CASEY IGNORED CIA CRITICS, AIDE TESTIFIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920031-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: August 27, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/08: CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920031-8
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
27 August 1987
Casey ignored CIA
critics, aide testifies
From Cnkago Tribune wins
WASHINGTON-The late
CIA director William Casey
bypassed subordinates who com-
plained that unsavory people
were helping run the Reagan ad-
ministration's secret weapons
sales to Iran, a top Casey aide
told Congress in testimony re-
leased Wednesday.
Clair George, the agency's
deputy director for operations,
said Casey over-ruled his strong
objections to individuals in-
volved in the weapons deals, in-
cluding retired Air Force Maj.
Gen. Richard Secord, who ar-
ranged logistics for arms ship-
ments, and Manucher Ghor-
banifar, an Iranian middleman
whom George called "a bum"
and "a liar."
Some sensitive portions of
George's closed-door testimony,
which was given Aug. 5 and 6
before the congressional Iran-
contra committees, were blacked
out.
George said he went directly
to Casey with his objections
after learning that Ghorbanifar
was the only intermediary for
dealings with Iran.
"I said, 'Bill, I am not going
to run this guy any more,' which
means in our language, 'I will
not handle him, he is a bum,' "
George said.
However, George said, he now
knows Casey began to circum-
vent subordinates who objected
to the plan.
In fact, after George's ob-
jections to Ghoh~ar, Casey as-
signed Charles Allen, the national
intelligence officer for terrorism but
an o sal without operational expe-
rience, to work with Ghorbanifar.
"There couldn't have been a bet-
ter mismatch," said George, con-
tending that Allen was unprepared
to deal with a character as complex
as Ghorbanifar.
George said the CIA regarded Se-
cord with suspicion because of his
involvement in the international
anus market and because he had
been associated with renegade CIA
agent Edwin Wilson, who now is in
prison for selling explosives to
Libya
Casey, a longtime friend and
viser to President Reagan,
as CIA director in Febniary after
being hospitalized seven weeks earli-
er with a brain seizure. He died of
brain cancer in May.
George was questioned sharply
about his contention before another
congressional panel last October
that the CIA had no role in secret
resupply operations to aid the Nica-
raguan contras. The claim has since
been contradicted by other agency
officials who detailed their involve-
ment in the covert operation, which
was partially financed with proceeds
from the Iran weapons sales.
George said he had intended to
tell Congress during his earlier ap-
pearance that the CIA had no un-
authorized role, because he believed
the agency was allowed to share in-
tellience with the supply network.
George apologized for his earlier
statements.
He denied, however, that he knew
anything about the diversion of
funds from the Iran arms sales to
the contras before it was disclosed
publicly by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese
last Nov. 25.
George did say that Casey told a
group of agency officials about the
diversion scheme shortly before the
CIA director was scheduled to
testify before Congress last Decem-
ber that he did not know anything
about it. Casey suffered the brain
seizure and new testified.
Goorge, who testified with Assis-
tant Secretary of State Elliott
Abrams last Oct. 14 to the House
Intelligence Committee, also said he
was surprised at the strength of
Abrams' denial that the U.S. gov-
ernment was involved in contra re-
supply flights.
"It was so ca oncaL It was the
sort of thought that went through
my mind, `)excuse me, Elliott, but
maybe you are the only guy in
town that hasn't heard this news
about U.S. help for the contras,
George testified. There had been
numerous press reports linking
Marine U. W. Oliver North to the
contras, he pointed out.
But he didn't speak up to con-
tradict Abrams because, George
said, he was "overly taken with
trying to protect the Central Intelli-
gence Agency_"
George also said he has discussed
with investigators for Independent
Counsel Lawrence Walsh a
CIA cable from agents in Por
to CIA headquarters. According to
the testimony of unnamed agents,
the cable disclosed that U.S.-made
Hawk missiles-not oil-drilling
equipment as publicly claimed-
were the cargo of a shipment that
Secord was trying to move from Is-
rael to Iran in November, 1985.
George said he could not under-
stand how such a cable, if sent,
could disappear at CIA headquar-
ters. "I woidd it impossible un-
less there is a cabal of people en-
gaged in a cover-up to sort of send
a cable like that, somehow get all
the copies of it and make it disap-
pear!f
After Casey's deputy, John
McMahon, discovered that the No-
vember, 1985, cargo contained
arms, he demanded that CIA offi-
cials draft a "finding" for Reagan to
sign giving retroactive approval to
agency participation in the ship-
ment, George said
George painted North, whom
Reagan subsequently fired from his
job at the National Security Coun-
cil, as someone who fought with co-
workers and superiors for his ideas,
many of which may have been un-
realistically
grand
"Ollie wasted no time. If I gave
him the wrong answer, he called
Bill George could get it
changed, G said.
STAT
8:
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/08: CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920031-8