North Enlisted Perot’s Help : Ransom Money Failed to Free U.S. Hostages

Several times over the last five years, Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North arranged for Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot to put up ransom money in unsuccessful, secret attempts to obtain the release of various American hostages, including those held in Lebanon, informed sources said.

(Perot, appearing Monday night on ABC-TV’s “Nightline,” confirmed working with North in efforts to free U.S. hostages, the Associated Press reported.)

The most recent attempt to aid hostages came on May 23, when North asked Perot to place $2 million in an account in the Credit Suisse Bank in Zurich, Switzerland, as part of a secret transaction to secure the release of the remaining American hostages in Lebanon.

Perot was about to telex the funds when North called and requested that Perot instead send the money by courier to Cyprus. Perot did so.

The $2 million was to be exchanged at sea off Cyprus for five hostages in what one source called “a ship-to-ship transfer.” Perot’s courier waited five days on Cyprus for an opportunity to pay the ransom, but the deal fell through for reasons that could not be determined Monday.

(“It didn’t work out and that was just an unfortunate try that failed,” Perot told ABC. “ . . . It’s my understanding that the people that were supposed to produce, didn’t. It’s that simple.”

(Perot told ABC that he assumed North had higher authority for the operation. “My sense is always that people who do these types of things in the government are very meticulous in getting approval for their activities,” Perot said. “. . . Maybe by the time I started dealing with Col. North specifically, I had been pretty well programed in that direction because that’s always been the case.”

(Perot continued: “As I understand the government’s policy, it is they don’t want to use U.S. money, but if and when they can find a willing citizen to help him in matters like this, then they can go to great efforts to save the person’s life.”)

Meanwhile, on May 28, former national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane and North made their now-celebrated trip to Tehran with a planeload of arms in what also turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to obtain the release of the remaining hostages.

‘Was Not Authorized’

A source associated with North declined comment on the report Monday. White House spokesman Daniel Howard said: “If it happened, according to the National Security Council, no one knew of it, and it certainly was not authorized.”

President Reagan has said many times that his Administration would not negotiate with or pay ransom to terrorists or hostage-takers.

For example, on June 18, 1985, in the midst of the ordeal of TWA Flight 847--when Americans were held hostage for 16 days--Reagan said in a prepared statement at a news conference: “America will never make concessions to terrorists--to do so would only invite more terrorism. Nor will we ask nor pressure any other government to do so. Once we head down that path there would be no end to it, no end to the suffering of innocent people, no end to the bloody ransom all civilized nations must pay.”

North worked with Perot on efforts to free the Beirut hostages beginning soon after March 16, 1984, when the CIA’s Beirut station chief, William Buckley, was taken hostage. In the words of one source with firsthand knowledge: “North became preoccupied with getting ransom and asked for $1 million to $2 million. . . . They had to get Buckley back, given the knowledge Buckley had” as the senior CIA person in Lebanon.

Unable to Win Release

North requested that Perot provide the ransom for Buckley, and Perot immediately agreed to make up to $2 million available whenever it was needed. But neither North nor the CIA was able to work out an exchange with Buckley’s captors, despite extraordinary efforts.

After about 15 months in captivity marked by torture and medical neglect, Buckley reportedly died, although his body has never been found. The next month, McFarlane, while still the national security adviser, began the Reagan Administration’s secret opening to Iran.

Perot’s efforts to help the Reagan Administration free Americans held abroad predates the string of Beirut kidnapings. Early in 1982--again at North’s request--the Texas billionaire wired $500,000 to an Italian bank to pay for the release of Brig. Gen. James L. Dozier, a ransom attempt that also failed. Dozier, the senior American officer at the NATO base in Verona, Italy, was kidnaped Dec. 17, 1981, and held 42 days by Red Brigades terrorists before he was rescued unharmed by a special squad of Italian police.

In 1979, when two employees of Perot’s firm, Electronic Data Systems, were held captive in Iran, Perot hired a retired army commando specialist who led a seven-member team to Iran that freed the two men.