Dave, thanks so much for your web­site and con­tri­bu­tions to my under­stand­ing of our real his­to­ry!!

[...] As dis­cussed in AFA #35, Pik Botha appar­ently had pri­or noti­fi­ca­tion of the impend­ing bomb­ing of Pan Am 103. He [...]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-counterterror-chiefs-son-blames-us-for-his-1988-assassination/#ixzz33PXKZ6N9

Israeli coun­tert­er­ror chief’s son blames US for his 1988 assas­si­na­tion
25 years after Ami­ram Nir died in mys­te­ri­ous plane crash amid Iran-Con­tra scan­dal, his son Nim­rod points fin­ger at Wash­ing­ton
By Times of Israel staff May 31, 2014, 4:09 pm 19

Twen­ty-five years after a famed Israeli coun­tert­er­ror­ism oper­a­tor died in a mys­te­ri­ous plane crash in Mex­i­co, his son alleged on Fri­day that the death was an assas­si­na­tion, and point­ed the fin­ger of blame at the Unit­ed States.

Ami­ram Nir was the coun­tert­er­ror­ism advis­er to for­mer Israeli prime min­is­ters Shi­mon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir in the 1980s, and played a key role in the Iran-Con­tra affair, a polit­i­cal scan­dal which involved offi­cials in the Rea­gan admin­is­tra­tion secret­ly facil­i­tat­ing the sale of arms to Iran, includ­ing by Israel, in breach of an embar­go. Nir died in late 1988 in a plane crash in Mex­i­co. His demise has long sparked con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries, includ­ing unsub­stan­ti­at­ed alle­ga­tions that he was silenced because he was about to spill details of his role in Iran-Con­tra that might prove huge­ly embar­rass­ing to George H.W. Bush, who was Reagan’s vice pres­i­dent and was soon to be inau­gu­rat­ed as pres­i­dent.

Nim­rod Nir, Amiram’s son, told Israel’s Chan­nel 2 news on Fri­day night (Hebrew) that he has spent the last few years inves­ti­gat­ing his father’s death, and con­clud­ed that the plane crash was no acci­dent. Nim­rod Nir said he believed his father had been assas­si­nat­ed by some­one who didn’t want him to tell the truth. Asked by the inter­view­er whether he thought respon­si­bil­i­ty for the killing reached the lev­el of “can­di­dates for the US pres­i­den­cy… Are those the imme­di­ate sus­pects from your point of view?” he replied, “Absolute­ly.”

The TV report fea­tured a lengthy clip of George H.W. Bush being inter­viewed by Dan Rather over what he knew of the Iran-Con­tra scan­dal, includ­ing over his pres­ence dur­ing a vis­it to Israel in meet­ings with Ami­ram Nir. Bush had denied all knowl­edge of Iran-Con­tra dur­ing the 1988 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign.

“Nir had briefed Bush” about Iran-Con­tra, the Israeli jour­nal­ist and author Ronen Bergman wrote in a 2008 book, “The Secret War with Iran. “Nir could have impli­cat­ed the incom­ing pres­i­dent. The fact that Nir was killed in a mys­te­ri­ous char­tered air­plane crash in Mex­i­co,” Bergman went on, “has giv­en rise to numer­ous con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries.”

In the years after Ami­ram Nir’s death, a “sys­tem­at­ic series” of bur­glar­ies took place in the homes and offices of peo­ple con­nect­ed to Iran-Con­tra, includ­ing the home of Nir’s wid­ow, Bergman wrote in the book. “To this day it is not clear if Ami­ram Nir was mur­dered,” Bergman wrote, “and if he was, by whom.”

Nim­rod Nir’s moth­er, Amiram’s wid­ow Judy, went on to mar­ry lead­ing Israeli politi­cian Sil­van Shalom, who is the min­is­ter of ener­gy in the cur­rent Israeli gov­ern­ment. Shalom was con­sid­er­ing a run for the post of Israeli pres­i­dent, to be cho­sen on June 10, but opt­ed not to sub­mit his can­di­da­cy after a series of unproven alle­ga­tions of sex­u­al mis­con­duct were lev­eled against him in recent weeks.

Shalom adopt­ed Nim­rod as his son, and Nim­rod was being inter­viewed Fri­day main­ly about the trau­ma the unsub­stan­ti­at­ed alle­ga­tions against Shalom had caused the fam­i­ly, when the inter­view veered off onto the sub­ject of Ami­ram Nir’s death. Putting the smear cam­paign against his adop­tive father Shalom, wide­ly described in the Israeli media as a “polit­i­cal assas­si­na­tion,” into con­text, Nim­rod Nir told the inter­view­er, “Once there real­ly were polit­i­cal assas­si­na­tions.”

In a relat­ed fea­ture last year, doc­u­ment­ing a curi­ous 1986 meet­ing between Ami­ram Nir and Iran’s Pres­i­dent Has­san Rouhani, The Times of Israel’s Mitch Gins­burg not­ed: “On Novem­ber 30, 1988, Ami­ram Nir board­ed a one-engine Cess­na T‑210 on a flight from Uru­a­pan, Mex­i­co, to Mex­i­co City. He was said to have been in the coun­try on avo­ca­do busi­ness. The plane went down in the moun­tains, on a clear day, and Nir was pro­nounced dead.

“Much spec­u­la­tion has revolved around the pos­si­bil­i­ty of foul play in that death, as Nir could per­son­al­ly attest to the fact that very senior US offi­cials knew the details of the Iran-Con­tra Affair. Adri­ana Stan­ton, Nir’s trav­el­ing part­ner, who also board­ed the plane under an alias, told Chan­nel 10′s HaMakor pro­gram in 2009 that she saw Nir alive and well after the crash.”

A for­mer jour­nal­ist and bat­tal­ion com­man­der in the armored corps, Ami­ram Nir is buried in the Kiry­at Shaul ceme­tery in Tel Aviv.