IRAN-CONTRA REPORT; Arms, Hostages and Contras: How a Secret Foreign Policy Unraveled

1984 March 16: William Buckley, C.I.A. station chief in Beirut, is kidnapped and held by Islamic Holy War, pro-Iranian extremists, in Lebanon. May: Duane Clarridge, a C.I.A. officer who has contacts with the Nicaraguan rebels, introduces Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North, a National Security Council aide, to contra leaders in Honduras. Mr. Clarridge tells them, in effect, that if Congress cuts off aid to the contras in light of revelations that the C.I.A. mined Nicaraguan harbors, Colonel North will continue to work with the contras. May 8: The Rev. Benjamin Weir is kidnapped. Aug. 31: President Reagan's national security adviser, Robert C. McFarlane, asks Government agencies to reassess policy toward Iran. Oct. 12: Congress bans direct or indirect military aid to the contras. Dec. 3: Peter Kilburn of the American University of Beirut is kidnapped. 1985 Jan. 8: The Rev. Lawrence M. Jenco is seized. March 16: Another American, Terry A. Anderson of The Associated Press, is kidnapped in Beirut. May 3: Michael A. Ledeen, a consultant to the National Security Council, meets with Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel to discuss Iran. He tells Israel that Washington would approve Israeli shipments of artillery or ammunition to Iran. May 28: David P. Jacobsen of the American University Hospital in Beirut is kidnapped. June 3: Mr. Buckley dies, according to Mr. Jacobsen, who is freed in November 1986. June 9: Thomas M. Sutherland of the American University of Beirut is kidnapped. Early July: David Kimche, Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, tells Mr. McFarlane that Iranian officials want to open a ''political discourse'' with the United States. Mid-July: President Reagan authorizes Mr. McFarlane to make contact with Iran. Aug. 6: Mr. McFarlane briefs Mr. Reagan on the Israeli proposal to sale American anti-tank missiles to Iran through Israel. There is dispute on whether the President approved this sale. August: The President approves the shipment of arms by Israel to Iran, according to his initial statement to the Tower Commission. Later he says ''I don't remember'' when asked about approving the shipment. Aug. 20: Israel sends 96 TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran. Sept. 14: Israel sends 408 more TOW missiles to Iran. Mr. Weir is released the same day. Oct. 4: Islamic Holy War says it killed Mr. Buckley. His body is never found. November: Richard V. Secord, a retired Air Force major general, is deeply involved in setting up a supply operation for the contras under the name Airlift Project. He later testifies that the project's money came from private donations and friendly foreign governments. Nov. 24-25: The C.I.A. arranges for a shipment of 18 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles from Israel to Iran aboard a C.I.A. front company plane. Iran rejects the missiles within days after test firing one of them and finding that they do not meet Iran's requirements. Later, some of the American officials involved in arranging the flight said they thought the plane carried oil-drilling parts, not weapons. Nov. 25: John N. McMahon, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, says the C.I.A. cannot provide any more covert assistance without an explicit authorization from the President. On Dec. 5 the President signs a finding retroactively authorizing the operation. Later, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter testifies that he destroyed this order when he was Mr. Reagan's national security adviser. Dec. 4: Mr. McFarlane resigns as national security adviser. His deputy, Admiral Poindexter, is appointed his successor. Dec. 6: Colonel North tells Israeli Defense Ministry officials that he plans to use profits from future arms sales to support the contras. Dec. 7: A meeting is held at the White House with Mr. Reagan, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Mr. McFarlane and Admiral Poindexter at which the Iran initiative is discussed. Participants at the meeting have different recall of what took place. Some suggest that a consensus was reached to end arms shipments to Iran. Mr. McMahon has said no such consensus was reached. Dec. 8: Mr. McFarlane flies to London with Colonel North for a meeting with Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian middleman and arms dealer; Mr. Kimche, from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and Yaacov Nimrodi, an Israeli arms dealer. Mr. McFarlane tells Mr. Ghorbanifar that the United States does not want to take part in any more arms transfers to Iran, although it is willing to continue diplomatic contacts. 