WITNESS SAYS CIA TRAINED CONTRAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: March 24, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/21 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290006-8
BOSTON GLOBE
Witness,
says CIA
trained
contras
/. By Thomas Palmer
Globe Staff
The Central Intelligence Agen-
cy provided Nicaraguan contras
with combat training last year
after Congress had passed a law
intended to ban such aid, accord-
ing to an American who assisted
in the training.
lain Crawford, who participat-
ed last spring in an American op-
eration that airdropped weapons
to contra forces inside Nicaragua.
said that a CIA officer based in
Honduras told him of receiving au-
thorization to train contra sol-
diers in combat parachute jump-
ing.
Crawford, a former parachute
rigger and member of the highly
trained Delta Force, said that con-
tra soldiers were subsequently
trained in paratrooping and that
he accompanied six soldiers on
two training flights in mid-1986.
The CIA officer, known to Craw-
ford only as "Mick," was present
on one of the training flights and
coordinated the ground trainingi
as well as both parachute jumps,.
the crewman said.
On the second of Crawford's-
flights, he said, parachute jumps
were made froni a Caribou aircraft
carrying weapons to contra posi-
tions inside Nicaragua. The plane
was heading south to airdrop
weapons at Bocay, Crawford said,
and the contras made their jumps.
before it crossed thq Nicaragua-
Honduras border.
The Globe reported previously
that CIA officers in Honduras gave
assistance to crewmen in the air-
drop operation supporting the
contras, despite the aid ban and a
24 March 1987
CIA policy against contacts. The
training raises new questions
about the extent and the propriety
of CIA contacts with the contras
themselves.
From late 1985 to October
1986, the CIA was barred by stat-
ute from giving the contras any
military aid except communica-
tions assistance and what was la-
beled by Congress as "advice."
This ban was interpreted
broadly by the congressional intel-
ligence committees. Lee Hamilton,
then chairman of the House com-
mittee, informed CIA Director Wil-
liam Casey in December 1985 that
the statute required that "intelli-
gence personnel are not to act as
military advisers."
The CIA itself, according to the
Tower Commission, concluded it
was not authorized to provide the
contras with "specialized logistics
training," although CIA spokes-
woman Kathy Pherson was un-
able to say last week what came
under that category. Crawford
said he was told that most train-
ing was prohibited but that the
paratrooper training had been
specially approved.
Intelligence board memo
That approval possibly came
from the President's Intelligence
Oversight Board in an April 8,
1986, memorandum to National
Security Adviser John, M. Poin-
dexter, which interpreted the ban
as allowing actions clearly beyond
what was considered legal by con-
gressmen.
The board concluded that, un-
der the provision authorizing com-
munications support and "ad-
vice" for the contras, any US gov-
ernment agency could lawfully
provide "basic military training
... so long as such training does
not amount to the participation in
the planning or execution of mili-
tary or paramilitary operations in
Nicaragua."
"I felt that the legal advice that
the 106 gave was Incorrect." Mi-
chael D. Barnes, former chairman
of tV House subcommittee on
western hemispheric, affairs, said
yesterday. "I'd like to see the writ
:-
ten legal' analysis that the IOB
used to come to that conclusion,
because it doesn't' jibe with my
memory of what everyone in Con-
gress thought the .la vr was."
According to the CIA publica-
tion ':The Acme of Skill," the
board is "responsible for discover-
ing and reporting to the President
any intelligence activities that
raise questions of propriety or le-
gality in terms of the constitution,
the laws of the United States or
presidential executive order."
The board's only responsibli-
lity is to the president.
Said Robert R. Simmons. for-
mer staff director of the Senate In-
telligence Committee, now a visit-
ing lecturer at Yale University.
"I've never heard of someone try-
ing to run a covert activity on the
OK of the 1013.?'
Authorization source unclear
Authorization for field actions
by CIA officers customarily comes
from the CIA's general counsel. It
is not known whence the authori-
zation came that led to the para-
trooper training of the contras.
But it was only, a month after
Poindexter received the opinion
,from the Intelligence Oversight
Board that Crawford, was told by
an officer in the fiektthat he had
the approval for sueb training.
