Entries Appear to Confirm Earlier Testimony : Notes Offer Record of Secret Operation

The notebook entry is in Lt. Col. Oliver L. North’s own looping script, and it records a frantic warning to North from the CIA against shipping U.S. missile parts to Iran: “This is criminal!”

The entry on the next page is more laconic but no less revealing: “RR directed op to proceed.”

“RR,” North told Congress last week, means Ronald Reagan.

Throughout the two years during which he ran super-secret operations from his post on the National Security Council staff, Oliver North kept meticulous notes of almost everything he did. In ordinary spiral notebooks, he recorded hundreds of secret meetings and thousands of telephone conversations about U.S. arms sales to Iran and the effort to aid Nicaraguan rebels.

“Ollie was almost an obsessive note-taker,” a North associate said. “He would sit at a meeting and scribble away.”

Habit Irritates Casey

On a number of occasions, North told the committee, his habit seemed to irritate CIA Director William J. Casey, who told him to put away his notebook and scolded him. “If I couldn’t remember it, I didn’t belong in the business,” North recalled Casey as saying.

On Tuesday, long excerpts from North’s notebooks at last came to light, released by the Senate and House committees investigating the Iran- contra scandal.

Along with hundreds of other documents that North left behind in the White House files, they offer a contemporary--but sometimes cryptic--record of North’s secret projects. And they offer an intimate glimpse of the Marine’s frantic days as he attempted to run two complex secret operations at once.

They also appear to confirm much of North’s testimony during the last week--and pinpoint the participation of several other U.S. officials in his schemes. Items in the notebooks and other documents indicate that:

--The CIA warned North that his plan to ship arms to Iran without a presidential order in November, 1985, was illegal, but National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter told him that President Reagan ordered the operation to go ahead anyway. An entry from five minutes after midnight on Nov. 26 (which North, apparently fatigued, misdated as “Oct. 26”) quotes two senior CIA officials as warning: “This is illegal!” But notes of a 9:40 a.m. meeting with Poindexter the same morning reads: “RR directed op to proceed.”

--North, as he testified, kept Poindexter exhaustively informed of his activities, both in Central America and Iran. His records include hundreds of messages and conversations with Poindexter, ranging from discussions of high policy to complaints that he was not allowed to use a White House car and driver.

--North also kept the CIA informed of his work to obtain support for the contras after the agency was barred by law from aiding the rebels. On Dec. 27, 1984, his notebook records: “Disc w/Clarridge re activities in Cent-Am”--a discussion with Duane (Dewey) Clarridge, the CIA officer who had run the agency’s earlier contra program. During 1985 and 1986, there are similar meetings with Casey and the CIA’s Central American Task Force chief, Alan D. Fiers.

--The notebooks suggest that Gen. Paul Gorman, the commander of the U.S. Armed Forces Southern Command during 1985, advised North on his efforts to resupply the contras. An entry for Jan. 10, 1985--a time when North was attempting to ship arms to the rebels, reads: “Call from Gorman. Guatemala problem. Puerto Barrios (a port on Guatemala’s Caribbean coast): Much press. Will likely attract press attn.” Gorman could not be reached for comment.

--North, with the approval of then-National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, arranged for contra leader Arturo Cruz to be paid a $75,000 yearly salary from funds donated by Saudi Arabia. A March 15, 1985, memorandum, initialed by McFarlane, says the money was to be paid by another contra leader, Adolfo Calero, “without Cruz’s knowledge”; contra sources said the funds came from the Saudi donation which Calero controlled.

Firm Acquires Money

--International Business Communications, the public relations firm used by North to transfer money from private U.S. donors to the contras, appears to have taken 10% of at least one of the transfers. Notes dated Nov. 19, 1985, of a conversation with Richard R. Miller, IBC’s president, records transfers of $198,000 to Richard V. Secord and $100,000 to Calero, and notes: “IBC--10%.” Miller has not responded to requests for comment.

--The conservative Heritage Foundation funneled a $100,000 donation to an IBC affiliate, which sent most of the money on to Secord’s contra-supply operation. The donation, originally made by Pittsburgh financier John Donahue, went through Heritage to the Institute for North-South Issues, which deducted $20,000 for “administrative costs” before passing most of the rest on to Secord. It was not clear whether Donahue or the Heritage Foundation knew what the money was used for.