and informants. Reportedly, he was forced out of the CIA by Turner who disapproved of Shackley's involvement with former agent Edwin P. Wilson, who was under federal investigation for smuggling explosives to Libya. Shackley was suspected by federal prosecutor Lawrence Barcella to be part of Wilson's Egyptian-American Transport and Services Corporation (EATSCO), a front for his arms smuggling which was also accused of fraudulently billing the Department of Defense. At that time, Shackley claimed that he would have become CIA director if President Gerald Ford had been reelected in 1976 and that only this investigation kept him from becoming CIA director or deputy director under new president Ronald Reagan. In 1982, Wilson was convicted for selling 22 tons of C4 plastic explosive to Muammar al-Gaddafi's Libya, and also on the charge of exporting guns. On October 29, 2003, the conviction on the explosives charge was reversed. Iran–Contra affair On February 5, 1986, Shackley was interviewed by the Tower Commission investigating the Iran–Contra affair. Shackley reported that he met with General Manucher Hashemi, the former head of SAVAK's counterintelligence division, in Hamburg, West Germany in November 1984. There, Hashemi introduced Shackley to Manucher Ghorbanifar stating that Ghorbanifar's contacts in Iran were "fantastic". Ghorbanifar, known to the CIA as a person of questionable reliability and veracity, attempted to show that he and Hashemi had influence in Iran by stating that the Iranians would be willing to trade captured Soviet equipment for TOW missiles. Ghorbanifar also proposed that a cash payment be offered as ransom for the four American hostages held in Beirut, Lebanon (which included William Francis Buckley*) and that he act as the intermediary. Shackley stated that Ghorbanifar presented a deadline of December 7, 1984. Shackley prepared a memorandum regarding the proposal and sent it to General Vernon A. Walters with the United States Department of State. According to Shackley, the State Department responded stating that they would attempt to solve the problem through other channels. *(Vernon Walters did not respond to or resolve the problem of William Francis Buckley's capture, and he was later tortured to death by the Iranians and his body was never returned to his family in the United States.) In May 1985, Shackley discussed the hostage issue with Michael Ledeen and shared that he had received no response from Walters regarding the report he had prepared regarding the November meeting with Ghorbanifar. Ledeen asked for a