50, an American who practices corporate law out of offices on London's fashionable Grosvenor Place. Evans allegedly found three groups that could obtain U.S. arms abroad, mostly in Israel.

Evans was one of ten men arrested and held without bail last week. Five of them were seized in Bermuda, where, U.S. officials said, they were meeting to work out details of two of the deals. Another participant in the session was retired Israeli Brigadier General Avraham Baram, 52, a former tank commander. His presence raised questions about possible official involvement by Israel, which ran a profitable aboveboard arms trade with Iran until 1979. Even though the Khomeini regime is a sworn enemy of Israel, Jerusalem views the drawn-out war as a useful drain on the resources of Iraq, a closer and more dangerous foe. Baram insisted that the Israeli "defense establishment" was aware of his activities. But the Israeli Defense Ministry quickly denied any "direct, indirect or tacit connection," and when Baram telephoned the Israeli embassy in Washington to ask for help, Israeli Military and Defense Attache Uri Simhony told him curtly, "Buddy, you better get yourself the best legal advice available."