Oliver North met with then-Vice President George Bush a few hours after lying to the House intelligence committee about assisting the Nicaraguan Contras, an entry in North's White House diaries suggests. Portions of the diaries, released Tuesday, renew questions about whether Bush was more deeply involved in assisting the Contras than he has acknowledged. The 1,400 pages of notebook entries were obtained by a private group, the National Security Archive, as the result of a lawsuit filed against the government. U.S. intelligence agencies still are reviewing the remaining 1,200 pages of North's diaries. White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said, ``The vice president's role in the Iran-Contra affair was completely examined in the congressional inquiry and we have nothing to add.'' Among the disclosures in the newly released material: _On Dec. 20, 1985, North laid out a ``3rd Country Solicitation Plan'' in support of the Contras that included trips by Bush to Honduras for an inauguration there. The plan also called for President Reagan to meet with Ecuador's president. Bush went to Honduras in January 1986 for the inauguration of President Jose Azcona Hoyo and Reagan met in Washington that month with Ecuadoran President Leon Febres Cordero. There was an elaborate plan in the Reagan administration to induce third countries to support the Contras, according to evidence introduced at North's trial last year. Bush has denied being involved in any ``quid pro quo'' arrangements providing additional economic and military aid to Honduras in exchange for allowing the Contras to use base camps there. _North's notes refer to a noon ``meeting w V.P.'' on Aug. 6, 1986. That would have been just 3{ hours after North lied to the House intelligence committee by denying he was supplying military advice to the Contras. North admitted he had lied when he took the witness stand at his own trial last year and when he testified in the recent trial of former National Security Adviser John Poindexter. Shortly before meeting with Bush, according to North's diaries, the White House aide had a ``meeting w Don Gregg,'' Bush's top national security aide. Gregg, now the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, has said he found out about North's involvement with the then-secret Contra resupply network on Aug. 8, 1986. Gregg asserts he didn't tell Bush about North's involvement until four months later, after the Iran-Contra affair became public. The notebooks provide offer no elaboration on the Aug. 6 meeting entries. But earlier that day, the diaries show, North got a call relating to problems in the Contra resupply operation. The call was about Felix Rodriguez, a former CIA operative sent to El Salvador with the blessing of Gregg. Rodriguez wound up working in North's Contra resupply network, but had a falling out with him. Rodriguez complained to Gregg on Aug. 8, 1986 that private operators were getting rich off of North's network. U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., said he didn't believe Congress had seen the page referring to Bush and Gregg and Aug. 6 meetings. ``It clearly at the very least would raise questions which ought to have been put at the time to appropriate witnesses,'' Hamilton said of the Aug. 6 entries. ``I would have if I had seen them.'' The former House Iran-Contra committee chairman suggested that a congressional investigation might be in order. ``If there is evidence relevant diaries were withheld, redacted or blacked out then I would want'' the House intelligence or judiciary committees to ``conduct an investigation,'' said Hamilton. ``I would expect the same of the independent counsel,'' he added, referring to the Iran-Contra prosecutor's office. _North and others in the U.S. government who aren't identified by name in his notes met with Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega in March 1984, where the discussion focused on the role of Costa Rica as a ``buffer'' between Nicaragua and Panama. _A March 6, 1984, entry focused on the ``vulnerabilities'' of Roberto D'Aubuisson, referring to his ``inability to deliver U.S. aid,'' saying he was a ``poor military officer'' and alleging he ``bumped off best friend.'' D'Aubuisson is the founder of Arena, now the ruling party in El Salvador. ``What were the quids and the quos with all these countries?'' Tom Blanton, deputy director of the archive, asked at a news conference. ``What did the vice president know and when did he know it? How much did Don Gregg know?'' The Justice Department released the new material from North's notebooks in response to a lawsuit filed by the group and by Public Citizen, a group founded by Ralph Nader. North still has the notebooks, but he supplied copies of 900 pages in 1987 to the Iran-Contra congressional committees. His lawyers heavily censored the portions they turned over to Congress. Asked whether North attorney Brendan Sullivan had withheld relevant material from the Iran-Contra congressional committees, Blanton said, ``You bet.'' Blanton cited a Jan. 5, 1984, entry stating, ``Costa Rica project approved,'' a reference to planned military exercises and other steps designed to counter the threat posed by Nicaragua. One entry said that then-Costa Rican President Alberto Monge ``needs to be stroked.'' Reached by telephone at his office, Sullivan said that he has not commented in the past on the Iran-Contra affair and would not do so now. ``This material should never have been withheld from Congress in the first place,'' said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., whose Senate subcommittee investigated allegations of narcotics trafficking in connection with the Contras. Kerry said the executive branch should produce the remainder of the material ``without further delay.'' North turned over copies of all 2,600 pages of his notebooks to the Iran-Contra prosecutor's office at his trial last year. Prosecutors did not object to the turning over of the new batch of material to the private group.
