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Title:  North May Have Sought Perot Funds

Subhead:  Diaries hint at discussions concerning aid to Contras

Author:  Joseph Albright, Cox News Service

Journal:  San Francisco Chronicle, 5-15-92, page A1
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Full text:
Washington

     Months before President Ronald Reagan says he learned about it, 
Texas businessman Ross Perot became one of a handful of people who knew 
that Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North was covertly helping to 
raise private funds for the Nicaraguan' Contras, according to North's 
unpublished diaries.

     Judging from North's daily handwritten chronicles, Perot was in a 
unique position to warn Reagan about what was brewing and perhaps limit 
the effect of the Iran-Contra scandal that exploded two years later.

     At the time that North described entrusting his secret to Perot, 
the Texas businessman was serving on the president's Foreign 
Intelligence Advisory Board, a prestigious citizens' panel chosen by 
Reagan to give him advice on "the intelligence efforts of the United 
States."

     Asked to comment yesterday, Mark Weinberg, spokesman for the 
former president, said that, as far as he knows, Perot never contacted 
Reagan with any misgivings about North's activities. But both Weinberg 
and archivist Stephen Branch at the Reagan Presidential Library said 
they could not be certain because Reagan's daily appointment schedules 
remain closed to the public.

     Asked to comment yesterday, Mark Weinberg, spokesman for the 
former president, said that, as far as he knows, Perot never contacted 
Reagan with any misgivings about North's activities. But both Weinberg 
and archivist Stephen Branch at the Reagan Presidential Library said 
they could not be certain because Reagan's deny appointment schedules 
remain closed to the public.

     Reached at the Perot headquarters in Dallas, spokesman James 
Squires declined to comment and asked a reporter to submit a question to 
Perot by fax. By evening there was no response.

     North's diaries show that he decided to approach Perot for a 
contribution - thereby disclosing his direct involvement in Contra 
fundraising activities - two months after Congress voted in October 1984 
to pass the Boland amendment. That legislation shut off all covert U.S. 
intelligence expenditures in behalf of the rebels fighting to overthrow 
the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

     The North diaries were declassified two years ago after a Freedom 
of Information Act lawsuit.

     A search of the more than 2,600 pages of diaries by Cox News 
Service found that North noted at least 16 telephone conversations with 
Perot during a two-year period. Most revolved around a fixation that 
Perot and North shared to find backdoor means to win the release of 
Americans held prisoner overseas.

     North apparently began to view Perot as a potential Contra donor 
at least four months before Congress passed the Boland Amendment 
limiting Contra aid.

     The idea of soliciting Perot first took shape in North's diary in 
June 1984 in a note he wrote to himself to arrange a meeting between 
Perot and Roy Goodson, a White House consultant who would emerge later 
in the congressional Iran-Contra hearings as one of North's fund-raisers 
outside the government.

     North wrote in his diary that Goodson should be accompanied by 
British multimillionaire Sir James Goldsmith, who already was a major 
contributor to Contra aid funds.

     The diary did not clarify whether Perot met with Goldsmith and 
Goodson. But later entries made it clear that North continued to regard 
Perot as a hot prospect for the Contras.

     On Dec. 4, 1984, North jotted down that he had spoken to Contra 
leader Adolfo Calero and found that he "badly needs ammo" and was 
"losing 3,000 recruits for lack of equipment." North described Calero's 
mood as "down."

     .According to another entry later that day, North reacted to this 
emergency by preparing to ask Perot to contribute to a secret fund 
controlled by Contra military adviser Richard Secord, a former U.S. Air 
Force general.

     "Perot - see about funding through Secord," as North put it one of 
the 22 fat spiral notebooks that he filled while working as a National 
Security Council aide from a White House basement office.

The Key Discussion

     It took several days for North to contact Perot, the diaries 
suggest. Then, at 8 p.m. on December 7, Perot called North back for what 
now seems a key discussion.             

     North's notes suggest that they began by talking about Perot's 
interest in rescuing American hostages and missing soldiers overseas. 
But before the conversation ended, the diary says, they also talked at 
least briefly about the topic that was absorbing North: how to finance 
Calero's Contra army, called the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, or FDN.

     "Call from Ross Perot," North wrote. "Re: Hostage/POW/MIA Rescue - 
Possible investment in FDN."

     As with most of the dozen or so potential Contra donors mentioned 
in the diaries, North did not specify whether Perot made a financial 
pledge.

     There is no indication in the North diaries that Perot ever 
actually made a contribution to the Contras. But again in January 1985, 
North listed him - along with conservative Colorado brewing executive 
Joseph Coors - on a list of potential givers to a Contra "bridge" 
financing package.

     At least as late as May 1986, North continued to view Perot as a 
potential source of dollars for the anti-Sandinista forces, according to 
subsequent congressional testimony by North assistant Robert Earl.

     Perot was asked in a 1987 interview whether he ever acceded to 
requests for Contra financing. He replied that he balked when the 
subject came up. Perot said his answer was to cite "the lessons of 
Vietnam: You first commit the nation before you commit the troops."
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