World Notes HOSTAGES

Remember Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian expatriate who was permitted to play a central role in the ill-fated U.S. weapons-for-hostages deal with Iran, even though CIA lie-detector tests indicated that he was not to be trusted? After months of lying low, Ghorbanifar has been telling contacts in the U.S. that he was the intermediary who brokered the deal between Paris and Tehran that resulted in last month's release of the remaining three French hostages in Lebanon.

According to the contacts, the arrangement was that Ghorbanifar would help bring the hostages home just in time to ensure Premier Jacques Chirac's victory in the French presidential election last month. Then, after Chirac won, Ghorbanifar would receive the backing he needed to regain his status as a world-class businessman. But Chirac was defeated in the election, and Ghorbanifar once more found himself out in the cold.

Nevertheless, according to those to whom Ghorbanifar spoke, the Iranian is now saying he came away from the hostage transaction with millions of dollars in fees from the French, a claim that is hotly disputed. "Manucher can barely make rent these days," says a relative. Chirac has denied making payments to free the hostages. A member of the Chirac camp well briefed on the hostage case called Ghorbanifar's story a "big fat joke."