MERCENARY OR AGENT? U.S. IS ASKED TO HELP FREE A SON IN ANGOLA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100070007-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: January 19, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100070007-8
ARTICLE APPEARED
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Mercenary or Agent?
U .S. Is Asked to Help
Free a Son in Angola
Parents of Gary Acker, in Jail
Six Years, Assert the CIA
Was Behind His : Missiori
By JONATHAN Klvrr' n -
Sluff Reponer of Tilt: WALL STREET JOVR.No~L
Twice Gary Acker answered what he
thought was his country's call.
After graduating from high school in Sac-
ramento, Calif., in 1972, he joined the Ma-
rines. He became a corporal, but was re-
leased after three years for "psychological"
reasons-his father says he got into disputes
with officers, and with enlisted men he su-
pervised. Trained only as a machine-gunner,
he couldn't find civilian work. - . ?
Then in the fall of 1975, at age 21, he saw
another chance to serve militarily. An arti-
cle in the Sacramento Bee told of a man
named David Floyd Bufkin who was hiring
and training recruits to fight communism in.
Angola. Mr. Acker called Mr. Bufkin and
signed up. _ .
formed accounts, was operating with CIA
money and authority, and told Mr. Acker so
at the time. The Central Intelligence Agency
JOJ U; t L
T;.i, nl ~TZ
19 Januar ! 19`32
The State Department won't discuss the
matter. The Angolan mission to the United
Nations won't either.
The CIA says it
'neither paid -nor au-
thorized funds to Mr.
Acker or other Amer-
icans engaged ' in
armed combat in An-
gola" nor, flew them
in. But this statement
apparently doesn't,
cover the Acker situ-
ation: Mr. Bufkin
combat, and the men . Gary Acker
who did-and: whom he paid-entered An-
gola by truck. The CIA won't elaborate.
The Acker story comes from many
sources, whose accounts are consistent.
They include W. William Wilson, a St. Louis
lawyer who represented Mr. Acker at his
trial in Angola; Mr. Acker's parents,. who
have talked with many people, in their
search; an affidavit by Mr. Buskin in a law-
suit a year ago (recently he couldn't be lo-
cated): Pio Maria Deiana, a fellow prisoner
in Angola on spy charges who has been
freed and now is a waiter at Elaine's, the
fashionable New York restaurant; John
Stockwell, who directed the, C1A's -Angola
were "lied to" about their safety. Air. Rob-
erto's forces were already in panicky re-I
treat, and in Mr. Stockwell's words- the re-
cruits' situation was "downright suicidal.
They had very little chance of coming out. It
wasn't someplace you would send your kid
brother."
Just three days after they- arrived, Mr:
Grillo and another American recruit, Daniel
Gearhart, a father of four from Maryland?
were captured-while on patrol together. The
next day; Valentine's Day, the remaining
Bulkin recruits went looking for their miss-
ing comrades. One, George Bacon, a former
CIA paramilitary officer, was killed. A sec-
ond. Douglas Newby,- a Canadian, was fa-
tally wounded. The third, Mr:' Acker, was
wounded and surrendered-without ever fir-.1
ing a shot, he has said. Mr. Bufkin stayed
safely behind and returned to Zaire. - . "
Mr. Acker was arrested by forces of the
Popular Movement for the Liberation of An-~
gola (`MLA), which, behinc~ a phalanx of
Cuban armored troops, were. routing Mr.
Roberto's rival group to the north. ' The
MPLA's base of popular support was i around
the Angolan capital of Luanda, and it has
controlled the Angolan government there
since independence from Portugal. in- No-
vember 1975, though it continues to meet re- -
$istance from Unita, a rival group with pop-
ular support in the south of Angola;. Unita
also got CIA help at one time.
The three surviving American prisorers,
along with 10 British mercenaries who ap?
parently also were paid by Mr. Roberto with
,CIA money, were tried in Luanda in pro-
! ceedings that some international observers
criticized as unfair. Mr. Acker's parents say
they asked the U.S. to supply legal counsel
but were refused. Mr. Wilson, a friend of the
slain Mr. Bacon's who had just finished law
school, agreed-to defend Mr. Acker for ex-
only.--,
Four of the 13 defendants, including-Mr. Gearhart, the father of four, were executed.'
Of the rest, Mr. Acker got the tightest sen-
tence: 16 years in prison on charges of b,eung
a mercenary. l
His parents receive occasional letters.
But his father, 'Carl Acker, a- retired fire-
man, says, "He told us when he was first !
captured that he couldn't tell us what was
;going on. He just asks about the family and
so forth, but he gives us no information
11
other than that he's fine physically."
operation, then left the agency and wrote a
best-selling book about it; and Rep. RobertK. Doman, a Republican of California, the
Ackefs' Congressman, who has avidly taken
up their cause. The sources don't include
was recruiting soldiers and supplying equip- Gary Acker himself, because this reporter
ment for the Angolan civil war. That fall the I has been unable to obtain an Angolan visa.
press was writing about this effort, Congress A Truck From Kinshasa
was debating it, and there is every evidences Mr- Acker and Mr. Grillo were among
i that Mr- Acker was a hart of it
Now, however, Mr. Acker has just spent-
his sixth-Christmas in-an Angolan jail. and
the U.S. government doesn't:sgem to want
anything to do with him-or so- his parents
say, and they are- bitter about-it: Equally
bitter are the parents of. Gustave Grillo, another U.S_ resident (though he has claimed
Argentine citizenship) who was recruited by
Mr. Bufkin and imprisoned in Angola-
"Nobody Does Nothing"
Interviewed by phone fromher New Jer-
sey home, Mr. Grillo's -mother says, "For
six years I go to Washington. The State De-
partment tell me nothing. I don't want to
hear any more, 'cause nobody does nothing
about my son." Then, angrily, she hangs up.
. Mr. Acker's parents are more articulate,
have hired a lawyer and have traveled
widely to try to obtain freedom for their son,
or at least get the government to go to bat
for him. So far, though, they apparently
have done no better than the Grillos.
being recruited by Mr. Bufkin, entered An-
gola Feb. 10, 1976, on a truck bought (ac- I
cording to Mr. Stockwell) with. CIA funds. I
They arrived from Kinshasa, Zaire; Mr.
Bufkin had stopped to check in with the CIA ~
station there, which was overseeing the An-
gola operation.
Mr. Stockwell says 'the But kin group was
paid through Holden Roberto, the leader of
an Angolan faction. "We were giving Rob-!
erto big fistfuls of green, $5 million, and he
used that for a lot of things, including hiring!
mercenaries, including Bufkin," Mr. Stock-
well says, "We knew, Bufkin was recruiting.
We never signed a piece of paper with him,
but he was flown into Angola in CIA planes.
He stayed at one of our safe houses. He met
with our chief of station" and was briefed on
combat missions, Mr. Stockwell says.
Mr. Stockwell also says that the recruits
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100070007-8