EXCLUSIVE CIA OFFICIAL LINKED TO IRAN SCANDAL FORCED TO RETIRE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920017-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: September 12, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
12 September 1987
EXCLUSIVE CIA OFFICIAL LINKED TO IRAN SCANDAL FORCED TO RETIRE
RICHARD SALE
WASHINGTON
CIA counterterrorism chief Duane Clarridge, a figure in the Iran-Contra
affair, is among a handful of agency officials being forced into retirement as
part of a ''housecleaning'' by new spy chief William Webster, according to U.S.
intelligence sources.
The sources told United Press International that Webster and other senior
CIA officials were ''dissatisfied'' with Clarridge's lack of candor in his
1984 and 1986 testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees
about the agency's role in Central America.
One source said that parts of Clarridge's testimony, on subjects including
the agency's mining of Nicaragua's harbors and a CIA manual encouraging the
assassination of Sandinista village officials ''were found in-house not to be
accurate.l''
The sources described the shakeup as both a typical shuffle by a new agency
director and a "housecleaning following a scandal,'' in which employees who had
been deceitful or misleading in congressional testimony will be asked to leave.
While Webster was FBI director last year, bureau officials also found
Clarridge to be less than forthright during a criminal investigation into an
alleged presidential assassination threat by a former. CIA employee, Jack
Terrell, the sources told UPI.
FBI officials suspected Clarridge was seeking to protect former CIA
employees, including some who had worked for tiim, who were associated with
Terrell in one of several private efforts to assist the Nicaraguan Contra
rebels, the sources said.
It could not be learned precisely when Clarridge, who appeared before the
congressional Iran-Contra committees in early August, was asked to take early
retirement, but sources said several other CIA employees are expected to
similarly be pressed to step down.
Clarridge could not be reached for comment. A CIA spokesperson declined to
acknowledge he ever worked for the agency, although transcripts of his recent
closed-door testimony have been made public.
it was during the investigation of Terrell, sources said, that Webster and
other FBI officials began to focus on Clarridge's Central American role.
Terrell, a disaffected member of the private Civilian Military Assistance
group, was one of the first to publicly accuse national security aide Oliver
North of managing a private Contra aid network. The CMA was a spinoff of the
primary network overseen by North, an operation run by retired Air Force Maj.
Gen. Richard Secord.
Some !intelligence sources alleged, as has Terrell, that the joint 1986
FBI Secret Service, inquiry was initiated to discredit him and that the only
evidence to trigger the investigation was a second-hand remark in an intercepted
telephone call.
cod wed
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A Justice Department source said that although the assassination
investigation ''didn't pan out" during the inquiry, Webster first learned of
" North ... Clarridge -- the grey area'' in the U.S. government that was
supporting the Contras and the CMA group.
At the time, Congress had banned U.S. officials from providing military aid
to the Contras.
One source said that, at the FBI's request, Clarridge gave investigators a
" heavily deleted file" on Terrell's.former associates, saying that he had
provided all available materials..
.But other CIA employees tipped the. Justice Department that ''another file
existed which was the real thing,'' a knowledgeable source said. Armed with the
file number, FBI agents returned to the CIA asking to see the material, the
source said. The CIA refused, according to the source, replying, ''We'll see
you in court.''
'Sources said FBI officials felt Clarridge was acting under orders from CIA
Director William Casey in withholding the files.
The FBI dropped its pursuit of the matter because " its real mission was to
neutralize. Terrell, not uncover what the agency was doing." Once it had been
determined Terrell was not a threat to the president, the inquiry was dropped.
Reports conflicts on how the Terrell Investigation was triggered.
An intelligence source said the FBI intercepted a phone call from Central
America to the Honduran embassy in Washington in which one of those on the line
described him as dangerous.
'''The basic thrust was, 'He's coming to Washington and he's such a crazy guy
tie could probably shoot the president,'.'' the source said.
When the bureau alerted the Secret Service, the source said., the presidential
security force ''really wanted to jump on the guy.''
But National Security Council documents released by the Iran-Contra
committees last week suggested that North may have asked the FBI to investigate
Terrell, after receiving reports that he was ''dangerous'' from members of a
pro-'Contra group. The memos showed that North was kept apprised of the
inquiry. In one memo, national security adviser John Poindexter even informed
President Reagan about Terrell's ''offer to assassinate the president."
Robert White, former U.S.'ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay who now
employs Terrell at a liberal, non-profit think tank based in Washington, has
charged the investigation was started solely ''to blacken Terrell's name because
they were extremely worried about his' testimony.''
say,
a twist of fate, Webster became CIA director two months ago.
When Webster came In and started to clean house, there was no choice but to
'Take early retirement, '" a source in the Justice Department said.
CoMiNN
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In Poindexter's private con ressional testimony, released Thu rsda he
alleged that Clarridge knew o North's pro-Contra activities. Nor
testified that Clarridge occasionally advised him. Clarrid th has e
awareness of details of North's pro-Contra activities, ge has denied any
In 1978, when members of the CIA station in Turkey were frictions, Clarridge was sent in ''to pick up the piece'' and succeeded, because of
colleague said, succeeded, one
One Justice Department source identified Clarrid a as
behind the mining of Nicaragua's harbors in 1984. g the "mastermind "
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