FREEDOM FIGHTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210023-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: August 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210023-2
ON PAGE ___ _"
WASHINGTON TIMES
19 August 1985
Freedom
fighter
By Bill Outlaw
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Camouflage fatigues and
lace.
Bullriding, calf-roping
and needlepoint.
M-16s, and foxholes; evening
gowns and waltzing'the night away.
"The best man for this job is a
woman:'
Karen McKay, executive director
of the Committee for a Free Afghan-
istan, lives these contradictions.
A major in the U.S. Army
reserves, she has worn her Army
uniform to meetings with military
personnel and white lace blouses
while escorting Afghanistan free-
dom fighters. "Some people think
I'm a GI Jane Fonda ... or Gloria
Steinem in a camouflage," she says
of the reaction to a woman who advo-
cates women in the military.
And now Mrs. McKay, whose
weaponry qualifications include
expert in the M-14, M-16 and AS, is
aiming at former allies at the State
Department on behalf of her friends
in Afghanistan.
In her office, flowers stand in
shell casings of rounds spent in
Afghanistan. Paintings by Afghan
artists and posters depicting free-
dom fighters and women and chil-
dren in Afghanistan decorate the
walls.
On small tables by her desk are
Soviet military paraphernalia cap-
tured in Afghanistan- two armored
vests, a gas mask, canteen and belt.
A cartoon in the background proudly
states "I love to court danger."
On the wall behind her are
plaques and awards from her 18
years in the Army and her activities
with the CFA. There's a certificate
from the 82nd Airborne for comple-
tion of basic paratrooper training.
She wanted to go to paratrooper
school. She wanted to fire weapons.
She wanted to fight communism and
help her country.
"I joined the Army to go fight in
Vietnam and was told that women
were too small and too weak to jump
out of airplanes or fire guns," she
says. "It's only now that they've come
to the realization that we can do as
well as the next guy."
After the Army said no, she
couldn't go, Mrs. McKay waited
some 15 years before she finished
paratrooper school at the age of 42
despite suffering a broken pelvis
that forced her to walk with a cane
for nearly a year.
"I am one of the few people who
can legitimately say they have actu-
ally busted their butt for the U.S.
Army;" she says.
She is qualified to fire 14 weapons.
"I can handle a gun as well as a sew-
ing needle," she says. She can sling a
mean chain saw. "I've also fired all
of the Soviet stuff ... including the
AKR [new Soviet automatic
weapon]" She says she gave the first
AKR to U.S. authorities in Pakistan.
Before joining the Army, she
taught school and rode in Califor-
nia's rodeo circuit. Now, she spends
much of her free time caring for and
riding her horses on her suburban
Virginia farm, where she lives with
her husband and two children.
It's her second marriage. Her
first husband was Greek. She lived
in Greece for four years, and after
that in Israel, where she worked on
a doctorate before returning to the
United States.
Her interest in the Army came
from her father, who was killed
fighting in World War II. "He died a
hero:' she says proudly.
If she is different from other
women, she doesn't analyze it. "I
don't spend time studying my navel
... wondering why it's there. I can be
in a foxhole with an M-16 one minute,
and in an evening gown that same
night waltzing the night away."
She knows what she likes and
what she believes in. No doubts. She
believes in fighting the spread of
global communism and helping an
oppressed people, which is what the
Committee for a Free Afghanistan is
all about.
She was working for Reed Irvine
at Accuracy in Media in January
1981 when two members of the
Afghanistan resistance came by and
talked about the media's lack of cov-
erage of the Afghan resistance bat-
tling the Soviet Union since
Moscow's invasion of their country
in December 1979.
"None of us knew there was a war
going on in Afghanistan," she
recalls.
She took the "freedom fighters"
around to meet congressional aides,
members of Congress and other
politicos in Washingtop. The
response was encouraging, she
recalls, and not long afterward she
started the Committee for a Free
Afghanistan at the urging of others.
It began as a one-woman job, and
she had a makeshift office at the
American Security Council. Then,
she worked out of conservative
political leader Paul Weyrich's quar-
ters using a "borrowed desk, chair
and telephone:'
A board of directors included
retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. J. Mil-
nor Roberts, executive director of
the Reserve Officers Association;
David Isby, author of "Weapons and
lhctics of the Soviet Army" and a
frequent contributor to Soldier of
Fortune and Jane's military publica-
tions; Col. John Sheffey, head of the
National Association of Uniformed
Services and Mr. Irvine.
Other notables, including numer-
ous top military officials and several
members of Congress, are listed on
the CFAs council of advisers.
"At first, it was hard to get people
to listen to us:' she says about the
early days in 1981. "Afghanistan was
a dead horse. When we first started
talking about chemical weapons
being used in Afghanistan, people
laughed at us. When we started talk-
ing about Soviets using nerve gas,
they laughed. And I understood John
the Baptist's problem. You have a
message, a mission. You're driven to
say something and you haven't got
anybody to listen.'
As the response began to grow
and the CFA began receiving finan-
cial support, she moved to an office
on Pennsylvania. Avenue in an area
"where police didn't even want to
go." Times were still difficult, she
says, noting there were several sus-
Continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210023-2