ALLEGED IRAN-CONTRA PLAYERS NO STRANGERS TO SPY AFFAIRS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100510001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 21, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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intervention in the Vietnam War be.
gan in 1965.
F F
rom Robert Timrom August 1966 to August
W 1968. Mr. Secord was an "air advis-
ashington Bureau of The Sun er"
t
WASHINGTON - Many of the
alleged players in the Iran-cones=
Taft have ee roots In the nation s
intelligence community and
worked together over me y~on
various cloak-an d:gNger operations
in Vietnam and Laos during-tKe
United States' involvement n
Southeast Asia.
Some of the names that have sur-
faced as potentially Important fig-
ures in the controversy seem to have
been especially involved in the se-
cret war waged by the Central Intel-
ligence Agency in Laos. which took
place at essentially the same time as
the Vietnam conflict.
Those who were in Laos or have
studied the American effort there
say it was an ideal training ground
for men who might later participate
in the sort of clandestine activities
that have characterized the Iran
arms sales and the alleged diversion
of funds to support the contras.
In particular, they point to the lo-
gistical expertise that many men de.
veloped there, as well as the skills
needed to mobilize and train guerril-
la units. set up dummy companies.
handle secret bank accounts and,
perhaps most importantly, cover
their tracks.
Those who saw action in South-
east Asia and whose names have
cropped up in the current controver-
sy Include:
Richard V. Secord: A highly dec-
orated retired Air Force major gener-
al and West Point graduate, Mr. Se-
cbrd is said by a variety of sources to
have played Mr. Outside to Marine
Lt. Col. Oliver L. North's Mr. Inside
In the Iran-contra affair.
Mr. Secord, sources say, used his
old military and intelligence contacts
to set up the supply line that provid-
ed logistical support and possibly
weapons to the contras after Con-
gress. by the 1984 version of the
Boland Amendment, forbade the
government from doing so.
According to his official Air Force
biography. Mr. Secord went to
Southeast Asia in March 1962 as an
adviser to the South Vietnamese.
During this period, the biography
says. he flew Vietnamese Air Force
AT-28s and logged more than 200
combat missions.
Officially at least, the United
States at that time was in an adviso-
ry role in Vietnam. Direct American
FILE ONLtI
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Alleged Iran-contra players no s
spy affairs
BALTIMORE SUN
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s
ationed at Udorn Royal Thai
Air Force Base, his biography says.
Not mentioned, however. is the fact
that Thailand was the staging area
for the secret war in neighboring
Laos. in which numerous sources
said Mr. Secord was deeply involved.
Thailand. for that matter. was sup-
posedly neutral in the Laotian con-
flict.
William M. Leary. a University of
Georgia history professor who is
working on the second book in his
two-volume history of CIA air activi-
ties in the Far East. said Mr. Secord
probably was flying forward air con-
trol missions, that is, spotting enemy
targets and calling in air attacks on
them.
An intelligence source said,
"There is no doubt at one time he
was connected with the war in
Laos."
Mr. Secord also shows up in Laos
in the early 1970s, although his bi-
ography makes no direct mention of
it. Instead, it says that in June 1972
he was assigned duties at the Penta-
gon that included desk officer for
Laos. Thailand and Vietnam.
In July 1973, moreover, he be-
came executive assistant to the di.
rector of the Pentagon's Defense Se-
curity Assistance Agency, which
handles military aid to foreign na-
tions.
Military historian Shelby L. Stan-
ton. a retired Army Green Beret offi-
cer who served in Laos, said that he
knows from a variety of sources and
documents that Mr. Secord was
working on the Laotian war out of
Udorn air base during 1972 and
1973.
Mr. Stanton. author of "Vietnam
Order of Battle" and "Green Berets at
War," recalls personally dealing with
him on one occasion during his tour
with the Green Berets in 1972-1973,
when he said Mr. Secord was de-
tached from the Air Force to the CIA.
At that time, Mr. Stanton said,
Mr. Secord was a planning officer for
the Thai Special Guerrilla Units, es-
sentially large units of Thai merce-
naries that the CIA was running into
Laos against the communist Pathet
Lao.
'He was at the funding end of the
Thai SGU program," Mr. Stanton
said. "He was one of the guys in
charge of the money ... of getting
the money for the mercenary troops
Involved in the illegal war."
