RETIRED GENERAL SAID TO BE BEHIND CONTRA FLIGHTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790018-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790018-3
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ON PAU
N?W YORK TIMES
28 November 1986
Retired General Said to Be
Behind Contra Flights
By JAMES LeMOYNE
Special to The New York Times
MIAMI, Nov. 27 - An American who
was a pilot on secret supply flights to
Nicaraguan guerrillas says the chief
pilot for the flights told him "several
times" that a retired general, Richard
V. Secord, was "behind the operation."
In addition to the Secord report, tele-
phone records for "safe houses" in El
Salvador used by Nicaraguan rebels,
or contras, list calls to what appears to
be the home an United States Embassy
employee in Costa Rica.
An embassy spokesman said the em-
'Someone We Respected'
According to a third American who
flew rebel planes out of El Salvador, al-
though General Secord may have been
deeply involved in the rebel operation,
someone else actually hired Mr.
Cooper to set up the rebel flights. The
American crew member refused tol
comment when asked if the man who
had hired Mr. Cooper worked for the
American Government.
"He was someone we respected,"
was all the crew member would say of
the unamed organizer.
Three Americans who worked on the
supply program said previous descrip-
tions of the operation had given a mis-
leading impression of how it was di-
rected.
The Americans said the day-to-dav
mans er of the program was not a for-
m ral intellt e c a ent
named Felix Rodriguez. Twy_ said Mr.
riguez whose code name was Max
Gomez,was maitzly in _0-srv of get-
tin Salvadoran Air Force permission
for the rebel sir_p_eL4-tion.
They said the actual manager of the
contra supply program was Mr. Coop
er who was a former C.I.A. pilot,
were several other pilots in the rebel
program.
Role of Vice President
As a consequence, one rebel crew
member suggested, Vice President
Bush may have had less knowledge of
the rebel supply operation than some
reports have suggested. The crew
member said that although Mr. Bush
has said he knew Felix Rodriguez, he
apparently did not to know Mr. Cooper,
who actually ran the program.
The three American crew members
complained that the rebel program in
El Salvador, which may have been fi-
nanced by profits from the sale of arms
to Iran, received far less than the $101
million or more that has been reported
as having been generated by the sales.
"The Nicaraguans didn't see any-
where near that much money," an
American crew member said.
In Costa Rica, a spokesman for the
United States Embassy, Mark Kir-
schik, said the embassy official whose
house was telephoned from contra safe
houses and whose name cannot be pub-
lished for security reasons worked as a
"political and economic analyst" in the
embassy.
asked if the office of Regional Reports
was an intelligence bureau, and he also
refused to comment when asked why
the offical had been telephoned from a
rebel safe house.
An English-language newspaper in
Coata Rico, The Tico Times, reported
that another number dialed from rebel
safe houses in El Salvador was an un-
listed line to the United States Embas-
sy. Mr. Kirschik refused to comment
on whether the number was in the Of-
fice of Regional Reports.
Besides the evidence of telephone
calls from rebel safe houses to an em-
bassy official, local residents say two
Americans oversaw the building of a
secret airstrip in Costa Rica earlier
this year that was used by one of the
rebel planes from El Salvador, accord-
ing to an American crew member.
Contra supply flights over Costa
Rica and southern Nicaragua began
shortly after American intelligence
operatives promised rebels there that
they would get weapons, according to
two rebel officials.
Among the documents carried by
Mr. Cooper, according to Nicaraguan.
officials, was a code book that lists
codes for Washington, Honduras, El
Salvador and Costa Rica, as well as for
an air base in Honduras, Palmerola,
that is managed by the United States.
Mr. Hasenfus said in a recent inter-
view that Mr. Cooper used the codes
during telephone calls that he made
from safe houses to the United States.
Mr. Hasenfus added that he had be-
lieved the supply operation was sup-
ported by the United States because
Mr. Cooper had told him it was backed
by the "top shelf" in Washington. In
Mr. Cooper's code hook, which was
seen by a reporter, the code reference
given for Washington is "top floor."
curitv reasons.','- tsaaint e law
-
an American intelli-
print the name of
ence a .
The embassy spokesman refused to
comment when asked whether another
number that was dialed from contra
The calls to Costa Rica support other
evidence that American officials there
may have been involved in the contra
supply operation, which Reagan Ad-
ministration officials have contended
was "strictly private."
History of Work In Iran
Mr. Secord, the retired general, has a
long history of work in Iran for the
United States Government, and his
company is reported to have once sold
arms to the regime of Shah Mo-
hammed Riza Pahlevi. There have re-
cently been unconfirmed reports that
he might have traveled to Iran as part
of the Reagan Administration's deal-
ings with the Government of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeni.
The chief pilot, William J. Cooper,
was killed with two others when Nica-
raguan soldiers shot down his plane on
Oct. 5 as it was ferrying weapons over
southern Nicaragua. The lone survivor
was Eugene Hasenfus, who has been
sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment
by a Nicaraguan political court for ter-}
rorism and other crimes.
The telephone records from rebel
safe houses in El Salvador, which were
obtained by reporters from the na-
tional telephone company, also offer
possible evidence of General Secord'
i involvement in the rebel operation. The records list more than two dozen call
to the Secord company in Virginia
Stanford Technology Incorporated.
Mr. Secord has denied that he was in-
volved in the supply operation.
The covert contra supply operatio
was revealed when the supply plan
was shot down, killing Mr. Cooper a
well as Wallace B. Sawyer, the co-pilot
and a rebel radio operator. Mr. Hasen
fus parachuted to safety and was cap
to red.
Series of 'No Comments'
The official apparently works in the
embassy's Office of Regional Reports,
according to other embassy sources.
Mr. Kirschik refused to comment when
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790018-3