PHONE CALLS LINK U.S. AIDES TO CONTRAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790017-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790017-4
avel
em I' NEW YORK TIMES
30 November 1936
Phone Calls Link U.S. Aides to Contras
By JAMES L.MOYNE
SpsW to Tr Ns Ymt Timm
MIAMI, Nov. 29 - Telephone
records from Nicaraguan rebel "safe
houses" in El Savador show a series of
calls on the same days in September to
the former White House offices of
Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North, as well as to
the company run by a retired general
involved in dealings with Iran and the
Costa Rica afnoears to ong to an
The telephone calls were rom a safe
house in El Savador used by American
crews secretly flying weapons to the
Nicaraguan rebels during a Congres-
sional ban on such aid, and the calls ap-
pear to offer the strongest circumstan-
tial evidence so far that there was close
coordination between the rebels, Colo-, nel North, American officials in Costa
Rica and someone in Stanford Tech-
nology Incorporated, of which Gen.
Richard V. Secord, retired, is a leading
member.
Senior Administration officials had
previously contended that the rebel
supply operation was "strictly pri-
vate" and therefore did not violate the
Congressional ban on delivering arms
to the guerrillas. It appears increas-
ingly likely, however, that the program i
may have been prompted by American
officials, financed by secret arms sales
to Iran and then monitored by Amer-
ican officials in Central America.
A Unit to North's Office
The White House numbers listed in
the telephone records from El Salva-
dor are in the executive office building
and, according to close associates of
Colonel North, were his former num-
bers. They have since been disconnect-
ed. When dialed now a recording says,
"You have reached a nonworking num-
ber for the executive offices of the
President."
The telephone numbers dialed from
rebel safe houses in immediate succes-
sion on the same days in September in-
clude not only calls to Colonel North's
offices but also calls to what appears to
be the home phone of an American offi-
cial in Costa Rica whose name the em-
bassy there has asked to not be pub-
an American intelligence agent;
Other calls on the same days went to
what appears to be an unlisted number
in the United States Embassy in Costa
Rica. An embassy spokesman refused
to comment when asked if the number
was an embassy line.
The evidence of _ telephone calls,
ra
comp a o~
cret ocerat
appears to offer the most
lie ae-
on worked in flvina wean-
Crew members on the rebel flights
say the more than $2 million program
in-
cluded the building by last Americans of a
secret airstrip in Costa Rica. The
operation was closely overseen by
three retired American military offi-
cers, General Secord, Col. Robert Dut-
ton and Richard Gadd, the sources
said.
Attempts to reach the men for com-
ment today were unsuccessful. Mr. Se-
cord has a long history of work in Iran
and reportedly accompanied American
officials in their failed trip to Iran)
earlier this year as part of the Admin-
istration program to sell arms there.
Mr. Gadd and Mr. Secord have denied
any wrongdoing in the rebel operation.
Mr. Secord and Mr Dutton work for
Stanford Technology Incorporated, a
company with a history of arms trades
and dealings with Iran. Virginia, as well as other unlisted num-
Two rebel crew members said Mr. bers in Virginia.
Dutton had worked as Mr. Secord's Succession of Calls
assistant and had asked that rebel
crews call him from El Salvador to tell
him of impending rebel weapons drops.
Two former Cuban-American Central
Intelligence Aaencv ocerat ves work-
in in E Salvo or monitored
gram a eve messages
saying where ea Dons were to) e-
liverre to rew units, the sources
add .
The two rebel sources closely in-
volved in the rebel flights said Mr. Se-
cord, Mr. Gadd and Mr. Dutton all vis-
ited El Salvador earlier this year toi
help set up an improved rebel supply,
line during the time Congress had!
banned the Administration fro m arm
ing the guerrillas.
The same two rebel sources said Mr.
Secord and Mr. Gadd, whose company
is the American National Management
Corporation, went to El Salvador in
April to say there would be more
money and new planes available for
the stepped-up rebel supply line. Mr.
Gadd hired some members of the rebel
flight crews, two rebel sources said.
Contract for 'Humanitarian' Aid
According to State Department offi-
cials, Mr. Gadd had a contract earlier
this year to supply Congressionally ap-
proved "humanitarian" assistance to
the rebels.
Two sources closely involved in the
rebel flights said Mr. Dutton went to El
Salvador in September, when the tele-
phone calls were made from rebel safe-
houses to Colonel North's offices, to
Stanford Technology Incorporated, and
to American officials in Costa Rica.
The rebel operation was officially
run under a front company called Cor-
porate Air Services. A key question for
investigators in the covert .operation
would appear to be whether Mr. Secord
or others involved set up Corporate Air
Services and whether money from
Swiss bank accounts holding profits
from Iranian arms sales was used to
pay Corporate Air Services bills.
The telephone records for rebel safe-
houses in El Salvador were obtained by
reporters from the National Telephone
Company.
The records show that between Sept.
9 and Sept. 17 of this year, 14 calls were
made to two White House offices used
by Colonel North, five calls to what ap-
pear to be numbers of American offi-
Stanford Technology Incorporated in
in September
On Sept. 15 the telephone records list
calls made in succession from the rebel
satehouse in El Salvador to the home of
the American official in Costa Rica,
who cannot be named, as well as to
Colonel North's office and to Mr. Se-
cord's company.
On Sept. 17 the records again list suc-
cessive calls to Colonel North's office,
Mr. Secord's company and the other
number in Costa Rica that appears to
be an unlisted telephone in the Amer-
ican Embassy there.
The calls to Costa Rica and the White
House came as the rebel crews based
in El Salvador were flying missions
over Costa Rica and into southern
Nicaragua to drop weapons to rebel
units there.
They also came as the new Costa
Rican Government decided to clamp
down on covert rebel activities, seizing
a secret rebel airstrip built under the
advice of two Americans, one of whom
has said he was working on classified.:
matters. According to members of the
rebel supply crews, the airstrip was
part of their operation and had been
built as a refueling and supply station
for their planes.
Providing weapons to the so-called
rebels' southern front near the Costa
Rican and Nicaraguan border was con-
sidered crucial by rebel and American
officials earlier this year, because
rebel units there had been without sup-
plies for almost 12 months. A senior
rebel official said the C.i.A. promised
e uerri as wea ns in is n
and "the weapons arrived."
i h. weaQ ped bye
A mnr?it?on i'rew? ha CM in P1 Calvadnr,
members of the supply operation said,
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790017-4
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