January 20, 1986:Following the recommendations of an as yet unofficial report of the George Bush
Terrorism Task Force, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive
(NSDD) 207.
The unofficial Bush report, the official Bush report released in February, and the Bush-
organized NSDD 207, together put forward Oliver North as Mr. Iran-Contra. '' North became the nominal, up- front coordinator of the administration's counterterrorism program, hiding as best he could Bush's hand in these matters. He was given a secret office and staff (the Office to Combat Terrorism), separate from regular NSC staff members. George Bush now reassigned his Terrorism Task Force employees, Craig Coy and Robert Earl, to do the daily work of the North secret office. The Bush men spent the next year working on Iran arms sales: Earl devoted one-quarter to one- half of his time on Iran and Contra support operations; Coyknew everything'' about Project Democracy.
North traveled much of the time. Earl and Coy were at this time officially attached to the
Crisis Management Center, which North worked on in 1983.@s4@s6 FBI Assistant
Director Revell, often George Bush's ``hit man'' against Bush's domestic opponents,
partially disclosed this shell game in a letter to Sen. David Boren (D-Ok.), explaining the
FBI's contacts with North:
At the time [April 1986], North was the NSC official charged by the President with the
coordination of our national counterterrorist program. He was responsible for working closely
with designated lead agencies and was responsible for participating in all interagency groups,
maintaining the national programming documents, assisting in the coordination of research and
development in relation to counterterrorism, facilitating the development of response options and
overseeing the implementation of the Vice President's Terrorism Task Force recommendations.
This description of Col. North's position is set forth in the public report of the Vice President's
Task Force on Combatting Terrorism, February 1986. There is an even more detailed and
comprehensive description of Col. North's position in the classified National Security Decision
Directive #207 issued by the President on January 20, 1986. @s4@s7The Bush Terrorism Task Force, having completed its official work, had simply made
itself into a renamed, permanent, covert agency. Its new name was Operations Sub-Group
(OSG). In this transformation, CIA Contra-handler Duane Clarridge had been added to
the Task Force to form the OSG,'' which included North, Poindexter, Charles Allen, Robert Oakley, Noel Koch, General Moellering andBuck'' Revell. According to the
Oliver North diaries, even before this final phase of the Bush-North apparatus there were
at least 14 meetings between North and the Bush Task Force's senior members Holloway,
Oakley and Allen, its principal consultant Terry Arnold, and its staff men Robert Earl and
Craig Coy. The North diaries from July 1985 through January 1986, show one meeting
with President Reagan, and four meetings with Vice President Bush: either the two alone,
North with Bush and Amiram Nir, or North with Bush and Donald Gregg. The Bush
counterterrorism apparatus had its own communications channels, and a global
antiterrorist computer network called Flashboard outside of all constitutional government
arrangements. Those opposed to the arming of terrorists, including cabinet members, had
no access to these communications.@s4@s8 This apparatus had responsibility for Iran
arms sales; the private funding of the Contras, from contributions, theft, dope-running;