A Big Bonus for "Belly Button"

By Jacob V. Lamar Jr

The many code names that Lieut. Colonel Oliver North attracted during the Iran-contra affair ranged from the heroic "Good" to the cryptic "B.G." (for "Blood and Guts") to the macho "Steel Hammer." But the most significant, and bizarre, could turn out to be "Belly Button." That improbable monicker was the name for a Swiss bank account containing $200,000 in Iran-arms profits that were set aside for the former National Security Council aide and his family.

News of the account, opened in the name Button, gave yet another twist to the Iran-contra hearings on Capitol Hill. A growing body of evidence indicates $ that North was not merely a reckless Marine who was acting purely for patriotic reasons in setting up the secret contra supply network and trading arms for hostages with Iran. Instead, last week's testimony suggested that like many of his private-sector companions, North may have been driven in part by a profit motive.

The Button account was disclosed by a key player in the scandal, Iranian- born Businessman Albert Hakim. He handled the financial side of the Iran- contra "enterprise," while North took care of the political end and retired Air Force Major General Richard Secord, a business partner of Hakim's, oversaw operations. "I intended to profit from my activities," said Hakim. "I never made any pretense about that fact." And profit he did. The enterprise made a total of $14.9 million from its transactions; $8 million of those profits were frozen in bank accounts after the scandal broke.

Hakim looked out for the military men who were his partners. Last week committee investigators discovered that Secord may have withdrawn as much as $300,000 from an account set up by Hakim to pay for amenities such as a Piper Seneca airplane, a Porsche sports car and a visit to a health spa. In his testimony to the committee last month, Secord indignantly insisted he did not benefit from the weapons deals; he may now be summoned back to Capitol Hill to explain the discrepancies.

North also stood to benefit from Hakim's generosity. On May 20, 1986, a few days before North and other U.S. representatives flew to Tehran, Hakim established the Button account. (The name Belly Button, Hakim said, was the result of a joke about North. He did not elaborate.) Hakim told the congressional committees that the $200,000 was a "death benefit" for North's wife and four children. Knowing that U.S. officials are forbidden by law to accept outside contributions, Hakim says he did not inform North of the account.

Though North returned safely from Tehran, the Button account remained open. Last fall, Hakim claims, he attempted to get some of the money to North's wife Betsy. Hakim's financial adviser, Willard Zucker, met with "Mrs. Belly Button" in Philadelphia and told her that an anonymous admirer of her husband's "wishes to help out with the university and educational expenses of the children." Zucker and Betsy North discussed an abortive plan to funnel money to the Norths through their relatives.

Hakim at first contended that North remained ignorant of the bank account despite his wife's discussion with Zucker. But under questioning from Senate Chief Counsel Arthur Liman, the businessman admitted, "Eventually, I would have found it impossible for him not to know." Congressional investigators have already uncovered evidence that North used $2,000 worth of traveler's checks obtained from Contra Leader Adolfo Calero to buy groceries, snow tires and gasoline.

According to Hakim's testimony, North's motives may have been tainted by politics as well as profit. Hakim said he attended a secret meeting between North and other U.S. officials and Iranian government representatives in West Germany last October. North, said Hakim, was extremely eager for all of the U.S. hostages to be released before the November congressional elections, to "enhance the position of the President." But the Americans and the Iranians were at loggerheads. As North prepared to leave the meeting, Hakim asked if he could take over the negotiating. North gave him six hours to cut a deal.

Under North's deadline pressure, Hakim worked out a nine-point plan that included a promise that the U.S. would deliver 500 TOW missiles to the Iranians and pursue the release of 17 Shi'ite Muslim terrorists being held in Kuwait in return for one or two American captives. Hakim, following Secord's recommendations, went as far as to commit the U.S. to fighting the Soviets if they invaded Iran, and he pledged U.S. assistance in efforts to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Secord and North approved Hakim's arrangement. Four days before the election, Hostage David Jacobsen was freed (nonetheless, the G.O.P. lost control of the Senate). When Liman sarcastically asked Hakim if he felt as if he had played "Secretary of State for a day," the businessman boasted, "I had it better than the Secretary . . . I can achieve more."

To Senate Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, Hakim's private foreign policy dealings were more disturbing than the indications of profiteering. Although Congress has been denied access to sensitive foreign policy material, Inouye pointed out, Hakim and other private operatives were handed top-secret KL-43 encryption devices, "something that the KGB would love to grab hold of." Moreover, he said, to learn of an "American lieutenant colonel . . . committing this country, its power and majesty, to defend Iran, without even consultation with the Congress of the United States, is just unbelievable."

^ The Congressmen also found it hard to believe what they heard from Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, the point man for the Administration's policy in Central America. The cocky, abrasive Abrams confessed to deliberately misleading congressional committees last fall when he claimed that the Administration had not solicited funds from foreign countries for the Nicaraguan contras. In fact, Abrams himself had requested a contribution of $10 million from the government of Brunei, but he testified last week that he was not "authorized" to tell Congress the truth on the matter. Abrams also told the panel that Secretary of State George Shultz considered North to be a "loose cannon" and that he had been instructed by Shultz to "monitor Ollie." Yet, Abrams said, "I was careful not to ask Colonel North questions I did not need to know the answers to."

After Abrams' testimony, many Congressmen called for his resignation. Although Shultz insisted that his deputy would not resign, many of Abrams' colleagues at the State Department believe his days are numbered. Abrams will prove to be a liability next fall when the Administration asks Congress for $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan rebels. Said one State Department official: "Contra funding is in deep trouble as long as Elliott is here."

With reporting by Ricardo Chavira and Hays Gorey/ Washington