He Wasn’t Told Salvador Base Was Used to Supply Contras, Duarte Says

President Jose Napoleon Duarte said Wednesday that he had not been informed about an American-run contras supply operation operating out of El Salvador’s Ilopango air base that became public in October when a Sandinista soldier shot down one of the planes carrying arms to Nicaraguan rebels.

U.S. Embassy officials acknowledge that Ambassador Edwin G. Corr and U.S. military officials here monitored the supply operation, but they apparently failed to inform Duarte. When asked why, a U.S. Embassy spokesman declined to comment.

“I knew absolutely nothing. This is a spy novel,” Duarte said of the supply mission, referring to the American-orchestrated arrangement to sell arms to Iran and use some of the proceeds to aid the contras. Duarte spoke briefly to reporters after a ceremony at the Ilopango base, where the contras supply operation was centered.

Plane Shot Down

Western diplomats and military sources say the supply missions came to a halt here after a C-123 transport plane was shot down Oct. 5 in Nicaragua, killing two American pilots and a third person. An American cargo handler, Eugene Hasenfus, was captured and convicted in Managua of terrorism and related charges. He is serving a 30-year prison sentence in Nicaragua.

Political sources and military analysts here said the decision to allow the contras supply operation from El Salvador was made by Salvadoran military officials. The operation contradicts Duarte’s stated policy of nonintervention in the affairs of neighboring countries and, analysts say, highlights Duarte’s weakness in the face of a powerful military.

Duarte initially refused to confirm that the operation had been run from here. He said he now has been briefed by the military but that the information is “a state secret.” He added, “My position has always been that El Salvador should not take any action to destabilize other countries, at the same time requesting that other countries respect the sovereignty of El Salvador.”

Asked how the U.S. Embassy could have known of the operation and not informed him, Duarte said, “I have never had a request from any U.S. authorities regarding any action from Salvadoran territory.”

Advisers Agree

Two of Duarte’s close advisers concurred that the president did not know of the arms supply operation before the plane was shot down in Nicaragua. One source said that when Ambassador Corr and Salvadoran Defense Minister Carlos Vides Casanova told the president after the fact, “He was furious. He threatened to resign.”

The operation was run with the assistance of Gen. Juan Rafael Bustillo, the conservative head of the air force with whom Duarte “disagrees on just about everything,” a Western political observer said. The two American pilots on board the plane carried Salvadoran air force cards identifying them as U.S. military advisers and giving them access to restricted areas of the Ilopango base.

U.S. embassy spokesman Jake Gillespie said Ambassador Corr and Army Col. James Steele monitored the supply operation. Gillespie said no U.S. officials participated in it.

“Ambassador Corr and the guys in the (U.S.) military group would have been remiss if they had not known about it,” Gillespie said. “This embassy did nothing illegal or improper in conjunction with private efforts to aid the contras.”

Operated During Ban

The supply missions evidently operated during a congressional ban on U.S. government and CIA provision of arms and direct military aid to the contras.

The plane carrying arms and ammunition to the Nicaraguan rebels contained documents outlining the Salvadoran- and Honduran-based supply operation which, together with the testimony of captured cargo handler Hasenfus, suggests a considerable U.S. role in the operations.

Hasenfus said Felix Rodriguez and Ramon Medina, two Cuban-Americans with CIA ties, ran the operation out of El Salvador and said he believed he was working for the U.S. government. An air force pilot at Ilopango said he had met a third Cuban-American at the base who went by the name of Ralph.

In an interview, Hasenfus said the former head of the U.S. military group, Steele, had complained to the pilots that they were spending too much money on long-distance telephone calls from safehouses, saying, “You’re taking food out of the mouths of the contras.”

Questions Raised

His comment raised questions as to whether Steele was paying the telephone bills or how he knew their sum. According to a report by United Press International, the U.S. Embassy paid for repairs on one of the safehouses, used by crew members of the supply flight, from which the calls were made.

Three junior officers at Ilopango said that Steele was at the base almost daily before he left his post last month.

Reporters obtained telephone lists from three safehouses showing repeated calls to four U.S. military officials, including Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the National Security Council staff member fired over the secret arms sales to Iran and the arrangement to channel some of the proceeds to the contras.

Also telephoned from the safehouses were retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, who has emerged as a key figure in the Iran deal, his colleague Richard B. Gadd, a former air force colonel, and retired Army Col. L.C. Stearns.

In a date book found in the wreckage of the downed C-123, on a page entitled “frequently used phone numbers,” were the work and home telephone number of Lt. Col. David Rankin, the U.S. military adviser based at Ilopango.

Reporter Ushered Out

A reporter found Rankin at Ilopango in a room with an eagle symbol on the door and walls covered with maps of El Salvador. Several plainclothes Americans were conferring in the room.

“How did you get in here?” Rankin asked before ushering the reporter out. He said he had received orders not to answer any questions about the supply operation.

Americans in civilian dress and carrying semi-hidden arms are often seen at the air base, and they were present Wednesday. The CIA maintains agents in most Salvadoran military installations.

One of the pilots killed in the crash, William J. Cooper, was carrying Steele’s name and his embassy telephone number in his pocket when the airplane crashed.

Ambassador Corr has said he had lunch with Rodriquez, also known as Max Gomez. Rodriguez carried an embassy radio and had an embassy identification card.

The military observers, who asked not to be identified, said that although the supply flights have halted since the Oct. 5 downing of the C-123 and subsequent exposure of the supply operation, the Salvadoran military still appears to be willing to help the contras--regardless of Duarte’s opposition.

“They want to eliminate the Sandinistas,” a Duarte adviser said. “It’s the military option.”