Thornburgh’s Iran-Contra Appeal Rejected

WASHINGTON —  A federal appeals court, rebuffing Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, ruled Friday that he could not intervene to challenge secrecy rulings in the Iran-Contra case of Joseph F. Fernandez, a former CIA agent.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., held that only independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh could appeal rulings allowing the disclosure of government secrets in the Fernandez trial.

Thornburgh had sought to intervene to prevent the disclosure of the sites of CIA facilities in Central America that the trial judge held could be made public as part of Fernandez’s defense.

The appellate panel said Thornburgh may still file an affidavit blocking the release of the documents in open court, a move that could force dismissal of the charges against Fernandez by U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton.

Would Hinder Prosecutor

The appellate court agreed with Walsh’s contention that allowing the attorney general to appeal secrecy rulings in the case would undermine the independent counsel’s ability to prosecute the case.

Fernandez, who headed the CIA’s station in San Jose, Costa Rica, is accused of lying to agency superiors and a presidential commission that investigated the Iran-Contra affair about his role in helping Oliver L. North set up a covert arms supply network for the Nicaraguan Contras.

In other court action, a federal judge said that Iran-Contra figure Richard V. Secord is not entitled to former President Ronald Reagan’s diaries for his upcoming criminal trial. And U.S. officials said Friday that the Bush Administration is cutting off funds for U.S.-based Contra offices as part of a continuing effort to encourage the rebel political leaders to relocate to Central America.

In the Secord case, the retired general had filed a request earlier this week for the diaries and a wide array of other material, prompting objections from Walsh’s office.

Request Too Broad

U.S. District Judge Aubrey Robinson agreed that the request was far too broad.

Secord’s lawyer did not press the issue of the diaries but said Secord is entitled to material showing a number of covert activities he was engaged in on behalf of the Reagan Administration.

On the Contra funding issue, one official, asking not to be identified, said the move mostly affects the Contra office in Miami, where “not many more than 10” taxpayer-financed staff workers had remained.

Officials refused to say how much money went into the Miami operation, but they added that funding will be spent in the future on offices the rebels have set up in several Central American countries.