NORTH DREW RODRIGUEZ INTO CONTRA OPERATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 26, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920003-5
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11
26 April 1987
North Drew Rodriguez
Into Contra Operation
Ex-CIA Operative Was Friend of Bush Aide:
V By David Hoffman
Washington Pont Staff Writer
Fired National Security Council
aide Lt. Col. Oliver L. North secret-
ly recruited a former CIA opera-
tive, Felix I. Rodri ,.in Septem-
ber 1985 to e p coordinate aerial
resupply missions to the Ni-
caraguan contras, according to in-
formed sources and a letter signed
by North.
North's recruitment of Rodriguez
came at a time when Congress had
barred direct military aid to the
contras. The letter provides new
evidence of North's efforts to assist
the contras beyond details provided
in the Tower commission report. It
shows that North was deeply in-
volved in air operations to supply
the rebels at the time Robert C.
.McFarlane, then national security
-}}dviser, was telling Congress that
his staff was not violating "the let-
ter or spirit" of the law prohibiting
such assistance.
When recruited by North, Rod-
riguez was working at the Ilopango
air base in El Salvador, advising the
Salvadoran air force on fighting left-
ist insurgents. He had arrived there
with strong recommendations from
Donald P. Gre national security
avser{ 1 sident Bush and
a former official of the Central In-
telligence Agency. Gregg and Rod-
riguez had been friends since work-
ing together in Vietnam.
Gregg said in an interview that
although they were friends, Rod-
riguez never mentioned his work
with the contra resupply missions
until August 1986, about a year
after North-recruited him.
Gregg, who said he had twice
offered to resign because of con-
cern that the controversy has hurt
Bush politically, said that North "ex-
plicitly" ordered Rodriguez npt to
tell Gregg about the operation. "Fe-
lix is a trained intelligence officer.
So am I. We believe in the need-to-
know principle. I had no need to
know," Gregg said.. "It was not a
subject we had ever talked about
.... And I suspect that it smelled
bad to him and that he probably
didn't want me to get involved in
it."
According to a chronology re-
leased earlier by Bush's office, Rod-
riguez went to Gregg last Aug. 8
with concerns about the resupply
organization and the poor quality of
the airplanes being used. Gregg
then convened a meeting in his of-
fice four days later to tell others in
the government about Rodriguez's
concerns.
The resupply missions came to
public attention Oct. 5 when a plane
carrying military equipment to the
contras was downed in Nicaragua.
When the plane went down, the
first word of it to the White House
came when Rodriguez called
Gregg's deputy, Army Col. Sam
Watson. After the crash, Gregg told
reporters that he never talked with
Rodriguez about the contras. Gregg
now says that, at the time, he "for-
got" about the August meeting with
Rodriguez and that he later realized
his statement was a "mistake."
According to the chronology,
Rodriguez has met Bush three
times, but Bush has said he and
Rodriguez never discussed the con-
tras. Gregg said he did not tell Bush
of the August meetings because
Rodriguez was complaining about
corruption in the operation, which
Gregg said he thought "was not vice
presidential material."
"I thought I'd taken care of it,"
Gregg said. "I'm very glad in ret-
rospect that I didn't tell him about
it."
When Bush was asked Dec. 19
whether he was troubled about not
being informed of Gregg's meeting
with Rodriguez, he said, "Not in the
least bit troubled." He added, "I was
not running a secret operation out
of the White House."
The role of the vice president and
his aides is being examined by con-
gressional investigators. The contro-
versy remains a difficult one polit-
ically for Bush, whose standing as
front-runner for the 1988 Republi-
can presidential nomination has been
set back by questions about the
contra activities as well as his role in
the Iran arms sales decisions.
Gregg said he twice has offered
to resign, not because he has done
anything wrong, but out of concern
that continuing attention to the is-
sue has become a political problem
for Bush. He said he offered to quit
in December and again after Bush
defended Gregg during an inter-
view on the CBS News program "60
Minutes." Gregg said he again con-
sidered quitting recently, but after
a "very painful period" he decided
that "as long as the vice president is
supportive of me, which he is, the
best thing to do is tough this out."
"I have been and remain very con-
fident that, the more that comes out,
the clearer it will be that what we
have said has been true," Gregg said.
Rodriguez, sometimes known as
Max Gomez, has been unavailable
for comment. He issued a written
statement in Miami Jan. 2 saying he
became "marginally involved" with
the contra supply effort in late
1985, but providing few details.
Rodriguez, a Bay of Pigs veteran,
was among a handful of Cubans
working for the U.S. government in
the 1967 Bolivian jungle manhunt
that killed communist revolutionary
Ernesto (Che) Guevara. In the early
1970s, he went to Vietnam, jvhere,
with Gregg, he devised a method for
helicopter raids against guerrillas.
