A federal grand jury on Friday indicted a former top CIA official on charges of lying to Congress to cover up the Iran-Contra affair as it was unraveling in 1986.
Clair George, former deputy director of operations for the Central Intelligence Agency, was accused of lying to three congressional panels by denying knowledge of White House aide Oliver L. North's secret network to arm Nicaraguan Contras.The 10-count indictment accuses George of lying to the House and Senate intelligence committees and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when questioned about the resupply network North set up to evade a congressional ban on giving military aid to the rebels.
He is also accused of lying to the federal grand jury impaneled by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to investigate possible involvement of current and former CIA officials in a coverup of the Iran-Contra affair.
George said the indictment "merely makes me a pawn in the continuous drama of political exploitation."
"My conscience in this situation, as in my 33 years of CIA service, is clear. In the end, I and my service to my country will be vindicated." George said in a statement he read in front of his house in Bethesda, Md.
George's defense attorney Richard Hibey said the charges "reflect complex and torturous policy differences between the Congress and executive branch. It is wrong to make him the focus of these differences and to use a criminal prosecution as a means for concluding the historical record of the Iran-Contra affair."