MCFARLANE AIDE FACILITATES POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870056-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: August 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870056-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE ,_?_
WASHINGTON POST
11 August 1985
McFarlane Aide Facilitates P0__
lc
y
Marine Officer Nurtures Connections With Contras, Conservatives
By Joanne Omang
Waehtngton Pmu Staff Writer
In a city of largely invisible staff
workers, Marine Corps Lt. Col. Ol-
iver L. North of the National Secu-
rity Council staff has emerged as an
influential and occasionally contro-
versial character in the imple-
mentation of the Reagan adminis-
tration's foreign policy.
North, a trusted aide to national
security affairs adviser Robert C.
McFarlane, has by most accounts
been obedient and creative in his
work, which has thrust him into a
pivotal role in the administration's
Central American policy-partic-
ularly in nurturing connections
among antigovernment rebels in
Nicaragua, their conservative sup-
porters in this country and the rest
of the administration.
But his work on behalf of McFar-
lane has taken North into other ar-
eas as well, testimony in part to his
diligence and high energy. North
was involved in drafting a letter
from President Reagan to Syrian
President Hafez Assad that report-
edly angered Assad and irritated
State Department officials who
tried to have it altered.
He is little known to the public.
but to those in the administration
and among those actively involved
in the debate over Central Amer-
ican policy, North has been a visible
player.
In that capacity, his activities
raise questions about a gray area of
government policy. At a time when
Congress had voted to outlaw direct
aid to the anti-Sandinista rebels in
Nicaragua, North worked actively
to assure the counterrevolution-
aries, or contras, that the U.S. gov-
ernment fully supported their
cause.
Administration officials insist that
North stayed within the letter and
spirit of the October 1984 law,
wtuch ended three years of U
intelligence community help for the
contras. Teadministration had
fought the ban arguing tat e
rebels, which it calls "freedom fight-
ers," were key to Pressuring the
leTti-st Sandinista government of
Nicaragua away from its Soviet sup-
o rters.
But Congress acted out of con-
cern that the insurgents had been
using secret U.S. funds illegally in
trying to overthrow the Sandinista
government, and that contra meth-
ods had been brutal and immoral.
The checks that went out in May
were the last of an estimated $80
million in U.S. aid.
McFarlane said in an interview
he had told his staff to comply with
the law. "However, we had a nation-
al interest in keeping in touch with
what was going on, and, second, in
not breaking faith with the freedom
fighters," he said.
"What does it mean not to break
faith? Nothing more or less than
making it clear that the United
States believes in what they are
doing," McFarlane continued. "We
could not provide any support, but
we made it clear we would continue
seeking that support" from Con-
gress.
"We wanted to give a continuity
of policy. This could not involve
money or material support. It was a
matter of hand-holding," he added.
North, 42, he indicated, was put
in charge of holding hands.
In part as a result of North's ef-
forts, Congress last month ap-
proved $27 million in nonmilitary
aid to the rebels, ending a virtual
seven-month halt in their activity.
Interviews with dozens of people
who know North found general
agreement that his power is the
kind that comes from being the cen-
ter of an information network,
trusted by superiors and contacts to
interpret his knowledge for their
mutual benefit. While his recom-
mendations have sometimes been
rejected, they have always figured
heavily in policy debates.
If McFarlane is Reagan's senior
national security adviser, North is
"McFarlane's McFarlane," one sen-
ior government official said, "except
that he's much more activist than
McFarlane."
North said he was willing to be
interviewed, but McFarlane re-
fused. "He's not a rogue elephant"
but rather "like a son of mine,"
McFarlane said.
In an article in Friday's editions,
The Washington Post withheld
North's name at the request of
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes, who said North was con-
cerned about his safety. North's
name has been used by other news
organizations, and White House of-
ficials were informed on Friday that
The Post intended to use North's
name in this article unless there
was a compelling reason not to do
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870056-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870056-0
"I personally cannot tell you that
the other side has taken terrorist
[actions] againt Americans [in po-
sitions of responsibility]," McFar-
lane said. His preference to keep
North's name out of the paper was
"more a matter of my integrity,"
McFarlane said, adding that a ca-
reer officer "acts at someone else's
direction" and that the principal,
rather than the staff member,
should shoulder public responsibil-
ity.
A San Antonio native and grad-
uate of the U.S. Naval Academy,
North was "a platoon and company
commander in combat and partic-
ipated in both conventional and un-
conventional warfare operations in
Southeast Asia" as a U.S. Marine
during the Vietnam war, according
to his official 1983 biography.
