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Michael Ledeen, a provocative neoconservative who advised Washington policymakers to crush Islamic terrorists, disparaged a free press and helped instigate the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages scandal during the Reagan administration, died on Saturday in Austin, Texas. He was 83. His death, at his daughter’s home, was from complications related to a series of strokes, his wife, Barbara Ledeen, said. A bewhiskered academic who was a whiz at bridge, liked to quote Machiavelli and kept a Darth Vader mask in his office, Mr. Ledeen was a trained historian and the author of some three dozen books. He presented himself as an unambiguous champion of democracy, notwithstanding his belief that an elite group of domestic and international statesmen should shape America’s foreign policy and his complaint that an unfettered media was a “disruptive influence.” Read Full Obituary