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Subject: Mystery Witness Says He Told CIA Officials About Contra Aid; 'No. 7' Testifies
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 92 08:47:18 EST
Message-ID: <8.1992Oct31.084718@AmeriCast.com>

Mystery Witness Says He Told CIA Officials About Contra Aid; 'No.
7' Testifies From Behind Screen at George Retrial<By George
Lardner Jr. and Walter Pincus=Washington Post Staff Writers=

An undercover CIA officer said yesterday that he told higher-
ranking agency officials in early October 1986 about his earlier
work as chief pilot for a secret contra resupply operation while
CIA officials were denying such knowledge to Congress.

He said he first spoke up the day after a contra resupply plane
loaded with weapons was shot down over Nicaragua on Oct. 5, 1986,
a crash that led to the unraveling of the Iran-contra scandal.

Testifying behind a seven-foot-high screen at the retrial in
federal court here of former CIA spy chief Clair E. George, the
witness said he worked as "chief pilot and manager of the opera-
tion in central America" before joining the CIA in September
1986. He said there were "nine to 10 Americans" working on the
project out of El Salvador when he left it that summer.

George denied knowing who was involved in the flights for the Ni-
caraguan contra rebels when he testified before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee on Oct. 10, 1986, and the House in-
telligence committee on Oct. 14, 1986. Four of the seven felony
counts against him challenge the truthfulness of his statements
at those two hearings.

Identified only as "CIA Officer No.  7," the witness did not tes-
tify at George's first trial, which ended in a mistrial in Au-
gust. Chief Iran-contra prosecutor Craig A. Gillen indicated yes-
terday that classification problems were the reason he was not
called the first time.

CIA No. 7, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said he sought a
job at the CIA in October 1985, and was told it would take six to
nine months to process his application. In the meantime, he met
Richard Gadd, a former Air Force officer who was hiring pilots
and cargo handlers for the secret, White House-run resupply
operation.

Hired to run the air operations, fly missions and train other pi-
lots, the witness said he flew to El Salvador's Ilopango air base
in early February 1986 and "met an individual I knew as Max
Gomez," who was in charge of the supply warehouse and dealings
with Salvadorans.

CIA No.  7 said he left the job on June 22 and by chance flew
back to the United States with Gomez, whose real name was Felix
Rodriguez. A former CIA operative, Gomez "revealed to me his true
name at that time," the witness said.

On Oct. 6, the witness said, he told his superiors in the CIA's
Air Branch "everything" he knew about the resupply operation and
subsequently repeated his story to others, including Norman H.
Gardner Jr., special assistant to George who was then deputy
director for operations. CIA No. 7 said he spoke with Gardner by
phone the night of Oct. 10 and met with him for 90 minutes on the
morning of Oct. 14.

Accompanied by Gardner and another CIA colleague, George was
asked at the House hearing the afternoon of Oct. 14 if he knew at
that point "who was flying the flights and who was behind them,"
and he replied, "No sir." Asked if he knew whether "Gomez or Ro-
driguez was involved in providing supplies to the contras," he
said, "I do not know that per se. I do not. Or any record I have
ever read."<02:10 10-31C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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