U.S. MERCENARIES POSE PROBLEM IN NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605440001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 1, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 12, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/01 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605440001-5
An I It;Lt APPEARED
ON PAGE _1 ..._.-
LOS ANGELES TIMES
12 April 1987
Too Far Out for Oliver North
U.S. Mercenaries Poser
Problem in Nicaragua
; f By WILLIAM C. REMPEL, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON-The camou-
flage-suited men in the Miami
motel room hada bold plan: Slip
into Nicaragua, steal a Soviet heli-
copter gunship and fly it out to
collect an advertised bounty of $1,
million.
One of the leaders, the man.
armed with the German PPK .38
automatic handgun who called
himself "Col. Flaco," advocated a
second objective. On the way home,
he said, the commandos should
swoop down on a "lightly guarded"
Nicaraguan gold mine and loot the
mine for the needy war effort of the
Nicaraguan contras.
Operation Pegasus, as its leaders
called it in January, 1985, was to
benefit everyone: America first,
then the rebel "forces of democra-
cy" in Nicaragua and, of course, the
soldiers of fortune willing to risk
their lives on the improbable mis-
sion.
'Trying to Make a Buck'
"You've got a U.S. -financed rev-
olution down there [in Nicaragua]
and everyone's trying to make a
buck on it," said one who attended
the Pegasus meetings at a Howard
Johnson's Motel in Miami.
But some, like the Missouri man
called "El Tirador" (the marks-
man), insisted that they simply
wanted "to be part of history," to.
do whatever could be done to "keep
this thing going until the U.S.
invades" Nicaragua.
Whatever their motives, this
little band of mercenaries was one
of the byproducts of the White
House campaign 'to generate pri-
vate support -for the contras after
Congress cut off public funds late in
1984.1
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a
member of the White House Na-
tional Security Council staff until
his dismissal last November, is
accused of encouraging and coordi-
nating private efforts to aid the
contras during the two years when
governmental military assistance
was illegal. According to published
rep= his high-placed es in
the Reagan Administration includ-
ed former CIA Director iIIiam J
Casey.
'A Bunch of Rambos'
Those same Reagan Administra-,
tion efforts, as Operation Pegasus
makes clear, also encouraged offers
of direct help from private soldiers
all over the country-men whom
some critics deride as "a bunch of
Rambos."
The State Department has esti-
mated that as many as 200 Ameri-
can adventurers remain active in
Central America. Some have beep
killed or jailed there. Others are
targets of criminal investigations in
the United States over violations of
weapons and neutrality laws.
"Most of them are just trying to
help people that we should be
helping," said a source who has
traveled with the mercenaries. But,
he added: "They've all got weap-
ons and some of them are crazy"
1{hey are, in fact, a motley mix of
zealots and thrill-seekers, patriots,
and profiteers.
And they pose a problem for
traditional foreign policy agencies.
They: ran afoul even of the unor-
thodox operations managed, by
North, who, sources said, insisted
that the Pegasus helicopter heist be
abandoned when he learned about.
the Miami meeting.
"I-guess it was too far out for
Olliei" said a source who claimed
that he kept North informed of the
meetings. "He wanted to call in the
FBI:'
Even the Nicaraguan rebels, ea-
ger as they are for U.S. assistance,
have- grown wary of the American
mercenaries after some bad experi-
ences in the field. In February,
1985,. for example, a patrol of
American volunteers clashed with
contra soldiers over food supplies'
and command decisions, and each
side placed the other under arrest.
Contra sources have. told The.
Times that mercenaries generally
are no longer welcome in the battle
zones.
Although no apparent attempt .
was ever finally made to steal the ,
Soviet helicopter gunship-the ob-
ject of a $1-million standing reward
offer by Soldier of Fortune maga-
zine "to any Cuban or Nicaraguan
military officer who would fly one
out"-plenty of other schemes are
constantly being plotted in motels
and barrooms from Florida to Tex-
as.
There was, for example, a failed
assault two years ago on the "light-
ly guarded" Sisin Bridge near the
Honduran border. After days of
marching through' swamps and
jungle, the mercenaries found the
bridge to be heavily defended and
they elected to abandon their ex-
plosives in the brush and withdraw
without firing a shot.
Another scheme by the Pegasus
group-not yet attempted-in-
volved a plot to invade a small
Nicaraguan island, declare it inde-
pendent and ask for official U.S.
recognition. Miskito Indians dis-
placed by the Nicaraguan regime
would be invited to use the island
as- a refuge. Pegasus officers dis-
cussed among themselves selling
Otntint
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/01 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605440001-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/01 CIA-RDP90-00965R000605440001-5
the--island to a Texas oilman and Posey currently is the target of a = vuaj nuacns punts pail jumpers
charitable supporter of the Indians. Miami and jury investigation into in St. Louis while waiting for
And a Southern California fire- allegations that he illegally shipped chances. to return to Central Amer-
bombing suspect on trial for alleg- arms to Central America and may ica. And like Posey he worries
edly blowing up the cars of two have violated federal neutrality about the grand jury probe in
schoolteachers prepared a formal statutes that forbid private citizens Miami, where Adams said he was
proposal to government officials from engaging in foreign policy. He ? informed after testifying about six
two years ago seeking a contract to denied the allegations in a recent weeks ago that he has "a 50-50
blow up Soviet helicopters on the telephone interview before leaving chance of being indicted."
