Bush knew of arms plan 'months earlier'

New York - George Bush knew about the plan to sell US arms secretly to Iran in exchange for hostages, 17 months before he admitted to first learning about the plan, a former national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan says in a CBS interview to be broadcast today.

Robert McFarlane says Mr Bush, as vice-president, attended up to a dozen briefings on the plan to sell arms to Iran before December 1986, when Mr Bush said he learned of it. He added that Mr Bush knew that Benjamin Weir, a hostage in Lebanon, had been released in exchange for hundreds of missiles sent to Iran in 1985. Reuter