SHULTZ AIDE COLLABORTED WITH NORTH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080010-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: January 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080010-3
ARTICLE AP
O =42
O
N PAW
Shultz aide
collaborated
with North
By lfonso_C and
and Sam Dion
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Elliott Abrams,
the State Department's top Latin
America specialist, collaborated
closely with then National Security
Council aide Oliver L. North on ways
to help the Nicaraguan contras, the
State Department acknowledged yes-
terday.
It was the first official concession
that a senior State Department offi-
cial had worked closely with North
on contra affairs during a period
when Congress had prohibited any
direct or indirect assistance to the
contras in procuring military equip-
ment. The two-year prohibition was
lifted Oct. 18, when President Reagan
signed into law a new $100 million
contra aid program.
Abrams declined to comment but
his chief spokesman, Gregory La.
gana, insisted that Abrams had done
nothing illegal and had no knowl-
edge of any diversion to the contras
of profits from arms sales to Iran.
"Yes, it's true," Lagana said when
asked about Abrams' relationship
with North. "That is no secret. Both
were on the same interagency group
that coordinated Central America
policy."
Asked whether Abrams kept Secre?
tary of State George P. Shultz fully
informed of his discussions and deci-
sions with North, Lagana said he
thought so.
"Obviously, you don't tell your boss
things you don't think he should
bother with," said Lagana. "But I
think that if Elliott had discovered
any illegalities, he would have re-
ported them to Secretary Shultz?"
The acknowledgment that Abrams
collaborated with North on contra
affairs came as questions were raised
about how much the assistantsocal?
tary of state fof inter.-Aatert4o'
fairs may have known about North a
activities. North, a Marine lieutenant
colonel, was dismissed from his NSC
post Nov. 25 after administration offi-
cials discovered the diversion of the
arms sale profits to the contras.
On Tuesday, Sen. David Durenber.
ger (R., Minn.), who was chairman of
the Senate Intelligence Committee
during its investigation of the Iran-
contra affair, said he found it "curi-
ous" that Abrams did not know about
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
8 January 1987
the diversion.
Interviewed aboard a commercial
airliner that carried him home to
Minnesota late Tuesday after Demo-
crats blocked the release of a thick
report prepared by his committee on
the scandal, Durenberger noted that
Abrams chaired an interagency com-
mittee, on which North sat, that coor-
dinated Central America policy, with
emphasis on contra projects.
He also described North and
Abrams as "buddy, buddy, buddy,
buddy. Soul mates." Without citing
any evidence, Durenberger, who was
chairman of the Intelligence Com-
mittee for two years, said he knew
that North and Abrams collaborated
"because I've dealt with them for a
long time."
Durenberger added, however, that
for the present he accepted Abrams'
assertion that he did not know that
profits from arms sales to Iran went
to the contras. But he also said he
would not be "surprised" to find out
later that Abrams did know about
the diversion.
"I wouldn't trust Elliott Abrams
any further than I could throw Oli-
ver North," Durenberger said.
Episodes cited by Durenberger,
congressional sources and adminis-
tration officials in which North and
Abrams coordinated included:
? The contra air supply network
that operated from Ilopango airport
in El Salvador. The supply network,
which ended when one of its aircraft
was downed over Nicaragua, appar-
ently was financed with profits from
arms dealings with Iran.
? The use of aircraft hired by the
State Department under a $27 million
program of "humanitarian" aid for
the contras to also ferry weapons for
the rebels.
? The orchestration of a U.S. re-
sponse last year when Sandinista
troops chased contra forces into Hon-
duras. The U.S. ambassador to Hon-
duras at the time, John Ferch, has
told congressional investigators that
Abrams deceived Congress about
that incursion in an effort to win
approval for U.S. aid to the contras.
? The soliciting of funds - per-
haps up to $10 million - from the
tiny southeast Asian sultanate of
Brunei to tide over the contras at a
time when Congress was still balking
at renewing their official aid.
Denied any role
Durenberger said that on Nov. 25,
the day Attorney General Edwin
Meese 3d announced North's involve-
ment in the diversion of funds,
Abrams told his committee that he
had played no role in soliciting
third-country assistance for the
Contras.
? But Durenberger said that when
Abrams reappeared before the com-
mittee in December, he changed his
story.
"He said, 'There appears to be a
contradiction. I can explain it,'" Du-
renberger said. "At [this) point, he
appeared to be very forthcoming."
In discussing Abrams' testimony,
Durenberger did not refer to Brunei
by name, but called it "Country X." A
Congressional aide familiar with
Abrams' testimony confirmed that
"Country X" was Brunei.
