CASEY AIDED CONTRA PLAN, SOURCES SAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: February 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080009-5
ARTICLEAPPEAIED PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
ON PAGE L
8 February 1987
STAT
STAT
STAT
JI/AI
contra plan,
sources say
W o-07"
Casey aided
By.Atrg _.r_aWY
and Aaron Epstein
In~i,n s na cn reau
WASHINGTON -CIA Director Wij:_
Liam J. Casey was involved ' in an
extensive effort by his agency to
help provide military assistance to
the Nicaraguan contras during the
two years that Congress banned such
aid, according to official documents
and knowledgeable sources.
Casey was essential to the success
of the supposedly private contra sup-
ply network coordinated by Lt. Col.
Oliver L. North, then a National Secu-
rity Council aide, said a veteran in-
telligence officer with knowledge of
Latin America and experience at sev-
eral CIA outposts.
In an interview, the officer said
North relied on the CIA to provide
him with "information, penetration
into the contra organizations and the
Sandinista government, manipula-
tion, facilitation of air deliveries,
schedules and clearances, and the
opening of secret bank accounts."
"Without Casey's help at every
stage, Ollie North would not have
been able to do any of what he did
for the contras," the officer said.
The CIA repeatedly has denied that
it violated congressional restric-
tions, which ended in October. on
helping the contras obtain military
aid. Casey resigned Feb. 2 after un-
dergoing major surgery to remove a
brain tumor.
A CIA officer who served as station
chief in Costa Rica has told a presi-
dential commission investigating the
Iran-contra affair that his superiors
in 'Washington authorized him to as-
sist in coordinating the airlift that
kept the contras supplied with weap-
ons last year, according to a commis-
sion source.
The commission subsequently
called the officer's activities "im-
proper" and notified the CIA, which
tiuspended him.
According to administration offi-
cials, contra leaders, former intelli-
gence officers and congressional
aides, the CIA was a constant partici-
pant in North's secret crusade
keep the contra effort alive for yea
- including the period of the c
gressional prohibition on milita
aid to the rebels from October 1984 to
October 1986.
? On Aug . o
President Bush briefed several U.S.
officials - including a CIA officer -
on the poor quality of the aircraft
carrying military supplies to the reb-
els, according to a chronology of
events assembled by Bush's aides.
These and other instances of CIA.
activities raise questions about
whether the Reagan administration
obeyed the Boland Amendment,
which was enacted by Congress in
1984 specifically to force the CIA to
withdraw from its covert manage-
ment of the contra war.
From October 1984 to December
1985, the amendment prohibited the
CIA, the Defense Department or any
other intelligence agency from
spending any money on direct or
indirect support of "military or para.
military operations in Nicaragua by
any nation, group, organization,
movement or individual."
"WFW Then Congress modified the ban to
Casey allow the CIA to furnish intelligence
William J
.
Said to have aided North information and communications
De-
They cited these examples: equipment to the contras from De-
cember 1985 to mid-October, en.
? From 1984 through most of last abling the agency to spend S13
year. Casey and North worked close- million on its contra aid program
Iy, traveling together to the Middle last year.
East and Central America to seek military assistance con
contra aid. They kept in constant Outright be barred uassistance t8-
Oct.
touch. dining together and meeting timed President into
signed
frequently in the White House and at when sident Reagan until
CIA headquarters, sources familiar law a 5100 million program that per-
with the activities of both men said. mitted the CIA to resume military
? In June 1985, eight months after management of the insurgency.
Congress imposed its ban, the CIA "Some people within the White
station chief in Honduras helped to House are certain that ti]e spirit of
settle a dispute between contra fac- the Boland Amendment was indeed
tions over the distribution of private violated repeatedly and deliber-
arms shipments arranged by North. tely," a white House official said.
