WEBSTER DENIES NORTH HAD PIPELINE INTO FBI

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 1, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030004-9
*RTICLE APPS. D WASHINGTON TIMES
P\GE 2r 1 May 1987
Webster denies North
into FBI
had pipeline
By John McCaslin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
FBI Director William Webster, nominated
to become the next head of the CIA, yesterday
assured members of the Senate Intelligence
Committee that former National Security
Council aide Oliver North "had no pipeline
into the FBI"
But the assurance was quickly met with
skepticism by some senators, who cited doc-
uments released yesterday showing that Col.
North - once with the assistance of top FBI
official Oliver "Buck" Revell - sought twice
to interfere with FBI investigations that he
thought could jeopardize efforts to assist the
Contra rebels.
Yesterday's appearance before the commit-
tee was the third for Mr. Webster in his bid to
become CIA director. Committee Chairman
David Boren, Oklahoma Democrat, said the
panel would vote on the nomination today.
In almost four hours of testimony that
ended last evening, Mr. Webster said he is
"able to conclude that Col. North had no pipe-
line into the FBI, and agents of the FBI were
not giving him information to which he was
not entitled."
Documents released by the committee yes-
terday, however, reveal that Col. North con-
tacted the bureau on at least two occasions -
once in 1985 warning that a Houston-based
investigation could endanger American hos-
tages in Lebanon, and again in 1986 to com-
plain that a Philadelphia probe threatened to
choke off the supply pipeline of private
money for the Contras.
The Houston investigation concerned al-
leged efforts by paramilitary groups to over-
throw the Sandinista government in Nicara-
gua.
Of major interest to senators, however, was
the time in April 1986 when Col. North tele-
phoned Mr. Revell, executive assistant direc-
tor and No. 2 man at the bureau, and asked
him to postpone an appearance by Richard
Miller before a Philadelphia grand jury.
Mr. Miller's name came up in federal court
this week when Carl R. Channell, who pled
guilty to conspiracy charges to defraud the
government in fund-raising efforts for the
Contras, named both he and Col. North as
fellow conspirators.
Mr. Webster yesterday stressed that it
wasn't until earlier this month that he learned
of Col. North's involvement in the Phil-
adelphia case, because Mr. Revell had forgot-
ten about the conversation he had with Col.
North.
Mr. Revell, in an explanatory letter last
week to Mr. Boren, said Col. North advised
him that Mr. Miller had received a subpoena
from the FBI to testify as a witness before a
Philadelphia grand jury and "advised that
Miller was concerned that he might be asked
questions about his involvement with the gov-
into Mtller's involvement with the govern-
ment ... and, if so, if I could obtain a postpone-
ment," Mr. Revell said.
Mr. Miller was to be a witness in a criminal
investigation in which an Iranian, Mousalreza
Zadeh, had posed as a member of the Saudi
Arabian royal family and defrauded a Phil-
adelphia bank.
Mr. Webster told the committee he was dis-
turbed that Mr. Revell failed to inform him of
his conversation with Col. North and a tele-
phone call to the assistant U.S. attorney in
Philadelphia, which he placed to follow up on
Col. North's request.
Mr. Revell said in his letter to Mr. Boren,
dated April 17, that he "had no immediate
recollection of the situation" but later "did
recollect that in April 1986 I had received
such a telephone call from Col. North"
No request for a delay in Mr. Miller's testi-
mony was ever made, Mr. Revell said, because
the U.S. attorney's office had already planned
to put off Mr. Miller's appearance.
Mr. Webster acknowledged yesterday that
it was "highly unusual" for an FBI official to
involve himself in delaying a grand jury ap-
pearance set up by a U.S. attorney's office, and
added that Mr. Revell had "lost sleep" re-
cently because of his failure to notify the di-
rector of his involvement in the matter.
"He should have consulted with me first,"
Mr. Webster said, calling Mr. Revell's failure
to do so "clearly an oversight."
"In all cases that I have found, with the
exception of the Revell telephone call ... any
contact outside [FBI] headquarters with
[FBI] agents was promptly and correctly re-
ported to FBI headquarters:' Mr. Webster
said.
Mr. Webster said Col. North "would have
had access to our routine disseminations [but]
no official access to our files or to individual
contacts with individual agents."
"[Col. North] did, of course, make attempts
to contact individual agents from time to
time," Mr. Webster said.
It was confirmed in earlier hearings that
Col. North also telephoned Mr. Revell last Oc-
tober and sought to delay an FBI investigation
of Southern Air Transport, a former CIA-
owned airline allegedly involved in both re-
supplying the Contras and in the Reagan ad-
ministration's secret arms sales to Iran.
Col. North reportedly told Mr. Revell the
Southern Air probe should be delayed be-
cause the airline was involved in the effort to
have U.S. hostages released in Lebanon
The new revelations were uncovered by the
bureau in an internal inquiry and turned over
to the committee by Mr. Webster. Committee
chairman Boren told other members "we
can't keep this open for a year and every time
there is a new memo start all over again."
Mr. Webster, however, well-liked on Capitol
Hill for his nine-year record as FBI director,
is expected to be easily confirmed when the
entire Senate votes on the nomination, prob-
ably next week.
? This article is based in part on wire service
reports.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030004-9