take the heat off the vice president, '' the Contra source said.... The senior Contra official said that
shortly after Calero talked to Matamoros, Matamoros called a reporter for the New York Times and
`` leaked '' the bogus claim of responsibility. The Times ran a story about the claim on its front
page.@s7@s5^October 7, 1986:Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tx.) called for a congressional investigation of the
Nicaraguan air crash, and the crash of a Southern Air Transport plane in Texas, to see if
they were part of a covert CIA operation to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.
October 9, 1986:At a news conference in Nicaragua, captured U.S. crew member Eugene Hasenfus
exposed Felix Rodriguez, alias `` Max Gomez, '' as the head of an international supply
system for the Contras. The explosive, public phase of the Iran-Contra scandal had
begun.
October 11, 1986:The Washington Post ran two headlines side-by-side: Captured American Flyer to be Tried in Nicaragua '' and Bush is Linked to Head of Contra Aid Network. '' The Post
reported:
Asked about these matters, a spokesman for Bush, Marlin Fitzwater, said: ``
Neither the vice president nor anyone on his staff is directing or coordinating an
operation in Central America. '' ...
The San Francisco Examiner, which earlier this week linked [Bush adviser
Donald] Gregg to Gomez, reported that Gomez maintains daily contact with
Bush's office....
[M]embers of Congress said yesterday they wanted to investigate the
administration's conduct further. And ... several said that their focus had shifted
from the CIA to the White House....
[T]he Sunday crash will be among events covered by a [Senate] Foreign Relations
Committee probe into allegations that the contras may have been involved in
drug-running and abuse of U.S. aid funds, [Senator Richard G.] Lugar said....
The Customs Service said yesterday it is investigating whether the downed plane
may have carried guns out of Miami, which would violate federal restrictions on
arms exports and other laws, including the Neutrality Act, which bars U.S.
citizens from working to overthrow governments not at war with the United
States....
Hasenfus told reporters in Nicaragua the plane had flown out of Miami.@s7@s6George Bush's career was now on the line. News media throughout the world broke the
story of the Hasenfus capture, and of the crewman's fingering of Bush and his underlings
Rodriguez and Posada Carriles. Bush was now besieged by inquiries from around the
world, as to how and why he was directing the gun-running into Latin America. Speaking