North’s Role in Aiding Ad Campaigns Is Told : He Helped Private Effort Against Lawmakers Who Opposed Support for Contras, Sources Say

Fired White House aide Oliver L. North took a direct role in aiding a private television advertising campaign directed against members of Congress who opposed aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, people involved in the campaign said Sunday.

North introduced a major conservative fund-raiser to rebel leaders, spoke to groups of donors to the campaign and requisitioned videotape from the Defense Intelligence Agency to be used in a political commercial, U.S. and Nicaraguan sources said.

North was a staff aide to the National Security Council until President Reagan, calling him “a national hero,” fired him for diverting profits from the secret sale of arms to Iran for the use of the Nicaraguan contras.

Prohibited by Pentagon

North’s aid to the advertising campaign was unusual because North is a lieutenant colonel on active duty in the Marines. U.S. military officers are prohibited by Defense Department policy from engaging in partisan political activities.

Moreover, some of the congressmen who were targets of the campaign--and some Nicaraguan rebel officials--are now asking whether the money for the commercials came from the secret sale of U.S. weapons to Iran, which North also organized.

There is no clear evidence to suggest that the money came from the Iranian arms sales, and the conservative activist who organized the campaign has denied the charge.

“If it’s true that monies from the sale of arms from Iran were funneled through secret bank accounts for domestic political purposes, it would be unbelievably outrageous,” said Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.), who was defeated in a Senate primary election in September. “But I don’t know if it’s true.” Barnes said he would request a congressional investigation of the issue.

The television campaign was organized by conservative activist Carl R. (Spitz) Channell, who told the Miami Herald last week that the groups he directs spent “$4 million or $5 million or more” airing commercials in 37 states.

“It’s all private contributions,” Channell said, adding that one wealthy Texan alone had contributed more than $1 million.

Some Donors Revealed

However, only two of Channell’s four organizations have filed public reports revealing the names of donors. Those groups, the American Conservative Trust and the Anti-Terrorism American Committee, reported $124,000 in revenues this year, of which $113,000 went into political advertising.

The two groups that reportedly played the largest part in the pro-contra campaign, Sentinel and the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty, have not filed any reports with the Federal Election Commission.

In another interview with the Associated Press, Channell said North aided his fund-raising effort but did not play a major role.

“I have met with him several times. . . . We were briefed by him twice,” Channell said. “He doesn’t know anything about domestic politics. I have never heard him in any of his briefings mention domestic politics.”

However, a conservative source who refused to be identified by name and a contra official both said North spoke at briefings that were clearly intended as fund-raising events. They said they did not know whether North personally solicited any donations for Channell’s groups.

Used Pentagon Videotape

North also asked the Pentagon for videotape of the Soviet-made helicopters used by Nicaragua’s leftist regime--videotape that was used in Channell’s television commercials, sources said. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jay Farrar confirmed Sunday that the Defense Intelligence Agency filled a White House request for such a videotape, but he said: “DIA has no recollection of who in the White House asked for the film.”

A Nicaraguan source said North introduced Channell to Adolfo Calero, the leader of the largest contra organization, apparently in hope that Channell would raise money for the rebel chief.

And North met several times with Channell as the campaign was being organized, offering both advice and information about the contras’ guerrilla war, the sources said.

The Miami Herald reported Sunday that Channell also met with Patrick J. Buchanan, the White House director of communications, during one or more of those sessions. It would not be illegal or unusual for Buchanan, a political appointee, to aid a partisan cause.

Neither North nor Buchanan could be reached for comment.

Promoting Contra Cause

Channell took an active role in promoting the contra cause in Washington beyond merely raising money for television commercials. He has said he funded speaking tours for contra leaders and directed the work of several lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

A contra official said Channell helped the contras obtain “about $100,000” in donations from conservative contributors. “But that was nothing compared to the amount of money he was getting for his own organizations,” the contra complained.

“We don’t know where it came from either,” he said. “We would like to know.”

Records also show that International Business Communications, a Washington public relations firm that Channell has hired, has paid the rent and the telephone bills of the rebels’ office in the capital.

Channell worked as finance director for the National Conservative Political Action Committee from 1979 to 1982, when he went into business for himself.

Although he said his commercials had run in 37 states, several congressmen said there were no elections in which they made a clear difference.

Last spring, when the House was considering a request from President Reagan for $100 million in aid for the rebels, Channell ran a spate of commercials in several areas nationwide.

One showed Soviet-made helicopters in flight and warned that the Sandinistas had positioned them within hours of Texas. Another charged that Barnes’ opposition to aid for the contras put him in the same political camp as Libya’s Col. Moammar Kadafi and Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Barnes lost his primary race for the Democratic nomination to a Senate seat, but the winner was a candidate who is equally opposed to the contras, Rep. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.).

Channell’s political action committees gave donations to a handful of candidates, including Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas and California Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), both of whom won reelection.

But not all his efforts were equally successful. Channell’s PACs produced television commercials backing four Republican Senate candidates, but all four lost: Sen. Jeremiah Denton in Alabama, Sen. Paula Hawkins in Florida, Rep. Ken Kramer in Colorado and former White House aide Linda Chavez in Maryland.

He also produced a television commercial attacking Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) for opposing Reagan’s “Star Wars” nuclear defense proposal, but Cranston won.

And one Channell target, Rep. J. J. Pickle (D-Tex.), said the negative ads helped him hold onto his House seat.

Pickle said he was the target of about 30 TV spots that ran for about two weeks last spring, warning that the contras were fighting communism but were running out of ammunition.

“In the end, they helped me,” Pickle said. “The ads said, ‘Call your congressman,’ and a majority of the people who called me called to protest aid to the contras. They said they disapproved of this kind of pressure--it offended them.”

Times staff writers Marlene Cimons, Paul Houston, Don Irwin and Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.