vault backup: 2026-10-14 17:47:52

10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Oliver North.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ aliases:
   - Oliver L. North
   - Lt. Col. Oliver North
 created: 2026-05-17
-updated: 2026-10-08
+updated: 2026-10-14
 category: "Intelligence & Government"
 tags:
   - KeyFigure
@@ -89,31 +89,33 @@ The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that North received drug profits from Al-Kass
 
 The Enterprise's air operation used the [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango]] base in [[El Salvador]]. North wrote to [[Felix Rodriguez]] in September 1985 asking him to use his influence with Salvadoran Air Force commander [[Juan Rafael Bustillo]] to secure hangar space; the CIA's records, as the writer [[Gary Webb]] reported, show Hangar No. 4 at Ilopango was used by the CIA for covert Contra operations until it was turned over to the NSC and North's Enterprise in 1985, while the adjoining Hangar No. 5 remained CIA-run.[^12] Walsh's Enterprise chapter records that the Salvadoran chief at Ilopango, General Bustillo, ordered the operation's warehouse of parts and supplies there, and that the downing of [[Eugene Hasenfus]] on October 5, 1986 "settled irrevocably the question of CIA assumption" of the Enterprise's operation.[^3]
 
+The congressional Iran-Contra report records that in May 1986 Israeli Defense Minister [[Yitzhak Rabin]] offered to provide Israeli military advisers for the Contras' southern front, and that North and Rabin met again in September 1986 and discussed an Israeli transfer of Soviet bloc weapons to the Contras. The report quotes North's notes that Rabin wanted "to know if we had any need for Sov Bloc weaps and ammo he could make avail," and asked whether North's ship, the Erria, had left the Mediterranean. When North answered that it was in Lisbon, Rabin suggested that it dock at [[Haifa]] and "have it filled w/ whatever they cd assemble" of a "recently seized PLO shipment captured at sea." On September 15, 1986, North told John Poindexter that orders had been passed to the ship to proceed to Haifa, where loading would be accomplished by Israeli military personnel. North's later briefing memorandum for a visit by Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]] recommended that the President thank him for the Israeli bloc arms "for use by the Nicaraguan democratic resistance."[^13]
+
 ### Panama and Noriega
 
-According to testimony before the [[Kerry Committee]] by the Panamanian official José Blandón, [[Manuel Noriega]] met North in June 1985 on a boat anchored off Panama City to discuss Panamanian cooperation in the war against Nicaragua while the Boland Amendment barred direct or indirect CIA support. Blandón testified that this meeting produced Noriega's agreement to help train Contra troops and to let Contra leaders enter and leave Panama freely, and that at a second meeting Noriega suggested Panamanian units could be used in operations on Nicaraguan territory; Blandón had no information that Noriega acted on North's request. Noriega met Casey in November 1985; a memorandum Casey wrote suggested Noriega left "reassured" and the narcotics issue was not mentioned, and other U.S. officials concluded that Casey had "let Noriega off the hook."[^13]
+According to testimony before the [[Kerry Committee]] by the Panamanian official José Blandón, [[Manuel Noriega]] met North in June 1985 on a boat anchored off Panama City to discuss Panamanian cooperation in the war against Nicaragua while the Boland Amendment barred direct or indirect CIA support. Blandón testified that this meeting produced Noriega's agreement to help train Contra troops and to let Contra leaders enter and leave Panama freely, and that at a second meeting Noriega suggested Panamanian units could be used in operations on Nicaraguan territory; Blandón had no information that Noriega acted on North's request. Noriega met Casey in November 1985; a memorandum Casey wrote suggested Noriega left "reassured" and the narcotics issue was not mentioned, and other U.S. officials concluded that Casey had "let Noriega off the hook."[^14]
 
