U.S. CITIZENS PLUNGE INTO LATINS' CONFLICTS FOR PEACE AND PROFIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100260033-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: June 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100260033-0
Private Wars
U.S. Citizens Plunge
Into Latins' Conflicts
For Peace and Profit
Advocates of Right and Left
Provide Aid and Comfort
And Sometimes Fighters
Latest Idea: Adopt-a-Contra
ByBRYAN BURROUGH
And DIANNA SOLIS
Staff Reporters ofTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ever since Davy Crockett and his Ten-
nessee volunteers fought in Mexican terri-
tory at the Alamo, American civilians have
been proudly poking their noses into for-
eign wars. U.S. adventurers fought Franco
in the Spanish Civil War. Irish and Jewish
Americans for years have helped finance
wars against the English and the Arabs.
Today, this time-honored civilian in-
volvement reaches new heights in Central
American jungles and sun-drenched Carib-
bean islands. Thanks partly to the emo-
tions that President Reagan has aroused
over his enthusiasm for right-wing "free-
dom fighters" there, Americans are forg-
ing vast fund-raising and military-support
networks and turning Latin American con-
flicts into a kind of do-it-yourself war for
Americans of all political stripes. military adventurers by looking the other
Hollywood personalities, retired Penta- way when they violate U.S. laws. "Private
gon officials and other notables have made groups are now constantly breaking our
headlines with their financial involvement neutrality laws in Central America," says
or outspoken views and Main Street Ameri- Rep. Ted Weiss, a Democrat from New
cans-truck drivers, doctors, homemakers, York, "and we're overlooking it." A Jus-
clergymen and others-are working on be- tice Department spokesman counters,
half of some cause in the region. "There's a lot of holes in the Neutrality
Varied Motives . Act. . . . You can't prosecute these
Some want to fight communism. Some guys."
want peace. Some want profit. Some are
simply weekend cowboys who thrill at
training and fighting side by side with for-
eign armies. And whether from the left,
the right or neither side, Americans in-
volved in Latin American conflicts share
a conviction that in these small, nearby
lands, a few civilians can shape interna-
tional events.
"I felt important in Honduras," says
James Adair, a 36-year-old Houston adven-
turer who recently spent six weeks there
accompanying right-wing guerrillas on
forays into Nicaragua. "It was exciting."
op
scar on his abdomen and produces a
graphic photo of himself sewing up his own
wound, inflicted by a Sandinista bayonet in
Nicaraguan jungles. On a recent visit to
the U.S., Mr. Hall said he operates a CMA-
backed commando school and has
launched several "training missions" into
Nicaragua. Although the group's leaders
officially discourage members from enter-
ing combat in Nicaragua, the CMA's
founder, Tom Posey, says, "I admit it-we
all want to go over" into Nicaragua.
Unwelcome Visitors
The Honduran and Costa Rican govern-
ments haven't exactly welcomed CMA's in-
volvement, however. In March, 14 CMA
men were thrown out of Honduras after the
government learned that they planned to
assault a Nicaraguan military encamp-
ment; five other members remain jailed in
Costa Rica on weapons charges. Mr. Hall
can't even count on moral support from his
brother, U.S. Rep. Tony Hall of Ohio, who
has voted against aiding the Contras.
continued
WALL STREET JOURNAL
14 June 1985
The proximity of Latin American com-
bat zones-Houston is closer to San Salva- a
dor than to New York-makes the turmoil ville, Ariz., markets repackaged copies of
not only more pressing to Americans but the Central Intelligence Agency's contro-
also more accessible. U.S. citizens from versial covert-operations manual with an
the left and the right occasionally almost advertisement exhortine conservatives to
bump into each other there: Christian war irk "your liberal friends by having copy
protesters, for instance, sometimes inspect of this manual on your coffee table." Well-
battle sites in northern Nicaragua hours heeled liberals are beckoned to Central
after receiving reports of American merce- America to "study Spanish while you learn
naries fighting in the area. about the Nicaraguan revolution first-
"We see more of these pseudo-military hand." Since 1979, more than 100,000 Amer-
ventures popping up every day," says icans have visited the war-torn region-
Leonard Lindheim, a U.S. Customs agent and have created a minor industry in doing
in New Orleans. "When you've got Third SO.
World revolutions just a three-hour plane
trip away, these types of activities are *
bound to increase."
