U.S. OFFICIALS LINKED TO AIRLIFT OF CONTRA SUPPLIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910016-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: October 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910016-5
ARTICLE APP ED
ON PAGE NEIJ YORK ', IMES
14 October 1986
U.S. Officials Linked to Airlift of Contra Supplies;
A By JAMES LeMOYNE
specs; to The New Yoet acre
SAN SALVADOR, Oct. 13 - Amer.
ican officials at least indirectly sup-
ported Nicaraguan rebel supply flights
out of El Salvador, according to two
sources here.
They also said a longtime Central In-
telligence Agency employee identified
by an American jailed in Nicaragua
was involved in the operation.
The two sources have close knowl-
edge of El Salvador and have contact
both with C.I.A. agents and the men
flying supplies to the Nicaraguan
rebels from El Salvador. Both sources
said they support American aid to the
,rebels and chose to speak because
are angry about the "amateurishness,,
of operations to aid the rebels.
It United States officials in Wash.
ington are saying the U.S. Government
had nothing to do with this, they are
wrong," said one source.
Both sources said the man named as
a C.I.A. agent, who uses the nom de
;guerre Max Gomez, is a Cuban-Amer-
ican veteran of the Bay of Pigs Inva.
sion in 1991 and has a long history of,
C.I.A. work, but is probably no longer
directly employed by the agency.
They added, however, that Mr.
Gdmez, whose real name, they said, is
Felix Rodriguez, keeps in close touch
with the C.I.A. and carries out C.I.A.
1projects 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 Gomez and
Ramdn Medina.
The two sources here described Mr.
Gdmez as a hardened but charismatic
veteran of clandestine wars who wears
he Guevara's wristwatch and carries
the revolutionary's photo in his wallet.
They said Mr. Gdmez interrogated Mr.
;Guevara for American intelligence
services shortly before the Argentine-
born colleague of Fidel Castro was
killed by the army in Bolivia in the late
1966'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 is an expert on
helicopter tactics and has created
rapid-reaction helicopter squads that
have badly bloodied the leftist guerrll-
las here, the sources said.
"He is one of the heroes of this war,"
said one of the sources who has spent
time with Mr. Gdmez. "He has prob-
ably done more than anyone to im-
prove the military and hurt the guerril-
limit
One of the sources, who has proved
(highly reliable in the past, said another
man named as a C.I.A. agent by the
(American imprisoned in Nicaragua,
was also Involved in rebel supply
flights in El Salvador and probably
'does work for the C.I.A. The sewn;
source could not confirm this, however.
The Nicaraguan rebel supply opera-
tion has been based at Ilopango, the
main military airbase outside San Sal-
vador, the capital, for almost three
years, according to four different
sources here, Including two American
officials. The Central Intelligence
Agency set up the operations 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 ties with the top echelons of the
military here, said the Salvadoran
Army high command is tired of taking
responsibility for a clandestine effort
that It supported because American of-
ficials asked it to do so.
'Salvadorans Are Furious'
"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 El Sal-
vador said they did not have sufficient
information to spell out the exact de-
tails of official American support for
the Nicaraguan rebel supply effort. But
they both said it existed and they de-
scribed a large operation that appears
to have been designed to remain nar-
rowly within the technical limits of
Congressional restrictions on C.I.A. in-
volvement with the guerrillas.
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 T. 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 Air
Force to permit it to continue, the
source added.
"The C.I.A. may not have run this
day-to-day, but agency people are out
with the Salvadoran Air Force all the
time and I can tell you they had a hand
in this," said the source who has close
contacts with the Air Force and the
C.I.A.
Private Contractors Used
But only non-C.I.A. personnel were
used to carry but the actual supply
work and private companies were
hired an contract to provide supplies
and airplanes, the two sources said.
All the air cargo companies and'per-
sonnel so far identified as participating
in rebel supply operations out of El Sal-
vador have a long history of past work
for the C.I.A. They saes to have been
hired on contract to work in what is le-
gally a private capacity, the two
sources said, although American offi-
cials encouraged their efforts.
They added that Administration offi-
cials had misled news organizations in
an attempt to cover rebel operations
here by saying they were carried out
by a private group led by a retired
American officer, Maj. Gen. John I{.
Singlaub. They said General. Singlaub
was not responsible for runbing the
operation here.
"This never would have happened
like this if the Agency knew what it was
doing and if 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 adviser to the Salvadoran Govern-
ment's counterinsurgency effdrt.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910016-5