Ex-CIA Official Pleads Guilty in Iran-Contra Case

The former chief of the CIA’s Central American task force pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges arising from the Iran-Contra scandal and acknowledged that high-level agency officials knew of the diversion of Iran arms sale proceeds to support Nicaraguan rebels.

The plea by Alan D. Fiers to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress is the first public admission by a former ranking CIA official of knowledge about the illegal fund diversion during the Ronald Reagan Administration.

Fiers, in his admission, implicated his former superior, Clair George, the CIA deputy director of operations who left the agency in 1987. He also pledged to cooperate in the now-expanding investigation of the scandal.

The plea bargain with Fiers marks “a significant advance in our investigation,” said independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who had come under increasing criticism for his handling of the 4 1/2-year Iran-Contra inquiry.

Fiers gave no indication that he would contradict testimony by Robert M. Gates, the former CIA deputy director who has been nominated by President Bush to head the agency, that he knew nothing of the illegal fund diversion until it was publicly disclosed on Nov. 25, 1986.

Even so, the revelations of insider knowledge of Iran-Contra activity at a time when Gates was the agency’s No. 2 official are certain to complicate his confirmation hearings. Gates now serves as deputy national security adviser at the White House.

The Senate Intelligence Committee had been tentatively scheduled to begin the Gates confirmation hearings on Monday, but some sources suggested that the sessions might be delayed in light of Fiers’ guilty plea.

“I have some serious concerns now about Gates’ nomination,” said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), a member of the intelligence panel. “I especially want to see what Fiers has to say and whether he has any information on Gates.”

“There’s no question there’ll be some long knives out,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who added that he nevertheless expects Gates to be confirmed.

Fiers, who left the agency in early 1988 after being reprimanded by retiring CIA Director William H. Webster for his misleading testimony before Congress, could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000 on each misdemeanor count. U.S. District Judge Aubrey Robinson did not set a date for sentencing.

Referring to his testimony before House and Senate committees in 1986, Fiers said outside the courthouse Tuesday: “I did what I thought was in the best interests of the country. Today, I did what I thought was in the best interests of the country.”

His lawyer, Stanley Arkin, said that Fiers had been “caught in a dilemma” between the need to maintain the integrity of his “mission” and the obligation of every citizen to testify truthfully.

Fiers’ plea comes at a critical point in Walsh’s investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal. Walsh’s critics contend that he has pursued the inquiry for too long and that the eight convictions it has produced so far have not justified the $25.5-million cost.

The criticism has grown more strident in the wake of last year’s appeals court reversal of the three-count conviction of former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North. The North case is set for crucial court hearings in September to determine if he can be tried again under rules imposed by the appeals panel.

In the government’s outline of the “factual basis for the guilty plea,” Fiers admitted that North told him of the illegal fund diversion in the summer of 1986 and that he told two of his superiors about it by late August, 1986.

But when asked on Nov. 25, 1986, about his knowledge of the fund diversion, Fiers told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had learned of it only that day, when it was revealed at a presidential press conference.

According to Fiers’ admission Tuesday, North told him in the early spring of 1986 “that Israel was selling weapons to Iran and ‘kicking dollars into the Contras’ pot.’ ”

Shortly after that, Fiers reported North’s statement to his immediate superior, the then chief of the CIA’s Latin American division. The court papers did not disclose what, if any, actions were taken by Fiers’ superior, who was subsequently reassigned to another CIA post.

But when Fiers reported to his new superior later that summer that the United States was selling arms to Iran and using the proceeds to aid the Contras, that official instructed him to immediately relay the information to George, the agency’s deputy director of operations. When Fiers did so, George told him: “Now you are one of a handful of people who know this,” the government said in the court papers.

George did not return calls left on his answering machine Tuesday at his home in Bethesda, Md. Neither of Fiers’ immediate superiors, who continue to work for the CIA, were identified by name in the court documents.

It is not clear whether Fiers’ admissions could create new legal problems for North, who has testified that former CIA Director William J. Casey was the only agency official that he knew had knowledge of the diversion.

The government’s charges noted that former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams appeared with Fiers before the Senate committee and also denied previous knowledge of the arms sales or fund diversions. Abrams, often cited as a likely target of Walsh’s investigation, did not return a reporter’s call Tuesday.

In his guilty plea disclosures, Fiers further implicated George by correcting testimony that Fiers had given to the House Intelligence Committee on Oct. 14, 1986, on what he knew about a Contra resupply plane that had been shot down over Nicaragua nine days earlier.

Although Fiers knew that North, former CIA operative Felix Rodriguez and others were coordinating and assisting the resupply flights, according to the court papers, he told the committee that the CIA did not know who was conducting the operation.

At a meeting before the committee hearing, Fiers told George that the CIA would have to acknowledge that Rodriguez had assisted in the resupply flights because Fiers knew that to be a fact, the government said. He also said that he and George should describe the origins of the resupply flights.

But George told Fiers that neither topic should be discussed in their appearance before the House committee, the government said. The court papers said that George stated that the CIA was still gathering information about Rodriguez and was not certain who he was.

NEXT STEP

Tuesday’s guilty plea by former CIA official Alan D. Fiers is expected to be followed by a new round of intensive questioning by Iran-Contra prosecutors and a federal grand jury. Although the prosecutors already have a general outline of Fiers’ knowledge of the scandal, a systematic, point-by-point interrogation would be needed to develop charges against other officials. One potential candidate is former CIA official Clair George, who was implicated by Fiers’ admissions.