CIA OPERATIVE REPORTEDLY LIED TO TOWER PROBER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310044-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: April 13, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310044-3
If 13 April 1987
CIA operative reportedly lied to Tower prober By NEIL ROLAND
WASHINGTON (UPI) The CIA station chief in Costa Rica lied to the Tower
Commission in January about possibly illegal arms shipments to the Contras,
perhaps to protect superiors, sources familiar with the probe say.
R Tomas CastiLja the pseudonym of the CIA official, first told a commission
investigator that he assisted only with six deliveries of non-military aid in
1986, which would have been legal, the sources said.
But when pressed later that day, Castillo acknowledged that under the
direction of Lt. Col. Oliver North, the former National Security aide, he had
coordinated nine arms shipments from a private American network to Contra
rebels in the spring of 1986, they said.
At the time, CIA officials were banned by Congress from providing military
aid to the. Contras but were permitted to share intelligence.
The station chief's false testimony raises questions as to whether he was
lying to protect superiors'' who may have authorized the weapons drops,
sources said.
A special prosecutor investigating the Iran-Contra arms scandal is examining
Castillo's role in passing intelligence and instructions to the private
American network in El Salvador as it prepared to airdrop arms to rebels in
Nicaragua.
In a previous investigation of Castillo's pro-Contra efforts last fall, the
station chief lied to the CIA's inspector general'soff ice_in=denying that he
had assisted with weapons drops, acting CIA director Robert Gates has told
Congress.
Castillo has told intelligence associates that his activities in Costa Rica
ig were authorized by Allan Fires, the pseudonym used by the head of CIA's Central
American operations. He also testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee
early this year that he had cleared his efforts in advance with unnamed
superiors, a source said.
Fires testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee last year that he did
not approve Castillo's participation in the arms drops, one source said. But
some committee members believe that Fires -did not disclose everything that
was going on," this source said.
Sources said they had no evidence to suggest that CIA officials told
Castillo. to lie to an investigator with the presidential Tower Commission,
which issued its report Feb. 26. The report contains no reference to Castillo's
lying.
Con6nUed
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310044-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310044-3
o?.
.. Castillo at first just repeated the official CIA line,''one source said.
The CIA, following its inspector general inquiry last fall, issued a
statement denying that any agency officials had participated in the arms drops.
Castillo recanted when Brian Bruh, the chief investigator for the panel,
presented him with electronic messages Castillo had written to North about the
arms shipments, a source said.
When the CIA learned that Castillo had retracted his testimony in January,
it reopened its inspector general inquiry and suspended him in February.
Castillo could be subject to prosecution for lying to Bruh and the CIA
inspector general's office on grounds he made a false statement to a federal
investigator, a source said.
But-Tower-Commission member Edmund Muskie,- a former-senator who said he was
unaware of the false statements, discounted this possibility. He said Castillo
was "probably just trying to maintain the cover for his covert operation.''
Castillo intends to tell congressional investigators examining the extent to
which top CIA officials managed Contra aid that his actions were authorized by
Fires, a source said. The congressional panels investigating the Iran-Contra
affair have granted Castillo limited immunity, and he is scheduled to be
interviewed by the committee staff on or soon after April 19.
Fires planned Central America operations in regular meetings with CIA
Director William Casey and with an inter-agency group that included North and
Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, the
source said.
j Castillo also kept Casey regularly informed of his general activities,
congressional investigators said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310044-3