The Nation - News from June 6, 1989

A former CIA agent facing trial in the Iran-Contra affair misled the Tower Commission and CIA investigators in 19 instances, the government alleges in a newly filed document. Joseph F. Fernandez, the CIA’s former station chief in Costa Rica, withheld from investigators early in 1987 details of his involvement with Oliver L. North’s secret Contra resupply network, according to prosecutors. The three-page bill of particulars filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., by the office of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh is the most detailed summary to date of allegedly misleading statements made by Fernandez. He faces a trial July 24 on charges of obstructing inquiries into the Iran-Contra affair and making false statements.