TRIAL OF JOURNALISTS OFFERS INTRIGUE AND A CAST OF HUNDREDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880007-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: May 23, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASHINGTON TIMES
23 "lay 1986
dial of journalists
offers intrigue and
a cast of hundreds
J B Su
S"'IEGIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - A libel
trial opened here yesterday featur-
ing soldiers of fortune, CIA "dirty
tricksters;' Latin revolutionaries, se-
cret tape recordings, kidnappings,
drug trafficking and an attempt to
assassinate Nicaraguan rebel leader
nP
X e case pits John ull_ a former
U.S. citizen who is now a naturalized
Costa Rican, against two American
journalists, liar ha MnPn y and Tbny
Avirgan, a husband and wife team.
Mr. Hull, a rancher who owns or
"manages" land near the Nicara-
guan border, is suing the couple for
nearly $20 million, charging that
they libeled him by linking him with
a bombing nearly two years ago at
La Penca, Mr. Pastora's Nicaraguan
jungle camp near the Costa Rican
border.
Three journalists were killed and
several people were injured in that
bombing, including Mr. Pastora and
Mr. Avirgan.
The journalist couple has lived
here for the past three years, accord-
ing to an interview with Miss Honey,
and they report on Central America
for American, Canadian and British
television networks and newspa-
pers, including the Times of London.
Mr. Hull's attorney, Alberto Rodri-
guez, said that Mr. Hull denies all
charges made by the journalists and
that their report contains numerous
anonymous sources, pseudonyms
and statements of third parties
unsupported by any acceptable evi-
dence.
According to the Tico Times, Mr.
Hull has long expressed sympathy
for the Nicaraguan rebels and his
activities in northern Costa Rica
have been the subject of numerous
local investigations in recent years.
However, the Tico Times added, Mr.
Hull has strongly denied any con-
nection to the La Penca bombing.
In an 84-page report by the jour-
nalist couple which was obtained by
The Washington Times, Mr. Hull is
mentioned more than a dozen times
in connection with alleged CIA ac-
tivities, drug trafficking and a
bombing plot against Mr. Pastora.
The report, called "La Penca: Pas-
tora, the Press and the CIA;' was
funded in part by the U.S. Commit-
tee to Protect Journalists and the
American Newspaper Guild, ac-
cording to the Tico Times. The un-
derwriters are not named on the re-
port, but Miss Honey said it was also
funded by the World Press Freedom
Association.
The perpetrator of the unsolved
La Penca bombing posed as a Scan-
dinavian photojournalist, but Mr.
Avirgan and Miss Honey contend he
was a Libyan "whose comrades
knew him as Amac Gall."
It
They State 'm their report that Mr.
Galil was recruited in Chile for the
La Penca operation in early 1984 by
the CIA, members of two Contra
groups - including the largest one,
the Nicaraguan Democratic Force
- and anti-Castro Cuban-
Americans in Miami.
They further allege that costa
Rican officials participated in a
cover-up of the bombing plot, which
they say was styled to look like a
Sandinista attack on Mr. Pastora.
Contra leaders began to suspect
Mr. Pastora was a communist and
plotted against him, Miss Honey said
in an interview. The CIA assisted in
the plot, upset that Mr. Pastora
steadfastly refused to unite with the
other Contra groups operating in the
north of Nicaragua, she added.
Early press reports on La Penca
pointed a finger at ETA, a Basque
separatist organization that report-
edly had close ties to the Sandinistas.
But Miss Honey and Mr. Avirgan
contend that intelligence sources in
Washington planted those stories in
the major U.S. media.
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ARTICLE BARED WASHINGTON POST
ON PPA A -~i - 9 November 1986
WORLD
NEWS
U.S. Role in Contra Su 1 Program pp y Rema ? i ys enous STAT
aid P. Gregg
By Joe Pichirallo
a l
i
Washington Pat Staff Writer
When a camouflaged cargo plane was shot down in
Nicaragua Oct. 5, the inner workings of a clandestine
rebel supply operation exploded into public view-aad
appeared to suggest a trail that led back to the White
House.
There were allegations of Central Intelligence Agen-
cy involvement, possible links to Vice President Bush
and further revelations about the private network of
organizations that helped the Nicaraguan contras dur-
ing the two years when U.S. military aid was cut off.
But today, more than a month after the C123K cargo
plane went down, fundamental questions about the pro-
gram remain.
It is not known, for example, who controlled and fi-
nanced the supply operation to the contras, who say it
was not their money. Nor is it known how much Reagan
administration officials knew about the network or
whether they were directly involved in it, even though
U.S. officials have said that, while it was not a govern-
ment operation, they knew more about it than they
would say publicly.