He was awarded a Silver Star and
two Purple Hearts, among other
decorations, and has taught since at
the Marine Corps Basic School, the
FBI Academy and a special oper-
ations school on Okinawa, returning
to Washington in 1975 to be plans
and policy analyst at Marine head-
quarters.
North is reported to have worked
with McFarlane, a former Marine
from Texas, at the Pentagon on
Middle East affairs and was sent to
the NSC in August 1981. He is now
deputy director for political-military
affairs, focusing on Central and
South America, and is "responsible
for national-level contingency plan-
ning, crisis management and coun-
terterrorism," the biography said.
North "has appeared as a guest
on William F. Buckley's 'Firing
Line' " interview program, the bi-
ography noted.
In a divided, sometimes chaotic
and turf-conscious NSC staff, North
stands out as a hard-working, ar-
ticulate and efficient facilitator, ac-
cording to most of those inter-
viewed.
At the State Department, North
is suspected of responsibility for
wording in a July letter from Rea-
gan to Syrian President Assad that
reportedly angered Assad just as
the administration was hoping for
his help in obtaining the release of
seven Americans who remained
hostage in Lebanon after 39 others
from TWA Flight 847 were re-
leased. North "didn't accept the
changes" in the wording that- the
State Department wanted to make,
one department source said.
McFarlane said the letter was de-
veloped by the "terrorist incident
working group," which includes
people from several agencies, and
that North "absolutely did not drop
out" and "did not ignore, discount or
overrule" anything from the State
Department. Administration offi-
cials stressed that North was not
the sole author of the letter.
In 1983, North was awarded the
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
"in recognition of his contributions
in. securing approval" from Con-
gress for the "air defense enhance-
ment package for Saudi Arabia," or
the AWACS airborne warning and
control system plane.
An intelligence official said North
drafted a directive on terrorism
that liberally used the rd "neu-
tralize," meaning Kin, and that e
draft was toned down before Rea-
gan signed it.
er o ials said North was the
"nerve center' for planning the
1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, one
of very few people who knew every-
thing going on, and that he played a
role in the decision to send Vice
President Bush to El Salvador in
December 1983 to warn leaders
there that continued death squad
activity would halt U.S. support.
Leading conservatives cited
North as their principal administra-
tion source of information on the
Nicaraguan conflict and said he has
been directly involved in shaping
administration domestic political
strategy on the issue.
North was a mainstay of the
White House Office of Public Liai-
son's "outreach project". on Central
America, which was intended to
muster public support for adminis-
tration views. With his maps, dia-
grams and charts and colorful de-
livery, North "became the briefer of
choice" for the mostly conservative
groups that attended, said Morton
Blackwell, a conservative activist
who was then a presidential assist-
ant in charge of the project.
In weekly planning meetings for
the project among the NSC, the
Central Intelligence Intelligence Agency, the
State Department and the In-
formation Agency, North emerged
as one of the staunchest and most
forthright conservatives, "one of
the best," Blackwell said. "He's one
of us.
? McFarlane said North "has prob-
ably briefed 100 groups," always at
McFarlane's direction. Those who
attended say the briefings typically
deal with battlefield conditions and
prospects for contra military ad-
vances.
North has been particularly close
to the leadership of Citizens for
America (CFA), led by the flamboy-
ant tycoon Lewis Lehrman, who ran
for governor of New York in 1982.
S urces close to the group said.
North was in almost daily touch
with former CFA executive director
Jack Abramoff, and helped select
co tras for a speaking tour of the
United States that CFA organized
during the key April congressional
debates.
"He's in close touch with most of
the New Right people," said Rep.
Vin Weber (R-Minn.), a leader of
the House Conservative Opportu-
nity Society. "He's pretty highly re-
garded as one of the better guys on
the inside, pretty hard-line."
Wl!ten conservatives asked after
the funding cutoff how they could
help he contras financially, North
would respond that he "can't tell
them what to do" and that the con-
tras "are in the phone book,"
McFarlane said.
Retired Brig. Gen. Harry C.
Aderh~alt, president of the Air Com-
mando Association, which claims to
have distributed more than $30 mil-
lion in donated medicine to hospitals
in Honduras and El Salvador, said
he "used to talk on the phone to Ol-
lie all the time about El Salvador"
early last year.
Although Aderholt denied send-
ing any aid to the contras, his
group's July 1984 newsletter re-
ported that "shipment three" of
medicine intended for El Salvador
"was diverted to Honduras because
of the cuttoff of funds to the pro-
gram in that area. This was re-
quested by certain high-level people
"Ollie knows where we stand, and
he's for u::t 100 percent," Aderholt
said.
Staff write."s Charles Babcock,
Sidney Blumenthal and Don
Oberdorfercontributed to this
report.
Wi -
I
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870056-0