Durenberger said Abrams testified
that he first talked with North about
the Brunei contribution in June or
July 1986. At that time, Durenberger
$aid, Abrams had solicited the funds
and was looking "for a place to put
Country X money for the contras."
Swiss account
Durenberger said Abrams "asks Ol-
iver North for help and North gave
him a Swiss account [number].
brams used it for Country X, that is,
he gave the account number to the
Iolks in Country X."
Durenberger said Abrams also
asked for and receiv a wtss ac-
Eount number rom a con ac ,
but passed only t e ort number to
the Bruneians.
Lagana said that only Abrams
could comment at length on his own
.testimony. He noted that Abrams has
told reporters previously that as of
late November, the money solicited
from "a heavy hitter" abroad had not
been received and that the matter
had been taken out of his hands by
State Department legal adviser Abra-
ham D. Sofaer.
Durenberger said in the interview
that "Country X" had deposited the
money in North's account, but that it
may have been used not for the con-
tras but to reimburse international
arms dealers who underwrote the
U.S. arms sales to Iran and who
claimed not to have been repaid.
In another apparent instance of
Abrams-North coordination, Duren-
berger said that at least three U.S.
officials based in Central America
who reported to Abrams - Ambassa-
dors Lewis Tambs in Costa Rica and
Edwin Corr in El Salvador, and U.S.
Army Col. James Steele, who headed
the U.S. military contingent in El
Salvador - also cooperated with the
contra supply operation based at Ilo-
pango that North apparently fi-
nanced with Iran arms sales profits.
"Officially, they [the American of-
ficials) tried to keep their hands off
of it [the resupply effort]," Durenber-
ger said. "Obviously, Steele did some
facilitating in El Salvador. I suppose
people must have known about what
Continued
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12-
he was doing. He was playing some
role.
"It's a fact that Colonel Steele did
play a role in facilitating the airlift.
The State Department draws very
wavery kinds of lines on that subject,
the legality or illegality of it all I
haven't worked out yet."
As for Ambassador Corr, "he felt
there were some things that this guy
LSteelel could do," Durenberger said.
Airstrip request
Costa Rican officials, meanwhile,
have said that Tambs, the U.S. envoy
in Costa Rica, asked them to allow
the private supply system to use an
airstrip built near the Nicaraguan
border that they had ordered shut
down. Tambs resigned after that rev-
elation was made, but he denied any
connection between the disclosure
and his departure.
Lagana confirmed that North and
Abrams had discussed the weapons
resupply system before it was ex-
posed Oct. 5 when the Sandinistas
shot down an American-manned,
arms-laden C-123 cargo plane.
But he said that Abrams never
sought or received "very much infor-
mation" from North on who financed
the operation.
Lagana said Abrams "was not in-
volved" in coordinating the actual
delivery of weapons.
As for the roles that ambassadors
Tambs and Corr may have played,
Lagana said both had assured
Abrams that their activities related
to the contras were "appropriate and
legal."
Lagana refused to be specific about
what activities Corr and Tambs en-
gaged in.
Visits to airbase
As for Steele, Lagana acknowl-
edged that Steele had often visited
the Ilopango air base where the re-
supply operation was based. But he
linked Steele's presence at Ilopango
to his role as head of the U.S. military
group in El Salvador, not as a partici-
pant in the contra supply network.
Lagana said that Abrams has in-
sisted that Steele "was not helping or
facilitating people outside the U.S.
government."
Knowledgeable U.S. officials also
confirmed yesterday that Abrams
and North also coordinated the dis-
tribution of the $27 million "humani-
tarian" assistance to the contras in
1985 and 1986.
But Lagana said that North and
Abrams discussed only the general
implementation of the program, and
left logistical details to the State De-
partment's Nicaraguan Humanitar-
ian Assistance Office. That office
reported to Abrams and relied on a
contract employee, Robert Owen, to
guarantee that the funds were not
being used to purchase weapons or
ammunition. Administration offi-
cials acknowledge now, however,
that Owen served as North's secret
liaison with the contras.
Some American crew members
who flew cargoes of nonlethal aid
have said in the last few months that
they also flew military supplies to
the contras on the same planes hired
by the State Department to ferry non-
lethal aid.
Lagana also confirmed that North
and Abrams worked closely on or-
chestrating the granting of $20 mil-
lion in U.S. emergency military aid to
Honduras in March 1986. The grant-
ing of the aid was controversial be-
cause Honduran officials said then
that the U.S. had exaggerated the
danger from the Sandinista presence
in Honduras. Ferch, the former U.S.
ambassador to Hondurasm, has told
congressional investigators that the
Honduran version of events was
true.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080010-3