-The Independent Counsel's summary of North's "Quid Pro Quo" admission describes discussions with Noriega about acts of sabotage against the Sandinista government in exchange for U.S. help in rehabilitating Noriega's public image.[^14] Webb wrote, citing government documents filed in North's trial, that Noriega also offered to have the entire Sandinista leadership assassinated in exchange for a promise to "clean up Noriega's image"; that North raised the proposal at a top-level meeting but was told to say the administration was not keen on murdering Nicaraguan officials though Panamanian help with sabotage would be acceptable; that North returned to Panama a month after the torture-murder of [[Hugo Spadafora]] to assure Noriega of increased U.S. aid; and that within a year $200 million in additional U.S. funds and bank loans went to Noriega.[^15]
+The Independent Counsel's summary of North's "Quid Pro Quo" admission describes discussions with Noriega about acts of sabotage against the Sandinista government in exchange for U.S. help in rehabilitating Noriega's public image.[^15] Webb wrote, citing government documents filed in North's trial, that Noriega also offered to have the entire Sandinista leadership assassinated in exchange for a promise to "clean up Noriega's image"; that North raised the proposal at a top-level meeting but was told to say the administration was not keen on murdering Nicaraguan officials though Panamanian help with sabotage would be acceptable; that North returned to Panama a month after the torture-murder of [[Hugo Spadafora]] to assure Noriega of increased U.S. aid; and that within a year $200 million in additional U.S. funds and bank loans went to Noriega.[^16]
 
 ### NHAO and the contractors
 
-North used the State Department's [[NHAO|Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office]] to move Contra supplies. The Kerry Committee report found that the State Department selected four companies owned or operated by narcotics traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras: SETCO Air, established by the Honduran trafficker [[Juan Matta Ballesteros]]; DIACSA, a Miami air company that served as headquarters of a trafficking enterprise run by the convicted traffickers Floyd Carlton and Alfredo Caballero; Frigorificos de Puntarenas, owned and operated by Cuban-American traffickers; and Vortex, partly owned by the admitted trafficker [[Michael Palmer]]. The State Department paid the four a total of $806,401.20 between January and August 1986, and the report states that in each case federal law enforcement had received information about the individuals controlling the company before the contracts were signed.[^16] One of the pilots who flew Contra missions for SETCO was Frank Moss, who had been under investigation as an alleged trafficker since 1979 by ten different law enforcement agencies, without indictment.[^16]
+North used the State Department's [[NHAO|Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office]] to move Contra supplies. The Kerry Committee report found that the State Department selected four companies owned or operated by narcotics traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras: SETCO Air, established by the Honduran trafficker [[Juan Matta Ballesteros]]; DIACSA, a Miami air company that served as headquarters of a trafficking enterprise run by the convicted traffickers Floyd Carlton and Alfredo Caballero; Frigorificos de Puntarenas, owned and operated by Cuban-American traffickers; and Vortex, partly owned by the admitted trafficker [[Michael Palmer]]. The State Department paid the four a total of $806,401.20 between January and August 1986, and the report states that in each case federal law enforcement had received information about the individuals controlling the company before the contracts were signed.[^17] One of the pilots who flew Contra missions for SETCO was Frank Moss, who had been under investigation as an alleged trafficker since 1979 by ten different law enforcement agencies, without indictment.[^17]
 
-Webb wrote that North installed his courier [[Robert Owen]] as a $50,000 "facilitator" at NHAO, that North instructed NHAO director Robert Duemling not to "dislodge or replace their existing arrangements," and that Fiers said: "I believe we guided them toward the carriers they ultimately used." Webb also wrote that Frigorificos was created by the [[Medellin Cartel]].[^15]
+Webb wrote that North installed his courier [[Robert Owen]] as a $50,000 "facilitator" at NHAO, that North instructed NHAO director Robert Duemling not to "dislodge or replace their existing arrangements," and that Fiers said: "I believe we guided them toward the carriers they ultimately used." Webb also wrote that Frigorificos was created by the [[Medellin Cartel]].[^16]
 
