operation. In a letter dated September 20, 1985, North requested that Felix Rodriguez, an American citizen with close ties to the commander of the Salvadoran Air Force, solicit permission to use the base for his resupply operation. […]
Fourth, at North’s instruction, Secord through Clines purchased in Europe and delivered to Central America thousands of pounds of arms from December 1985 to September 1986. The cost of purchase and transport of these arms was paid from the secret Swiss accounts.
Fifth, North, with the assistance of Secord, secretly directed the actual administration of the resupply project during 1986. Secord hired first Gadd and then Robert Dutton as project managers. Gadd and Dutton, through the corporation Amalgamated Commercial Enterprises (ACE), in turn hired numerous other employees. By the summer of 1986, the resupply operation had over 20 full-time employees whose combined salaries totalled over $60,000 per month. The cost of equipment and salaries for the operation was paid from the Enterprise’s secret Swiss accounts.
The activities at the Ilopango air base were supervised by Quintero for Secord. Rodriguez served as liaison with the base commander, General Juan Rafael Bustillo. Additional assistance and supervision was provided by the military group detailed to the US Embassy in El Salvador.
Gadd and Dutton reported directly to Secord. At the same time, they had frequent—often daily—contact with North, from whom they accepted guidance and direction. North frequently gave them orders regarding specific operations, usually in order to accelerate resupply drops to the Contras. […]
Under North’s and Secord’s direction, the resupply operation in 1986 improved and ultimately delivered to the Contras in the field in Nicaragua thousands of pounds of arms previously purchased by Secord. North generally received detailed inventories of the lethal supplies provided [to] Contra forces. The resupply operation also delivered substantial quantities of nonlethal aid and engaged in projects such as training Contra forces in the use of explosives. These operational activities of the Enterprise ended in early October 1986 when an Enterprise aircraft was shot down over Nicaragua, killing three crew members and leading to the capture of Eugene Hasenfus, an American who told his Nicaraguan captors that he was working for the CIA.
Funds for the secret war came primarily from three sources: (a) the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL); (b) the Iran arms sales; and (c) foreign governments. As set forth in the “Flow of Funds” chapter of this Report, the total amount of funds deposited in Enterprise accounts in Switzerland was $47.6 million. By the time the Iran/Contra affair became public, the Enterprise had given to the Contras or had spent on efforts related to the Contras approximately $17.6 million of these funds.
From December 1984 through July 1985, the Contras paid into Enterprise accounts approximately $11.3 million for a variety of services and goods. Most of these funds came from the Saudis, who contributed $32 million in 1984 and 1985. The Saudi funds were nearly exhausted by mid-1985.
After North held his June meeting in Miami, the Contras were no longer the direct recipient of such funds. Thereafter, the conspirators directed to Enterprise bank accounts all funds from third countries that had been solicited by US officials on behalf of the Contras, even though some of them had been restricted for only humanitarian purposes.
In August 1985, North asked Gaston Sigur, an NSC staff officer, to arrange a meeting between North and an official of the Taiwanese government for the purpose of soliciting funds for the Contras. Following this meeting, North had Sigur confirm the decision by Taiwan to provide the Contras with $1 million. North then directed Robert Owen to deliver an envelope containing the number of an Enterprise account to the Taiwanese official. On 20 September 1985, $1 million was received by the Enterprise. In late 1985, North renewed his request, via Sigur, that Taiwan provide additional funds to the Contras. In February 1986, a second transfer of $1 million was received in an Enterprise account.
Similarly, in June 1986, when the State Department planned to raise $10 million for the Contras from the Sultan of Brunei, North undertook to divert the funds to the Enterprise by giving one of its Swiss account numbers to Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams. Fawn Hall, North’s secretary, apparently made a transcription error in the account number so the funds were misdirected and never received.
On November 20, 1985, the Enterprise received $1 million from the government of Israel to pay the Enterprise for transporting a number of shipments of weapons from Israel to Iran. That weapons transfer was abandoned after the first shipment. The Enterprise’s expenses for that shipment were less than $200,000, but the Enterprise kept the balance.
[…]
The Iran arms sales were the major source of the Enterprise’s funds for the secret war activities. In all, the Enterprise received slightly more than $30 million for the sale of Government arms and returned only $12.2 million to the United States. At least $3.6 million was to fund the Enterprise’s resupply operation in support of the Contras.
Soon after the June 1985 meeting in Miami, a series of congressional inquiries sought to determine exactly what the US Government, and North in particular, were doing on behalf of the Contras. McFarlane, Poindexter and North responded by actively deceiving committees of Congress with a series of false statements and by other efforts to ensure that Congress would never find out about the secret Contra military support.
The first false statements came in McFarlane’s 5 September 1985 letter to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a letter on which McFarlane, Poindexter, and North all worked. The letter contained false denials of North’s fund-raising activities and his provision of tactical advice to the Contras, as well as a false assurance that no one on the NSC staff had “violate[d] the letter or spirit” of the Boland prohibition on military aid. 12 September 1985 and 7 October 1985 letters under McFarlane’s signature, both jointly drafted by North and McFarlane, contained similar false statements.
McFarlane’s replacement by Poindexter as National Security Advisor on 4 December 1985 did not alter the pattern of deceit. North continued to work to prevent dissemination of information about his activities. On 16 June 1986, North sent Fernandez a KL-43 message that stated in part:
I do not think we ought to contemplate these operations without [Quintero] being on scene. Too many things go wrong that then directly involve you and me in what should be deniable for both of us.
On 15 May 1986, Poindexter sent this computer message to North:
I am afraid you are letting your operational role become too public. From now on I don’t want you to talk to anybody else, including Casey, except me about any of your operational roles. In fact you need to generate a cover story that I have insisted that you stop.
North responded to Poindexter on the same day with a computer note that said “Done.” North subsequently had Robert Dutton inform Enterprise employees in El Salvador that the resupply operation had been taken over by a new entity known as “B. C. Washington.”
Nevertheless, on 10 June 1986 Poindexter reminded North via computer: “I still want you to reduce your visibility.” […]
In the summer of 1986, Congress renewed its inquiries. On 21 July 1986, responding to a House resolution of inquiry, Poindexter sent letters to two committee chairmen, stating that McFarlane’s 1985 letters to Congress accurately described the activities of the NSC staff. When members of the House Intelligence Committee questioned North in person, he falsely denied his Contra-support activities.
The deception continued after one of the resupply organization’s planes carrying Hasenfus was shot down in October 1986. Congress was about to authorize resumption of Contra support by the CIA, with an appropriation of $100 million. Administration officials denied any connection with the aircraft. In October and November 1986, North altered, destroyed, and removed documents and official records relating to the resupply operation. On November 23, 1986, he lied to the Attorney General to conceal Secord’s operation and his own responsibility in directing the secret resupply activities and the control of the funds used to finance them. Between 22 and 29 November 1986, Poindexter unsuccessfully tried to delete from the White House computer system all of his communications with North. Finally, on December 8, 1986, McFarlane told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he was unaware that the government or citizens of Saudi Arabia had been involved in financing the Contras. […]
