Ex-CIA Official Faces Iran-Contra Charges : Indictment: Duane Clarridge is accused of lying about secret missile shipment. His lawyer says he is ‘innocent of any wrongdoing.’

A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted a retired senior CIA official on seven counts of lying to Senate and House committees and a presidential review board about a secret shipment of Hawk missiles to Iran that entangled the intelligence agency in the Iran-Contra scandal.

The indictment of Duane (Dewey) Clarridge on perjury and false-statement charges raised to four the number of former CIA officials charged in the case and signaled that the investigation is moving into its final stage.

Because of his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, Clarridge, 59, was given a letter of reprimand in late 1987, demoted and encouraged to retire from the agency by then-CIA Director William H. Webster.

William A. McDaniel, an attorney for Clarridge, said the former CIA official “served his country with honor and without reproach for over 30 years” and is “innocent of any wrongdoing.”

He said Clarridge looks forward to the trial and predicted it “will establish his innocence.”

The maximum punishment for each of the seven felony counts is five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Clarridge, who is now an executive with General Dynamics Corp. in San Diego, rose rapidly in the agency after former CIA Director William J. Casey took command in 1981. Casey promoted him to head the European division of the CIA’s directorate of operations, the post he held when former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North enlisted his help in November, 1985, in an Israeli transfer of U.S. Hawk missiles to Iran, according to the indictment.

The Hawk shipment was part of the secret arms-for-hostage deal being monitored by North.

The grand jury charged that Clarridge lied to the Senate and House Intelligence committees--the panels that investigated the Iran-Contra affair--and a presidential review board when he said he did not know of the military shipment to Iran.

The indictment traced the origins of Clarridge’s involvement to a meeting he had on the evening of Nov. 19, 1985, with North and Vincent M. Cannistraro, a CIA employee detailed to the National Security Council.

At the meeting, held at Charley’s Place, a McLean, Va., a restaurant frequented by CIA employees, North allegedly discussed with Clarridge and Cannistraro his difficulties in arranging flight clearances for an aircraft carrying military equipment to Iran, the grand jury said. Cannistraro and North have both testified before the grand jury.

Not more than two days after the meeting, Clarridge “became operationally involved” in helping North with the weapons shipment. The involvement included informing North that a CIA proprietary airline was available to deliver the weapons to Iran, directing CIA agents overseas to provide shipment assistance and allowing North to coordinate the delivery from Clarridge’s office at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the indictment said.

The CIA proprietary airline delivered the Hawk missiles to Iran on Nov. 25, 1985, and details of the arms-for-hostages operation began to be reported in the press nearly a year later, leading to the questioning of Clarridge.

Five of the seven counts of perjury and false statements concerned Clarridge’s testimony on Dec. 2, Dec. 11 and Dec. 18, 1986--meaning that the five-year statute of limitations covering that testimony is about to run out.