 ### Barry Seal and Federico Vaughn
 
-The Kerry Committee report states that the DEA informant [[Barry Seal]] photographed a man identified as Federico Vaughn, a Nicaraguan government official, and [[Pablo Escobar]] loading Seal's plane with drugs; that the Seal operation "was disclosed prematurely by an administration official who leaked to the press evidence supposedly collected" in an effort to influence a pending congressional vote on Contra aid; and that "one individual in the U.S. government, Lt. Col. Oliver North, decided to play politics with the issue."[^13] The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime found that the phone number Vaughn used in calls from Seal was controlled by the U.S. Embassy; the State Department later reported no evidence of Nicaraguan use for drug shipments to the United States "since the allegations made in 1984 in connection with the Seal case."[^13]
+The Kerry Committee report states that the DEA informant [[Barry Seal]] photographed a man identified as Federico Vaughn, a Nicaraguan government official, and [[Pablo Escobar]] loading Seal's plane with drugs; that the Seal operation "was disclosed prematurely by an administration official who leaked to the press evidence supposedly collected" in an effort to influence a pending congressional vote on Contra aid; and that "one individual in the U.S. government, Lt. Col. Oliver North, decided to play politics with the issue."[^14] The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime found that the phone number Vaughn used in calls from Seal was controlled by the U.S. Embassy; the State Department later reported no evidence of Nicaraguan use for drug shipments to the United States "since the allegations made in 1984 in connection with the Seal case."[^14]
 
-Webb wrote that congressional records show North was regularly briefed by the CIA on the Seal sting and supplied with evidence; that North said his only involvement was as an observer; that North's diary contained a July 6, 1984 entry, "Freddy coming in late July," and an October 15, 1986 entry, "46 boxes of transcripts of SF Frogman case. Justice never provided"; that four DEA officials testified they were pressed by North and the CIA to leak Vaughn's involvement; and that after Seal was murdered North told the FBI of an "active measures program" by the Sandinistas against him and said he might be targeted by organized crime.[^12][^15] Seal was shot on February 19, 1986, as he parked at the Salvation Army Community Treatment Center in Baton Rouge, and three men were convicted of first-degree murder in 1987.[^17]
+Webb wrote that congressional records show North was regularly briefed by the CIA on the Seal sting and supplied with evidence; that North said his only involvement was as an observer; that North's diary contained a July 6, 1984 entry, "Freddy coming in late July," and an October 15, 1986 entry, "46 boxes of transcripts of SF Frogman case. Justice never provided"; that four DEA officials testified they were pressed by North and the CIA to leak Vaughn's involvement; and that after Seal was murdered North told the FBI of an "active measures program" by the Sandinistas against him and said he might be targeted by organized crime.[^12][^16] Seal was shot on February 19, 1986, as he parked at the Salvation Army Community Treatment Center in Baton Rouge, and three men were convicted of first-degree murder in 1987.[^18]
 
 ### Drug-related contacts
 
-Webb wrote that North's courier Robert Owen reported to North in 1985 that a DC-6 owned by Mario Calero, brother of Adolfo Calero, "which is being used for runs out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."; that Owen's phone number was found aboard a DC-4 seized by the DEA in March 1987 off Florida; and that a CIA cable said Frank Moss's notes aboard that plane contained "the names of two CIA officers and their telephone numbers."[^12] The Kerry report separately states that Honduran General José Bueso-Rosa, convicted in 1985 of conspiring to assassinate President Suazo Córdova in a plot to be financed by the sale of $40 million of cocaine, received a sentence cut to five years through intervention by senior U.S. officials, and that according to the United States's admissions in the North trial North suggested efforts be made concerning Bueso-Rosa to keep him from disclosing details.[^13]
+Webb wrote that North's courier Robert Owen reported to North in 1985 that a DC-6 owned by Mario Calero, brother of Adolfo Calero, "which is being used for runs out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."; that Owen's phone number was found aboard a DC-4 seized by the DEA in March 1987 off Florida; and that a CIA cable said Frank Moss's notes aboard that plane contained "the names of two CIA officers and their telephone numbers."[^12] The Kerry report separately states that Honduran General José Bueso-Rosa, convicted in 1985 of conspiring to assassinate President Suazo Córdova in a plot to be financed by the sale of $40 million of cocaine, received a sentence cut to five years through intervention by senior U.S. officials, and that according to the United States's admissions in the North trial North suggested efforts be made concerning Bueso-Rosa to keep him from disclosing details.[^14]
 
