AIDE TO BUSH SAYS NEITHER KNEW OF FRIEND'S LINK TO CONTRA ARMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000201020004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

~? Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000201020004-5
NEW YORK TIMES
13 December 198
Aide to Bush Says Neither Knew
Of Friend's Link to Contra Arras
By R, W. APPLE Jr.
SpcMI to 77M 1Mw Ymtt Tina
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - Vice!
viser, ---- - %?us . cnweq un+m[orea the supply ftald nefthe ro P. rGrou knew unW tut. network's operations from his office in
gust that Mr. Gregg's protIgl, a for. I San Salvador, but he has denied that he
tner employee of the Central Intellb "supervised" the flights.
gence Agency. was deeply involved in In August, Mr. Gregg declared, he re-
"privatk" arms shipments to the ceived.a telephone call from Mr. Rodri-
rebels in Nicaragua. gUez- one in a long series - in which
Mr. Gregg's friendship with the Mr. Rodriguez expressed concern
protbgd~ eUx Rodr ch data about the continuity of supplies to the
to 1970, His own 10111a service to the contras, as the Nicaraguan rebels are
C.I.A. have fostered wide known. Mr. Gregg said that shortly af-
speculation terward he held a meeting in his office
that he, And possibly Mr. Bush, were in the Executive Office Building be-
among the Reagan Administrate n's tween Mr. Rodriguez and C.I.A. offi-
links to A clandestine arms-supply net- cials.
work. Bu. 11tr. G According to Mr. Gregg, Mr. Rodri-
regg insisted today, in the guez expressed concer disbanded -that the ri
only interview he has given since the vate might
of the arms- fore Official American military aid,
supply network J newly authorized by Congress, could
became known, that neither he nor Mr. begin to be delivered.
Bush h$d any lifts with the network Asked whether he inquired of Mr. Ro-
beyond knowing Mr. Rodriguez and driguez. a Cuban-American veteran of
that they had known nothing of the di- the Bay of Pigs invasion, how long he
version 'to the rebels of some profits had been involved in the arms ship-
from arms sales to Iran. ments, exactly what he did and whom
Ends Weeks of Silence
The Vice-Presidential aide's agree-
ment to an interview, after weeks of
refusing to answer press queries, had
the approval of senior members of Mr.
Bush's staff. It indicated that the Vice
President felt compelled to take new
steps to lessen the political damage'
caused by repeated suggestions that he
and Mr. Gregg were hiding something.
In the interview, Mr. Gregg acknowl-
edged that he introduced Mr. Rodri-
guez to Mr. Bush and to senior State
and Defense Department officials in
January 1995. The officials obtained a
job for Mr. Rodriguez, who used the
alias Max Gomez, with the air force of
El Salvador, Mr. Gregg said. and Mr.
Rodrigues Advised the Salvadorans on
anti-guerfQle tactics.
Mr. Gre" said that in addition to Mr.
Bush, he Introduced Mr. Rodriguez at
he reported to, Mr. Gregg replied: "No.
I did not. I saw my role as putting him
together with the knowledgable people,
and I did nothing at all beyond that"
Called Dedicated Antl-Coin.. t
"I find it quite understandable that
he should have become involved;' Mr. Gregg said. "He was down there, he's a
dedicated anti-Communist, and a lot of
this arms-supply stuff was going on. He
knew some of the people, I'm sure. I
don't feel he pulled the wool over my
eyes. We still talk a lot; we're still fast
Mr. Rodriguez's activities were first
disclosed after one of the supply net-
work's cargo planes was shot down
over Nicaragua on Oct. 5, about two
months after the meeting in Mr.
Gregg's office.
American crewmen said Mr. Rodri-
guez, a burly 45-year-old, had helped
get them permission to operate flights
from ;:permission military air base
near El Salvador's capital, had ob-
that time to Thomas R. Pickering, then tamed false identity cards for them
the United States Ambassador in El from the Salvadoran Air Force and had
Salvador; Langhorne A. Motley, then done other favors for them.
Mr.
the Assistant Secretary of State for S. Gregg gg had interceded ttwas disclosed
to
t s Mr. Mr. u ced for him to
Inter-American Affairs, and Nestor D. that
rtguez
and hid introduced
Sanchez, Deputy Assistant Secretary Mr. Bush, who met with him three
of Defend fbr Inter-American Affairs. times in all, twice in his Washington of-
In May, Mk'. Gregg said, Mr. Rodriguez fice and once at a rally in Miami.
met with Mr. Bush and Edwin G. Corr, The Vice President publicly de-
the Am dor to El Salvador, in the scribed the Cuban-American as a "pa.
Vice Pres is office. triot." The revelations raised questions
about the possibility that Mr. Bush, a
former Director of Central InteW-
gence, had been involved in the diver-
sion of funds from the Iran arms sales.
Mr. Bush's chances for the 1988 Re-
publican Presidential nomination may
have been damaged as a result.
Involvement Is Denied
In an hour-long conversation, Mr.
Gregg categorically denied that he or
Mr. Bush had had "any involvement
whatsoever" in raising funds for the,
contras, in the diversion of arms sale I
revenues, or in the operations of the
clandestine supply network in Central I
America.
Mr. Gregg worked for the C.I.A. from
1951 to 1979, when he joined the Na-
tional Security Council staff. He re-
tained his links to the agency until Au-
gust 1982, when he went to work for Mr.
Bush. He said he had made it "an infor-
mal rule not to reach back to my
agency career while working for the
Vice resident" - a rule he said he
had broken only once, in his continuing
relationship with Mr. Rodriguez.
"Felix knows more about loweinten-
sity insurgency than almost anyone
else alive," he said.
Mr. Gregg displayed an autographed
color photograph of Mr. Rodriguez
standing next to a small helicopter in
El Salvador. He said the jwo men
talked often on the telephone and some-
times exchanged letters. Mr. Rodri-
guez, he said, has left Central America
and is now recovering from a serious
hernia operation somewhere in south-
ern Florida.
"I have a Felix file right there in my
desk," Mr. Gregg added, "and every
bit of paper in it relates exclusively to
El Salvador'."
Between 1970 and 1972, Mr. Gregg
headed C.I.A. operations in the area of
South Vietnam around Saigon, which
was known as III Corps. In those years,
he said, Mr. Rodriguez developed
under his direction a system using low-
flying helicopters, warplanes and
small airborne squads for destroying
entrenched Vietcong positions.
At that time, Mr. Gregg contin
his boss was the C.I.A. station chief i
Saigon. I11C_. iYaoYiatr Aow
tired from the agency, Mr. Shackl
played a key early role in setting up
arms transfers to Iran, but Mr. Gregg
said he had not maintained close con-
tact with Mr. Shackley, seeing him only
occasionally at weddings and other
such events, and had no knowledge of
M
'
r. Shackley
s links to the Iranians. ,
Mr. Gregg also denied knowing sev-'
eral key figures in the arms-supply net-
work - Rafael Quintero and Luis
Posada Carriles, two other Bay of Pigs
veterans who have worked for the
C.I.A., and retired Maj. Gen, Richard V.
Second, one of the organizers of the net-
work.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP91-00587R000201020004-5