North’s Former Courier Tells of Secret Contra Contacts

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North was deeply concerned about keeping secret his activities in resupplying the Contras during the two-year period when Congress had outlawed U.S. military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, a participant in the effort testified Friday.

Robert W. Owen, 35, who assisted North as a private citizen while the congressional ban was in effect in 1985 and 1986, told the federal court jury in the North trial that the now-retired Marine officer sent him on several hush-hush missions to Central America with tactical military advice for the Contras.

A previous witness, Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), has testified that North and a former superior, ex-National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, specifically denied before the House Intelligence Committee that North was giving military advice to the Contras during that period or that the White House was enlisting outside military aid for the rebels.

Owen, who called himself an admirer of North and referred to him as “my godfather,” appeared uncomfortable as he described meeting with North dozens of times. He was the prosecution’s third witness, concluding the first week of testimony.

Owen, testifying under a grant of limited immunity, said North advised him in 1986 that he had misled Hamilton’s committee. He said that North told him he had advised the congressmen only that “I met you (Owen) a couple of times--I knew you were an activist supporting the Nicaraguan resistance.”

Among the 12 criminal charges against North are allegations that he lied to Congress about his relationship with the Contras.

$1,000 Wedding Present

Owen acknowledged that North had given him $1,000 in Contra funds as a wedding present in 1986, even though, according to Owen, “I tried to give the money back.” The government has charged that the gift, in the form of travelers checks, was part of $4,300 in expense funds that North illegally converted to his own use.

Owen said he protested that “I didn’t feel I deserved them,” but that North insisted he have the checks for the “good job” he was doing.

Under questioning by associate prosecutor Michael Bromwich, Owen told of shuttling back and forth between North and the Contras, as well as meeting with North in his White House office 80 to 100 times for instructions or to make reports.

A former staff member of the Senate Republican Conference and later an aide to Vice President Dan Quayle while he was a senator, Owen said that he first met North when a Washington public relations firm for which Owen was working was considering whether to represent the Contras.

Owen said that he subsequently volunteered to help North encourage the Contras when the firm decided against establishing a nonprofit, tax-deductible organization to assist them.

“I had discussed with North that we couldn’t use a nonprofit organization to give them lethal aid, but only food, medicine, clothing, boots and the like,” Owen said. “I thought there was a need to pick up the slack where Congress had left off.”

While remaining on the firm’s payroll for several months, Owen said that he often represented North at meetings in Central America with Adolfo Calero and other “resistance leaders” because North wanted to keep “a low profile.” He said North was conscious of press reports that he was helping the Contras in possible violation of the congressional ban.

Owen said that he later went on Calero’s payroll at $2,500 a month.

In sending messages and reports to North at the National Security Council, Owen said he often addressed the Marine officer with such code names as “Steel Hammer” and “B.G.,” which he said meant “Blood ‘n’ Guts.” Owen said that he often signed the reports “T.C.” for “the courier,” a term North had applied to him.

North kept tabs on a “wish list” of military equipment that Calero provided to Owen, the witness said. Once Owen said he helped solicit a contribution from a Taiwanese diplomat in Washington by giving the official an envelope, at North’s direction, and the number of a Swiss bank account.

He said he also met with retired Army Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, at North’s direction, when North “became concerned about the publicity Singlaub was getting as he actively went around trying to solicit funding for the Contras.”

He said that Singlaub, with advice from North, arranged for the purchase of heavy military equipment, including anti-aircraft weapons that were designed to destroy armored helicopters used by the Sandinista troops.

North sent Owen on one mission, Owen said, to tell Calero that the Contras should consider a “suicide mission” to bomb the Soviet-built helicopters on the ground. But the plan apparently was scrubbed, he said. On at least two other occasions, Owen testified, he carried tactical plans from North to the Contras that included terrain maps and some items provided by the CIA.