U.S. ROLE IN CONTRA SUPPLY PROGRAM REMAINS MYSTERIOUS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970015-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: November 9, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASHINGTON POST
9 November 1986
WORLD NEWS
U.S. Rile in Contra Supply Program Remains ysterious
2W P G
By Jos Pichirallo
regga longti
im end, recommend.
ed Tim as a counterins
doran military. -6-1-Y specialist to the Salva-
.
But Gregg has never explained his involvement with
Rodrigues, including whether Rodrigues discussed with
him his work with the contra supply network.
Administration officials have argued that the involve-
ment of a coterie of former military and CIA operatives
in the effort does not prove that it was set up and/or
controlled by the U.S. government.
Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, admin-
istration point man on Central America, said last month
that it is "predictable and logical" that "there is a_sm&U
tyy s ," fly intoTio?tile territory carrying
ta ar people mili
had St after the plane went down Abrams said he
tabout the mission.
"The CIA is asked to report on events in Central
America, and among things they report on to us is some
of this activity," Abrams said. "But they do not direct it,
directly or indirectly, wink or nod, or steer people. It's
illegal."
Beginning with President Reagan, administration
officials have made no secret of their support for the
rebels and their approval of private efforts to provide
money and materials to the contras during the two-year
cutoff of military aid.
But administration officials' knowledge and public
encouragement of contra-support activities does not
necessarily mean that they violated the law.
The debate over the role of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver
North, a member of Reagan's National Security Council
staff who is cited as a key liaison between the admin.
istration and the contras, is a microcosm of the larger
dispute over possible administration wrongdoing.
When a camouflaged cargo plane was shot down in
Nicaragua Oct. 5, the inner workings of a clandestine
rebel supply operation exploded into public view-and
appeared to suggest a trail that led back to the White
House.
There were allegations of Central Intelligence Agen-
cy involvement, possible links to Vice President Bush
and further re-elations about the private network of
organisations that helped the Nicaraguan contras dur-
ing the two yehrs when U.S. military aid was cut off.
But today, moz$e than a month after the C123K cargo
plane went down, fundamental questions about the pro-
gram remain.
It is not known, for example, who controlled and fi-
nanced the supply operation to the contras, who say it
was not their money. Nor is it known how much Reagan
administration ! officials knew about the network or
whether they v'ere directly involved in it, even though
U.S. officials have said that, while it was not a govern-
ment operation, they knew more about it than they
would say publicly.
This is not the first time that efforts to pin down the
administration'b role in supporting the contras, or coun-
terrevolutionai!ies, has produced more questions than
answers.
During the past two years, congressional committees
and others havie repeatedly challenged the administra-
tion's claims that it adhered to a congressional ban on
military aid to I the contras, but no "smoking gun" dis-
proving administration statements has been found.
The plane in ident has provided congressional critics
with dramatic i but largely circumstantial evidence of
possibly improper administration involvement with the
contras.
But with Democrats controlling the Senate as well as
the House next year, congressional scrutiny of the sup-
ply network and the entire contra aid program is likely
to intensify.
Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), likely new chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee and a critic of contra
aid, said late last week that he intends to make the U.S.
policy in Central America a top priority and will pursue
"with increased vigor" information about possible ad-
ministration wrongdoing.
For the moment, the administration statement that
the operation $vas financed and controlled by private
individuals and not the U.S. government has not been
proved or disproved.
Bush has acknowledged meeting twice with Felix I.
odriguez, a former CIA operative said to have helped
ordinate the supply flights. Bush's press secretary
d the vice president's national security adviser, Don-
:Critics and news reports have
alleged that North has advised rebel
leaders on military tactics and
steered contributors to them-both
of: which would be possible viola.
tions of the congressional ban.
Former Reagan national security
adviser Robert C. McFarlane, in
recently denying that North vio-
lated the congressional ban, ex-
pliined that when Congress cut off
aid- to the contras North was one of
those assigned to assure contra
leaders that the administration still
believed in them and would contin-
ue : to lobby Congress to resume
military aid. North "periodically met
with them [rebel leaders) ... near-
ly.always here (in Washington) but
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sometimes down there (in Central Cooper was one of Air America's
America]," McFarlane said, adding chief pilots. Hasenfus was a cargo
that he stayed within the law. handler or "kicker."
One congressional aide, who is Cooper; Wallace B. Sawyer, who
critical of the contra program, said was the plane's copilot, and an un-
that while administration officials identified Nicraguan rebel, were
may not have violated the law, they killed when the plane crashed.
In right up against the law and ex- Hasenfus also disclosed that
ploit any loophole." v Southern Air Transport Inc., a Mi-
The debate over whether North ami-based air cargo firm owned by
stepped out of bounds has been fu-
eled by disclosures that Salvadoran
phone records from a "safe houses"
used by members of the operation
show repeated calls in September
to. White House phones in North's
office. A Reagan administration of-
ficial, quoted anonymously, told
The Associated Press that North
"to his knowledge" never received
any phone calls from the safe house.
Last year, the administration re-
pulsed a congressional effort to find
out more about North's role as a li-
aison to the contras.