This is not the first time that efforts to pin down the
administration's role in supporting the contras, or coun-
terrevolutionaries, has produced more questions than
answers.
During the past two years, congressional committees
and others have repeatedly challenged the administra-
tion's claims that it adhered to a congressional ban on
military aid to the contras, but no "smoking gun" dis-
proving administration statements has been found.
The plane incident has provided congressional critics
with dramatic but largely circumstantial evidence of
possibly improper administration involvement with the
contras.
But with Democrats controlling the Senate as well as
the House next year, congressional scrutiny of the sup-
ply network and the entire contra aid program is likely
to intensify.
Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), likely new chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee and a critic of contra
aid, said late last week that he intends to make the U.S.
policy in Central America a top priority and will pursue
"with increased vigor" information about possible ad-
ministration wrongdoing. )
For the moment, the administration statement that
the operation was financed and controlled by private
individuals and not the U.S. government has not been
proved or disproved.
Bush has acknowledged meeting twice with Felix I.
Rodriguez, a former CIA operative said to have helped
the vice president's national security adviser, Don-
,
ongt
me Rodri
guez friend, recommend- !'7
s a counterinsurgency specialist to the Salva-
doran military.
RodriBut Gguez,regg has including never whether explained Rod with
rigueinvolvement
hisz discussed with
him his work with the contra supply network.
Administration officials have argued that the involve-
ment of a coterie of former military and CIA operatives
in the effort does not prove that it was set up and/or
controlled by the U.S. government.
Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, admin-
istration point man on Central America, said last month
that it is "predictable and logical" that "there is a -small
circle of people who fly into hostile territory carrying
military supplies."
Shortly after the plane went down Abrams said he
had "some intelligence" about the mission.
"The CIA is asked to report on events in Central
America, and among things they report on to us is some
of this activity," Abrams said. "But they do not direct it,
directly or indirectly, wink or nod, or steer people. It's
illegal."
Beginning with President Reagan, administration
officials have made no secret of their support for the.
rebels and their approval of private efforts to provide
money and materials to the contras during the two-year
cutoff of military aid.
But administration officials' knowledge and public
encouragement of contra-support activities does not
necessarily mean that they violated the law.
The debate over the role of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver
North, a member of Reagan's National Security Council
staff who is cited as a key liaison between the admin-
istration and the contras, is a microcosm of the larger
dispute over possible administration wrongdoing.
.Critics and news reports have
alleged that North has advised rebel
leaders on military tactics and
steered contributors to them-both
of which would be possible viola-
tions of the congressional ban.
Former Reagan national security
adviser Robert C. McFarlane, in
recently denying that North vio-
lated the congressional ban, ex-
plained that when Congress cut off
aid to the contras North was one of
those assigned to assure contra
leaders that the administration still
believed in them and would contin-
ue. to lobby Congress to resume
military aid. North "periodically met
with them [rebel leaders) ... near-
lyalways here [in Washington] but
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sometimes down there in Central Cooper ~
( was one of Air America's Force in 1984 to fly cargo g
America)," McFarlane said, adding chief pilots. Hasenfus was a cargo Y ar o to Cen-
that he stayed within the law. handler or "kicker." tral America.
One congressional aide, who is Cooper; Wallace B. Sawyer, who has In refactce, eince 1983, Southern Air
critical of the contra program, said was the plane's copilot, and an un- cargo tra million in he Air
that while administration officials identified Nicraguan rebel, were Force, contracts from the Ain
may not have violated the law, they killed when the plane crashed. Force, according to information
"go right up against the law and ex- Hasenfus also disclosed that provided by a spokesman for the Air
ploit any loophole." v Southern Air Transport Inc., a Mi- Force's Military Airlift Command.
The debate over whether North' ami-based air cargo firm owned by In 1984, Southern Air received
stepped out of bounds has been fu- the CIA until the agency said it was two contracts, one for $10.8 million
eled by disclosures that Salvadoran sold in 1973, played a major role in to fly cargo to Air Force bases with.
phone records from a "safe houses" assisting the operation. in the United States and another for
used by members of the operation William Kress, a company $13.3 million to ferry supplies to
b
sses in the Caribbean and Central
show repeated calls in September spokesman, has said Southern Air A
uama
to. White House phones in North's serviced both of the C 123s at its and AmerPalmerola ica, air including C base in una, Ho Panama
office. A Reagan administration of. Miami facilities and that the firm which has full-time et of
ficial, quoted anonymously, told also sent repair and maintenance U.S. has a esnn l and ha has be.
