U.S. OFFICIALS LINKED TO AIRLIFT OF CONTRA SUPPLIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790020-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: October 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403790020-0
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N~l?~ YORK ~.IMES
14 October 1986
U.S. OFficials Linked to Airlift of Contra Supplies;
By JAMES LaMOYNE~
J spacul a The New Yat Ttew
SAN SALVADOR, Oct. 13 - Atrter-
ican officials at kart indlrectty aup-
ported Nicaraguan rebel supply flights
out of E1 Salvador, according to two
(sources here.
They also said a kxtgtime Central In-
telllgence Agency employee idenUfkd
by an Amerk.an jailed in Nicaragua
was invohrod in the operatiaa
The two sources have clone kn~wl-.
edge d El Salvador sad bare cactact
both with C.IA agents and the men
flying aupplks to the Nicaraguan
rebels from El Salvador. Both sources
Bald they support American aid to the
,rebels and chase to speak because they
are angry about the "amateurishness"
of aperatktns to aW the rebels.
' If UNted States otticiab b Waah-
I itt~tan are saying the U.S. Government
shad nothtrtg to do with this, they are
wrong," said one source.
Bout sourcxs said the man named as
a C.I.A. agent, who uses the nom de
:guerre Ma: Gdmez, b aCuban-Amer-
ican veteran at the Bay of Pigs btva-
slon m isiAl and has a king history of .
~C.IA work. but b probably uo longer
dit'ectly employed by tJta a,eacy.
I They added, however, that Mr.
Gdmez, whose real name, they sold, b
FElix Rodrtgttss, teepe In close tart
with the C.IA and carries out C.I.A.
(projects here. They said his work may
be indirectly financed by the C.I.A.
through private Cuban-American
groups in Miami.
Eugene Hasenfus, an American who
worked for the C.I.A. in Asia and who
was shot down last week over Nicara-
gua on a flight to supply rebels there,
told reporters in Managua that he was
supervised by two C,I,A. agents in El
Salvador named Max Gdmez and
Ramdn Medina.
The two sources here described Mr.
Gdmez as a hardened but charismatic
veteran of clandestine wars who wears
Che Guevara's wristwatch and carries
;the revo~tttlonary's photo k his wallet.
They acid Mr. Gdmez interrogated Mr.
Guevara for American intelligence
serWcea shortly before the Argentine-
born co0eague of Fidel Castro was
k1Ued by the army in Bolivia k the late
19A1's.
Besides aiding the Nicaraguan
rebels, Mr. Gdmez, as he is called by all
who know him here. has concentrated
on directing C.I.A. projects. for the Sal-
vadoran Air Force. He b an expert on
helicopter tactics and has created
rapid-reaction helicopter squads that
have badly bloodied the leftist gtterril-
las here, the sourcxs said.
"He b one of the heroes of this war,"
Bald one of the sarrcxs whe has spent
time with Mr. Gdmez. "He hu prob-
ably done more than anyone to im-
~prwe the military and hurt the guerrli-
~ One of the sources. who has proved
Ihl~tly rcllabk in the past, said another
man named as a C.I.A. agent by the
IAmerkan imprisoned in Nkaragua,
iwas also .iavoived in rebel au ly
'flights is El Salvador and probably
does work for the C,LA. The secod
~ source could not oontirm this, however.
The Nicaragwa rebel supply opera-
tion has been based at iktpango, fife
main military airbase outside San Sal-
vador, the cagtai, for almost three
years, according to four different
sources here, including two American
officials. The Central Intelligencx
Agency set up the operatkms when it
was still legal to do so, the sources said.
One source with knowledge of cur-
rent supply operations and who has In-
timate Uea with the top echelons of the
miUtary here, said the Salvadoran
Army high command is tired of taking
resporulbility for a clandestine effort
that it supported because American of-
ficials asked it to do so.
'Salvadorans Are Furlatts'
"Do you think the Salvadoran Gov-
ernment would let hundreds of guns
and big airplanes fly in and out of here
for more than a year taking stuff to the
guerrillas it the U.S. government didn't
tell them to?" the source asked. "The
Salvadorans are furious for having to
take the rap on this."
The two sources who spoke in EI Sal-
vador said they did not have sufficient
information to spell out the exact de-
talla of official American support for
~tlte Nicaraguan rebel supply effort. But
they both said It existed and they de-
scribed alarge operation that appears
to have been designed to remain nar-
rowty within the technical limits of
Congressional restrictions on C.I.A. in-
volvement with the Querrillas.
In practice, however, C.I.A. agents
may have violated the restrictions, ac-
cording to accounts provided by the
two sources. While an effort was made
to maintain "deniability" of C.I.A: in-
volvement in the supply operation,
C.I.A. agents in El Salvador and, possi-
bly, other American officials based in
Washington, helped organize, occasion-
ally monitor and perhaps even finance,
the rebel supply effort, one source said.
They also asked the Salvadoran Alr
Force to permit it to continue, the
source added.
"The C.I.A. may not have run this
day-today, but agency people are out
with the Salvadoran Air Force all the
time aM I can tell you they had a hand
in this," said the source who has close
contacts with the Air Force and the
C.LA.
1?eivate Contractors Used
But only non-C.IA personnel were
used to carry ~ttt the actual supply
work and private companies were
hired en contract to provide supplies
and airplanes, the two sources said.
AU the air cargo canpanles and per-
aottttsl solar identified as participating
k rebel supply operations out of El Sal-
vador have a kny history of past work
for the C.I.A. Tltey seems to have been
hired on contract to work k what is le-
gally a private capacity, the two
sources Bald, although American offi-
cials encatraged their efterts.
? They added that Administration otfi-
ciala had misled news organizations in
an attempt to cover rebel operations
here by saying they were carved out
by a private group led by a retired
American officer, Maj. Gen. John K
Singlaub. They said General, Singlaub
was not responsible for runbing the
operation here.
"This never would have happened
like fhb it the Agency knew what it was
doing and 1f Congress hadn't stopped
the Agency from supporting the free-
dom fighters against a Marxist dicta-
torship in Nicaragua that is backed by
Russia, Cuba and East Germany," said
one source bitterly, describing man-
agement of the Nicaraguan rebels as
"a mess."
Vice President Bush said Saturday
that he had met Mr. Gdmez three times
and described him as a "patriot" who
is an advber to the Salvadoran Govern-
ment's counterinsurgency effdtt.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403790020-0