From: cdp!christic%labrea.stanford.edu Subject: ADMINISTRATION STOPS CIA TRIAL /* Written 4:26 pm Dec 31, 1990 by christic in cdp:christic.news */ /* ---------- "ADMINISTRATION STOPS CIA TRIAL" ---------- */ ----------------------------------------------------------------- BUSH ADMINISTRATION STOPS C.I.A. TRIAL By CARL DEAL Convergence Magazine, Christic Institute, Winter 1991, p. 19 Attorney General Dick Thornburgh's decision to block disclosure of what he deemed ``government secrets'' has forced Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh to drop charges against a former C.I.A. station chief who was charged with Iran-contra crimes. The defendant, Joseph Fernandez, headed the C.I.A. station in Costa Rica during the height of the secret war against Nicaragua. The case against him ran aground when he threatened to expose clandestine operations in Costa Rica, including evidence that the C.I.A. and their contra allies were involved in narcotics trafficking. In a related development, excerpts from Oliver North's office notebooks released to the press last year show that the former national security aide intended to warn the Drug Enforcement Administration not to investigate an airstrip in Costa Rica used by drug traffickers. This was not the first time Walsh has clashed with the Bush Administration. In earlier trials, the Justice Department's refusal to release classified documents to defense lawyers forced the special prosecutor to drop the most serious charges against Iran-contra conspirators Oliver North, John Poindexter, Albert Hakim and Richard Secord. Fernandez was originally charged with lying to C.I.A. and Congressional investigators about his role in contra resupply operations. Despite a ban on lethal aid to the contras, Fernandez worked with Oliver North to equip the Nicaraguan rebels operating on the southern front of the contra war. Fernandez planned to defend himself by exposing C.I.A. involvement in illegal military aid to the contras. The agency has denied it had any role in the affair. To prove his point, Fernandez subpoened 5,000 classified documents. Anticipating that the judge would dismiss charges against Fernandez if the documents were not available for his defense, Walsh withdrew the charges when Thornburgh refused to comply with the subpoena. Walsh has complained to Congress that there is ``an appearance of conflict of interest'' in Thornburgh's actions because ``the agency refusing disclosure [the C.I.A.] is itself a subject of investigation.'' Fernandez threatened to disclose the locations of C.I.A. stations and facilities, including the Santa Elena airstrip, a contra resupply facility used to fly drugs out of Costa Rica on planes after they emptied their military cargoes. Although the location of the Santa Elena strip has been a matter of public record for nearly four years, Thornburgh said that official acknowledgement by the United States Government would be a threat to national security. According to newly released entries in Oliver North notebooks, a plan to move the rebels inside Nicaragua and keep them supplied from Costa Rica was conceived at an August 1985 meeting in San Jose, the Costa Rican capital. ``[M]ove all op[eration]s inside for [air] drops. . . . [Central Intelligence] Agency trainers to S[outh] to train in log[istic] deliveries . . . Agency to provide log[istics].'' Costa Rican Ambassador Lewis Tambs and Robert Owen, North's liaison to the contras, worked with Fernandez on the project. North's notebooks also reveal that Felipe Vidal, an anti-Castro Cuban emigre, helped North in Central America. The Costa Rican Legislative Assembly recently reported that Vidal received large amounts of money from Frigorificos de Puntarenas, a company that smuggled Colombian cocaine to Miami in frozen shrimp containers. Vidal also collaborated with John Hull, the United States businessman whose farm in Costa Rica was used as a staging area for weapon and drug shipments. Both men are under indictment in Costa Rica for their role in the La Penca bombing. Fernandez testified to Congress in a secret session that ``Vidal . . . had a problem with drugs,'' and that the C.I.A. had to ``protect'' him. Despite this ``problem,'' Vidal was regarded highly by the North network, which chose him to oversee the logistics of the Santa Elena supply operation. Costa Rican Minister of Public Security Benjamin Piza, a founding member of an extreme rightist political movement, was instrumental in masking the role of the United States Government in the Santa Elena project. While officials in Costa Rican government officially identified the airstrip as a tourism project, Piza assigned Civil Guard Col. Jose Ramon Montero to Santa Elena. Montero lent personnel and equipment to the venture, and reportedly accepted a new car for his help. At the May 1989 trial of drug trafficker and contra supporter Edwin Viales, Montero testified that Viales had offered to pay him to look the other way when drug flights left the Santa Elena airstrip. Piza and North also agreed that the D.E.A. should ignore activities at the airstrip. After meeting with Piza in January 1986, North recorded that the ``D.E.A. will be briefed to leave hands off [of Santa Elena].'' The involvement of high government officials in the war against Nicaragua and the contra-cocaine connection have so far been central to at least four judicial proceedings and several official investigations in Costa Rica. Piza and Montero have been dismissed from office and are awaiting trials on criminal charges. >>From Christic DataBank BBS, Washington, D.C., 202-529-0140<<