AIRLIFT DIRECTOR CALLED FREEDOM FREELANCER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970018-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: October 27, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

"V
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970018-7
I,RTICLEA
ON PAGE .
WASHINGTON TIMES
27 October 1906
Airlift director called freedom
freelancer
STAT By Glenn Garvin
THE NNSHINOTON TIMES
STAT
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The
CIA veteran who supervised the secret
airlift supplying Nicaraguan rebels on
which Eugene Hasenfus was captured
was "a freelancer for democracy" whhoo
also devised a plan for bringing
rebels to Miami 18 months ago, a resis-
tance leader said here.
Adolfo Calera said-the CIA veteran -
known variously as Max Gomez or Felix
was "very helpful to us ...
but aven't seen him in months:'
Mr. Gomez has achieved notoriety over
the past three weeks, since the Nicara-
guan army shot down a C-123 cargo plane
carrying arms and supplies to anti-
government rebels.
The only survivor of the flight, Mr.
Hasenfus, publicly identified Mr. Gomez
as one of "two Cuban nationalized
Americans that worked for the CIA' who
supervised the supply operation.
He said the other was named Ramon
Medina. Mr. Calero said he has never
heard of Ramon Medina.
But he did know Mr. Gomez, who ap-
parently is a longtime veteran of clandes-
tine activities. Several published reports
have said Mr. Gomez is a one-time CIA
agent who also goes by the name Felix
Rodriguez. He is said to be an ac-
quaintance of Vice President George
Bush.
Mr. Gomez's current whereabouts are
not known. The apartment he once occu-
pied in San Salvador has been vacant
since the supply plane was shot down. Mr.
Bush has said he believed Mr. Gomez has
been employed lately as a consultant to
the Salvadoran Air Force. Salvadoran of-
ficials deny that, but CBS News recently
discovered tapes showing Mr. Gomez
standing among several Salvadoran Air
Force officers at an awards ceremony.
Mr. Calero said he met Mr. Gomez
about two years ago, through a mutual
friend named Jose Basulto who, like Mr.
Gomez, is a Cuban-American veteran of
the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1%1. Mr.
Calero smiled slightly as he recalled be-
ing told Mr. Gomez was "a retired U.S.
civil servant."
"I don't know exactly where he worked
[at the time they were introduced],' said
Mr. Calero. "He said to me he was'a free-
lancer for democracy."
About six months later, Mr. Calero Mr. Calero said the loss of the C-123
said, Mr. Gomez came to him with a plan disrupted rebel supply activities tempo-
for getting seriously wounded rebel sol- rarily, but he added that supply flights
diers out of Nicaragua and into a Miami resumed last week.
hospital.
"Then he vanished;' Mr. Calero said. "I
didn't see him again until I ran into him
in a Miami hotel on a social occasion a
few months ago:'
Mr. Calero said it was never clear to
him who financed Mr. Gomez's activities.
Mr. Gomez "is quite a character," Mr.
Calero said. "He's one of these active,
down-to-earth individuals who gives him-
self to the cause of freedom. He wasn't
working for anybody in particular, he was
just doing things for democracy."
Mr. Calero said that although his
knowledge of the supply operation was
incomplete, he is certain it was not a CIA
operation, as Mr. Hasenfus has alleged
from his prison cell in Managua.
"Whatever Hasenfus has said, under
duress, without counsel, in prison under
terrible mental or psychological pres-
sure, doesn't mean anything to me:' Mr.
Calero said. "Anything he has said could
not be used to try him by any judge or
jury that has any appreciation for the law,
any respect for the law."
Mr. Calero said the supply operation
was a private one. Most of the ar-
rangements for the operation were made
by William Cooper, an American veteran
of several CIA-related companies, who
died in the crash, he said.
"I never met Hasenfus, or Cooper ...
they were not part of UNO," or the United
Nicaraguan Opposition, Mr. Calero's re-
bel group, he said. "They were not part of
the organization, they were not con-
tracted by the organization. We cooper-
ated with them. That is a fact.
"There was coordination. We were
ready to accept what they [Mr. Cooper's
group] offered us. But they didn't tell us
where the money came from, and we
didn't ask:'
The Sandinista government of Nicara-
gua says documents recovered from the
wreckage of the C-123 indicate in recent
months it made flights to several military
installations, including one to Mercury,
Nev., used for testing of classified air-
craft like the new Stealth bomber.
"I don't know where the plane has
been;' Mr. Calero said. "A plane is not a
person. It will do one thing sometimes,
then another thing other times. If we cap-
tured a plane from the -Sandinistas, it
would be used against them - even
though in the past it had been used for
them. One set of activities for a plane
doesn't have anything to do with another
set:'
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970018-7