AIDE: CASEY WARNED ON ARMS DEALERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920029-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: August 27, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/08: CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920029-1
ICLE APPEAR
PAGE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
27 August 1987
Aide: Casey warned
on arms dealers
By Matthew Purdy
and Frank Greve
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Driven by a de-
sire to free the U.S. hostages in Leba-
non, the late CIA Director William J.
Casey ignored damaging informa-
tion developed by his own agency
about people involved in the arms
sales to Iran, according to the con-
gressional testimony of a top CIA
official released yesterday.
Clair George, the CIA deputy direc-
tor of operations, said that he strenu-
ously objected to the administra-
tion's use of both Richard V. Secord,
the retired Air Force officer who
played. a key role in the Iran-contra
affair, and Manucher Ghorbanifar,
the Iranian middleman. But George
said that his objections were ignored
and that he was finally cut out of the
operation by Casey.
George also offered new details of
a 1985 scheme to ransom up to seven
hostages for $1 million each. He de-
scribed as "a fake" the Lebanese go-
between with whom Lt. Col. Oliver L.
North, the fired National Security
Council aide, was dealing in the
scheme.
George's testimony during closed
sessions of the congressional Iran-
contra committees Aug. 5 and 6 adds
new details to the administration's
efforts to free the hostages, which he
referred to as a "brutal, ugly story."
He said he raised his strongest ob-
jections to Casey about involving
Ghorbanifar in the arms sales to
Iran. George testified that the CIA
bad used Ghorbanifar As a source of
information from 1979 to 1981 when
Americans were being held in the
U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
But slowly, George testified, "it be-
came evident to us that Mr. Ghorban-
ifar's information, intelligence, re-
gardless of the subject, was
inaccurate, incomplete and dishon-
est."
George said that in January 1986,
when U.S. officials gave Ghorbanifar
a polygraph examination to test his.
truthfulness, "he showed deception-
on 13 out of 15 questions. The only.
questions he passed were his name
and his nationality."
George said he sent a cable warn-
ing CIA agents to steer clear of Ghor-
banifar and urged Casey to cut Ghor-
banifar out of the deal.
But his efforts failed. "When I went
in and made my strong plea for
breaking off with Mr. Ghorbanifar,
Bill Casey moved the operation from
rityself to someone else," George said.
George said it was clear that people
with greater power, including Casey
4nd North, had decided to put their
trust in Ghorbanifar.
George also testified that he urged
asey not to involve Secord, who
came e North's key civilian opera-
Ive in the Iran-contra initiative.
i George said he objected to Secord
ttecause of his alleged connections
with Edwin P. Wilson, a former CIA
agent convicted of selling explosives
tb Libya. "He was just not a guy I
wanted to do business with," George
testified.
He said he was "surprised,
,hocked" that Secord was involved
ip the initiative.
, George said that Casey's sidestep-
ding of his advice indicated frustra-
ion on the part of top government
Officials with the advice and style of
dareer intelligence officers. "This is
hot the first administration and will
got be the last that becomes totally
frustrated with its spy service," he
4aid.
, George also dismissed as "a scam"
Otte hostage ransom efforts in 1985
and 1986 using Drug Enforcement
dministration agents.
i Key proponents of the 1985 plan,
documents indicate, were North and
Edward V Hickey Jr., then director
ffi
ish and heroin.
North, after meeting with Elias in
Washington, proposed that two DEA
agents handling Elias be placed on
temporary detail to the National Se-
curity Council for 30 days. They were
to rent a safe house in Cyprus and a
yacht to carry released hostages to it
from Lebanon. Elias' plot was to
"bribe free for S1M apiece," accord-
ing to a memo by North, at least two
and as many as seven U.S. hostages.
An additional $1.5 million, deposit-
ed in an account in Vienna, would be
released once all US. hostages were
safe in Cyprus, according to North's
memos.
Perot provided, on North'! request,
$200,000 in expenses for Elias after
DEA officials refused to finance the
non-DEA project. The CIA, according
to George, also refused, unless Elias
could show that he had contact with
the hostage most important to the
agency, Beirut station chief William
Buckley. Buckley is believed to have
died in captivity.
Elias and Perot's $200,000 disap-
peared in July, according to congres-
sional investigators, after Elias pro-
vided his DEA handlers with a July
191$ Beirut newspaper on which
were scribbled the initials "WRB."
The handwriting was forged, Buck-
ley's middle initial was "F" not "R"
and Elias was "a fake," George con-
cluded.
George also said he was surprised
by the congressional testimony of
Assistant Secretary of State Elliott
Abrams, who denied any U.S. in-
volvement in aiding the contras in
Nicaragua.
"I was surprised Abrams made that
statement," George said. "It was so
ce categorical."
of the White House military o
dent Reagan bodyguard when he was United States was providing the con.
governor of California. tram Intelligence information but did
Using $2 million contributed by not tell Congress because he be-
texas billionaire H.-Ross Perot, they lieved that kind of assistance was
proposed to bribe leaders of Islamic legal.
Jihad, which had claimed responsib-
lity for the abduction of some US.
hostages, according to the docu-
ments released with George's testi-
mony. The key go-between was a Bei-
rut informant, code-named "Elias,"
who worked for Cyprus-based DEA
agents tracking Middle Eastern hash-
STAT
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/08: CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920029-1