Witness Says George Knew of Contra Deal : Trial: He lied to Congress about North’s role and withheld information, former CIA aide Fiers testifies.

Despite his denials to Congress, former CIA covert actions chief Clair E. George had detailed knowledge of ex-White House aide Oliver L. North’s role in secretly resupplying the Contras, the former head of the CIA’s Central American Task Force testified Tuesday.

Alan D. Fiers, the former task force chief, testified that George obtained information from him on Nicaraguan air defenses--data he had refused to give North because Congress had outlawed such CIA activity.

In late 1984 or early 1985, Fiers testified, he told George “‘What are you going to do with it? Give it to Ollie?’ ”

“He said, ‘Never mind,’ ” Fiers recalled.

Fiers, the key prosecution witness, spent the first of what are expected to be several days on the witness stand at George’s trial in federal court. George is charged with perjury, obstruction and giving false statements in his 1986 testimony to congressional panels and a federal grand jury investigating Iran-Contra.

Fiers cited another example of being “rolled” by North, who, he said, went over his head when he would not cooperate in North’s secret efforts on behalf of the Contras. Fiers said that after he refused to give North a policy paper on U.S. difficulties in Central America, the late CIA Director William J. Casey ordered him to take the paper to the Executive Office Building where North worked.

Testifying in a deep, resonant voice, Fiers often looked directly at jurors and gestured with both hands as he replied to questions by Craig A. Gillen, the chief prosecutor. His testimony built slowly toward his central accusations that George gave false statements in 1986 to congressional panels investigating the supplying of Contras and that George instructed Fiers to withhold information Congress sought.

The pace seemed so slow and the details so complex that several jurors looked heavy-lidded by the end of the day. But along the way, Fiers clearly caught their attention with testimony about former President Ronald Reagan and about the then-national security aide to Vice President George Bush.

The testimony about Reagan involved a May, 1986, White House meeting of the National Security Policy Group that dealt with how to fund the Contras because humanitarian aid had run out and Congress had not yet passed Reagan’s request for $100 million of resumed aid for the Nicaraguan rebels.

Then-Secretary of State George P. Shultz dismissed as “fanciful” the suggestion that the CIA pick up the slack, Fiers testified. “The President said, ‘What about Ollie’s people. Can’t they help?’ ”

Among the sources being used by North at the time was a network of private individuals to finance the Contras. But it was not clear from Fiers’ testimony that Reagan was referring to these so-called “private benefactors.”

Another participant in the meeting, which also included Casey, said, “It’s being worked on,” and the conversation moved on, Fiers said.

Fiers also told of “a support connection” between Felix Rodriguez, an ex-CIA employee working with North on Contra resupply from El Salvador, and the office of then-Vice President Bush.

He described an Aug. 12, 1986, meeting at the office of Donald P. Gregg, then Bush’s national security adviser, which focused on the private benefactors involved in supporting the Contras.

“Don Gregg said Felix was concerned that the private benefactors were bad folks” seeking to exploit the resupply efforts, Fiers said.

Four of the nine counts against George charge that he gave false statements to Congress about his knowledge of Rodriguez and instructed Fiers not to reveal that the CIA knew that Rodriguez’s alias was “Max Gomez.”

Fiers also told of discussing a CIA cable with George that complained that Rodriguez was coordinating with North on the Contra resupply efforts out of Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador. The Feb. 7, 1986, cable from a CIA agent in Ilopango told of one of the supply flights making an emergency landing on a road in El Salvador.

Fiers said George directed him: “ ‘You tell Marsh (the CIA agent) to stay away from it. . . . If he doesn’t, I’ll yank him.’ ”

George called the resupply program “a State Department-White House operation,” and added: “Do not get involved,” Fiers said. The incident took place eight months before George testified that the CIA did not know the identities of those involved in the resupply flights.

Fiers pleaded guilty last summer to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress and has cooperated extensively with independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh’s investigation of Iran-Contra.