From: mykes@shell.portal.com (mike myke schwartz)
Subject: Bush sought secret aid to Contras
Organization: Portal Communications Company
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 05:20:55 GMT

From San Jose Mercury News, Monday Jan. 25, 1993

Document indicates he asked Honduras to move guns to Nicaragua rebels

By Pete Yost

WASHINGTON - A document in the hands of Iran-Contra prosecutors
indicates that George Bush asked President Jose Azcona Hoyo of
Honduras in 1986 to help secretly move guns to the Nicaraguan
Contras and assured him that "it can be done with deniability."

It has been known that then-President Reagan made his vice-
president an emissary to Hunduras in 1985 and 1986.  But what 
has not been known is that Bush's mission in 1986 was specifically
to get Azcona to "assure a supplied front" that allowed military
equipment and other material to reach the U.S.-backed Contras
in their battle with the Nicaraguan government.

That message was inscribed on a note card titled "Special Talking
Points - Azcona" that summarized the instructions Reagan 
administration officials gave Bush.

The memo shows that Bush, who has maintained publicly that he was
"out of the loop" for all of the Iran-Contra scandal, was deeply
involved in the Reagan administration's effort to find secret
ways to help the Contras militarily after Congress banned such help.

Iran-Contra prosecutors have had the document for years and
questioned Bush about it extensively when they took his sworn
deposition Jan. 11, 1988.  But its existence was not known
publicly until Bush released a transcript of the deposition
five days before he left office.

At the time of Bush's meeting with Azcona, Congress had banned
U.S. military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.  But it was learned
later that White House aide Lt. Col. Oliber North had been
operating a clandestine arms pipeline to the Contras through
Honduras - a key element of the Iran-Contra scandal.

Bush has denied knowing about North's resupply operation until
it was exposed.  The docuement DOES NOT CONTRADICT him, making
no mention of North or his network.

In the deposition, prosecutors quote directly from the note card,
which said, in part: "We, President Reagan and I, hope we can
work very quietly and discreetly with you.  It can be done with
deniability."

Bush told Iran-Contra prosecutors and an FBI agent that he didn't
recall the card with the talking points.

He said he had several conversations with Azcona during the Jan.
26-27, 1986, trip to Honduras, and he acknowledged that he may
have discussed resupplying the contras.

He also defended the message he was to deliver to Azcona on
behalf of the Reagan administration.

"I don't think that I should be prohibited from telling a guy
that I'd like to see him help somebody else," Bush told
investigators.

Bush is under criminal investigation by independent counsel
Lawrence Walks for his five year failure to turn over to
prosecutors his tape-recorded diaries.

The Bush White House said an aide found the diaries in a safe
in September but acknowledged that presidential legal counsel
C. Boyden Gray decided to wait until after Election Day to 
disclose their existence.



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