-Webb wrote that at a 1984 meeting with DEA officials North suggested that $1.5 million in cocaine cash the DEA planned to seize from the Medellín cartel be turned over to the Contras, which the DEA declined; that a White House leak then blew the DEA operation; and that North wrote that Casey did not want the Contras' "unofficial funds" entering U.S. banks for fear Treasury agents would grow suspicious.[^18] Webb also wrote that North relied on fraudulent end-user certificates from Guatemala and Honduras after Boland, quoting Fiers: "an arms broker will get an intermediary country to issue false end-user certificates."[^19]
+Webb wrote that at a 1984 meeting with DEA officials North suggested that $1.5 million in cocaine cash the DEA planned to seize from the Medellín cartel be turned over to the Contras, which the DEA declined; that a White House leak then blew the DEA operation; and that North wrote that Casey did not want the Contras' "unofficial funds" entering U.S. banks for fear Treasury agents would grow suspicious.[^19] Webb also wrote that North relied on fraudulent end-user certificates from Guatemala and Honduras after Boland, quoting Fiers: "an arms broker will get an intermediary country to issue false end-user certificates."[^20]
 
-Webb further wrote that Dagoberto Núñez, a Costa Rican trafficker working for North and the CIA, signed a contract with the Sandinista agency Heroes and Martyrs Trading Corporation, and quoted a 1986 Owen memo to North: "He believes this will provide an opportunity to use his boats for cover operations, or to implicate the Ortegas and Borge in taking money on the side." In Webb's account, in November 1986 the FBI's "Operation Front Door" interviewed the realtor of [[Ronald Lister]], who said Lister claimed to run a "CIA-approved" security business and had told a neighbor he worked for North and Secord and had sent arms shipments to the Contras; the lead was not pursued.[^12][^20] The former Air Force intelligence officer [[Terry Reed]] claimed North was his CIA contact for a pilot-training program and a machine-tool front in [[Arkansas]], and described an Arkansas State Police "shredding party" to purge the state's [[Mena, Arkansas]] files of nearly a thousand documents including those naming North and Reed; North has denied knowing anything about Reed or Mena.[^12]
+Webb further wrote that Dagoberto Núñez, a Costa Rican trafficker working for North and the CIA, signed a contract with the Sandinista agency Heroes and Martyrs Trading Corporation, and quoted a 1986 Owen memo to North: "He believes this will provide an opportunity to use his boats for cover operations, or to implicate the Ortegas and Borge in taking money on the side." In Webb's account, in November 1986 the FBI's "Operation Front Door" interviewed the realtor of [[Ronald Lister]], who said Lister claimed to run a "CIA-approved" security business and had told a neighbor he worked for North and Secord and had sent arms shipments to the Contras; the lead was not pursued.[^12][^21] The former Air Force intelligence officer [[Terry Reed]] claimed North was his CIA contact for a pilot-training program and a machine-tool front in [[Arkansas]], and described an Arkansas State Police "shredding party" to purge the state's [[Mena, Arkansas]] files of nearly a thousand documents including those naming North and Reed; North has denied knowing anything about Reed or Mena.[^12]
 
 Webb quoted North's 1991 memoir, *Under Fire*, as saying that the death squads in El Salvador, "under the guise of anti-Communism," terrorized the entire country and murdered nuns, teachers, labor organizers, political opponents and thousands of other civilians, and that most of the activity was the responsibility of the ARENA party and its leader [[Roberto D'Aubuisson]].[^12]
 
@@ -121,7 +123,7 @@ Webb quoted North's 1991 memoir, *Under Fire*, as saying that the death squads i
 
 When the Iran arms sales and the Contra supply operation became public in October and November 1986, North told investigators little; the Independent Counsel wrote that his "wide destruction of records" eliminated possible documentary proof, and that he called the diversion the "secret within the secret."[^2] At the Select Committees' hearing on July 7, 1987, North testified under a grant of immunity that he believed the President had authorized the diversion.[^2] On November 25, 1986, Reagan telephoned North at a Sheraton hotel in Tysons Corner for two minutes; Reagan's sworn interrogatory answer says he told North he had no personal animus and "may have referred to LtCol North as a national hero."[^2]
 
