BUSH LINK TO CONTRAS QUESTIONED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100510002-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 21, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/04/26 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100510002-5
~:~_
Bush link
to contras
questioned
Office had contact
with arms runner
By Matthew Purdy
and Steve Stecklow
Inawrer Statt Wncas
WASHINGTON -When the unoffi?
cial supply network ferrying arms
and supplies from a military base in
Ilopango, El Salvador, to the Nicara-
guan contras was plagued wtth prob-
lems last summer, one of the leaders
of the operation turned to Vice Presi-
dent Bush's office for consultation.
Throughout July, according to
crew members on the operation. fuel
had been difficult to obtain, delaying
the supply flights across the border
into Nicaragua. Often, vehicles
meant to ferry crew members and
supplies from San Salvador to the
airstrip were to disrepair or the driv-
ers could not be found.
When flights finally did take off, it
was not unusual for the pilots to
discover that there were no contras
to meet them at the assigned supply
drop points in Nicaragua.
"It was just a hassle all the way
through," said one former crew
member. "There were all these little
potholes and stumbling blocks."
So on_ Aug. 8, Felix Rodriguez vis-
tied Donald P. Gregg BusTirs assist-
ant for national security affairs, and
er gg'~eputy, Army ~oT.~amueT
e O t em that Lh2 si~noly
network might not survive until the
o a e over tTie
operation, actor iaa to documents
released last week by Bush's office.
That meeting occurred two months
before President Reagan signed the
legislation authorizing 5100 million
in U.S. military and nonmilitary aid
to the contras.
Although in June 1984 Congress
made government involvement in
supplying the contras illegal, con-
tacts between Rodriguez and Gregg
were not unusual. In fact, over the
last three years, there were 16 meet-
ings or telephone conversations be-
tween Rodriguez and Bush or mem-
bers of his staff, primarily Gregg,
according to the documents.
Officials throughout the adminis
PHILADELPHIA IN UIRER ~~~ 0~~~
Q
21 Decelr.ber 1986
tratlon have denied any involvement
in the contra supply network, but the
new revelations have heightened
questions about the knowledge of the
operation in Bush's office and under-
scored inconsistencies in previous
statements from vice presidential
eides.
The contacts between Rodriguez
end the vice president's office were
axtensive, accordingto the chronolo-
gym calls and meetinKS. Rodriguez,
a uban-American and former CIA
agent w o uses t e name Max Go-
mez, attended two meetin s wi
us tense - in January 1985 and
May 1986 - and a Chrictmac Iu~*~ in
GregQ's office.
[n addition. there were numerous
telephone calls and meetings with
Gregg and other officials. Moreover,
Gregg helped Rodriguez get a job at
the Ilopango base in El Salvador.
However, Bush's office maintains
that the August meeting was the first
time any of the vice presidential
aides were aware that Rodriguez was
involved in the effort to supply the
contras.
Des ite the fact that U.S. involve-
ment to supp ying the contras wnuL
not be legal again until October_
ment, the National Security Council
an a ore ay rtguez s re-
por o-f n~ffie desperate s ape o the
contra supply operation, according
toBus-fis~o 'f'ace. -
Marlin Fitzwater, Bush's spokes-
man, said he could not explain why
these discussions were conducted in
August, except for the fact that it was
"close" to the time that the adminis-
tration had hoped U.S. involvement
in supplying the contras could re-
sume.
The first evidence of any possible
link between the contra supply net-
work and Bush's office came in Otto-
ber from Eugene Hasenfus, a crew-
~tan for the supply network who was
shot down over Nicaragua.
' Hasenfus, who was pardoned and
freed last week after serving one
month of a 30-year sentence, said Oct.
17, in a CBS interview after his cap-
ture, that Rodriguez or Bush knew
how the supply operation worked.
At the time, Bush's spokesman.
Fitzwater, said that "Gregg has said
he had no knowledge of anything
Involving contras. Neither the vice
president nor anyone on his staff is
directly or indtrectly coordinating
an operation in Central America."
But last week, with bits and pieces
of contradictory information slip-
ptng out, Bush's office laid out a
chronology that confirms a very dif-
ferent version of what happened
than previously had been said.
