TESTIMONY REVEALS DIFFERING VIEWS OF CURBS ON CONTRA AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201820006-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: May 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

S7 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201820006-6
ARTICLE APP M
D
ON PAGE _._ NEW YORK TIMES
8 May 1987
Testimony Reveals Differing Views
of Curbs on Contra Aid
STAT
STAT
STAT
By STEPHEN ENGELBERG cerned about the legality, said he told
Special to The New York Times Mr. Abrams he would help only if
WASHINGTON, May 7 - Testimony Washington sent orders on the matter
in the Iran-contra hearings this week in writing. A few months later, in the
shows that Administration officials spring of 1986, he was relieved of his
held sharply differing views about Post. It is not clear whether the two
what the laws restricting aid to the con- events were related.
tras permitted them to do. As for Mr. Corr, a message by Gen-
Some officials, including the Unit ral Secord said an associate, Rafael
States Ambassadors in El Salvado u ad "fully briefed Am assa-
and Costa Rica, apparently thought or on our ops" and "says Ambassador
they could become directly involved in very supportive."
the covert program to supply the con- The various Congressional restric-
tras. The Ambassador in Honduras, tions on contra aid are collectively
meanwhile, has told investigators he named for Representative Edward P.
was leery of such involvement. Boland, the Massachusetts Democrat
The question of what the contra aid who introduced the legislation.
statutes permitted and how various In testimony Wednesday, General
Government officials treated the re- Secord accused the press of failing to
strictions, known as the Boland understand the Boland Amendment.
Amendment, is emerging as a focus of "I was quite certain and satisfied.we
both the Congressional hearings and were operating legally," he said.
the investigation by Lawrence E. Financing Cut Off in 1984
was "skeptical" when Elliott Abrams,
an Assistant Secretary of State, asked
him if he would run the contra program
from Honduras late in 1985.
Walsh, the special prosecutor.
Mr. Walsh has said in court that he
may charge high Government officials
with a conspiracy to violate Federal
laws, apparently including the contra
aid restrictions.
Testimony by Secord
In his Congressional testimony, Maj.
Gen. Richard V. Secord said some Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency officers sup-
ported his contra airlift operation. but
General Set'brd, a retired Air Force
officer, said he complained last year to
he Director of Central Intelligence,
William J. Ca t other C.I.A. offi-
er sseem more interested in investi-
gating what he was doing.
The C.I.A.'s attitude wavered, Gen-
eral Secord said, and in May 1986 there
was "a considerable drawing back
away from dealing with us at all in the
airlift matter." But he said that period
"passed fairly rapidly."
Documents released this week show
that the chief American military ad-
viser in El Salvador, Col. James Steele,
knew of the private efforts but worried
whether he was overstepping what
members of Congress acknowledge
was an ambiguously drawn line. Mean-
while, other military officers in the re-
gion were helpful.
The United States Ambassadors in
El Salvador and Costa Rica, Edwin G.
Corr and Lewis A. Tambs, aided the
program, according to an interview
with Mr. Tambs and General Secord's
testimony. But the Ambassador to Hon-
duras, John Ferch, has told Govern-
ment investigators and others that he
Legislators imposed a $24 milliop
ceiling on spending for the rebels in
1983, and in October 1984 they cut off all
official American financing for them.
The 1984 restrictions were spelled
out in two amendments. One was at-
tached to the spending bill for the De-
fense Department and covered the de-
partment, the C.I.A. and "any other
agency Involved in intelligence activi- i
ties." A narrower provision was at-
tached to the intelligence bill.
The Defense Department amend-
ment barred Government spending
that "would have the effect of support-
ing, directly or indirectly, military or
paramilitary operations in Nicaragua
by any nation, group, organization,
movement or individual."
General Secord's opinion, he said to-
day, was that officials' salaries were
not included.
According to associates, Lieut. Col.
Oliver L. North, the National Security
Council official who was dismissed
after the Iran-contra affair became
know, believed the law did not restrict
is activities because the N.S.C. was
not an intelligence agency, as men-
tioned in the Boland Amendment. Some
members of Congress disagree, noting
that the Executive Order on intelli-
gence describes the N.S.C. as guiding
and reviewing foreign intelligence and
counterintelligence.
In his testimony Wednesday, Cen-
ral Secord insisted that his was a pri-
vate operation, wholly divorced from
any Government control or direction.
The laws were loosened in 1985, when
ongress allowed the Administration
Ito spend money for communications
land "advice" to the contras.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201820006-6