U.S TRAINS ANTITERRORISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605070055-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 20, 2013
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: March 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605070055-7
--~-~ 24 i~iarch 1985
Ag2I;;L" E A~: FEARED
U.S. rrrains
~a~t~terr?rasts
CIA, ltfilitczry Aid
Foreign Squads
By Jce Pichirallo
and Edward Cody
K'ashmgtan Post Suff Wnters
U.S. military? and CI.~1 personnel
are training antiterrorist units for
foreign governments as part of the
Reagan administration's stepped-up
policy of combating terrorism
around the world, according to U.S.
officials.
The unpublicized program is de-
signed to increase the ability of al-
lied governments to thwart hos-
tage-taking, airplane hijackings and
other terrorist incidents through
special antiterrorist squads pat-
terned after the U.S. military's elite
Strike Force Delta that carried out
a failed 1980 mission to rescue
American hostages in Iran, officials
said.
The training has been conducted
in about a dozen countries, includ-
ing Lebanon and Honduras, the of-
ficials said.
"It's part of a worldwide pro-
gram," said one U.S. government
official. "It's been very successful."
Information on the program was
furnished to The Washington Post
on anot-for-attribution basis by ci-
vilian government officials and mil-
itary sources after reporters
learned of the Honduran training
operation. Their descriptions pro-
vide arare glimpse of sensitive op-
erations carried out by the CIA and
the U.S. military in the Iittle-publicized war
on terrorism that the Reagan administra-
tion has made a high priority of its foreign
Policy.. , .
The counterterrorist assistance also has
included use of U.S. personnel to advise a
foreign government while a terrorist inci-
dent is in progress.' For example, during a
recent hostage incident in Sudan, CIA and
U.S. military personnel advised the Suda-
nese and intelligence picked up by U.S. sp}~
satellites was turned over to them. The in-
formation helped Sudanese authorities pin-
point the location of the abductors, who
were linked to a secessionist southern rebel
group.
U.S. personnel also-advised Thailand dur-
ing anairplane hijacking in that country.
It is unclear when the United States be-
gan providing counterterrorism training to
foreign governments. Some sources said
the United States has been providing "se-
curity training" to foreign governments for
about the past 10 years. But the program
clearly has picked up under the Reagan ad-
ministration.
Officials said the effort is kept secret be-
cause individual countries might not want it
known that the United States is providing
such sensitive aid or might believe that pub-
fic^...~ng it could tip off a potential terrorist
group. In Honduras, for example, members
of a 40-man U.S.-trained antiterrorist
squad, the Urban Operations Command,
have at times been portrayer as members
of a regular internal security force called
the Cobras, military sources said.
"It tells people something if they know
we have the capability," said one official.
"And it might embarrass the host country
that we are training them." .
The counterterrorist training in Hondu-
ras was carried out by U.S. Army Special
Forces personnel, or Green Berets, in col-
laboration with the CIA.
Code-named "Operation Quail Shooter"
by the U.S. military, the training was con-
ducted in strict secrecy at the Honduran
Army's Special Forces Command at La
Yenta, a small military installation about 22
miles north of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran
capital.
According to a source familiar with the
program, the Green Berets posed as civil-
ians, wore jeans and other casual clothes
and were ordered to stay away from other
U.S. military personnel stationed in Hon-
duras. They traveled to Honduras aboard
regular commercial aircraft and received
identification papers saying they were ci-
vilian engineers
Rep. Michael Barnes CD-Md.), who has
been critical of the administration's Central
American policy as chairman of the House
Western Hemisphere affairs subcommittee,
said Congress should examine the Hondu=
ran training program. Barnes said through a
spokesman that disclosure that the military
had been involved with the-CIA in a secret
training program in Honduras at the same
time the CIA was directing the covert war
against Nicaragua raises new questions
about the military's true role there.
Critics of the administration's Central
America policy have questioned whether
extensive U.S. military activity in Honduras
has had the side effect of contributing to
Honduran and CL4 support for anti-Sandi-
nista rebels headquartered there. They
note, for example, that a rebel official has
said an airfield at El Aguacate in central
.Honduras that was improved by the U.S.
military has become a base for air supply
missions to gue_-zilla units inside Nicaragua.
