Casey Ignored Staff Complaints About Arms Dealers, Aide Says : Deputy Objected to Secord and Iranian ‘Bum’

The late CIA Director William J. Casey bypassed subordinates who complained that unsavory people, including an Iranian “bum,” were helping run the Reagan Administration’s secret weapons sales to Iran, a top Casey aide told Congress in testimony released today.

Clair George, the agency’s deputy director for operations, said Casey overruled his strong objections to individuals involved in the arms deals, including retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, who arranged logistics for arms shipments, and an Iranian middleman whom George called “a bum” and “a liar.”

George’s closed-door testimony Aug. 5 and 6 before the congressional Iran- contra committees was released today, though some sensitive portions were blacked out.

The CIA official said he went directly to Casey with his objections after learning that Iranian Manucher Ghorbanifar was the only intermediary for dealings with Iran.

“I said, ‘Bill, I am not going to run this guy any more,’ which means in our language, ‘I will not handle him, he is a bum,’ ” George said.

In fact, after hearing George’s objections to Ghorbanifar, Casey personally assigned Charles Allen, the national intelligence officer for terrorism but an official without operational experience, to work with Ghorbanifar.

Not a Good Match

“There couldn’t have been a better mismatch,” George said, contending that Allen was unprepared to deal with a character as complex as Ghorbanifar.

Casey resigned as CIA director in February after being hospitalized seven weeks earlier with a brain seizure. He died in May.

George was questioned sharply about his contention before another congressional panel in October, 1986, that the CIA had no role in secret resupply operations to aid the Nicaraguan contra rebels. The claim has since been contradicted by other agency officials.

George said he had intended to tell Congress during his earlier appearance that the CIA had no unauthorized role, because he believed the agency was allowed to share intelligence with the supply network. George apologized for his earlier statements.

George, who testified with Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams last Oct. 14 to the House Intelligence Committee, said he was surprised at the strength of Abrams’ denial that the U.S. government was involved in contra resupply flights.

“It was so categorical. It was the sort of thought that went through my mind, ‘Excuse me, Elliott, but maybe you are the only guy in town that hasn’t heard this news’ ” about U.S. help for the contras, George testified.

But he didn’t speak up to contradict Abrams because, George said, he was “overly taken with trying to protect the Central Intelligence Agency.”

George also said he has discussed with investigators for independent counsel Lawrence Walsh a missing CIA cable from agents in Portugal to CIA headquarters. According to the testimony of unnamed agents, the cable revealed that U.S.-made missiles were the cargo of a shipment Secord was trying to move from Israel to Iran--not oil-drilling equipment, as publicly claimed.

George said he could not understand how such a cable, if sent, could disappear at CIA headquarters.