The Associated Press that North crews to the Ilopango airport in El m military personnel
air strip has be-
"to his knowledge" never received Salvador to work on the planes. Ha- come a key military air strip in the
any phone calls from the safe house. senfus said the company also ar- area.
Last year, the administration re- ranged his round-trip ticket to El surge in quest mutely whether the
pulsed a congressional effort to find Salvador when he began work in Ju- Southern Air and r anr contractn to
out more about North's role as a li- IY. Southern recent expansion
l l tied to the in-
aiaon to the contras. But Kress has said Southern Air crea acesedcU.S. in is
vement in Cen-
:The administration was also suc- did not own or operate the downed tral cr America.
cessful this year in persuading Con- plane or the other C123K. He said Although ugh the
grew to eliminate the two-year ban the company was simply performing received
on military assistance to the contras work for a customer whose identity betgo between co 1960 contracts from the Air Force
and to provide $100 million in aid, he declined to disclose. riod that it was was and 1973-the y the CI pe-
including $70 million for military Southern Air was purchased by Southern Air owned by the a any
activities. Last month, Reagan the CIA in 1960 to provide support contracts between not receive any
signed a directive that permits de- to Air America and another CIA- according to to the en Air 19 Force and 1 kes,
livery of the aid to the contras and owned airline in the Far East, ac- rce spokes-
allows the CIA, the State Depart- cording to former CIA man.
general The spokesman did not know the
ment and other U.S. agencies to re- counsel Lawrence R. Houston. date when the contracts were re-
sume direct assistance to the reb- The downed plane was purchased sumed in 1983.
els. in March with a check issued by . Among the other aspects of the
According to information from Southern Air, according to a source operation that remain mysterious
records retrieved from the downed familiar with the transaction. Kress, are:
plane and captured crewman Eu- while not verifying that account, ^ The supply network's use of a
gene Hasenfus, the plane's pilot, said recently that Southern Air Honduran air base at Aguagate, an
William J. Cooper, began setting up could have done so on behalf of a airport rebuilt several years ago by
the resupply network last February. customer. U.S. military engineers that has be-
Operating under the name "Corpor. Southern Air also was hired to fly come a contra supply base, and of
ate Air Service Inc.," Cooper is said several flights of nonlethal U.S. aid the Salvadoran air base at Ilopongo,
to: have recruited about 14 pilots to the contras, which company and where U.S. military personnel op.
and crewmen and assembled a fleet U.S. officials said was separate erate.
of, five airplanes, including two from its work on the weapons re- Critics question how the supply
C 123K cargo planes that sell f9r supply operation. A Southern Air network could get access to both
several hundred thousand dollars crewman on at least two of the non- bases without U.S. knowledge and
apiece. lethat aid flights was Sawyer, who, Both Hasenfus and Cooper, as according to Kress, worked for ^ The approval vofisit the of Col. operation.
. James outhern Air until last mSteele,
well as several other members of April. head of the U.S. military group in El
the operation, had worked together While State Department officials Salvador, to Hasenfus' living quar-
during the Vietnam war as employ- said Southern Air was not hired di- ters to complain about high tele-
es of the CIA-owned airline Air rectly by the U.S. government for phone bills and raucous behavior in
America. the nonlethal aid flights, Southern San Salvador restaurants by mem-
Air was retained by the U.S. Air bers of the supply network.
Continued
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United Press International re-
ported last month that a reliable
source confirmed that Steele went
to the safe house but said he had
nothing to do with directing the op-
eration. "Steele went in because his
feeling was that whatever was go-
ing on would reflect negatively on
the U.S. government mission in El
Salvador," the source told UPI.
^ The possible role in setting up
and financing the operation by Rich-
ard V. Secord, a retired Air Force
major general and former assistant
secretary of defense.
Secord last month denied reports
that he was a point man in raising
Saudi Arabian money for the con-
tras.
Salvadoran telephone records for
the safe houses used in the supply
network show that several calls
were placed to Secord's home and
business last summer. Secord has
been quoted as saying he advised
the rebels on "how they ought to
design their efforts ... but[ am not
commanding the contra air force. If
[ were, I'd be down there."
? The allegation by the Sandinistas
that one of two ex-CIA operatives
who helped coordinate the flights in
El Salvador and who went by the
name "Ramon Medina" was Luis Po-
sada Carriles, a fugitive suspected
an terrorist. Posada escaped
from a Venzuelan jail in August
1985 where he had been held on
charges stemming from the 1976
bombing of a Cuban airlines flight,
in which 73 persons were killed.
Salvadoran phone records from
the safe houses show that at least
one phone call was made to Posa-
da's wife in Miami. She confirmed
recently that her husband called her
from abroad several times in recent
months without identifying his lo-
cation.
c4Y
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