Iran-Contra Prosecutor to Drop Charges Against Ex-CIA Official

Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh said Friday he will drop attempts to prosecute former CIA operative Joseph F. Fernandez after Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh announced that he will continue to refuse to permit classified CIA information sought by the defense to be used in the trial.

Thornburgh’s decision, sources said, makes it unlikely that Walsh’s office will indict other CIA officials on false-statement charges for testimony given to executive and congressional branch investigators after the Iran-Contra affair was made public.

“No matter how the Administration rationalizes the non-production of this (classified CIA) information, it shows a lack of concern for applying the rule of law to officials of the intelligence community,” Walsh said in a statement. He repeated his criticism, voiced last year when the issue first arose, that the Bush Administration has an “overprotective attitude toward classified information.”

Fernandez, a 22-year veteran of the agency, was the CIA station chief in Costa Rica from 1984 to 1986. While there he aided then-White House aide Oliver L. North in the secret resupply network for the Contras at a time when Congress had prohibited all U.S. military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.

Fernandez was indicted in April, 1989, for making false statements about his role and knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair to the White House-appointed Tower Commission and the CIA inspector general.

Fernandez demanded use of classified CIA documents for his trial, information his lawyers said would show that CIA officials knew of and themselves were involved in aiding the Contras and thus show that Fernandez had no need to lie about his activities.

Last November, Thornburgh filed an affidavit in U.S. District Court saying the materials Fernandez demanded could cause “serious damage to national security.”