THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310449
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: UPPER MARLBORO, MD. LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
William C. Haskell, a soft-spoken tax preparer, returned from an overseas vacation this week to discover that he had become a controversial figure in Virginia's U.S. Senate campaign.
``I don't see what the big deal is,'' Haskell said Tuesday during an interview in his storefront office across from the Prince George's County Courthouse.
Those who have tuned into the Senate race will recognize Haskell from the television ad in which the bespectacled 49-year-old credits Republican Oliver L. North with saving his life when they served together in Vietnam.
What the commercial neglects to say, however, is that North later recruited Haskell as a secret operative in the Iran-Contra affair during the mid-1980s.
North's critics last week seized upon the omission as an example of what they claim is North's inability to tell the truth - or at least the whole truth.
North was convicted of three felonies for his role in the scheme to divert profits from an arms-for-hostages deal with Iran to support rebels fighting the leftist government in Nicaragua. The convictions later were overturned on a technicality.
Haskell noted Tuesday that there was no attempt to conceal his Iran-Contra role, which included serving as a courier for envelopes stuffed with cash and posing as a front man for a shell company that bought land in Costa Rica for a secret airfield to resupply the Contra rebels.
Haskell said the North campaign couldn't have hidden his Iran-Contra connections because his name already had appeared in numerous newspaper articles and books, which lay out a trail of intrigue in Central America.
In these accounts, Haskell emerges as one of the most unlikely participants in the secret operations that shook the presidency of Ronald Reagan and led to the televised congressional hearings that made North an instant celebrity.
It began in 1985. Haskell was living in Maryland, where he owned two H&R Block franchises. He came across an article in Newsweek that described how North had played a central role in planning the capture of the terrorists responsible for hijacking the Achille Lauro cruise ship.
Haskell and North served together as platoon commanders in Vietnam. Haskell lost his right eye in a 1969 battle in which North rescued Haskell's men and won a Silver Star for heroism. The two stayed in contact after returning home. In fact, Haskell prepared North's tax returns for a number of years.
After seeing the Newsweek article, Haskell got in touch with his old buddy. ``I picked up the phone and said, `I see all these things you're doing. If I can help in some way, give me a call.' ''
North called back within days. Though Haskell had no apparent training in covert activities, North recruited him to help in a clandestine operation to arm Contra rebels despite a congressional ban on U.S. government funding for such assistance.
Haskell adopted an alias - Robert Olmsted - and was dispatched on behalf of a fictitious company to buy land in Costa Rica, as part of North's plan to open a ``southern front'' in the secret war against the Nicaraguan government.
Haskell made numerous other trips to Latin American in an effort to buy arms for the Contras and, in 1986, in an attempt to hire a lawyer for American Eugene Hasenfus, whose supply plane had been shot down in Nicaragua.
``It was fun,'' Haskell said, sitting behind the desk in his windowless cubicle in the rear of his tax-preparation office. ``But a lot of it was boring. I spent a lot of time in hotel rooms waiting for phones to ring.''
Though he traveled under an assumed name, Haskell said he carried his own passport. Getting a forged passport would have been illegal, and Haskell insists that he never broke any laws.
His closest call came in Chile during a meeting about arms with a member of the military junta that ruled the South American nation. The meeting took place on a Chilean military base, which meant that Haskell would have to surrender his passport at the gate.
``Here I was . . . talking with this guy who was running the country under one name, whereas the soldier at the gate had a passport with a different name. But nobody ever caught on.''
North also brought Haskell into the arms-for-hostages side of the Iran-Contra affair, dispatching the tax preparer to London to deliver a message to arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar.
Haskell said he joined the Iran-Contra effort with the same patriotic spirit that led him to enlist in the Marines during the Vietnam War. Haskell said he accepted only reimbursements for his plane tickets and other expenses, despite offers of payment from Richard V. Secord, a retired U.S. Air Force major general who profited from Iran-Contra as a middleman in many transactions.
``My answer to that was, `I'm a volunteer. I don't want any compensation.' ''
Haskell said he was steamed by the final report by Lawrence E. Walsh, the Iran-Contra independent counsel, that suggested investigators have been unable to account for some $27,000 of the money with which Haskell was entrusted.
``Quite honestly, I don't know what the hell he was talking about,'' Haskell said. ``I never opened any envelopes. I don't know anything about it.
``There was a lot of money going back and forth. It was not like a government operation where you had to account for every penny. I guess there was a certain amount of trust involved, which may be ridiculous in retrospect.''
Haskell said that while he did not profit from Iran-Contra, he had to pay a lawyer $13,000 after the affair became public. Haskell was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. He was not called at the congressional hearings, but he testified at North's criminal trial.
Haskell was featured in a 1987 Philadelphia Inquirer article noting that in some ways, the tax preparer had done a better job than North in maintaining secrecy. The newspaper reported that journalists who obtained copies of telephone records from an El Salvador safe house for North's operatives found it easy to trace the phone numbers of Secord and North's offices. But journalists who called a number later linked to Haskell reached a Washington answering service where employees knew only the name Robert Olmsted.
Though he insists he does not dwell on Vietnam or Iran-Contra, Haskell has decorated his office with photographs of Oliver North from both time periods. There is a snapshot of Marine officers taken in Vietnam (North sports a bushy mustache) and another taken at a recent reunion. There is also a photo of Haskell, his wife and North taken at a celebration held at the waterfront home of Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., North's criminal lawyer, after an appeals court overturned North's convictions.
Haskell has gained a hobby from Iran-Contra. He has taken up flying small airplanes.
``I said to myself, `As long as I own this big, secret airstrip, I might as well learn to fly.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
In a TV commerical, William C. Haskell credits Oliver L. North with
saving his life when they served together in Vietnam.
KEYWORDS: U.S SENATE RACE CANDIDATE by CNB