The board's opinion to Poin-
dexter raises the-question of
whether the CIA 'expanded its
program beyond the parachute
training witnessed by Crawford.
The CIA declined comment on the
training allegation.
Acting-CIA-Director Robert-A-7-,
Gates said in testimony to the
last month that the office
of CIA inspector general Carroll A
Hauver was continuing an TiT7j7-
ligation into CIA' ties with the con-
tras during the congressional ban.
Extensive CIA involvement
According to published reports,
investigators have discovered
many types of involvement by CIA
officials in channeling arms to the
contras during the period between
1984 and 1986 when CIA involve-
ment in military assistance was
restricted or barred.
' Tomas Castillo, formerly the 4
station eifref in Costa Rica, assist-
ed former National Security Coun-
cil aide Oliver L. North in the air-
dropping of weapons to contras
inside Nicaragua during the first
half of 1986, according to the
Tower Commission report. Cas-
tillo reportedly was asked to retire,
after discrepancies' were discov-
ered in his account of his activi-
ties to the Cl/Vs inspector general.
Continued
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/21 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290006-8
In June 1985. the CIA station
chief in Honduras helped resolve a
dispute among contra factions
over weapons shipments arranged
by North. the Miami Herald has
reported. One knowledgeable
source said that this same officer
was station chief at the time of the
combat parachute training.
The Washington Post reported
last week that the CIA station
chief in Taiwan was known to
have assisted in the transfer of
light arms from the Taiwan gov-
ernment to the contras in 1985.
The Globe reported earlier this
month that the two CIA officers at
Aguacate, Honduras. assisted sub-
ply crews by providing them with
access to a "situation 'map" that
included Sandinista antiaircraft
positions inside Nicaragua.
The Globe also reported that
Huey helicopters linked to the CIA
operated along the Nicaragua-
Honduras border. One crewman
said he was aboard a helicopter
that ferried plastic explosives to
contras positioned there. Another
said he hauled helicopter fuel to
the area aboard one of the Caribou
cargo planes normally used to air-
drop weapons inside Nicaragua.
Castillo told the Tower Com-
mission that his activities had the
approval of superiors. According
to one account, Castillo was au-
thorized at a station chiefs' meet-
ing in late 1985 to facilitate con-
tact between North and the arms-
drop effort. These reports raise
questions about how high the ap-
proval went.
A small delegation from the
House and the Senate select inves-
tigatory committees is to travel to
Central America next week on a
fact-finding mission. Among the
topics to be explored are the CIA's
contacts with the contras in Hon-
duras and Costa Rica during the
congressional ban.
Training issue raised in May
Two CIA officers, known as
Mick and Moe, were stationed at
Aguacate, and Crawford said it
was Mick who first raised the is-
sue of the training last May, when
he asked to borrow an airplane.
He came over to us and said,
We are training these guys in par-
atrooping and would sure like to
use that Caribou instead of the
Huey,'" Crawford recalled. "So I
said I didn't see any problem as
long as I got to jump out with
them."
Crawford said Mick told him
that the CIA officers were not per-
mitted to train contras in "imme-
diate-action drills.., things to do
to get away, to break contact, dur-
ing an ambush ... things like this
that are your soldiers' daily prac-
tice.''
Crawford said that the soldiers
did not Jump with guns or combat ?
gear during the short. time he was
at Aguacate but that!lf was obvi-
ously building to that"
' "In all honesty, I'd say that
paratrooping in camouflage fa-
tigues..., is military paratroop-
ing," he said.
Photographs were taken, on
one of the parachute-jumpilfghts,
and Crawford produced' a photo-
graph that he sald?showed Mick.
The photo is one. of a set chroni-
cling the supply operation that
were purchased from Crawford by
The Globe.
Crawford added that the pilots
on the airdrop missions trained
contra pilots to fly the Caribou air-
plane but that Mick "was not
helping, aiding or instigating it."
One crewman said Mick joked
that he wanted to receive flight
training himself.
Freelance writer Jeff McCort
nell contributed to this repore.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/21 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290006-8
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