WASHINGTON -- President Reagan described as 'absolute poppycock' a claim by former American mercenary Sam Hall that he had been granted a presidential pardon for his dealings in Nicaragua, it was disclosed at the Iran-Contra hearings today.
Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., vice chairman of the Senate panel investigating the scandal, said he was so concerned about the assertion that he called Reagan today after a Florida television station broadcast an interview with Hall asserting that Robert Owen told him Reagan had given him a pardon.
Owen, a civilian and self-described foot soldier in the administration's secret effort to aid the Nicaraguan Contras, testified for a second day today and called Hall's claim 'insane.'
Rudman said he did not reach Reagan but through his chief of staff, Reagan described the claim as 'absolute poppycock.'
Owen, who worked as a courier in Oliver North's secret effort to aid the Nicaragua Contras, also denied the statement and said at the Iran-Contra congressional hearings that 'it would be insane.'
'It is a lie, sir,' Owen told Rudman.
Hall, the brother of Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, was arrested late last year by the Sandinista government and accused of espionage, but later pardoned and released.
He told a Florida television station that 'Rob Owen said to me on two different occasions that I and another American had received a presidential pardon and we would never be found guilty of breaking the U.S. Neutrality Act.'
Earlier, Owen testified he did not believe Reagan approved any illegal actions to aid the rebel and he said the resistance could not have survived without the help of North, the fired White House aide to directed the Iran-Contra operation.
Owen, testifying for a second day under a grant of limited immunity in the Iran-Contra hearings, said North, his friend and supervisor who was fired as a White House aide, told him others in the administration knew of his shadowy efforts to provide cash and military aid to the Contras.
Owen told the congressional investigators that he and North -- whom he called 'Blood and Guts' -- often joked about going to jail for their covert operation to aid the rebels trying to overthrow the Marxist Sandinista government.
'I was willing to risk my life, my fortunes, and the advancement of my career, obviously,' Owen said in a calm, quiet voice.
'I don't know where I'm going to get my next job.'
Reagan's involvement in securing support for the Contras while it was banned by Congress is one of the central elements of the inquiry into the secret sale of U.S. arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to the rebels.
The president has denied that he knew anything of the plan to divert excess profits from his secret sale of arms to Iran to the rebels. But the first two weeks of hearings into the affair have disclosed a deepening awareness by Reagan of the private network to raise funds and supply the Contras. No illegality by the president has been established.
Owen defended Reagan and North, considered the mastermind of the Contra aid effort and a key player in the failed arms-for-hostages deal with Iran, against suggestions of violating the congressional ban on Contra military aid between 1984 and 1986.
'I don't believe the president would knowingly condone the breaking of laws,' the youthful messenger said.
'Were laws broken? Obviously that is for a court to decide. And I guess the bottom line is who is ultimately responsible for foreign policy.'
Owen told congressional investigators that the Nicaraguan rebels could not have survived without the covert operations directed by North during the two-year period that Congress restricted aid to the Contras.
'It would have been extremely difficult if not impossible,' Owen said.
Owen acknowledged he referred to North as his 'Godfather,' but used the term in the 'Christian' rather than the 'Marlon Brando' meaning. Owen said he was acting on the instructions of a person in authority - North, the National Security Council aide and can-do Marine who ordered him to pick up wads of cash from banks and once at a New York Chinese market and pass it on to Contra leaders to pay for their operations.
'If I wind up going to jail, I guess that is a chance that I took,' he said.
Owen defended North, saying, 'It is my belief as a person that Colonel North will wind up being a hero, not a villain as he is perceived to be.'
Owen also acknowledged under questioning from Rep. Thomas Foley, D-Wash., that both the American people and Congress were deceived by North's secret operation to provide military support to the Contras at a time Congress restricted aid. 'I think there are times when there is a necessity for secrecy, covert operations,' Owen said. 'These were trying times, difficult times, people undertaking an effort that was being kept secret from the Congress and the American people.' 'He (North) felt he was doing what the president wanted. There were others in the administration who knew what Colonel North was doing,' Owen said.
Owen said he talked to North on Nov. 25, the day he was fired, and quoted North as saying, 'You know I would never do anything unless I had orders ... People knew what I was doing.'
In other testimony, Owen said:
-He worked with CIA officials in several Latin American countries and a Pentagon official when he went to an unidentified Central American country en route to arrange arms drops for the Contras.
-He paid $30,000 to six to 10 Contra leaders with cash provided by North.
-North always wanted the Nicaraguan resistance to be as clean as possible. 'He was concerned about their image.'
-He got $9,500 in wads of $100 bills from a man at a New York Chinese restaurant on Sept. 16, 1985, a bank holiday when the Contras were short of cash.
-He said North told him on several occasions he would be the 'fall guy' if the Iran-Contra story ws revealed.
-North attended Owen's wedding in 1985 and gave him $1,000 in traveler's checks, a gift Owen felt was approved by Contra leader Adolfo Calero because he had not been paid recently. He said he did not believe North personally profited from the arms financing.
-Owen, while working on a State Department contract to provide humanitarian assistance to the Contras, was directed by North to secretly help supply the rebels with arms.
