BUSH AIDE DISCUSSED CONTRA AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100270009-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: December 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100270009-6
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never, ever had a discussion with
him about the contras and contra
support of any kind," Bush said.
Fitzwater said that he did not
think Gregg had told Bush about
the Rodriguez-contra meeting, but
that he was unable to reach the vice
president yesterday.
Rodriguez' role in that resupply
effort and how much Bush and
Gregg knew about it have been a
sensitive issue for the vice presi-
dent's office because Bush is a lead-
ing Republican contender for the
1988 presidential nomination.
Gregg said in a telephone inter-
view that Rodriguez, whom he
helped get a job in early 1985 with
the Salvadoran air force, called him
in August and said he "was con-
cerned that there would be a gap" in
the contra supply line. "He feared it
was going to evaporate," Gregg re-
called. "So I put him in touch with
people he could pass on his concern
to.,,
Gregg said his impression was
that Rodriguez was worried that
both private arms and U.S. human-
itarian aid to the rebels might dis-
appear before $100 million in new
U.S. aid became available.
Recent interviews with crew-
members of the private contra air
force and documents on their flights
showed that Rodriguez, who went
by the name of Max Gomez, was
not a formal member of the private
resupply effort but more of a liaison
between the American crews and
the Salvadoran air force, which con-
trolled the Ilopango air base where
the planes were based.
Gregg, who has declined several
requests for interviews, said yes-
terday that he broke his silence be-
cause "we felt it was time to put to
rest speculation that more was go-
ing on than was going on."
The 58-year-old Gregg, a career
CIA officer who served on the Na-
tional Security Council staff and
became Bush's chief national secu-
rity adviser in 1982, gave this ac-
count of his relationship with Rod-
riguez and the private contra aid
network:
He said Rodriguez, whom he
knew from their CIA service to-
gether in Vietnam, called him in
late 1984 or early 1985 and told
him "he wanted to go to El Salvador
and do the same kind of operation
he did in Vietnam" because the pat-
tern of the leftist insurgency there
seemed the same. In Vietnam, Rod-
riguez had flown small helicopters
on missions to spot Vietcong insur-
gents so nearby helicopter gunships
or elite troops could attack them,
Gregg recalled.
He said he-introduced his old col-
league to several U.S. officials, in-
cluding Thomas Pickering, then-
ambassador to El Salvador; Lang-
horne Motley, the top State Depart-
ment official for the region, and
Nestor Sanchez, another CIA alum-
nus, who is the Pentagon's Latin
American expert. "I told them this
guy is tremendous and I knew he
could sell himself," Gregg said. He
said he assumed one of those offi-
Bush Aide
Discussed
Contra Aid
Gregg Set Up
Meeting on Rebel
Resupply Effort
By Charles R. Babcock
Washington Post Staff Writer
The top national security adviser
to Vice President Bush set up a
meeting between a former CIA of-
ficial and members of the CIA and
Defense and State departments in
August to discuss the former CIA
official's concerns about adequate
aid flowing to the Nicaraguan con-
tras.
Until now, the Bush aide, Donald
P. Gregg, has told associates that
the only discussions he had with the
former CIA official, Felix Rodri-
guez, were about his work for the
El Salvador air force.
Gregg said yesterday he does not
remember telling Bush about the
meeting involving Rodriguez, him-
self and other U.S. officials. "I don't
recall briefing him on it," he said. "I
don't think I reported it to him I
can't swear I didn't, but I don't re-
member it."
Gregg later said that he did not
think that the August meeting, first
disclosed in The New York Times
yesterday, was important enough
for him to inform Bush or his
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater about,
despite the controversy caused
when a C123K cargo plane carrying
weapons to the contras was shot
down Oct. 5 in Nicaragua.
"It didn't come to my mind that
Felix was that involved, as an op-
erator, or as a coordinator," Gregg
said.
The vice president, in October,
said he had met twice with Rodri-
guez and that their meetings con-
cerned only El Salvador and the
guerrilla insurgency there. "I have
cials recommended that the Salva-
dorans hire Rodriquez, which they
did.
At the time, January 1985,
Gregg also introduced Rodriguez to
Bush. "The vice president had a'
great interest in El Salvador since
visiting there in December of
1983," he noted.
Shortly after Rodriguez was
hired, Gregg added, he wrote a note
to Army Col. James Steele, chief
U.S. military adviser in El Salvador,
saying how helpful he thought Rod-
riguez would be to the counterin-
surgency effort.
Over the next year, Gregg re-
called, he would occasionally get
calls from Rodriguez in El Salvador
"to tell how his operations were
going and how he needed helicopter
parts for the helicopter he was fly-
ing."
During those calls, he said, they
never discussed the contras and
Gregg said he did not know Rodri-
guez played even an unofficial role
in their private air supply network.
Rodriguez came to Washington
last May and met with Gregg, Bush
and Edwin Corr, the new ambassa-
dor to El Salvador, Gregg said, to
report on his helicopter operations
against the Salvadoran insurgents.
"He had some interesting pictures
t/
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100270009-6
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100270009-6
of the operations he was carrying
on and I thought it would be of
great interest to the vice president
? . And Corr was in town and he
stopped in at the same time."
Since the October crash of the
cargo plane that killed two Amer-
icans and resulted in the capture of
American Eugene Hasenfus, Steele
and Corr have been identified as
having direct knowledge of the pri-
vate supply flights.
It was not until Rodriquez called
him last August, Gregg said, that he
learned that his friend had any role
in the contra resupply mission. "All
we ever talked about before was El
Salvador," he said. In that call, Rod-
riguez expressed concern that
"there would be a gap" in resupply-
ing the contras with both guns and
humanitarian aid, Gregg said.
The $27 million Congress had
appropriated for nonlethal aid had
almost all been spent and $100 mil-
lion in new military aid would not be
available until Oct. 1.
The Washington Post reported
last Sunday that documents from
the resupply operation showed that
cash was short. On Aug. 8, the doc-
uments show Rodriguez gave a pep
talk to some of the crew, "It was
very brave of you to get into these
old airplanes," he was quoted as
saying. He also asked them to ride
out the network's financial prob-
lems, even suggesting they work
without pay for a few weeks.
Gregg said he recalled the tele-
phone conversation with Rodriguez
came about that time and the meet-
ing he set up for Rodriguez with
CIA, Pentagon and State Depart-
ment officials was around Aug. 12.
He said "Felix was reassured" by
the meeting but Gregg said he nev-
er learned what action resulted
from it. He said he soon went on
leave to have minor surgery and
Bush went on vacation to Maine.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100270009-6