REPORT ON GARY ACKER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100160054-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: September 17, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100160054-8
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RADIO TV REPORTS, IN
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEW CHASE, MARYLAND 20015 656-4068
Good Morning America STATION WJLA TV
ABC Network
September 17, 1981 7:00 AM
Washington, DC
Report on Gary Acker
JACK ANDERSON: For the past six years, a forgotten
American has been rotting in a dismal Angolan jail. He's a
soldier of fortune named Gary Acker. He was captured four days
before he arrived in 1975 to fight in Angola's civil war. The
Communist-backed government sentenced him to 16 years in prison.
Now, Acker's in a tough predicament. He's admitted
that he signed up as a mercenary to fight against the Angolan
government. Worse, he said he was recruited by the CIA. He
claims he went to Africa to fight Communism.
Well, naturally, no one in Washington is going to
admit that the CIA hired mercenaries to fight in Angola. Offi-
cials have steadfastly denied that Acker was a CIA recruit. So
he's become a forgotten American, sitting in a prison cell while
officials in Washington have been sitting on their hands.
But there may now be a slim hope for Acker. The South
Africans recently went on a foray into Angola. They came back
with a strange prisoner, a Soviet soldier. Now, this raises an
awkward question for the Kremlin. What was a Soviet soldier
doing in faraway Angol-a?
Now, the captured Russian has become a great embarrass-
ment for the Kremlin. The South Africans have paraded him before
the television cameras. -He's living proof that the Soviets are
continuing to send military aid to the Angolan government.
But Acker's lawyers have an idea. They hope to arrange
a swap: their client in return for the captured Russian. That
would seem like a fair exchange: the Russian, who Moscow pre-
tends never went to Angola to fight for the Communists, in ex-
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100160054-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100160054-8
change for the American, whom Washington claims never went to
Angola to fight for the CIA.
Well, Acker's lawyers have asked the White House and
the State Department to help arrange the trade.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100160054-8