The new version is that Gregg
helped Rodriguez get his job as a
director of the contra supply opera~
lion at Ilopango and that Gregg was
aware of Rodnguez's involvement in
the network more. than two months
before Bush's office acknowledged
knowing of the connection. [t also
says the U.S. government found out
that Hasenfus' plane was shot down
through a telephone call Rodriguez
made to Gregg.
Fitzwater maintains that Bush's of?
flee had no tnvolvement in the ~up-
ply network and that it thought Ro-
driguez was working with the
Salvadoran military to suppress a
Marxist insurgency in El Salvador.
"Our purpose from the beginning
has been to end speculation about
the relationship between Felix Ro-
drigue2 and the office of the vice
president." Fitzwater said in a state-
ment accompanying the chronology.
According to the chronology, Ro-
driguez began his work in EI Salva-
dor in February 1983, several months
after Congress cut off military aid to
the contras.
Gregg helped Rodriguez get the job
working against the Salvadoran in-
surgency, Bush's spokesman has ac?
knowledged, because the two had
done similar work in Vietnam in
efforts to eliminate the Vietcong
guerrilla units operating in the prov-
inces around Saigon in 1970.
Rodri uez and Gre also were in-
vo,v in t e IA's y o digs opera-
tion to 1961, accordin? to a former
CIA agent who participated But
the time Rodnguez came to Gre?a
loo cTin to fie work a ainst the left?
ist insurgency in ~ va or, e a
le t t e .accordin? to in~orm~-
tion from Bush's office.
GreQQ spent 3t years workin? for
the CL~1. until he reiired in [982 to
join Bush's staff as assistant for na-
tional security. His last lob with the
C[A was as director of intelliggnce
programs for_the National Securuy
Council.
Gre did not return tele hone
calls last wee c. re 's involvement
in the o s o ration cou d
not be indepen ent y con Irene . .
said she knew nothing of Gregg's CIA
career.
Bush met Gree? in the CIA while
Bush was serving as director of cen-
tra ante tgence uri g e a ar
a m
[n January 1985, one month before
Rodriguez moved to El Salvador,
Gregg introduced him to Bush, ac?
cording to the chronology. By~that
time, Bush was well acquainted with
Approved For Release 2011/04/26 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100510002-5
 Approved For Release 2011/04/26 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100510002-5
the sihtation in Central America.
As chairman of the Whit
H
'
has been detailed by numerous for
e
ouse
s
National Security Planning Group,
he had receiv
d
?
mer crew members involved in the
operation.
e
a National Security
Directive on Central Americ
They say rodriguez served as th
a a year
earlier warning that the
v
e
liaison between the operation and
go
ern-
menu of Costa Rtca and Ffo
d
the Salvadoran military. Many of th
n
uras
were being threatened b
"th
e
supplies sent to the contras
tncl
d
y
e con-
timing Sandinista militar
b
ild
,
u
?
ing weapons. passed through the Fl
y
u
up
and the lack of real democratizati
o-
pango air base. 4tercenaries were
i
on
in Nicaragua," accordin
t
ssued identification cards that
g
o govern-
went documents concerni
per?
milted them on the base
ng that re?
port.
.
Bush and his aides have bee
The chronolo
gy from Bush'
ff
n ada?
want in their denial tt;at they kn
s o
ice
makes clear that the vice president
approved of
ew
what type of work
has
been doing in Cent
R~ie
~ca
_
getting Rodriguez hired
by the Salvadora^ military, which
the United States publicl
ra
f
.
But not everyone is convinced.
"There were ~
l- meetings wi
h
y su
wtth aid. Indeed, Bush has subse-
quently called Rodriguez a
t
aBcontra resear hier forethe [nterona
national
hero for his work in EI Salv
d
-
tional Center for Development P
l
a
or.
Since the downing of H
f
'
o
-
icy, based in Washington, D.C
"[ fi
d
asen
us
plane in October, Rodnguez's
.
n
it ridiculous that they never di
work
at the [lopango base in El Salvador
s-
cussed anything to do with the con?
tra su 1
pp y effort."
Approved For Release 2011/04/26 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100510002-5