As a result, two planeloads of amm a spoke on condition that he not be
nition were shipped to the facti dentified.
that had complained it was beir Rep. George ~IAzn-'k (D.,
shortchanged, according to a cont _Calif.) , a member of the House Intel-
leader. ligence Committee and an opponent
? Last spring, a retired Marine of contra aid, observed: "It seems
Corps brigadier general. Donald M. clear now that the CIA provided
Schmuck, visited contra military some coordination to the so-called
camps on the Nicaragua-Honduras private airlift of supplies to the con-
border, then reported to the Marine tras.' And that, he added, was illegal.
Corps commandant that information I think there may be individual
about the contras' combat operation staff members of the CIA who vto-
should be passed along to U.S. armed lated the law. We have enough evi-
forces "by the CIA agents who have dence of that.' said Brown, whose
been with the contras from the be- committee held hearings on the Iran-
ginning.' contra affair. "I think he ICaseyl
? In July, Casey secretly visited knew about the thrust of the activi-
Portugal, where he conferred with ties which Ollie North was carrying
President Mario Soares and other top on. Whenever Ollie North needed
officials. Casey's trip came at the CIA help, he got it."
height of shipments through the So far, the strongest evidence of
country of hundreds of tons of weap- CIA military assistance to the contras
ons labeled for delivery to Guate- stems from the activities of the agen-
mala and Honduras. but actually cy's former station chief in Costa
bound for the Nicaraguan insur ica, who used the cover name of
gents. Last week. CIA spokeswoma omas Castillo.
Sharon Fosle confirmed that Case
ad traveled to Portugal, but denied
that he solicited aid there for the
contras.
%o0 inued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080009-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080009-5
STAT
The Tower commission, appointed
by the President to investigate the
National Security Council's role in
the arming of Iran and the contras,
learned from Castillo on Jan. 28 that
he coordinated the airlift that kept
the contras supplied with weapons
despite the congressional ban, a com-
mission source said. (The commis-
sion is led by former Republican Sen.
John G. Tower of Texas.)
Castillo informed "the Tower com-
mission, though not under oath, that
he had the approval of higher-ups in
the CIA, including Clair Geore ho
directs the agencq'S"FraMes ine op-
erations. The CIA refused to com-
ment on Castillo's contention, but a
Tower commission source said the
panel found that only Castillo had
acted improperly.
Castillo has boasted that he taked
to Casey directly, without having to
go through normal bureaucratic
channels, a rebel official in Costa
Rica has said.
Indeed, Castillo did sometimes
have access to the highest levels of
the administration. White House doc-
uments obtained by the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee show, for
example, that on April 23, Castillo
attended a meeting, apparently on
Central American policy, along with
Reagan, North, White House chief of
staff Donald T. Regan, then-national
security ads iser John M. Poindexter,
and a Costa Rican security official
and his wife.
The close ties between North and
the CIA were illustrated in late 1985
when North called a Senate Judicia.
ry Committee staff member in an
effort to help then-CIA general coun-
sel Stanley S Orkin whose Casey-
sponsore nomination for a federal
judgeship had been bottled up by
conservative Republicans.
The staff member said North told
him that "Sporkin was a good guy
and he was helping with private
funding to the contras."
Sporkin, now a federal judge in
Washington, replied that "I cannot
dispute" that North made the call.
But he labeled 'ridiculous" any con-
tention that he helped the effort to
furnish supplies to the contras.
Asked whether he meant that he
never gave any legal advice on CIA
aid to the contras, Sporkin replied:
No. I can't say that. How could ( say
that?"
Beginning Oct. I, top CIA officials
began receiving warnings of possi-
ble diversions of money from Ira-
nian arms sales to the contras. but
they failed to alert Congress. even
during congressional testimony by
Casey on Nov. 21. It was only after
Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d
announced there had been a diver-
Sinn that Casey acknowledged to the
Senate Intelligence Committee that
he had received the earlier
warnings.
Over lunch Oct.9, North cryptical-
ly suggested to Casey and his deputy,
Robert M. Gates (now acting director
and Reagan's nominee to succeed Ca-
sey), that some money from Iranian
arms sales may have been funneled
to the contras, the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee reported.
Five days later, according to testi-
mony before the committee, a senior
CIA analyst raised the same issue of
diversion of money in a memoran-
dum to Casey and Gates.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080009-5