Rodriguez retired on disability
from the CIA in the 1970s after a
helicopter crash. Gregg said his old
friend wanted to use methods they
had devised in Vietnam to help fight
the leftist insurgency in El Sal-
vador, and he agreed to help. Gregg
said he introduced Rodriguez to key
U.S. policy-makers such as then-As-
sistant Secretary of State Lang-
horne. Motley and others. Gregg
said he "can't remember" whether
he introduced Rodriguez to North
but "Ollie got to Felix because of
my relationship with Felix."
1X
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920003-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920003-5
Dear Felix: keep the
AFTER READING THIS LETTER PLEASE DESTROY IT. You may
photographs.
Within the next 15 days. the Unified Nicaraguan Opposition (UN01/
Nicaraguan Democratic Forces sFOfl aairrartl wills o=4nCARIBOU and
operations with two new e
the M for MAULS ST Ilees encliyiueosunitshinsiderNicaragua. be
used for air drop/aerial resupp y~
Two contract C-7a are scheduledI to arrive in Honduras on or about
October 10. Initially the aircraft will be flown by U. .
citizens who are employees of the firm contracted to provide
.......-~wacvicea for the FDN. It is_"ntended that to
Proposal. If and acceptance of this
maintenance contractor will arrive gare* a nd,seekep usout. of the
identify himself as coming from Mr. Green. He you out. He will
Warm regards, hope all is well with you. We hear nothing but
good reports about your work. Keep it up. Vaya con Diosl
help with servicing of two new
types of aircraft the contras were to
begin using, the C7 Caribou and the
M740 Maule. "Since this is a com-
pletely compartmentalized opera-
tion, being handled by the resis-
tance, you are the only person in
the area who can set-up the servic-
ing of these aircraft," North wrote.
He ordered Rodriguez not to tell
the CIA station chief and others
there of his activities for the con-
tras. He also asked Rodriguez to
destroy the letter, but said he could
keep photos of the aircraft. A copy
of the letter has been obtained by
congressional investigators.
Rodriguez has told others that he
later possessed one of the 15 en-
cryption devices that North had
obtained in early 1986 from the
National Security Agency. The de-
vices, first described in the Tower
report, were used to send classified
messages to North in Washington.
After the resupply missions were
under way, Rodriguez became dis-
satisfied with others North re-
cruited, saying they were "going to
take the money and run," Gregg
recalled. He quoted Rodriguez as
saying the others were "inept and
nonprofessional and corrupt." Ear_
her reports have indicated there
was mutual distrust between Rod-
Rodriguez then went to Ilo n ague and others in the operation.
go According to Gregg, Rodriguez
to help stage the helicopter raids. came to him in August with these
Gregg wrote a letter April 29, concerns-and his fear that a plane
1985, to Col. James Steele, U.S. would crash. Gregg said he passed
Military Group Commander in El the concerns along to U.S. officials,
Salvador, praising Rodriguez after including a CIA official, in the Aug.
his first anti-insurgency operation 12 meeting.
in El Salvador. At the bottom of the Gregg said he was not concerned
letter, he penned, "Tell Felix not to then that the resupply missions
take too many chances!" Steele were illegal. "The only illegality or
maintained regular contact with the only unpleasant smell about
members of the resupply operation, what Felix had was that there were
according to crew members. corrupt, inept guys who were rip-
According to one source, that ping off whatever operation it was
summer North needed a new air they were involved in," he said.
base from which to stage resupply Gregg said he never learned how
missions for the contras. The Tow- Rodriguez was paid, but said it was
er board found that by fall 1985, not by the United States or El Sal-
North was "actively engaged in pri- vador. "He knows a lot of rich peo-
vate efforts to resupply the contras ple in Miami," Gregg said, describ-
with lethal equipment." ing them as part of the "Cuban anti-
On Sept. 12, 1985, McFarlane Castro network."
wrote then-Rep. Michael D. Barnes Gregg said Rodri(D-Md.) that no NSC funds were
only in December g that North him
being spent "which would have the rth had
effect of supporting directly or in- secretly recruited him. Gregg said
directly military or paramilitary op- hof The e had drafted a letter to the editor
erations in Nicaragua." Eight days describing aNorth'sn linPost " recently
k to Rodri--
later, North wrote the letter to
on
Rodriguez describing plans for from thbut e letter he sent. that po rti
.night air drops to contra units "deep
inside" Nicaragua. Staff researcher Michelle Hall
North's letter asked Rodriguez to contributed to this report.
a.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920003-5