In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America's "Deep State"

by David Rohde

That summer, Casey committed the most brazen act of a CIA director since the Church reforms. Violating multiple laws and executive orders, Casey and National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane began a secret program to arm the Contras without telling members of Congress. Using money from private donors and Saudi Arabia, they had National Security Council aide Oliver North secretly buy weapons and supply them to the Contras. In November 1984, as the covert arms shipments continued, Reagan, buoyed by a strong economy, won reelection in a landslide, defeating Walter Mondale in 49 of 50 states. In the summer of 1985, Casey and McFarlane’s scheme began to unravel. News reports of unexplained arms shipments to the Contras appeared in the American press. Called before Congress, McFarlane misled lawmakers, denying that arms shipments were occurring. Then in August, in a separate illegal weapons program, McFarlane and North began selling weapons to Iranian officials in the hopes they would help free American hostages in Lebanon. Reagan signed a retroactive presidential covert action finding that authorized the arms sales, but ordered his aides to withhold it from Congress, yet another violation of law.