WHODUNIT: THE PASTORA BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402950018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: March 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

A
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000402950018-6
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COLUMBIA JOURNALISP?1 REVIEW
Plarch/April 1986
After ayear-long investigation, reporters Tom? As?irgan
Inn stretcher), x?ho x~as rounded in the Pastora bombing,
and Martha Honey farm outstretched) believe
Pastora's x?ou/d-be assassin was a Libyan exile )inset).
Whodunit: the Pastora bombing
The bomb that ripped through Eden Pastora',
jungle headquarters near the Costa Rican bor-
der on the night of :Nay 30. 1984, failed to
kill the ants-Sandinista rebel leader. but it left
three joumalists dead and more than a dozen
wounded. The assassination attempt during
a press conference called by Pastora shocked
Costa Rica and was one of the country's big-
?est news stories since the Sandinistas came
to power in neighboring Nicaragua in 1979.
It may receive some more attention in the
United States. thanks to two American jour-
nalists who have investigated the bombing
and have concluded that there is evidence of
United States complicity.
Tony Avirgan, now afree-lance camera-
man working for CBS and a correspondent
with National Public Radio and the BBC.
covered the Pastora press conference for
ABC News and suffered shrapnel wounds
and bums. His wife. S1artha Honey. is a
strin?er for The Times and The Sunday Times
of London and for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation. Supported by grants from the
Committee to Protect Journalists, the News-
paper Guild, and the World Press Freedom
Committee -plus more than 520.000 of
their savings -the two spent more than a
year following up on the myriad leads that
emerged after the bombing. Last fall, the
results of their investiearion_~er ~blich d
in an ei?hty-four-oa?e report which dPra~i.
what they describe ac the roles of ncta Rican
officials. Central lntelli?ence A?encv oper-
atiyes. contras. and anti-Castro Cuban-
Americans in nlannine and executin? the
bombing. Zhe report identifies Pastora's
would-be assassin as Amac (',alil an anti-
Qaddafi Libyan exile allegedly recruited by
the CIA in Chile. The report also accuses
some U.S. and Costa Rican authorities of
hampering efforts by local police to inves-
tigate the bombine and asserts that a sophis-
ticated disinformation campai?n -launched
from Washin?ton -tried to shift the blame
onto Basque terrorists allegedly in the hire
of the Sandinista government.
Avirgan and Honey's report has since be-
come the basis of a lawsuit on behalf of sev-
eral of those injured in the bombine. After
months of research by attorneys associated
with the National Lawyers Guild in Phila-
delphia, agroup including Avirgan has de-
cided to seek damages from individuals
whom they believe to be responsible for the
bombing. Amon? the defendants will be John
Hull. an American farmer in Costa Rica who
is widely suspected of helping to train and
supple contra troops, as well as several
'vliami residents believed to be tied to the
anti-Castro terror groups Omega 7 and Bri-
?ade 2506.
Claims against U.S. government officials
are also being considered. "We'll argue that
the government, or people involved with the
government, intended to interfere with the
constitutional rights of U.S. citizens," saes
Judith Brown Chomsky, one of the attorneys
preparing the suit. "Another possibility is a
suit argued on First Amendment grounds -
that the choice of bombing a news conference
was designed to discourage the press and to
interfere with the press trying to cover what';
happening in Nicaragua."
Meanwhile. Avirgan and Honey are them-
selves being sued. Following the publication
of their report, John Hull and another man
implicated by the investigation. Costa Rican
Colonel Rodrigo Paniagua, filed libel suits
against the journalists. demanding a total of
8750.000 in damages. Paniagua's suit has
been dismissed, but Hull's is still pendin?.
Under Costa Rican libel law, the burden
of proof is on the defendants. "First we have
to prove what we said is true, then we have
to prove we wrote without malice," Avirgan
says. But Avirgan and Honey are confident
they will prevail. working in the couple's
favor is the fact that alle ations of Hull's
involvement with the C1.4 surfaced lon? be-
fore the Pastora bombin?. Avirgan himself
was part of an ABC News crew that recorded
IandtnQS of CIA-supplied planes on Hull's
property in northern Costa Rica. [n addition,
two Americans who were rr cred hi~52Sta
Rican security forces in a raid on a contra
camp identified Hull and his assn: tarts a5
links between the contras anti 11 C inrnlli_
?ence officials.
For Avirgan and Honey, their lives since
the day of the bombing have been punctuated
by violence and tear. One of their principal .
sources, a contra identified only by the pseu-
donym "David." disappeared and, accord-
ing to Costa Rican security officials. has been
murdered. Another source fled the counts
after his home was fired upon by a passing
car. In the wake of death threats prior to the
publication of their report, the Costa Rican
government supplied armed guards to stay in
Avirgan and Honey's home and the couple
sent their two children to live with relatives
in the U.S.
Throughout. U.S. officials in Costa Rica
have been unsympathetic. Ambassador
Lewis Tambs denounced Avirgan and Hon-
ey's report, calling them "madmen" and
"traitors." "He said we were traitors to our
counts. that we only did Ithe im~estigationJ
for the money." .4~irgan says. "lf we
thoueht that suing for libel was a good idea.
I guess we should be suing him."
Joe! .tfil(man
Joel ~'Nillman is a free-lance x~riter xhn limes
in ,h'ex Ynrk.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000402950018-6