CIA Cables Introduced at George Trial : Investigation: Prosecutors believe that once-classified reports will prove that the spymaster lied about his knowledge of Iran-Contra arms deals.

Prosecutors at the Iran-Contra trial of former CIA spymaster Clair E. George on Monday introduced a stack of CIA cables and other formerly highly classified government records to set the stage for a crucial courtroom confrontation between George and his chief accuser, former top aide Alan D. Fiers.

One set of documents bears on the veracity of George’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Oct. 10, 1986, an appearance that is the basis for two of the nine felony counts accusing George of lying and obstructing congressional and grand jury investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.

George told that committee that the CIA did not know “the individuals involved” in a flight that had been shot down over Nicaragua five days earlier while trying to bring supplies to the Contras. He testified that the agency was still checking the identity of a mysterious “Max Gomez” who had been named by the sole survivor of the C-123 cargo plane crash as one of the CIA operatives running the operation.

Monday, the prosecutors introduced a once-secret cable that had been received at CIA headquarters the evening before George’s testimony. The cable identified Gomez as “the local alias of Felix Rodriguez, a retired CIA staff employee.” The cable said that Rodriguez had told a CIA officer in Central America that he was participating in “efforts to assist the FDN,” as the Nicaraguan Democratic Front, the Contra organization, was known by its Spanish initials.

The Oct. 9, 1986, cable said: “It certainly seems possible to us that in his involvement with the crew members of the downed C-123, Rodriguez may have led them to believe, erroneously, that CIA was somehow involved in this operation.”

Rodriguez was a soldier of fortune who had gone to El Salvador with the approval of then-Vice President George Bush to aid the anti-communist counterinsurgency campaign in that country. He was recruited for the Contra resupply effort by then-White House aide Oliver L. North.

The prosecution said public identification of Rodriguez at that moment would have been highly embarrassing for the CIA and the Ronald Reagan Administration for two reasons: It would have put the spotlight on North and his resupply network, operating at a time when Congress had barred all U.S. military aid to the rebels; it also could have jeopardized the re-establishment of CIA funding for the Contras, then awaiting final action by a Senate-House conference committee.

In addition to allegedly lying to the Senate committee at the Oct. 10 hearing, George has been charged with obstruction for allegedly ordering Fiers, who accompanied him to the hearing, not to disclose Rodriguez’s true identity.

Fiers, who has already pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts for misleading Congress, is expected to testify today for the prosecution in what could be a dramatic high point of the trial.