George Attended Meeting on Iran Arms Sales, Secord Testifies

Richard V. Secord, a key operative in the Iran-Contra case, testified Wednesday that he took part in a 45-minute meeting with ex-CIA spy chief Clair E. George in January, 1986--nine months before George told a Senate committee he did not know Secord.

Testifying as a prosecution witness at George’s trial on nine counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of Iran-Contra probes, Secord said he sat next to or across the table from George at the meeting in which the sale of arms to Iran was discussed. Six other officials were at the meeting, held in the White House situation room.

George is charged with giving false statements on Oct. 10, 1986, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about his knowledge of Secord and his involvement in the Iran arms sales and the resupply of the Nicaraguan Contras.

Asked by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) at that hearing whether he had any contact with Secord, George responded: “No. I know his name well and I have known his name for years. But I do not know the man.”

George is charged with perjury for his Dec. 3, 1986, testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his personal contact with Secord and knowledge of his role in the “Iran initiative.”

During that testimony, George said he was “a little disturbed about some of the players in the affair,” including “the good Gen. Secord whom I had never laid eyes on but whose name I was familiar with.”

Secord, a retired Air Force major general, served as a middleman in arranging the Iranian arms sales and was a major “private benefactor” in supplying the Contras after Congress had outlawed such assistance by government.

In a 1989 plea bargain with independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, Secord pleaded guilty to lying to congressional investigators by denying that funds from the Iran arms sales had gone to former White House aide Oliver L. North.

Secord’s testimony did seem to provide some support for the defense when he recalled that during the White House situation room meeting, George voiced concern about not notifying Congress about the presidential finding that served as the basis for the secret sales of arms to Iran.

During cross-examination by George’s lawyer, Richard A. Hibey, Secord said there was no discussion at the White House meeting of resupplying the Contras.