TRIAL OF JOURNALISTS OFFERS INTRIGUE AND A CAST OF HUNDREDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504630003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 23, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504630003-4
WASHINGTON TIMES
23 "lay 1986
dial of journalists
offers intrigue and
a cast of hundreds
By Sue
SP THEW .SHIN T0N TIMES
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - A libel
trial opened here yesterday featur-
ing soldiers of fortune, CIA "dirty
tricksters," Latin revolutionaries, se-
cret tape recordings, kidnappings,
drug trafficking and an attempt to
assassinate Nicaraguan rebel leader
Eden Past.
V -The ~case _
pits Jyformer
US. citizen who is now a naturalized
Costa Rican, against two American
journalists, AJA9U1a, ney and Tbny
Avirgan, a husband and wife team.
Mr. Hull, a rancher who owns or
"manages" land near the Nicara-
guan border, is suing the couple for
nearly $20 million, charging that
they libeled him by linking him with
a bombing nearly two years ago at
La Penca, Mr. Pastora's Nicaraguan
jungle camp near the Costa Rican
border.
Three journalists were killed and
several people were injured in that
bombing, including Mr. Pastora and
Mr. Avirgan.
The journalist couple has lived
here for the past three years, accord-
ing to an interview with Miss Honey,
and they report on Central America
for American, Canadian and British
television networks and newspa-
pers, including the Times of London.
Mr. Hull's attorney, Alberto Rodri-
guez, said that Mr. Hull denies all
charges made by the journalists and
that their report contains numerous
anonymous sources, pseudonyms
and statements of third parties
unsupported by any acceptable evi-
dence.
According to the Tico Times, Mr.
Hull has long expressed sympathy
for the Nicaraguan rebels and his
activities in northern Costa Rica
have been the subject of numerous
local investigations in recent years.
However, the Tico Times added, Mr.
Hull has strongly denied any con-
nection to the La Penca bombing.
In an 84-page report by the jour-
nalist couple which was obtained by
The Washington Times, Mr. Hull is
mentioned more than a dozen times
in connection with alleged CIA ac-
tivities, drug trafficking and a
bombing plot against Mr. Pastora.
The report, called "La Penca: Pas-
tora, the Press and the CIA;' was
funded in part by the U.S. Commit-
tee to Protect Journalists and the
American Newspaper Guild, ac-
cording to the Tico Times. The un-
derwriters are not named on the re-
port, but Miss Honey said it was also
funded by the World Press Freedom
Association.
The perpetrator of the unsolved
La Penca bombing posed as a Scan-
dinavian photojournalist, but Mr.
Avirgan and Miss Honey contend he
was a Libyan "whose comrades
knew him as Amac Gal' " ,"
They state in their report that Mr.
Galil was recruited in Chile for the
La Penca operation in early 1984 by
the CIA, members of two Contra
groups - including the largest one,
the Nicaraguan Democratic Force
- and anti-Castro Cuban-
Americans in Miami.
They further allege that Costa
Rican officials participated in a
cover-up of the bombing plot, which
they say was styled to look like a
Sandinista attack on Mr. Pastora.
Contra leaders began to suspect
Mr. Pastora was a communist and
plotted against him, Miss Honey said
in an interview. The CIA assisted in
the plot, upset that Mr. Pastora
steadfastly refused to unite with the
other Contra groups operating in the
north of Nicaragua, she added.
Early press reports on La Penca
pointed a finger at ETA, a Basque
separatist organization that report-
edly had close ties to the Sandinistas.
But Miss Honey and Mr. Avirgan
contend that intelligence sources in
Washington planted those stories in
the major U.S. media.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504630003-4