NATION IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Ex-CIA Figure Faces Iran-Contra Counts

A federal grand jury indicted Iran-Contra defendant Clair E. George on two counts of obstructing 1986 congressional investigations into secret U.S. government efforts to assist the Nicaraguan rebels. One charge accuses the former CIA deputy director of instructing Alan D. Fiers, former CIA Central American task force chief, not to tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October, 1986, about Contra resupply operations or the involvement of former CIA operative Felix Rodriguez. The other charges that George ordered Fiers not to give the House information about Contra resupply operations, also in October, 1986. Three similar charges had been dismissed Monday. Those counts had charged George with lying to Congress, but independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh had agreed that they must be dismissed because an appeals court, in reversing former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter’s Iran-Contra convictions, had ruled that the obstruction law was too vague to prohibit lying to Congress.