CONGRESSIONAL CONFLICT	OF INTEREST: COMPANY MAN PROBES	CONTRAS

	  The integrity	of the congressional panel investigating the
     Iran-contra scandal was seriously compromised by the appointment of
     Thomas Polgar as an investigator. The appointment also might explain
     why CIA involvement in drug trafficking and the La	Penca bombing were
     not explored during the televised hearings.
	  During the Vietnam war, Polgar, the CIA station chief	in Saigon,
     was the object of congressional criticism because of his ongoing
     misinformation campaign to	defend a continuing U.S. presence in
     Vietnam even though his own emergency rooftop departure from the
     embassy was only two months away. Despite his history of misleading
     Congress, Polgar was appointed to the Senate panel	which raises
     undeniable	conflict-of-interest issues.
	  Polgar is an active mmeber of	the Association	of Former
     Intelligence Officers (AFIO), an organization that	actively lobbies
     Congress on behalf	of U.S.	intelligence activities. He served as a
     consultant	to the Vice President's Task Force on Combatting Terrorism,
     a group loaded with operatives who	participated in	the covert aid
     pipeline to the contras, including	John Poindexter	and Oliver North.
     He	is a paid consultant for a corporate risk-analysis firm	that had
     ties to ex-Nicarguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. And in Vietnam, Polgar
     worked for	Theodore Shackley, a former top	CIA official who
     facilitated arms sales to Iran.
	  Polgar was one of two	investigators who traveled to Costa Rica to
     investigate such things as	contra drug running and	the La Penca
     bombing which was supposed	to kill	Eden Pastora, the dissident contra
     leader, but instead killed	eight other people including one American
     journalist.
	  Evidence supporting CIA involvement in the La	Penca bombing and
     drug trafficking was within reach of Polgar when he arrived in Costa
     Rica.  John Hull, a U.S. rancher based in Costa Rica, would have been
     a logical witness to interview because of his ties	to the supply
     network and allegations about his involvement in drug running.
     However, Hull told	IN THESE TIMES that he never talked with Polgar.
     Polgar also failed	to interview Peter Glibbery, a key witness to
     Hull's operation, who is in jail in Costa Rica.
	  Polgar did interview two reporters from Costa	Rica's English
     language newspaper, THE TICO TIMES, but did not seem interested in
     hard facts. "His questions	were subjective, what we thought about
     Pastora and Hull",	said reporter Beth Hawkins. "Polgar didn't want to
     hear anything specific -- dates, evidence,	sources." Nor did he even
     ask about La Penca.
	  As with Watergate, the congressional hearings	on the Iran-contra
     issue could have helped restore credibility to our	government;
     instead, sending a	longtime CIA operative to investigate a	scandal
     replete with CIA illegalities only	further	compromised the	integrity
     of	the system.

	  SOURCE:  IN THESE TIMES, 6/10/87, "Congressional conflict of
     interest: a CIA good ol' boy probes the network," by Vince Bielski and
     Dennis Bernstein, pp 6-7.