1986 Jan. 17: President Reagan signs an order authorizing arms shipments to Iran in an effort to both improve relations with officials in Iran thought to be moderates and to bring about the release of the hostages. This order authorizes the C.I.A. to assist ''third parties'' as well as friendly foreign countries in shipping weapons. Feb. 17: The United States sends 500 TOW missiles to Israel, from American stocks, for shipment to Iran. No hostages are freed. Feb. 27: Another shipment of 500 TOW missiles are sent to Israel, once again for shipment to Iran. Again no hostages are freed. April 4: In a memorandum, Colonel North outlines a plan to have $12 million in profits from the Iran arms sales diverted to the contras. The memo is prepared for Admiral Poindexter to relay to the President. Admiral Poindexter later testifies that he never showed the memo to the President. Mr. Reagan has denied knowing anything about the diversion to the contras until November 1986. April 17: Mr. Kilburn's body is found. His kidnappers say he was killed in retaliation for the American bombing of Libya two days before. May 23-24: 508 TOW missiles and 240 spare parts for Hawk missiles are shipped to Israel. May 25: Mr. McFarlane, Colonel North and other American officials fly to Teheran, carrying with them spare parts for Iran's Hawk anti-aircraft missiles. They spend four days meeting with Iranian officials in trying to win the release of all the American hostages. They are unsuccessful. June 11: Admiral Poindexter tells Colonel North that Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams has asked the Sultan of Brunei to donate money for the contras. June 26: Congress approves $100 million in military and non-arms aid to the contras beginning Oct. 1. July 26: Father Jenco is freed. Aug. 4: The United States sends Iran a shipment of spare parts for Hawk anti-aircraft missiles. September: President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica closes the secret airstrip used by the North-Secord contra supply operation. Sept. 9: Frank Herbert Reed is kidnapped. Sept. 12: Another American, Joseph James Cicippio, is taken hostage. Oct. 5: A cargo plane carrying arms to the contras that is part of a supply operation set up by General Secord is shot down over Nicaragua. Three crewmen are killed and a fourth, Eugene Hasenfus, is taken captive. Oct. 21: Edward Austin Tracy is kidnapped. Oct. 28: Another 500 TOW missiles are sent from Israel to Iran. Nov. 2: Mr. Jacobsen is released. Nov. 3: A Lebanese magazine, Al Shiraa, discloses that the United States sent arms to Iran and that Mr. McFarlane visited Teheran. Nov. 25: Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d announces the diversion of money from the Iran arms sales to the contras. President Reagan announces Admiral Poindexter's resignation and Colonel North's dismissal. Dec. 19: Lawrence E. Walsh is named special prosecutor in the Iran-contra affair. 1987 Jan. 6-7: The Senate and the House set up committees to investigate the Iran-contra affair. Jan. 24: Four teachers - Alann Steen, Jesse J. Turner and Robert Polhill, Americans, and Mithileshwar Singh, an Indian-born U.S. resident alien - are kidnapped at Beirut University College. Feb. 26: The Tower Commission issues its report. Among its conclusions is that the President's top advisers were responsible for creating the chaos that led to the Iran-contra affair. It asserts that President Reagan was largely out of touch with the operations undertaken by his National Security Council staff. May 5: Public testimony begins before the Senate and House committees on the Iran-contra affair. General Secord is the first witness. July 7: Colonel North begins six days of testimony before the Congressional committees. He says he has no idea if the President had any knowledge of the diversion of funds to the contras. He also says that William J. Casey, the Director of Central Intelligence during the Iran-contra period, was aware and approved of the diversion and that the arms sales were originally intended as an exchange for the hostages. July 15: Admiral Poindexter begins five days of testimony before the committees. He says he never told the President of the diversion of funds to give him ''plausible deniability'' about the affair. Aug. 3: The Iran-contra hearings end after more than 250 hours of testimony from 28 public witnesses. Nov. 18: The Congressional Iran-contra committees issue their report.