The Pentagon, which has been conduct-
ing military exercises in Honduras since
early 1983, has repeatedly said the military
is not involved with the rebels or their ir-
r:.;ular war, which was financed by the CIA
until a corigressionaI funding cutoff last
spring.
However, Barnes said through his
spokesman: "It [the training program] de-
monstrates adirect relationship between
U.S. military activities in Honduras and
those of the CIA. And it raises a serious
question of whether there is other military
involvement in other CIA operations" in
Honduras.
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L'.S. government sources stressed that
the training df Honduran forces had nothing
to do with the covert war in Nicaragua. The
appropriate House and Senate committees
were notified in advance, as the law re-
quires, one official said, and the operation
was kept separate from the CIA's work on
behalf of the rebels, often called contras, a
slang version of the Spanish word for coun-
terrevolutionaries.
"We trained their [Honduran[ people to
rescue hostages from buildings and hijacked
planes," said one U.S. government official.
"It has nothing to do with training the con-
tras.... We've done this all over."
"The objective is hostages ...mostly in
urban environments," the official said.
Another government official said the
structure for the counterrorism training
program varies depending on the situation
in a particular country. On some occasions,
the official said, it is a joint CIA-military
operation and in other instances the mili-
tary does it alone.
In the case of Honduras, the official said,
the CIA had a relationship with the Hondu-
has been stopped. It's all .very carefully
vetted "
The official said that Army Special
Forces personnel provide the bulk of the
manpower for antiterrorist training: Green
Berets who conducted the training program
in Honduras were selected from units at
Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., the home
of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare
Center.
ran military, and when it was decided-
based on actual situations-that such train-
ing was needed, it was felt that it would be
best to do it under the umbrella of the CIA.
joint military-CIA operations, which
flourished during the Vietnam War, have
been on the decline over the last decade
largely because of reports that the pro-
grams vi~ere not properly supervised. For
example, the Phoenix program in Vietnam,
which was a joint military-CIA operation,
received considerable criticism following
reports that thousands of suspected
Vietcong officials and sympathizers were
assassinated.
"We've learned a lot of things about how
to do business as a result of Vietnam and
things like the Phoenix program," said a
Defense Department official. "I'm not say-
ing there's no relationship" between the
military and the CIA. "I'm saying this un-
One of the Green Berets afio took part in
the Honduras training, Sgt. 1st Class Byron
K..Carlisle, was later indicted a7th another
Green Beret on charges of selling explo-
sives and munitions taken from Fort Bragg
to undercover federal agents. The other
Green Beret charged with Carlisle, Sgt 1st. .:
Class Keith W. Anderson, was not a partic-
ipant in the training operation. Both have "
pleaded not guilty.
Anderson's lawyer, in papers filed in fed-
eral court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said he
intends to ask the -CIA to produce docu-
ments concerning "a classified government
operation which allegedly took place in Hon-
duras and Nicaragua concerning the train- .
ing of contra rebels."
Anderson's attorney, Stephen H.'Bzoudy
of Fort Lauderdale, said in an interview that
his client will base his defense-ip par:. on his
belief that the explosives and munitions he.
and Carlisle are accused of selling were go-
ing to the anti-Sandinista rebels.
Law enforcement sources said the
scheme did not involve channeling explo-
sives to the rebels. -
According to a search R~arrant affidavit
filed by federal agents in court, the explo-
sives were to be?traded for drugs and mon-
ey supplied by-the undercover agents.
Benjamin Broudy, Carlisle's attorney and
Stephen H. Broudy's brother, said in an in-
terview that his client has a spotless mili-
tary record and his involvement in the a}.
leged scheme had nothing to do with receiv-
ing ush or drugs.
- The Broudys said they hope to subpoena.
as a witness at the trial a Honduran Special
Forces officer, 2nd Lt. Oster Alvarez. Al-
varez is a nephew of Gen. Gustavo Alvarez
Martinez, a key U.S. ally and the military
leader of Honduras until he v~-as ousted last
March 31 by fellow officers.