The administration was also suc-
cessful this year in persuading Con-
gress to eliminate the two-year ban
on military assistance to the contras
and to provide $100 million in aid,
including $70 million for military
activities. Last month, Reagan
signed a directive that permits de-
livery of the aid to the contras and
allows the CIA, the State Depart-
ment and other U.S. agencies to re-
sume direct assistance to the reb-
els.
According to information from
records retrieved from the downed
plane and captured crewman Eu-
gene Hasenfus, the plane's pilot,
William J. Cooper, began setting up
the resupply network last February.
Operating under the name "Corpor.
ate Air Service Inc.," Cooper is said
to: have recruited about 14 pilots
and crewmen and assembled a fleet
of, five airplanes, including two
C 123K cargo planes that sell fpr
several hundred thousand dollars
apiece.
Both Hasenfus and Cooper, as
well as several other members of
the operation, had worked together
during the Vietnam war as employ.
es of the CIA-owned airline Air
America.
the CIA until the agency said it was
sold in 1973, played a major role.in
assisting the operation.
William Kress, a company
spokesman, has said Southern Air
serviced both of the C 123s at its
Miami facilities and that the firm
also sent repair and maintenance
crews to the Ilopango airport in El
Salvador to work on the planes. Ha-
senfus said the company also ar-
ranged his round-trip ticket to Ell
Salvador when he began work in Ju-
ly.
But Kress has said Southern Air
did not own or operate the downed
plane or the other C 123K. He said
the company was simply performing
work for a customer whose identity
he declined to disclose.
Southern Air was purchased by
the CIA in 1960 to provide support
to Air America and another CIA.
owned airline in the Far East, ac-
cording to former CIA general
counsel Lawrence R. Houston.
The downed plane was purchased
in March with a check issued by
Southern Air, according to a source
familiar with the transaction. Kress.
while not verifying that account,
said recently that Southern Air
could have done so on behalf of a
customer.
Southern Air also was hired to fly
several flights of nonlethal U.S. aid
to the contras, which company and
U.S. officials said was separate
from its work on the weapons re-
supply operation. A Southern Air
crewman on at least two of the non-
lethal aid flights was Sawyer, who,
according to Kress, worked for
Southern Air until last April.
While State Department officials
said Southern Air was not hired di-
rectly by the U.S. government for
the nonlethal aid flights, Southern
Air was retained by the U.S. Air
Force in 1984 to fly cargo to Cen-
tral America.
In fact, since 1983, Southern Air
has received $90 million in civilian
air cargo contracts from the Air
Force, according to information
provided by a spokesman for the Air
Force's Military Airlift Command.
In 1984, Southern Air received
two contracts, one for $10.8 million
to fly cargo to Air Force bases with-
in the United States and another for
$13.3 million to ferry supplies to
bases in the Caribbean and Central
America, including Cuba, Panama
and Palmerola air base in Honduras,
which has a full-time contingent of
U.S. military personnel and has be-
come a key military air strip in the
area.
Critics question whether the
surge in military contracts to
Southern Air and recent expansion
of the company is tied to the in-
creased U.S. involvement in Cen-
tral America.
Although the company received
cargo contracts from the Air Force
between 1960 and 1973-the pe-
riod that it was owned by the CIA-
Southern Air did not receive any
contracts between 1973 and 1983,
according to the Air Force spokes.
man.
The spokesman did not know the
date when the contracts were re-
sumed in 1983.
Among the other aspects of the
operation that remain mysterious
are:
? The supply network's use of a
Honduran air base at Aguagate, an
airport rebuilt several years ago by
U.S. military engineers that has be-
come a contra supply base, and of
the Salvadoran air base at Ilopongo,
where U.S. military personnel op-
erate.
Critics question how the supply
network could get access to both
bases without U.S. knowledge and
approval of the operation.
? The visit of Col. James Steele,
head of the U.S. military group in El
Salvador, to Hasenfus' living quar-
ters to complain about high tele-
phone bills and raucous behavior in
San Salvador restaurants by mem-
bers of the supply network.
ConOR04
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United Press International re-
ported last month that a reliable
source confirmed that Steele went
to the safe house but said he had
nothing to do with directing the op-
eration. "Steele went in because his
feeling was that whatever was go-
ing on would reflect negatively on
the U.S. government mission in El
Salvador," the source told UPI.
? The possible role in setting up
and financing the operation by Rich-
ard V. Secord, a retired Air Force
major general and former assistant
secretary of defense.
Secord last month denied reports
that he was a point man in raising
Saudi Arabian money for the con-
tras.
Salvadoran telephone records for
the safe houses used in the supply
network show that several calls
were placed to Secord's home and
business last summer. Secord has
been quoted as saying he advised
the rebels on "how they ought to
design their efforts ... but I am not
commanding the contra air force. If
I were, I'd be down there."
^ The allegation by the Sandinistas
that one of two ex-CIA operatives
who helped coordinate the flights in
El Salvador and who went by the
name "Ramon Medina" was Luis Po-
sada Carrile& a fugitive suspected
Cuban terrorist. Posada escaped
from a Vensuelan jail in August
1985 where he had been held on
charges stemming from the 1976
bombing of a Cuban airlines flight,
in which 73 persons were killed.
Salvadoran phone records from
the safe houses show that at least
one phone call was made to Posa-
da's wife in Miami. She confirmed
recently that her husband called her
from abroad several times in recent
months without identifying his lo-
cation.
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