Civilian involvement was certain to in-
r) some The Adventurers
I g
R
eagan, g
crease when Mr.
and inspiring others, called the Nicara- Some gung-ho Americans trek to Latin
guan rebels "the moral equivalent of our America mostly for adventure. The 2,500-
founding fathers." In the past year, pri- member Civilian Military Assistance group
vate groups backing the Contras have of Decatur, Ala., provides military training
raised some $12 million on their own. and combat gear and even fights side by ,
And on Wednesday, the U.S. House of side with rebel soldiers.
Representatives voted $27 million in non- "The CMA is just a bunch of good of
military aid for the rebels. As Congress de- boys from Alabama not given to deep polit-
bated, more than 1,000 demonstrators were ical examination," says Mr. Adair, the
arrested after occupying federal buildings one-time Honduran adviser, who writes
and congressional offices from Chapel Hill, about the group's exploits for an obscure
N.C., to San Francisco. "Those who pro- military magazine under such headlines as
tested weren't the average radical,"- says "Sandinista Turkey Shoot." "Why do we
Jim Sweeney, a Maryknoll missionary who have to wrap everything in the flag?" Mr.
helped coordinate the national civil-disobe- Adair asks. "Why can't we just say we do
dience and protest campaign. "Congress it for adventure? We had a good time."
now has to face average people, many who The danger only adds to the CMA's sp-
are ministers and nuns and have access to peal. The group's membership swelled af-
a continuous public forum-the church." ter two CMA men were killed in a helicop-
Reagan Criticized ter crash in Nicaragua last fall. Sam Hall,
ear old former Olympic diver from
48-
Y
Some critics charge that the Reagan ad- a
ministration has encouraged right-wing Dayton, Ohio, proudly grimaces as he
ns his shirt to show off a pink-rimmed
e
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100260033-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100260033-0
But what they lack in official support,
CMA members make up for with ingenu-
ity.' Mr. Posey, a 39-year-old vegetable
dealer in Decatur, has filled the concrete
warehouse of Posey's Produce with goods
donated from across the country: camou-
flage uniforms, gas masks, boxes of
stewed tomatoes and ravioli, and even
baseball bats fight for space among Mr.
Posey's carrots and cabbages.
On his daily rounds, Mr. Posey spends
as much time collecting money and goods
for rebels as he does selling produce. At
Mondo's Pizza, the owner, Armando de
Quesada, promises to donate food and
medicine to the cause and slaps Mr. Posey
on the back for a job well done. The San-
dinistas may have Cuban support, the
pizza man says, "but we have CMA."
Mr. Posey's crusades have taken a
heavy personal toll. His business isn't get-
ting any new customers. He had to sell his
$15,000 coin collection and half his gun col-
lection to finance trips where the greatest
excitement comes from crouching in fetid
foxholes and listening to Sandinista rockets
landing nearby. And his 14-year-old son
has been sleeping next to a carbine ever
since the Federal Bureau of Investigation
warned Mr. Posey that the Nicaraguan
government put a $250,000 price on his
head-a charge that an embassy spokes-
woman in Washington denies.
Teaching Teams
Like Mr. Posey's group, Soldier of For-
tune magazine has sponsored a dozen.
teams of medics and mercenary
"trainers" who teach right-wing groups
throughout Latin America the finer points
of mortars, explosives and sniping. "A lot
of us were advisers in Vietnam," says
Dale Dye, the magazine's executive editor
and a self-appointed rebel adviser in Nica-
ragua. "It's the same gig."
At the same time, U.S. leftists travel to
Central America on campaigns that they
describe as "waging peace." A religious
organization called Witness for Peace
sometimes has 40 members scattered
through Nicaragua, hoping that publicity-
conscious Contras will think twice before
Ameri-
shooting if they know that Noth helps
cans are nearby. The group also li
arouse people back in the U.S. ne that plays recorded messagesh a hot
detail-
ing such alleged Contra atrocities as the
rape of rural women and terrorism by
drunken soldiers.
Some self-appointed advisers seem
more enthusiastic on the battlefield than
do their students. Mr. Dye's recent efforts
to train rebel mortarmen in Nicaragua
were delayed when they expressed unwill-
ingness to bomb bean fields where some of
their relatives were working.
Similarly, when Mr. Adair of the CMA
and four other Americans set out with sev-
eral Contras to destroy a bridge in Nicara-
gua, most of the rebels fled with the
group's machine guns when they were sur-
prised to find 300 Sandinista soldiers de-
fending the target. Mr. Adair and his
lightly armed comrades scurried to Hondu-
ras with enemy patrols in pursuit. The
Adair shooting raepair of deer their that u strayed too
close to them.
a,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100260033-0