Attempts to reach Mr. Secord
through his Washington attorney,
Thomas C. Green, were unsuccess--
John K. Singlaub: Mr. Singlaub
::~as*
the commander of U.S. troops in
South Korea in 1977 when he pub-
licly disagreed with then-President
Jimmy Carter's plan to cut Ameri-
can troop strength there.
Fired from his Korean post by the
president, Mr. Singlaub retired in
1978 as a major general and not
long after became involved with the
conservative New Right network
that was beginning to flourish under
such men as the direct-mail fund-
raiser Richard Viguerie and Howard
R. Phillips of the Conservative Cau-
cus.
Until September, Mr. Singlaub
was chairman of the World Anti-
Communist League, and remains on
the organization's board. But the or-
ganization he devotes most of his
time to is the United States Council
for World Freedom, the WACL's '
American affiliate, which operates
out of Phoenix. Ariz.
With the passage of the 1984 ver-
sion of the Boland Amendment.
which cut off military aid to the con-
tras, Mr. Singlaub was reportedly re-
cnlited by the NSC's Colonel North
to assist in raising funds to help con-
tinue aid to the contras while the
congressional cutoff was In effect.
Mr. Singlaub has deep roots in
the nation's intelligence establish-
ment going back to the World War If
Office of Strategic Services, forerun-
ner of the CIA.
During the war. Mr. Singlaub
helped
o
s rce ands worked closely Resistance
a
more senior OSS officer. William J.
Casey, currently the Director of Cen-
tral intelligence. said Joyce Downey.
Mr. Singlaub's assistant.
Mr. Singlaub was also deeply in.
volved in intelligence work during
the Korean and Vietnam wars. In
Vietnam from 1966 to 1968, Mr.
Singlaub headed the super-secret
MACV-SOG, or Military Assistance
Command. Vietnam-Studies and
Observation Group.
Mr. Stanton said MACV-SOG was
involved in highly classified mis-
sions aimed at Interdicting the
movement of North Vietnamese men
and supplies Into South Vietnam,
`There were a lot of strange
things that they did and a lot of
strange people who worked for
them," he said. 'This is a unit that is
not going to mess around with a lot
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of people. They did a lot of things.
and they didn't answer a lot of ques-
tions about it."
Mr. Stanton said Mr. Singlaub's
unit might have conducted some op-
erations in Laos, not as part of the
secret war, but rather against that
portion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. the
main Viet Cong supply line, that ran
through Laotian territory.
Mr. Singlaub's deputy at MACV-
SOB was Harry C. (Heine) Aderholt.
now a retired Air Force brigadier
general. who was named by The
New York Times as part of the net-
work that ran the contra supply op-
eration. He has denied the allega-
tion.
On Mr. Singlaub's relationship
with President Reagan, Ms. Downey
said he hasn't spoken to him for two
months, but added. "He's had a fair
bit of access to the president in the
past." Asked what the two men talk
about, she said. "The conversations
are generally about the communist
movement all over the world."
Harry C. (Heine) Aderholt: Al-
though he has adamantly denied it,
Mr. Aderholt, a retired Air Force
brigadier general living on the Flori-
da panhandle. has been named by
The New York Times as part of the
largely clandestine United States-
based supply operation for the Nica-
raguan contras.
Mr. Aderholt heads the Air Com-
mando Association, based In th
town of Fort Walton Beach on th
Florida panhandle and comprisin
veterans of the Air Force's elite coy
ert operations force, similar to th
As an Air Force officer. Mr. Ader-
holt was legendary in Southeast
Asia. both in Laos and Vietnam.
According to Professor Leary. Mr.
Aderholt was involved in carving out
numerous landing strips that he said
were used extensively by the CIA-
owned Air America airline to sup-
port its covert operations in Laos.
From 1966 to 1968 Mr. Aderholt
served as Mr. Singlaub's deputy in
Vietnam at MACV-SOG, the clan-
destine unit that ran secret raids in
Vietnam. Laos and Cambodia.
Military historian Stanton said
that Mr. Aderholt. in the early
1970s, ran the "special operations
wing" stationed at the huge air base
at Nakon Phanom on the Mekong
River along the Thai-Laotian border.
That unit. Mr. Stanton said. was
involved in "an array of top-secret
missions in Laos." Including bomb-
ing. strafing, leafleting and air res-
cue."
In 1974. Professor Leary said, Mr.
Aderholt set up the airlift to resupply
the besieged Cambodian capital of
Phnom Penh, using C-130 cargo
Planes flying under the corporate
..a,I,c Ul oIFu run. ley's ties to Laos, where he served as
The assistant chief pilot for Bird CIA statio
n chief during the middle
Air, Mr. Leary said, was Wallace B. to late 1960s and effectively com-e of k w er . wnen the the thre men manded a private army comprising
plane carrying Eugene Hasenfus mllio tribesmen and their American
went down in Nicaragua. air force advisers:
in Operatives: an
made up CIA
Mr. Aderholt is in Europe and America and other CIA-affiliated air-
could Anot be reached for comment, lines as well as American military
but a spokesman for the Air Com- aircraft manned by U.S. military pt-
mando Association, Dick Zappe, re- lots: and other American military
peated the retired general's denial personnel that included elite Green
that the organization had been in- Berets,
volved in any way with the contras.
But the spokesman confirmed Shackleyuwho ach egedttheurank oM r.
f
that Mr. Aderholt knew many of the deputy director for operations, mak-
people whose names have surfaced ing him the No. 2 man in the na-
In the Iran-contra matter. "He lions clandestine services, rein-
knows all of these people," he said. forces his Laotian ties in the dedica-
Mr. Zappe said that Mr. Aderholt tion of his 1981 book, "The Third
had worked for Mr. Singlaub in Option: An American View of Coun-
Southeast Asia and remained "good terins enc
friends" with him. In addition. he "Thisgbook is sddeddicated"to the he.
said. the general worked with Mr. roic Meo hill tribes of North , - he
Secord "own him and off sor5 years," and Laos
wrote. "I hope it will bring some
Mr Proe small recognition to a nomadic, free-
J. . G Cooper, appe the also pilot said that
who ha at was William dom-lovinpeople who fought the when his plane was shot full military power of North Vietnam
down Oct.
5 in Nicaragua, was a member of the to a standstill."
Air Commando Association although Peter Maas, in a 1986 book,
his flights on behalf of the contras "Manhunt." about the ex-CIA opera-
had nothing to do with the organiza- tive and convicted arms smuggler
tion. Edwin Wilson, notes that Mr. Second
The association's current news- "operated closely" in Laos with Mr.
letter, Mr. Zappe said. carries an "In Shackley and a key subordinate
memoriam" for Mr. Cooper. calling there, Thomas G. Clines, whose
him "not a soldier of fortune," but name has also come up in the Iran-
rather "a true humanitarian." contra matter.
Theodore G. Shackleyr Mr. After Laos, Mr. Shackley moved
Shackley. a retired senior CIA officer to Saigon as the CIA chief of station
who Professor Leary and others said there. In 1972. Mr. Maas writes, he
for a time ran the secret war in Laos, returned to the agency's headquar.
surfaced to a New York Times story tens in Langley, Va., as head of the
that said he had participated in a Latin American division. He could
series of meetings in late 1984 I of be reached for comment.
which a key Iranian middleman I Thomas G. Clines: Ex-CIA opera-
the current affair approached ex ive Clines, whose association with
American intelligence officials wit r. Secord apparently began during
an offer to trade hostages for money he Laos days and has continued
According to the Times, Manuch- ght up to the present, reportedly
er Ghorbanifar. an Iranian arms handled the hiring of pilots for air
merchant, and several Iranian cler- supply missions to the contras.
ics on arms-purchasing missions. Mr. Clines worked under Mr.
met with the the old intelligence offi- Shackley in a number of locales, in-
ctals in a Hamburg, West Germany, eluding Laos and Vietnam. Before
hotel room and laid out the offer. Laos. Mr. Shackley and Mr. Clines
Sources told the Times that Mr. worked together in Miami in the af-
Shackley wrote up a detailed report , termath of the aborted Bay of pigs
including telephone numbers in Eu- invasion. reportedly dispatching ex-
rope for Mr. Ghorbanifar, and patriate Cubans Into Cuba on a vari-
passed it on to the administration of anti-Castro missions. He could
went to a Cabinet officer or a mem Donald P. Gregg: Mr. Gregg, Vice
ber of the National Security Counci ident George Bush's national se-
staff. rity adviser, is a retired CIA officer
If Mr. Shackley played a further who has acknowledged meeting with
role in the Iran-contra affair, it has an old agency friend, Felix Rodri-
not taken public shape yet, although guez. about a dozen times since No-
he is an associate of Mr. Secord and umber 1983.
others whose names have cropped
up in the current controversy.
There is little doubt of Mr. Shack.
