CIA Aide in Contra Role to Retire

Clair E. George, the Central Intelligence Agency’s chief of covert operations who was criticized for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, will retire at the end of this year, the agency announced today.

CIA spokesman Bill Baker announced George’s retirement but declined to say what had prompted it. In October, 1986, just a month before the Iran-Contra affair became public, George assured the House Intelligence Committee that the CIA had no involvement in what he termed a private resupply network for Nicaragua’s Contra rebels, during the period of a congressional ban on such aid. But during the Iran-Contra hearings, it became clear that the agency had provided extensive logistical help for the rebels through its operatives in Central America.