-North was indicted in March 1988 on 16 counts with Poindexter, Secord and Hakim. After the conspiracy count was dropped because of classified-information problems he stood trial before Judge Gerhard Gesell on 12 counts and on May 4, 1989 was found guilty on three: aiding and abetting the obstruction of Congress, shredding and altering official documents, and accepting an illegal gratuity from Secord in the form of a home-security system. The Court of Appeals vacated the convictions on July 20, 1990 because trial witnesses might have been affected by his immunized congressional testimony; the Supreme Court denied certiorari on May 28, 1991; and on remand, after Robert McFarlane testified that his trial testimony had been "colored" by North's immunized testimony, the Independent Counsel consented to dismissal of the remaining counts with prejudice on September 16, 1991.[^1] President [[George H.W. Bush]] did not pardon North. On December 24, 1992 Bush pardoned [[Caspar Weinberger]], McFarlane, [[Elliott Abrams]], [[Duane Clarridge]], Clair George and Fiers.[^21]
+North was indicted in March 1988 on 16 counts with Poindexter, Secord and Hakim. After the conspiracy count was dropped because of classified-information problems he stood trial before Judge Gerhard Gesell on 12 counts and on May 4, 1989 was found guilty on three: aiding and abetting the obstruction of Congress, shredding and altering official documents, and accepting an illegal gratuity from Secord in the form of a home-security system. The Court of Appeals vacated the convictions on July 20, 1990 because trial witnesses might have been affected by his immunized congressional testimony; the Supreme Court denied certiorari on May 28, 1991; and on remand, after Robert McFarlane testified that his trial testimony had been "colored" by North's immunized testimony, the Independent Counsel consented to dismissal of the remaining counts with prejudice on September 16, 1991.[^1] President [[George H.W. Bush]] did not pardon North. On December 24, 1992 Bush pardoned [[Caspar Weinberger]], McFarlane, [[Elliott Abrams]], [[Duane Clarridge]], Clair George and Fiers.[^22]
 
 Seymour wrote that North reportedly attended a White House prayer group that [[Nita Scoggan]], wife of a [[Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International]] member, was invited to form by a Reagan aide who later worked for [[Pat Robertson]]'s presidential campaign.[^11]
 
@@ -139,12 +141,13 @@ Seymour wrote that North reportedly attended a White House prayer group that [[N
 [^10]: Graham Exhibit 1, Deposition of Daniel O. Graham, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
 [^11]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
 [^12]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapters 6, 13 and 20.
-[^13]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988 (Panama chapter; "Barry Seal and the Cartel"; "Bueso-Rosa and the Contras"; Nicaragua chapter). https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
-[^14]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 2, section on the "Quid Pro Quo" admission and the "Heads of State" documents.
-[^15]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapters 11 and 12.
-[^16]: Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, section "U.S. Government Funds and Companies with Drug Connections."
-[^17]: Lau, Maya, and Amy Wold. "Man who gunned down drug informant Barry Seal in Baton Rouge street dies at Angola." *The Advocate* (Baton Rouge), September 2, 2015, citing court documents. https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_f09fb38d-4bb9-59ea-bda3-557497d84561.html
-[^18]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapter 11.
-[^19]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapter 10.
-[^20]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapter 20.
-[^21]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Executive Summary and ch. 27, notes on pardons of December 24, 1992. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm
+[^13]: *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair*, S. Rept. No. 100-216, H. Rept. No. 100-433 (November 1987), ch. 3, pp. 75-76, "North Expands His Special Operations," citing North's notes and Poindexter's messages of September 1986.
+[^14]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988 (Panama chapter; "Barry Seal and the Cartel"; "Bueso-Rosa and the Contras"; Nicaragua chapter). https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
+[^15]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 2, section on the "Quid Pro Quo" admission and the "Heads of State" documents.
+[^16]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapters 11 and 12.
+[^17]: Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, section "U.S. Government Funds and Companies with Drug Connections."
+[^18]: Lau, Maya, and Amy Wold. "Man who gunned down drug informant Barry Seal in Baton Rouge street dies at Angola." *The Advocate* (Baton Rouge), September 2, 2015, citing court documents. https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_f09fb38d-4bb9-59ea-bda3-557497d84561.html
+[^19]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapter 11.
+[^20]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapter 10.
+[^21]: Webb, *Dark Alliance*, chapter 20.
+[^22]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Executive Summary and ch. 27, notes on pardons of December 24, 1992. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm