RETIRED GENERAL SAID TO BE BEHIND CONTRA FLIGHTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970012-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: November 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970012-3
ARTtr'.f NPEI0
ON I NSW YORK TIMES
28 November 1986
Retired General. Said to Be
I
STAT
Behind Contra Flights
be the home an United States Embassy
employee in Costa Rica.
An embassy spokesman said the em-
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
tines" 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
print t1W name o an American intelli-
ence agent.
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-
rorism and other crimes.
The telephone records from rebe
safe houses in El Salvador, which wen
obtained by reporters from the na-
tional telephone company, also offer
possible evidence of General Secord'
involvement in the rebel operation. Th
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-
tured.
'Someone We Respected'
According to a third American who
new 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
manaiter of the proitram was not a for-
Gomm was mainly in charge of .get-
tin~alvadoran Air Force permission
for their air operation.
They said the actual manager of the
contra supp v program
er, who was a former C.I.A. pilot.
were severe 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
Oct. 5 as it was ferrying weapons ove to Iran, received far less than the $101
southern Nicaragua. The lone survivo million or more that has been reported
was Eugene Hasenfus, who has bee as having been generated by the sales.
sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment1 "The Nicaraguans didn't see any-
by a Nicaraguan political court for ter where near that much money," an
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
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
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-
i 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 book, which was
seen by a reporter, the code reference
given for Washington is "top floor."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970012-3