This primary source is a staff report published by the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1992. It is of importance to mention that the Democratic Party was in the majority at the time of this report’s publication. This report, as its title suggests, focuses on the role played by the State Department and intelligence community in the Iran-Contra Affair. The nature of this report is to inform committee staff and Members of Congress on the results of the investigations thus far. The report is mainly split into two halves: the role of the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean (S/LPD) and the role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). CIA officers are expressly prohibited from influencing or operating on American soil; this is an important fact to understand when examining the Iran-Contra Affair.
The report details several investigations and audits conducted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding the Iran-Contra Affair. Of greatest concern in the report is a contract that was wrongfully classified SECRET from the S/LPD. This contract was non-competitive, meaning there was no bidding war among contractors nor was it publicized, it was awarded to International Business Communications (IBC) and totaled $276,000. This was of concern to the committee because when the contract was executed with IBC, Oliver North of the National Security Council (NSC) had been funneled money by IBC via Swiss accounts to fund the Contras. The report goes to detail other similar contract irregularities; in total, the committee found 25 questionable contracts. The report details the CIA’s involvement with the S/LPD and how they worked in tandem numerous times. The conclusion of the report is that senior CIA officials were “deeply involved” in a propaganda and influence scheme on American soil to raise funds and garner support for the Contras, these activities were managed through an “obscure” office in the State Department and reported directly to the NSC rather than traditional means.
“This final staff report on the activities of S/LPD serves both as a summary of the previously described reports on the Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean and as a description of how a relatively obscure office in the State Department played a central role in the creation and management of the private network involved in the Iran/Contra affair. It is the committee staff’s contention that a preponderance of documents obtained by the staff, as well as those released by the Select Committees, demonstrates that S/LPD was set up and managed by operatives in the National Security Council (NSC) who maintained close ties with Oliver North and former CIA Director Casey. The NSCstaff succeeded in having Otto Reich named as the Director of the new Office Latin America of Public Diplomacy which reported directly to the NSC. IBC’s two principals–Richard R. Miller, former head of public affairs at AID, and Francis D. Gomez, former public affairs specialist at the State Department and USIA-were then hired by S/LPD through a series of sole source, no-bid contracts to carry out a variety of activities on behalf of the administration’s policies in Central America.
During the same period that it had been receiving payments from the State Department totalling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, IBC also served as the conduit through which millions of dollars from the illegal sales of weapons to Iran were diverted for use by the Contras as well as other purposes. Also while under contract to the Office of Public Diplomacy, Miller and Gomez participated in activities designed to influence the media and public to support the President’s Latin American policies, including sophisticated television ad campaigns that were targeted at Members of Congress who were not supportive of the President’s Central America policy. Many of these activities by design were covert. Johnathan Miller, Ambassador Reich’s Deputy at S/LPD (who later re- signed from the White House staff when it was revealed that he had assisted Oliver North in cashing travelers checks for the Contras), for example, described Gomez as a “cut-out” who once made a clandestine trip in Central America and promoted media inter- views and background briefings with representatives of the Democratic Resistance in Nicaragua on behalf of S/LPD, without acknowledgment of the State Department’s role.
In the course of assisting the Contras with their public relations, Miller and Gomez were introduced to Oliver North and Contra fundraiser Carl “Spitz” Channell. Under the direction of North, and with the financial assistance of Channell, IBC quickly became a central player in the so-called “enterprise.” IBC’s role, in fact, was so highly valued that it was described by one White House official as “the White House outside the White House.”
Source:
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. State Department and Intelligence Community Involvement in Domestic Activities Related to Iran/Contra Affair. 102ndCong. 2d sess. 1992.