Inquiry Traces Millions in Iran Sales to Contras

Congressional investigators now have proof that the Nicaraguan rebels received millions of dollars from the Iranian arms deal--much more than the $200,000 that contra leader Adolfo Calero now admits he may have gotten through that channel, the vice chairman of the Senate special investigating committee said Friday.

Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), in a breakfast interview with The Times Washington Bureau, also said that the Senate committee soon will begin the process of seeking limited immunity for two key players in the Iran-contra scandal. The two--former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North and his former boss at the White House, then-National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter--have refused to testify about the scandal, citing the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Staff Obtains Documents

The exact amount of money diverted to the contras from the arms sales to Iran should be revealed by documents obtained by his committee’s staff during recent trips to Miami and Honduras, Rudman said. He added that it is already apparent that the sum far exceeds the figure used by Calero.

He said that the figure should be known soon. He hinted that he thought the amount would be in the $6-million to $10-million range, but added that a figure as high as $50 million “does not sound outrageous.”

“Let’s put it this way,” Rudman said, “I think it was a lot of money.”

It was the first time that any official involved in the Iran-contra probe has disclosed that there is proof the Nicaraguan rebels benefited from a diversion of profits from the Iranian arms sale. The report of the presidential commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) that was made public last week said that it found “no hard proof” the contras received the money, even though $23 million cannot be traced.

Admits to $200,000

Calero has said that his rebel organization, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), received $200,000 in October, 1985, from Lake Resources, a dummy company controlled by North and retired Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord.

The contra leader said he did not know where the money had come from and asserted that he received no other money from the North-Secord operation. He also dismissed it as a sum of little importance. “Two hundred thousand dollars is not a million dollars,” he said.

Most of the Reagan Administration’s secret arms sales to Iran occurred in 1986, after the $200,000 was given to the FDN. However, the Tower Commission noted that $3 million from an Israeli sale of U.S. weapons to Iran in August, 1985, remained unaccounted for. It has never been determined whether any of that money was deposited in a Lake Resources bank account.

Calero Discovers Deposit

Calero has insisted for months, ever since the Iran-contra scandal exploded, that his organization received no money from the Iranian arms sales. On Thursday, however, he told The Times through a spokesman that he had discovered a deposit from Lake Resources of $150,000. On Friday, he upped the figure to $200,000, and disclosed that it came in two transfers: one for $25,000 on Oct. 23, 1985, and one for $175,000 two days later.

Records from three of the FDN’s six bank accounts have been given to the grand jury investigating the scandal, as well as to the Senate and House investigating committees, according to a spokesman for Calero. He said that the FDN was still assembling the records of the other accounts and would provide whatever documents investigators request. While some money could have been funneled to other contra groups, the FDN is the largest of the rebel organizations.

Rudman said that the committee has been frustrated in its efforts to obtain the records of Swiss bank accounts--including the account of Lake Resources--but he added that the committee has found “other ways” to obtain the information. The committee last week initiated legal proceedings against Secord, a key figure in the Iran arms operation, to force him to surrender his bank records.

Accounts May Be Crucial

These accounts are believed to hold the secret of how the missing money was spent.

Despite evidence that the contras received at least some of the money from the arms deal at a time U.S. assistance was prohibited by Congress, Rudman said it should not be used as a reason for Congress to halt the current flow of military aid to the anti-Sandinista rebels. He said that Calero had no obligation to ask about the source of the money.

“I assume they were getting a lot of money from a lot of sources,” he said. “How can you expect him to ask the right question? I really reject that.”

The Senate select committee probing the Iran-contra affair is expected to begin public hearings in mid-April, and key witnesses likely will be interviewed in joint session with the House committee investigating the same matter. Rudman predicted about 25 days of public hearings by the Senate committee and a final report on Aug. 1.

The New Hampshire senator, a lawyer and attorney general of his state from 1970 to 1976, said that the grant of immunity for North and Poindexter would not undercut the criminal investigation now being conducted by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh because prosecutable cases against these persons already exist.

“By the time these people get immunity, the case on destruction of documents, allegedly, obstruction of justice, allegedly, withdrawal of intelligence material from secure area and so on, these cases exist,” Rudman said. “They exist now.”

Independent Evidence

Limited immunity only protects witnesses from prosecution based on their testimony. Independently developed evidence can be used against them.

Rudman cited a recent change in committee rules designed to prevent immunized witnesses from giving far-reaching opening statements to make their prosecution difficult.

“No one is going to come before that committee and suddenly just spill a stream of consciousness and make a total confession and reveal everything and thus immunize themselves from prosecution,” he said. “They’re going to come up and they’re going to answer questions. If they try to answer anything beyond the question, we’ll gavel the hearing toward adjournment until we get them back under control.”

Rudman said the committee has found evidence that documents were destroyed by White House officials at the time the Iran-contra matter was disclosed last November. But he said he did not believe the development of a false chronology of the affair by White House officials or the unorthodox procedures followed by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III during his initial investigation constituted evidence of a criminal cover-up. He said that the Meese probe was simply “inept.”

Opposes Change to Laws

Although the Senate committee is supposed to recommend legislation that would prevent events like the Iran-contra affair, Rudman said he opposes any change in the laws.

“Let’s not have Congress start fixing things that don’t need fixing,” he said. “What needs fixing is the judgment of the people who hold high positions in the government. Every time there has been a major foul-up in our government for the last 50 years, you can ascribe it to the horrible judgment of one or several people.”

Staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.