Abrams Still Combative : Tower Report May Curb Reagan’s Contra ‘Fanatic’

In a State Department staffed largely with low-key diplomats, Elliott Abrams is an anomaly. The combative assistant secretary for Latin America has fashioned himself into a lightning rod--an “ideological fanatic” in the words of one Republican senator--in the debate over President Reagan’s controversial aid to Nicaragua’s rebels.

Last week, the 39-year-old Abrams drew more attention than even he might have liked. The presidential commission that investigated the White House national security apparatus disclosed that he and fired White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver L. North had ordered Costa Rican Ambassador Lewis A. Tambs to help open a southern front for the contras at a time when official U.S. aid was illegal. Tambs became the key force behind building a privately financed 6,250-foot airstrip for the contras’ use.

That disclosure may do what Abrams’ own combativeness has not: undermine his effectiveness as the Administration’s salesman for its Central American policy. And that in turn would make it all the harder for the Administration to achieve its key legislative goal in the area, another $105 million in aid to the contras on top of the $100 million Congress appropriated for this year.

“In the past, the Administration tried to dominate or bully their way through,” said Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Okla.), who has tried to organize conservatives and moderates around a package of limited contra aid. “Elliott was obviously good at that. . . . Now that they don’t have the upper hand, it’s going to be difficult.”

Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), an implacable foe of contra aid, said: “I don’t think it’s impossible” for Abrams to continue working with Congress.

But it clearly will not be easy. Even before the presidential commission, headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), released its report last Thursday, Abrams had thoroughly alienated a good many of the Democrats who now control both houses of Congress.

“Really, you try the patience of people,” Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) told Abrams at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) angrily warned Abrams that he would not stand for “being made a patsy, sitting up here listening to verbosity that doesn’t answer a question.”

Supporters Delighted

What exasperates many Democrats delights the most dedicated supporters of contra aid.

“He’s one of the most effective spokesmen for the Administration,” said Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Latin America. “He doesn’t grovel or attain the heights of deference (lawmakers) require.”

Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.), a member of the House Republican leadership, added: “If the rest of the Administration worked Capitol Hill as well as Elliott Abrams has in the past year, the Administration would be in a lot better shape.”

No Apologies

Abrams has carefully thought out his unyielding and unapologetic defense of Administration policy. “The President has outlined a policy in Central America,” he said in a recent interview. “I am not at liberty to make compromises.”

And in typical Abrams fashion, he could not resist adding that he does not need Congress to point out the flaws in his operation. “We know things that are wrong that they haven’t even dreamed of yet,” he said.

Even before the Tower Commission report, Abrams’ credibility in Congress suffered with the revelation that he had solicited $10 million last summer from the sultan of oil-rich Brunei to aid the contras. Abrams repeatedly had denied that the State Department had asked third countries for financial help for the contras.

Former Senate Intelligence Chairman Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.) told the Miami Herald after that incident was disclosed: “I wouldn’t trust Elliott Abrams any further than I could throw Oliver North.”

‘Diplomatic Activity’

Abrams contends that he had not been authorized to reveal his role at the time he testified and that the Brunei connection was not in the jurisdiction of the Intelligence Committee in any event. “We did not and do not view that as an intelligence activity but rather as a secret diplomatic activity,” he said.

His credibility suffered a new blow with the release last week of the Tower report. Abrams was also said to have conferred with North and Tambs on how to prevent Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez from making public the existence of the landing strip and on how to keep it operating.

The commission said North admitted in a memo that, with Abrams’ encouragement, he had threatened a cutoff of U.S. aid to economically pressed Costa Rica. Abrams denied to the commission that he had made such a threat.

Abrams declined comment on the report, saying that he wants to wait until after President Reagan’s official response in a speech to be nationally broadcast at 6 p.m. PST Wednesday. State Department officials have expressed confidence that Abrams will not be found guilty of any wrongdoing.

No Signs of Change

As the Administration gears up for the next and possibly most crucial round in the fight over aid to the contras, Abrams shows no signs of changing his combative style. When asked by Kerry why the sultan’s funds had been sent to a secret Swiss account controlled by North, Abrams replied: “You can badger me all you want. If I don’t remember, I don’t remember.”

A former colleague at the State Department noted that Abrams “likes a good street fight. He’s not scared to roll up his sleeves and slug it out.”

Abrams himself explained: “I do not believe in supine positions for the Administration. I do not believe that when people attack the lawfulness or the integrity of your actions, you should say: ‘Gee, senator, I’m sorry you feel that way.’ I think you should answer back.”

Congressmen Alienated

Abrams acknowledges that his feisty style alienates many congressmen. “But our people need to be rallied,” he said. “I get lots of letters from people saying: ‘Go to it. Keep it up. Fight the good fight.’ And our side needs to do that. We need to keep our people together and stir them up.”

Abrams became the State Department’s youngest assistant ever when he joined as assistant secretary for international organizations at the age of 33. His next assignment was to oversee human rights issues.

A former Democrat, Abrams traces his ideological roots to the neoconservative movement, a loose label generally applied to a group of disaffected Democrats who sought to bring their party back to what they saw as its more conservative pre-Vietnam War principles.

He came of political age working as an aide for the leading Democratic hawk, the late Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.). He married the stepdaughter of the chief neoconservative ideologist, Commentary magazine editor Norman Podhoretz.

Direct Challenge

In the neoconservative view, the Marxist regime in Nicaragua represents a direct challenge by the Soviet Union to the security of the United States--and a key battleground over whether any President in the post-Vietnam era can intervene in the Third World.

Nicaragua, said fellow neoconservative Ben Wattenberg, “likely will be in one form or another a Soviet surrogate state and they will try to subvert their neighbors. . . . It’s basically an East-West showdown. That’s where Elliott is coming from.”

Others call Abrams’ perspective distorted. “The impression people have--Democrats and Republicans--is that with Elliott, (Nicaragua) has become an obsession,” Dodd said. “This is go for broke.” And Durenberger has described Abrams as “an ideological fanatic.”

Robert S. Gelbard, Abrams’ deputy for South America, disagrees that his boss is “a Central America monomaniac. . . . Fundamentally, Elliott is a fervent believer in democracy.”

Other Attacks

Gelbard notes that Abrams does not confine his blasts to Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime. He has condemned civil rights abuses by right-wing regimes in Chile, Argentina and Paraguay, thus drawing fire from conservatives. He achieved the same result with his recent involvement in a shake-up of contra leadership in which its most conservative leader, Adolfo Calero, resigned from its three-member directorate.

“The others are subservient to the State Department,” said Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee. “They are trying to orchestrate negotiations which will leave the Communists in control in Nicaragua. Mr. Calero did not resign of his own volition. His resignation was forced by higher officials in the State Department who are seeking a capitulation to the Communists.”

This pressure from both sides does not seem to faze Abrams.

“I like the political heat, let’s put it that way,” he said. “Obviously, I don’t like being accused of misleading people or violating the law. That’s plain, simple unpleasantness. But I like politics and I like fighting for what happen to be my ideas and the President’s policy.”

Staff writer Sara Fritz contributed to this story.