Gen. Secord Pleads Guilty to 1 Count : Iran-Contra: The plea agreement allows him to admit lying to congressional investigators in exchange for dismissal of the 11 other charges.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord pleaded guilty today to one count of lying to congressional investigators in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Secord had been scheduled to go on trial Monday on 12 criminal charges, nine of them stemming from his testimony to Congress in 1987.

But at a pretrial hearing, Iran-Contra prosecutor Reid Weingarten announced that the government and Secord’s lawyers had negotiated a plea bargain. The 11 other criminal charges against Secord are being dismissed.

Secord agreed to “cooperate fully” with Iran-Contra prosecutors “by testifying truthfully at any trial . . . to which he may be called,” according to the plea agreement.

He could become a government witness against former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, whose criminal trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 22. Poindexter is accused of obstructing Congress and giving false statements in various investigations.

Poindexter has told the judge in his case that his daily meetings with then-President Ronald Reagan included discussions of Secord’s role as a middleman in the transfer of arms to Iran. Poindexter is trying to subpoena Reagan’s notes and diaries.

Secord flew with Poindexter from Central America to the United States on April 20, 1986, after the two men reviewed problems in White House aide Oliver L. North’s secret Contra resupply network.

Secord admitted in U.S. District Court that he made a false statement when he told congressional investigators on June 10, 1987, that he had not been aware any money from his business dealings in the Iran-Contra affair went to North.

Secord told Judge Aubrey Robinson that he had paid for a $13,800 security fence at North’s home.

“I should have known that they were aiming at the fence,” Secord said of the question by congressional investigators that led to his false statement. Secord said his answer was “a misguided effort to prevent further criticism,” noting that there had “already been a firestorm in the press” about who paid for North’s security fence.

Secord could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Secord’s profits for his work on the Administration’s Iran arms sales and assisting the Contras “exceed $1.5 million,” prosecutors said in a recent court filing.