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After his capture. Mr. Hasenfus
said that Mr. Rodriguez, whom he
knew as Max Gomez, was one of two
men who ran the contra resupply
operation from the llopango air base
in El Salvador.
But according to a statement re-
leased last week by the vice presi-
dent's office, Mr. Rodriguez never
raised the subject of supplying the
contras with Mr. Bush, who met
with him three times, or any of the
Bush staff until last Aug. 8.
Mr. Gregg, who retired from the
CIA In August 1982 after 31 years.
18 in Asia, met Mr. Rodriguez, a CIA
operative. in Vietnam in 1970. ac-
cording to the Bush statement. This
Is about the time Mr. Shacklev was
Saigon station chief.
"Working together with other CIA
officials, they developed an effective
operational concept for use against
guerrilla units operating in the prov-
inces near Saigon.- the statement
said.
Mr. Rodriguez retired from the
CIA on a disability resulting from a
back Injury sustained in a helicopter
crash in Vietnam, but he and Mr.
Gregg "maintained sporadic contact"
in the Intervening years. the state-
ment said.
Mr. Gregg declined comment. Mr.
Bush. who served as director of cen-
tral intelligence under President
Gerald R. Ford, has called Mr. Rodri-
guez a patriot, but has denied that
he or his staff were in any way in-
volved in directing, coordinating or
approving military aid to the contras
and any knowledge of the diversions
of funds from Iranian arms sales to
support the insurgents.
James H. Bastian: Mr. Bastian,
an attorney, is chairman of
Southern Air Transport, the one-
time CIA airline that the FBI is in-
vestigating for potential links to the
icontra resupply operation.
for George A. Doole Jr , the CIA offi-
er responsible or all agency-owned
said. Those airlines were held under turned 60, he was out of a job. You
a front organization called the Pacif- can't get many Jobs as a pilot after
is Corporation. During this period, you reach 60, and he needed mon-
Mr. Bastian served as vice president ey'"
and secretary of the organization. But. Mr. Leary continued, The
Mr. Leary said. Sandinistas couldn't have paid him
an
Insuccessful. ~-
were his way. a quiet patri ot. He wasp t
s. 45. of Marinette. Wis.. was th rtune conventions wearing a 'Kill
ly survivor of the C-123K cargo mmies' T-shirt."
plane shot down Oct. 5 over Nicara- Wallace Blaine Sawyer Jr.: Mr.
gua. After his capture by Sandinista wyer. 41, of Magnolia. Ark., was
forces, he told reporters in Managua so killed in the downing of the C-
that he was "a worker" for the CIA. 123K.
A parachute rigger in the Marine A 1968 graduate of the U.S. Air
Corps. Mr. parachute
Hasenfus later went to Force Academy, Mr. Sawyer spent
work for Air America, the CIA- plan pl)Cnew in e the
r Leary said at af-
owned airline that operated out of ter eMr. s. Sawyer left Leary Air that in
Vientiane. Laos, as an air freight 1974. a went lthe Air Force in
specialist, or "kicker," Mr. Leary an airline n went to work for Bird Air.
said, that had handled numer-
He was serving in that capacity ous CIA contracts in Laos but denied
being
when his plane was shot down. A
ir A a so-called CIA proprietary like meric Tried by a Nicaraguan court, he was Air
With Ba.
sentenced to 30 years for aiding the chief pilot. Air y an assistan-
contras. He was released last week . Mr. Leary said, into Mr. embat-yer
w part of the airlift into embat-
by Nicaraguan President Daniel Or
ti
tega. tied Ph hnom Penh run by retired Air
ld
' `
Until aoout a year ago, Mr. Saw-
avy veteran from Reno, Nev., Mr. yer was emloed by
was
Air
e
a
he
piloting was shot down Transport.
ccording to publish
lane
ed
over Nicaragua Oct. 5 by the Sandi- repo'
nistas. Sun researcher Robert Fahs
Professor Leary said Mr. Cooper contributed to this article.
worked for Air America. the CIA air-
line. from 1965 until shortly before
It was sold off in the mid-1970s.
much of the time as assistant chief
pilot for C-123s, forerunner of the
C-123K in which he was killed.
"He was one of their most senior.
most experienced air drop special-
ists." Mr. Leary said. adding that Mr.
Cooper was stationed in the Laotian
capital of Vientiane for the entire pe-
riod of his Air America service.
Of Mr. Cooper's involvement in
the contra supply operation. Mr.
Leary. who interviewed him for his
book two years ago. said. -He had
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