Ex-Official Says North Helped Briton Seeking to Free Hostages

Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North helped Terry Waite, the Church of England negotiator, obtain planes and other assistance in his efforts to gain the release of American hostages in Lebanon, the former head of the State Department’s Office for Counter Terrorism said Monday.

But North’s conversations with Waite, like those he held with members of the hostages’ families and other individuals seeking to liberate the captive Americans, dealt only with efforts to free them, Robert B. Oakley, the former anti-terrorism chief, said.

“Since Ollie North was the man designated by the National Security Council to deal with the hostage problem, naturally he met with hostage families, individuals like Waite, Jesse Jackson, I don’t know how many people,” Oakley said in an interview.

The former State Department official, who is now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that the type of U.S. logistical aid given to Waite was available to any others who, while acting independently, might be able to help free the hostages.

“There is a simplistic assumption that anyone to whom Ollie North has spoken has been talked to about guns, money, contras and hostages,” Oakley said.

North talked to Waite, the families and others about what could be done to get the hostages out, Oakley said. “He didn’t talk to them about arms or about contras,” he added. “I talked to him frequently.”

Waite has been able to make contact with Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian group in Lebanon believed to have held several of the Americans captive there. “Waite’s personal relationship with them added an element which cannot be judged quantitatively but nevertheless is important,” Oakley said.