GEORGE BUSH'S IRAN-CONTRA ALBATROSS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580085-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 85
• Publication Date: January 18, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580085-8
George Bush's
bran-Contra albatross
Disclosures and questions
about the Vice President's
role are beginning to hurt
Ronald Reagan's heir apparent
^ The memorandum had come from
Lt. Col. Oliver North's office safe. It
was stamped SECRET, and in the up-
per-right-hand corner was a notation:
"Ollie-For summary and recommen-
dation-Bud." Was it just another of
the many secret documents from the
Iran-Contra affair? Not by a long shot.
The memo was written by a top aide of
George Bush's to Robert McFarlane.
President Reagan's national-security
adviser. Although there is no proof that
Bush knew of the document or his
aide's activities, the memo adds to the
growing perception that the Vice Presi-
dent had to have known more than he
has admitted about the most damaging
scandal of the Reagan years.
The rising tide
It has been a rather rotten several
weeks for George Bush. He has consis-
tently maintained that he didn't know
that arms were being traded for hos-
tages until Senator David Durenberger
briefed him in December. 1986. Recent
disclosures undermine that contention,
and they place Bush, at a key moment
in his race for the Presidency, in an
extremely awkward and potentially
dangerous situation.
For weeks now, the evidence has
been mounting that Bush was well in-
formed about the arms-for-hostages
gambit, almost from the very begin-
ning. Last month, a computer message
written by then National Security Ad-
viser John Poindexter surfaced all of a
sudden, and in it Bush was described as
"solid" in his support for the arms-for-
hostages deal. Just last week, the Wash-
ington Post disclosed new details of
Bush's regular attendance at other
White House meetings where the Iran
arms sales were discussed. CNN,
meanwhile, reported that Bush knew in
advance about McFarlane's May, 1986,
trip to Teheran to negotiate with the
ayatollahs.
As if that weren't enough, US Vews
has obtained a copy of the March 17,
1983, memorandum found in North's
safe by FBI agents. Investigators be-
lieve the memo may have marked the
beginnings of the National Security
Council staffs involvement in directing
paramilitary operations in Central
America. This NSC activity later re-
sulted in the White House overseeing
the clandestine resupply of arms to the
Contras-an operational involvement
undertaken to skirt congressional pro-
hibitions on such assistance by remov-
ing the Central Intelligence Agency
and the Defense Department from the
direct line of responsibility.
The memo is intriguing not just for
whatever political implications it may
come to have. It was written by Donald
Gregg, Bush's national-security aide,
after he met with Felix Rodriguez. a
Cuban-born former CIA official who
worked under Gregg during the Viet-
nam War. Rodriguez dropped off a
military plan-dubbed the "Pink
Team" plan-to launch mobile air
strikes with "minimum U.S. participa-
tion" at leftist rebels in Central Amen-
ca. Though Rodriguez wrote that the
plan "will be ideal for the pacification
effort in El Salvador and Guatemala."
an attached map showed concentric
circles drawn over shaded strike zones
that also included Honduras and \ica-
ragua. One intelligence source who ex-
amined the plan said. "It is clear that
targets inside Nicaragua were to he tar-
geted." Gregg liked the plan ~o much
he forwarded it to McFarlane and
urged that it be adopted.
Newsweek
Time
U.S. News & World Report
Date _ R ,4 />rp
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580085-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580085-8
Gregg, it appears, was a pivotal player
in Central American policy. He intro-
duced Rodriguez to Bush and North.
Through Gregg's efforts, Rodriguez
came to direct counterinsurgency opera-
tions in El Salvador. Sometime in 1985,
Rodriguez was recruited by North to
become a key participant in the covert
efforts to resupply the Contras. Gregg's
earlier introduction of the two men, it
seems, was beginning to pay some divi-
dends. Gregg, in sworn testimony to
Iran-Contra investigators and in two
chronologies endorsed by the Vice Presi-
dent. failed to mention his earlier ac-
tions, as reflected in the SECRET
March, 1983, memo. "One. I didn't
think of it," Gregg told U.S .dews.
"[AndJ two, it had nothing to do with
the questions being asked of me."
Question upon question
A larger question is whether Gregg
knew of the efforts to resupply the
Contras early on and informed Bush.
An April 30, 1986, briefing memo pre-
pared for Bush for a meeting with Ro-
driguez lists the "resupply of the Con-
tras" for discussion, yet Bush and
Gregg both say the subject never came
up. Did Gregg know about the diver-
sion of Iran arms-sale profits to the
Contras then? In August, 1986, Gregg
met with Rodriguez, who told him
about the resupply operation. But
Gregg's handwritten notes also seem to
indicate that the subject of the diver-
sion came up. "Felix ... stated a swap
of weapons for dollars was arranged to
get aid for the Contras," the note said.
Gregg insists that this did not refer to
the diversion. And, again, he says he
never informed Bush of the subject of
his talk with Rodriguez. "Frankly," he
said. "I did not think it was vice-presi-
dential material."
Is it possible that Bush knew nothing
at all about the Contra-resupply efforts
or the diversion? That's what the Vice
President says. And for now there is no
hard evidence to the contrary. In short,
Bush says he was never privy to the
step-by-step maneuvering in the Iran-
Contra shenanigans.
But unfortunately for Bush, that
may not be the end of it. As a political
candidate in an increasingly close race
with Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole,
Bush may find himself at the very be-
ginning of a long and damaging fight-
especially since the lesser candidates
have nothing to lose by taking shots at
him. And if new disclosures keep tum-
bling out about his knowledge of the
Iran-Contra affair, it may well prove to
be a fight Bush cannot win. a
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580085-8