ANTI-CIA PUBLICATION TARGETED EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100070007-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: January 17, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP9
207510 _M1
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ACCURACY IN MEDIA
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EDITOR & ?U3LISYER
17 January 1981
-? ADVERTISEMENT
Anti-CIA PUbikaflon
Targe'ted E 1 `5-1 v' d
'a a
By Reed Irvine - the Marxist Allende regime in Chile.
-t. -- Arnold also noted that the CIA-AIFLD
connection was raised on the Public Tele-
WASHiNG'TtN-Accuracy in Media vision series, "On Company Business."
has learned that a publication called - The star of the series was none other
Counterspy attacked the.American Insti- than Phillip Agee. In another publication,
tute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) 'Arnold recently expressed his concern ab-
as aCIA front shortly before the twoout the AIFLD program in Nicaragua,
Americans and peasant leader associated
with-the institute were assassinated in El.. . sayng that it was "small but a potentiat
.Salvador. The evidence suggests that Mark -danger".to the Marxist Sandinistas. That
Pearlman, Michael Hammer, and Rodolfo article appeared in the Daily the
Viers had been targeted. by members of newspaper of the Communist nist World, USA.
the Marxist left, who want to destroy the = The other Counterspy article called on
CIA and anybody then think is associated--,the AFL-CIO to end its involvement with
with ltd ;;:the-AIFLD: The article included personal
on Viera and Hammer and it
CounterSAi ,Attacked Hammer `praised the' Revolutionary Democratic
In the wake of those assassinations, ele- Front, the left-wing terrorist group in Ell
ments of the media have resurrected
charges that the ,AIFLD, a project of the
AFL-CIO, which Whelping run the land
reform in Ell Salvador, was linked to the
CIA. A reporter for National Public Radio
(NPR) threw that charge in the face of
AIFLD executive director William Doher-
ty in a recent interview. NPR reported his
denial but censored his description of.
Phillip Agee, a source of the charge, as a
soviet KGB agent. The real possibility that
associates of Agee, who published Coun-
terspy, had a role In the assassinations has
been totally ignored by the Big Media -
Salvador that murders peasants who
cooperate with the land reform program.
The author of the article, Richard Hobbs,
quoted from a report issued by the
Ecumenical Program for Inter-American
-Communication and Action (EPICA),
which claimed that the peasant union
once headed by Viera and supported by
the AtFLD was somehow aligned with the
right-wing terrorist group ORDEN. Not
mentioned, of course, is the fact that the
director of EPICA, Rev. Phillip Wheaton,
served with Agee on the advisory board of
OC-5. '.
Counterspy is the publication that re= Mudslinging from the Left
vealed the identity of the CIA station chief - - ' Hobbs also claimed that University of
in Greece, Richard Welch, before his :-Wisconsin Professor John Strasma, who in
assassination in 1975- Phillip Agee, the . 1977 investigated the financial affairs of
CIA- defector who has collaborated with = the peasant union, found that Viera had
communist intelligence agents in their. "pocketed" some of the money for the
efforts to destroy the agency, was a mem- :-- land reform and that Mike Hammer "did
ber of the advisory board of the Organiz-?: ' nothing about it!' Hobbs went onto ques-
ing Committee for a Fifth Estate (OC-5), tion Viera's honesty and reliability and
which- published Counterspy, - in 1976. Hammer's association with him. Howev-
OC-5's'subverslvp operations, were the err Professor Strasma told Accuracy in
subject of a con resswnat investigation = Media in an interview that he did not find
that same year. Hearings disclosed' that that Viera had "pocketed" any funds. He
one of. OC 5's objectives. was to agitate described Viera as a respected, charisma-
against organizations such *as'the AIFLD ' tic leader* who was well-liked by the
that were combatting communist domino- : peasants. '
Lion of labor"uri ns. One of. the slain Shortly- before? Counterspy's blast at
Americans, Mic iaet: Hammer,; w'asa Hammer?and Vier:,, it published-what it
strong anti-commppn~st who believed that called a list of "CIA Cops in El Salvador,"
the land reform wbuld.undsrcut the.com which purportedly identified about 75
munist appeal"to the peasants. Salvadoranpoliceofficerswhohadunder-
=The; November -1980-January ?1981 ' gone "CIA-directed training" in the U.S.
issue of Counterspy 'contained two arti- CounterSpy charged that the training was
tees on Ell. Salvador, which both attacked designed to expand the "CIA infrastruc
the AIFLD- The author of one article- ` tore in El Salvadar_" It it not Lnnwn tin..
0-00806 R000100070007-6
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- ? _. ? " Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100070007-6-~