ground in Nicaragua for "a bonus on a two-week trip to Honduras. "I don't care what they say, they
per helicopter" of $50,000, plus "I'm going south to help where I can't make me feel like a criminal,"
expenses. can," he said, conceding that he is Adams said in a telephone inter-
Documents obtained by The troubled by the criminal investiga- view. "As far as I'm concerned,
Times from mercenary sources in- tion. "At least down there, I know we're working for the White
dicate that Pegasus, the code name who my friends are." House. I don't do it for money, or
for a commando unit to be com- Another key Pegasus figure was for the beans and rice. I'm doing it
posed of about 12 U.S. volunteers f Jack Terrell, 45, an ex-convict who for my kids and your kids."
and 50 or more contra trainees, was became "military commander" of According to Posey, who stayed
conceived in the spring of 1984 the group. Terrell. known as Col. in Alabama, and Adams, who was
during a fund-raising dinner in Fla ? also was "war chief" of the on the scene, 14 volunteers went to
Alabama attended by contra repre- Miskito Indians in Honduras and Central America in February of
sentatives and private supporters. -claimed to be connected to the CIA. 1985 to train Indian rebel forces in
According to a report prepared a He ultimately led, but did not Rus Rus, Honduras, near the Nica-
few months later by Franklin J. complete, the ill-fated assault on raguan border. They had been
Camper, the operator of a merce- the Sisin Bridge. Colleagues said he there for about 10 days when plans
nary training camp in Alabama and spent most- of his time trying to for the bridge assault came up. As
now a defendant in a. Southern raise funds ' for a host of "wild usual, it was a Col. Flaco plan.
California bombing-for-hire trial, missions." Some in the Pegasus "It was
Camper proposed the idea to for- group later dubbed him "Col. pouring rain and I was
mer Nicaraguan Vice President Wacko." eating a cold can of roast beef stew
Alfonso Callejas. They talked about After a falling-out with contra when Jack came by my hooch and
said we were nearly out of food,"
attacking and disabling, a'hydro- officials that left him a staunch.
electric power station, Camper critic of the rebel leadership, Ter- Adams recalled. "He said we had to
wrote. rell became a staff investigator for go raid a, village, but I thought our
By the end of 1984, however, a liberal foreign policy organization Indians needed a lot of training yet
Pegasus was under the direction of in Washington that has been criti- and our guys'still weren't acclimat-
Tom Posey, now 41, an Alabama cal of White House policy in Cen- ed. I thought it was a bad idea."
produce company owner, ex-Ma- tral America. ' ' . But Terrell had an even bolder
rine, Little League coach, father of He told a reporter recently that plan. He proposed-continuing on to
two and outspoken anti-commu- "retired generals, ex-spooks . . hit what he called. ,the largest
nist. and high-rollers" were benefiting resupply bridge" across the Nica-
Despite the subsequent failure of from U.S. aid to the contras while raguan border.
his produce business, Posey contin- "the people on the ground, we don't "He. wanted to knock it out
ues to run a volunteer contra get diddley." before the rainy season really set in
support organization called Civilian . And then there was. Joe (El so they couldn't rebuild it," Adams
Material Assistance, which, he Tirador) Adams, 36, Terrell's sec- said.
says, has delivered' more than $4 ond-in-command on the Sisin By most accounts, the mission
million in supplies to the contras. It Bridge mission. When he met Po- was a fiasco. Preliminary intelli-
also lost two members who died in sey and Terrell in Central America, gence reports suggested that the
the crash of a supply helicopter in Adams was a personal bodyguard bridge was lightly defended. In-
Nicaragua in the fall of 1984. of contra leader Adolfo Calero and stead, after a 125-mile hike, the
"We're grunts who live on the was attracted by the promise of commandos found more than 500
side of the road 'with the soldiers in combat action. troops holding a mined and fortified
the field; we try to help the poor "If they were going to fight, I . perimeter. Where reconnaissance
soldiers," Posey said. "We're not wanted to go in with them," he maps indicated surrounding hills or
the elite guys like Ollie North's said. Vantage points, the volunteers
people. We don't live in fancy hotel The body builder said he got his found swamps.
rooms. We're not making any mon- nickname, which means "the "We're lucky no one got killed,"
ey. We don't have gas money marksman," while training contras Adams conceded
sometimes to drive a van load of in the use of firearms. He said they They abandoned. hundreds of
supplies down to New Orleans." complained about the weapons' pounds of C4 plastic explosives in
being faulty until he fired seven the jungle, and the team started the
rounds "into the same bullet hole" long walk back-already , out of
with one of the so-called faulty food.
guns. Discipline broke down almost
immediately, according to accounts
by some of the volunteers: Security.
precautions were ignored in at-
tempts to get fish' by exploding
grenades in ponds and by shooting,
game. Disputes over food and secu-
rity between American volunteers,
the Indian trainees. and contra
'41.
ennfilmd.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/01 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605440001-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/01 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605440001-5
.officers finally boiled into death
threats between the factions.
Terrell, the mastermind of the
mission; wasn't around for the
angry squabbles. In fact, as an
early victim of fatigue and. an ulcer,
he never even made it to the
bridge. One member of the team
told the Baltimore Sun that the last
time he saw Terrell, "he was
walking back up the trail, with an
Indian woman carrying his pack for
him." But he wasn't the only one to
drop out. Half, of the original
American volunteers never got to
the bridge at Sisin.
. When the remnants of the Pega-
sus unit returned to Honduras, they.
were promptly ordered out of the
country.
Former U.S. Rep. Michael D.
Barnes (D-Md.), past chairman of
the House Foreign Affairs subcom-
mittee on Western Hemisphere
affairs, subsequently blamed Presi-
dent Reagan for encouraging such.
adventures by indicating that "he
supports American citizens' taking
action in Central America .to sup-
port the contras and harass the.
Sandinistas."
Also contributing to this story
was Times staff writer Bob Drogin
in New Yorkand Doyle McManus in
Washington:'...
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/01 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605440001-5