NORTH BELONGED TO SECRET GROUP THAT PLANNED GLOBAL COVERT ACTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320003-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

4-7
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04 CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320003-2
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ART1?.11. APFApcn
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
8 December 1986
North belonged to secret group
that planned global covert action
? By tilicteLiZ
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Former National Seem* Council
Ode Lt. Col. Oliver North par-
ticipated in in a secret Reagan ad-
ministration covert action planning
group dubbed the "208 Committee,"
according to informed sources.
The committee, unofficially
named after the Old Executive Of-
fice Building conference room
where it met, could become a focal
point in investigations of the Iran
arms scandal and secret funding of
Nicaragua's anti-Marxist rebels,
Sources said.
:About a dozen specialists from
the U.S. intelligence and defense
ketnmunity made up the inter-
aency group, including covert ac-
Ott specialists from the CIA's Direc-
torate of Operations, the State and
efense departments and Joint
let's of Staff.
me NSC staff members par-
doipated, including Col. North, who
planned and directed covert action
programs in Central America, Af-
rica, the Middle East and Asia until
he. was dismissed last month by
Prbsident Reagan, sources said.
The group met irregularly to dis-
cuss ways of implementing covert
action programs. Decisions were
reached by informal consensus and
tat written records were kept. The
grim) was authorized to commit mil-
gs of dollars in secret White th
, se and CIA funds to e prog-
*Os. sources said.
urrently, there is nothing to in-
te that the secret Nicaragua re-
funding scheme run by Col.
h was ever discussed_ by the
committee. Nevertheless, members
of the group are likely to be ques-
tioned at length by federal and con-
gressional investigators looking into
the Iran-Nicaragua scandal, the
sources said.
Moreover, the scandal is likely to
prompt broader congressional in-
quiries about the Reagan adminis-
tration's use of covert aid in other
areas of the world.
Deputy CIA Directer B&W
who testified before the
Senate Intelligence Committee for
four hours Thursday, has described
v ction as "an appropriate in-
strument o oreign policy, as long as
it is undertaken in the context of a
larger policy"
"The decision to undertake covert
action is a policy decision.,. made
by the National Security Council,
and CIA is the instrument by which
it is implemented. And I believe that
when that decision is made, that CIA
has the obligation to implement it as
effectively as it can:" Mr. Gates said
in congressional testimony last Ap-
ril.
Covert action describes three
types of secret activities designed to
be untraceable to the U.S. govern-
ment: funding of foreign political
parties, foreign media manipulation
and, as in the case of U.S.-backed
anti-communist insurgencies, large
paramilitary operations that are dif-
ficult to keep secret.
Between 1950 and 1974, CIA
agents played active roles in the
Philippines, Iran, Congo, Chile, Ec-
uador, Greece, Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia.
Press accounts in 1974 of CIA do-
mestic covert activities, in violation
of the agency's charter, led to a se-
ries of debilitating congressional in-
quiries that virtually shut down the
agency's covert operations, accord-
ing to former intelligence officials.
The CIA began to rebuild its
covert action capabilities in the late
1970s and the process was ac-
celerated in 1981 by the incoming
Reagan administration. Since then,
hundreds of millions of dollars have
been devoted to covert action pro-
grams throughout the world, in such
places as Nicaragua, Afghanistan
and southern Africa.
Thditionally, the CIA has been
solely responsible for carrying out
covert action programs. But
revelations of Col. North's activities
indictate that NSC staff also had
begun playing operational roles in
covert action programs.
Last week the president ordered
his NSC staff, which coordinates
covert action policies, to refrain
from taking part in "the operational
aspects of sensitive diplomatic,
military or intelligence missions"
pending the outcome of a three-
member Special Review Board.
Sources said NSC Director of In-
telligence Programs Vincent Cgo-
_.was known "1fg
nistraro ?"M8
oriC'u?iuttee's "controller"? the NSC
official who granted access to the
top-secret planning sessions.
Mr. Cannistraro directed the CIA
task force supporting Nicaragua's
so-called Contra rebels until 1984,
the sources said. He was removed
from that post following disclosures
that the CIA helped formulate an in-
surgency handbook for the rebels
calling for "neutralization" ? the
CIA euphemism for assassination,
an activity banned by U.S. law, sour-
ces said.
Mr. Reagan and then-National Se-
curity Adviser Robert McFarlane
said at the time that all officials in-
volved in developing the insurgency
manual would be dismissed. Mr.
Cannistraro, however, was trans-
ferred to the NSC, sources said. His
future is uncertain in light of reports
that incoming National Security Ad-
viser Frank earlucci; who takes over
Jan. I, has promised a thorough NSC
staff reorganization.
Mr. Cannistraro coordinated the
208 Committee's drafts of "find-
ings," or orders, that were later sign-
ed by Mr. Reagan and represent the
first step in setting a covert action
program in motion.
Once signed, copies are sent to the
Senate and House intelligence com-
mittees and a team is dispatched to
answer congressional questions.
"If the committees don't ask the
right questions, they don't get the
right answers" about covert pro-
grams, said one source.
Information on covert programs
is tightly guarded among the few of-
ficials allowed access to the commit-
tee. Analysts at the State and
Defense departments and the intel-
ligence bureacracy are not notified
about covert programs.
"Big things could be going on in-
side a country that only a few
government officials know about,"
the source said.
The handful of U.S. officials
'granted access tO all covert action
findings includes the president, the
secretary of state and two senior
State Department officials, the sec-
retary of defense and two senior
deputies, the CIA director and two
deputy directors, and three or four
representatives of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff.
"It's considered the high politics
of national security" one source said
of the covert action group.
neclassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04 CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320003-2