McCain, shown in 1985, did not list his service on the board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom on mandatory congressional disclosure forms. McCain didn’t report ties to Contra group

As a freshman congressman in the early 1980s, John McCain did not disclose his connections to a controversial group that was implicated in a secretive plot to supply arms to Nicaraguan militia groups during the Iran-Contra affair.

McCain did not list his service on the board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom on mandatory congressional disclosure forms asking about positions he held outside government.


McCain’s aides said he wasn’t required to report the affiliation.

Democrats in the past several days have seized on McCain’s ties to the U.S. Council and its founder John Singlaub to push back against the McCain campaign’s increasing focus on ties of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to Bill Ayers, a founder of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground.

McCain joined the board of the U.S. Council soon after Singlaub founded it in McCain’s adopted hometown of Phoenix in November 1981 as the U.S. branch of the World Anti-Communist League. The league billed itself as a supporter of “pro-Democratic resistance movements fighting communist totalitarianism,” but it had also been branded by critics as a haven for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.

McCain aides now say he felt comfortable affiliating with the group because Singlaub had taken steps to purge those elements. Singlaub, while a controversial figure, also boasted a storied career as a decorated veteran in World War II and the U.S. conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. He retired from the Army as a major general.

But McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers told Politico that McCain notified the group of his intent to leave the board in September 1984 because “questions were raised about its activities.”

A review of the personal financial disclosure forms McCain filed after his election to the U.S. House in 1982 show that he did not list the group in the section of his 1982, 1983 and 1984 reports in which he was required to disclose all positions he held outside of government.

The instructions on the form require filers to report “the identity of all positions held on or before the date of the filing during the current calendar year as an officer, director, trustee, partner, proprietor, representative, employee, or consultant of any corporation, firm, partnership, or other business enterprise, any nonprofit organization, any labor organization, or any educational or other institution.”

But Rogers told Politico “those directions have never been understood to include advisory boards or other positions which exercise no control over the organization and no fiduciary responsibilities for the organization.” And he said “our understanding is that his involvement did not involve any fiduciary responsibility for the organization and no control over the organization.”