Ex-Agent Asserts CIA Knew of Aid to Contras : Former Costa Rica Station Chief Contradicts Claims That Agency Wasn’t Assisting Rebels

Contradicting CIA claims that the agency was not assisting the Nicaraguan rebels, the former Costa Rica station chief for the agency told congressional investigators that at least two of his superiors knew of his activities on behalf of the contras , according to a transcript of testimony released Monday.

“He made it clear that the CIA was involved,” said Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who heard the testimony. “It may be that the CIA had a much broader role” than was previously believed, Nunn added.

Joe Fernandez, the former station chief, testified Friday before the House and Senate committees investigating the Iran-contra scandal in a closed session designed to keep his appearance secret and shield classified information. A transcript was released Monday after the CIA had deleted sections that dealt with classified material.

Known by the code name Tomas Castillo, Fernandez was recalled to Washington last January after admitting that he had made “unauthorized contacts” with the private network supplying the rebels during the two-year period when official U.S. aid to the rebels was prohibited.

Fernandez told the committees that months before then, he personally informed two high-ranking officials--the head of the CIA’s Latin American division, whose identity is classified, and Alan D. Fiers, who worked for the division head as chief of the agency’s Central American Task Force--that he was helping coordinate a private airlift of weapons and supplies to rebel forces in southern Nicaragua.

However, when Clair E. George, the CIA’s deputy director for operations, testified before the House Intelligence Committee last October, he contended: “The CIA is not involved directly or indirectly in arranging, directing or facilitating resupply missions conducted by private individuals in support of the Nicaraguan democratic resistance.” Fernandez said he does not know whether George was told of his activities.

In addition to drawing renewed criticism of the CIA’s role, Fernandez’s testimony set the scene for what is likely to be a stormy confrontation today between the committees and their next witness, Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs.

Abrams has maintained that he was not aware at the time that a secret airstrip was being built in Costa Rica for the contra supply operation. But Fernandez said that Abrams brought up the subject at a meeting in the fall of 1985--a time when construction on the airstrip had not begun.

Fernandez’s account bolsters that offered last week by Lewis A. Tambs, former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, who had said Abrams knew he and Fernandez were involved in planning the airstrip.

Fernandez said he conceived the idea for the airstrip after Tambs arrived in Costa Rica in July, 1985, and announced that “his mandate was the creation of a southern front” to distract Nicaragua’s Sandinista troops from the main contra army in northern Nicaragua.

Tambs testified that he had received his instructions from Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, who was fired last November from his National Security Council post and who is believed to be the central figure in the scandal.

Fernandez also had ties to North, and described himself to the panel as both a personal friend and ideological compatriot of the former White House aide. It was North who first suggested in early 1986 that Fernandez help the private supply operation by “passing information about drop zones and (times) which we would obtain from the commanders inside Nicaragua,” Fernandez said. Other witnesses have testified that Fernandez eventually began setting the schedules for the air drops.

Fernandez described himself as “quite surprised” when Abrams raised the subject of the airfield at the 1985 meeting. “I asked him how he had learned about it and he said that Col. North told him about it,” he said. “I asked him if the chief of the Central American (task force) knew about--also knew, and he said he did.”

Fernandez repeatedly insisted that he did not believe he had broken the complex law against U.S. aid to the contras, which during certain periods allowed the CIA to share some types of intelligence and communications with the rebels.

“To the best of my recollection, neither (CIA superiors) nor I ever intentionally violated any law of the United States in spirit or otherwise,” he said.

Fernandez acknowledged nonetheless that last year he had found himself in an “unorthodox position,” using special encoding equipment he received from North to relay messages from rebel forces to their private suppliers.

He said he told the head of the Latin American division about his activities in April, 1986, and the division head “was uncertain of what to do with the information. . . . He responded he would go back to Washington, look into it, and let me know about what I had raised with him.”

But when Fernandez worked out a plan that would have extricated him from the operation--by training a Nicaraguan to substitute for him as the communications link between the contras and their private suppliers--he suddenly was told to “stand down” from implementing it, he said.

That message came in what Nunn described as a “crazy telegram” that seemed to contradict the situation as described by Fernandez. Where the new plan was an effort to separate the CIA from the contra supply operation, the telegram noted: “To date we have maintained our distance from private benefactors. . . . The proposed program of assistance would change our policy.”

Fernandez also told of his frustrations in trying to work with rebel leaders Eden Pastora and Negro Chamorro. Despite Fernandez’s constant encouragement, Chamorro only once went into Nicaragua to fight. When Chamorro met heavy attack in a 1983 foray 30 meters inside the country, he used a pay phone to call Fernandez at CIA headquarters near Washington and ask for mortars, Fernandez said.

Fernandez’s testimony conflicted with parts of a May 17 article in The Times on the CIA’s actions in response to the congressional inquiry but it confirmed other parts of the report.

The Times article quoted unidentified U.S. officials as saying that Fernandez had named the chief of the CIA’s Latin America division, Fiers, CIA counterterrorism official Dewey Clarridge and George as those to whom he reported his activities.

In his testimony, Fernandez said he had not reported to either Clarridge or George. He said he did not believe George knew of his activities, and he asserted flatly that Clarridge “had no knowledge about what I was doing.”

The Times also reported that some officials believed that Fernandez had recanted some of his charges against superior officers after being told that his job could be protected if he accepted sole blame for his role in North’s airlift. Fernandez said that account was “absolutely not (true).”

Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.) read part of the article to Fernandez: “Faced with dismissal, a very bitter Fernandez told investigators early this year that several superiors knew of and at least tacitly approved his work for North.”

“Is that correct or incorrect?” Cohen asked.

“That is incorrect,” Fernandez replied.

“Several superiors did not know about your activity?” Cohen asked.

“No, I was referring to the ‘bitter,’ ” Fernandez said.

Staff writer Doyle McManus contributed to this story.