RETIRED GENERAL SECORD IS CHARACTERIZED AS NORTH'S OPERATIVE OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706730005-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 12, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706730005-7
ON PAW A.AQ--
BALT IMORE SUN
12 December 1986
Retired General Secord is characterized
as North's operative outside governrrent
day later. General Secord was
WaMiVan Bureau of The Sun I the Senate Select Committee on In
WASHINGTON - If Marine Lt. Amendment right J n.
0,.1 "I. r .,~1 __-- -. -~-._ -. against t self-In
in the bizarre scheme to funnel General Second, along with Colo-nel profIts from Iranian arms sales to Inv North. r of for his under role In
embattled Nicaraguan contras. re- Investigation
di r hialleged role Io
tired Air Force Maj. Gen. Rialrard V. the arms diversions Ac
d
cor
ing to
. Secord may have been the man on published reports the two are the
the outside to touched all the loss- two subject different of a
criminal probe related to
es for him.
Swiss bank accounts
By most accounts. General Be- that may have been used to direct
cord sits atop a network of former weapons-sale money to the contras.
mWtary officers and intelligence op- Those who have worked with
eratives who worked with Colonel General Seconn ovge the yearo de-nt. North over the lasts two years to aa- scribe him as
red. more able, some-
sure that adequate supplies, posstbiy times opinionated. ou often given
including weapons. got to the cam- to keeping his own counsel, at least
tras despite a congressional ban on in public. And, they say, if he was
such activities. Winning the secret contra supply ef?
F
or more than a year Gen fot h th
,r,e wase right kind of man for
puousnea reports to a private fund- RICI D V. sWDRD "Second may be a bit of an activ.
ing-and-supply network aliWdly es- Had ties to Saudi Arabia. Iran ist. he may be the kind of guy you
tablished by Colonel North after the want fighting a war for you. but he's
passage of the October 1984 version visor Robert C. McFarlane and oth. not a roughneck." said one source.
of the Boland amendment. which ens flew into Tehran in a plane load- if you want to get anything done in
forbade direct or indirect American eel with military supplies for the lm- this government, you've got to have
aid to the contras other than $27 Earlier guys like that to do it for you."
aid to in so-called other than 27 reports said General Se. Attempts to reach General record n manonrian assialled cord was one of those who traveled through his Washington attorney,
tan was affeOvdy ftft ~ in to Tehran with Mr. McFarlane. Thomas C. Green, were unsuccess.
November with the authorization of General Second is no stranger to fut.
lve million er in mW Iran. During the mid-1970s, when In a recent interview,
tary and human- the shah was still in power, the gen- General Secord magazine
that any sugges-
itartan aid to the anti-Sandinista eral was the senior Air Force official tion that he was involved In ship-
forces. overseeing U.S. arms sales and mils- ping arms to Iran was "absolutely
More recently, Salvadoran tele- tary assistance to Tehran. Another false." But, he added, "If you asked
phone logs showed repeated calls I close business associate is an Irani- me. was I an adviser on arms im-
last summer to General Second's ! an Northern Virginia business office emigre. ports to Iran. that's another matter. I
from 'safe ubed by the crew This week. General Secord sur- can't talk about that."
of the houses
cargo by th shot faced as a key player In another al- General Secord was named as
down over Nicaragua Oct S, an snot leged North project: an effort to free one involved in efforts to aid the con-
con-
dow that resltea In the capture and Americans held hostage In Beirut tras in an October 1986 report pre-
dent e u of American ca E~1 e through activities tied In with the ad- pared by the staff of Sen. John Ker-
us and the deaths ministration's sale of military ry, D-Mass., that the authors said
impris of three
other people. The kde also showed supplies to Iran. was based on interviews with more
calls to Colonel North's office, , that
Shultz Monday named General Se- tra resupply effort.
other
his ernment service cord as one of two men - Colonel A congressional source said this
and hrouesetn aseoc aces. ent ser is - North was the other - with whom week that General Second: an associ-
cord also has t ties to Saudi Sei the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon,
John H. Kelly. admitted having had ate. Richard Gadd: and an employee
Arabia. whose role in the Iranian -numerous conversations" about of General Second's Northern Virgin-
arms affair. if any, remains murky American hostages in Lebanon. is-based firm. Stanford Technology
despite some reports that say it was That marthe first time Gen- Trading Inc., Robert Dutton, were all
SignLiffic s known of General Se- oral Secord has been named offlctal- involved to the contra resupply ef-
cords farads connections, but some ly by the government as among fort. All None men are retired Air
those who allegedly played a role In Force. None could be reached for
reports place him in Israel monitor- the Iran operation, although his comment.
ing the action In May when Colonel name had come
up North. former National Security Ad- various news report. previously in
ftwNIId
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706730005-7
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706730005-7
The source said General Secord
.was in charge of running the day-
to-day logistics" in a two-year effort
to keep the contras supplied with
arms and other necessities during
the two years Congress banned U.S.
support of the contras.
Mr. Gadd. the source said, played
a major role in the supply chain from.
the United States that ended at the
airport in Ilopango. El Salvador.
As the Kerry report described it.
the network put together by Colonel"
North "helped the contras with arms
purchases. fund raising and the en-,
llstment of military trainers."
General Secord. 54, a West Point.--
graduate. was associated with Colo- -
nel North in 1981 when both were%
part of an administration-wide lob-.,
bying effort to win congressional ap-
proval for the sale of sophisticated!-
Airborne Warning and Control'.
Systems planes to Saudi Arabia.
The lobbying drive, which ulti-
mately overcame stiff resistance in
Congress from Republicans and
Democrats alike. also included Mr.
McFarlane. then a senior State De-
partment official and later national
security adviser.
Another lobbyist on the AWACs
sale was Colonel North's boss at the
NSC. Robert H. Lilac. Mr. Lilac is
now a consultant to Prince Bandar
bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to
the United States.
In addition. Mr. Lilac and General
Secord are associates in a firm called
American Marketing Consultants
Inc.
At the time of the AWACs battle,
General Secord was serving as depu-
ty assistant secretary of defense for
Middle East affairs, the first active
duty military officer to hold the post.
He retired two years later after
his name was linked to Edwin P.
Wilson. a contract employee of the
CIA convicted on a variety of
charges. including shipping guns
and explosive equipment to Libyan
leader Muammar el Kadafi in the
1970s.
No charges were ever brought
against General Secord, but the con-
troversy, he later said. caused him to
lose a promotion to lieutenant gener-
al. A month before his retirement in
May 1983, however, he won a $2
million libel and slander Judgment
against the ex-Wilson aide who lev-
eled the accusations against him in
a television interview.
During the Vietnam period. Gen-
eral Secord was involved in CIA-con-
trolled operations in Laos. with some
accounts saying he was a senior offi-
cer in the secret air war there. His
prominence in that conflict could
not be immediately determined, but
an authoritative intelligence source
said, 'There is no doubt at one time
he was connected with the war in
Laos."
"That's where he would have
found out how to And planes not in
the (U.S. militaryl service, how to
find cover companies - it was very
good schooling." the source said.
During that period. General Se-
cord may have met a number of oth-
er pilots, intelligence operatives and
mercenaries who have since been
mentioned in connection with the
contra resupply network.
A few years later, from 1975 to
1978, General Secord headed the Air
Force component of the U.S. military
mission in Iran that supervised and
oversaw American military advisory
efforts and arms sales there.
Researcher Robert G. Fahs of The
Sun's W Bureau contrib-
uted to this arti&.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706730005-7