According to a letter filed in court by As-
sistant U.S. Attorney Linnea Johnson, Car-
lisle said he introduced the undercover
agents to Lt. Alvarez after the agents asked
to meet him. Johnson quotes Carlisle as say-
ing the "Honduran situation" was discussed
at the meeting.
Lt. Alvarez, who was at Fort Bragg at the
time attending a Special Forces school for
foreign militay officers, was not charged
with any crime.
Stephen Broudy said he wants to question
Lt. Alvarez about U.S. activities in Hondu-
ras and "his :tie-in with Mr. Anderson and
Mr. Carlisle" in an effort to bolster the de-
fense argument that the two- soldiers be-
lieved the weapons deal was part of a U.S.
government-sanctioned operation.
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Lt. Alvarez, assigned to the Honduran
Special Forces Command, was present at
La Vents during the training program and,
according to a source familiar wish the pro-
jest, became acquainted with Carlisle there.
Lt. Alvarez, who is back in Honduras,
said there he knew Carlisle. But he said he
met w7th the undercover agents only to dis-
cuss his efforts to help Carlisle in a plan to
import wooden fixtures from Honduras.
Alvarez declined to answer questions about
the secret training program, saying that his
superior had told him not Lo discuss military
matters with a reporter.
-Gen. Alvarez, his uncle living in exile in
the United States, could not be reached for
comment. ?
Members of the i-Ionduran antiterrorist
unit have participated in or were on the
~, scene for ahalf-dozen antiterrorist opera-
tions since 1982, military sources said.
These included the seizure of 80 prom-
' inept Honduran businessmen in a leftist
t group's September 1982 occupation of a
Chamber of Commerce in the Honduran
city of San Pedro Sala, where the unit in-
~ tezzogated hostages who had.escaved but
made no assault; the release of a member of
a wealthy family kidnaped in San Pedro
Sula, and an assault on a Salvadoran goer-
';- rills safe house in Tegucigalpa in March
', 1x982 in which one guerrilla sympathizer
was killed. :~
A source close to one of the U.S. Special
Forces participants in the Honduran train-
: ing program gave this account of the_ pro-
ject. ':
It began in late 1982 when prospective
team members were interviewed in a stark
room at the Bordeaux Motor.Inn, a Fayette-
ville, N.C., motel near Fort Bragg. ~ --
Following the'selection . of the sia-.team
members and one alternate, a bniefing?was
held at ahigh-security Special Operation
Command building at Fort Bragg.
Officials from the Pentagon and the CIA
outlined the training program and stressed.
that the entire operation was to be carried
up with the utmost secrecy. The name flf La
Vents, the site of the training in Honduran
countryside, was not to be repeated b1' the
Green Berets outside of the briefing room,
they were told. '~~
They were instructed to grow their hair
long and to be "completely sterile'--to
Leave .their berets, dog tags anc other mil-
, nary identii:cation home. Jeans and other
civilian. attire replaced their tuiforms while
they were in Honduras. '
"They didn't want anybody on the project
to be associated with the military," ,the
source said. : .
The group was divided into two teams of
three each and alternated going into- Hon-
duras for two oz three months at a time
during most of 1983. When one team"was
training at La Vents, the other stayed be-
hind at Fort Bragg preparing lessons and
other activities related to the project:'
The training was intensive and covered a
broad spectrum of counterterrorist and oth-
er military techniques, including .sniper
shooting, shotgun firing, judo and other
forms of hand-to-hand combat, safe house
raids, scuba di~~ng, the clearing of airplanes
and combat intelligence techniques. Special
instructors were flown in from the united
States for such areas as demolition. and
high-speed photography. , _ - ; -~ ~:
One night the Honduran trainees were
taken to Tegucigalpa where they practiced
rappelling down the sides of a hotel under
construction. ~ ?~ - ? ?? ~-
Visitors from the United States, the U.S.
Embassy in Tegucigalpa and the Honduran
military came and went from the camp.
On at least two occasions, Gen. Alvarez
dropped by, including once for an extensive
briefing on the project. He wanted the
training to proceed quickly. Lt.' Alvare#, a
graduate of Texas A&M University, ailed
as his interpeter duping the briefing. Lt.
Alvarez is assigned to another unit of the
I/:onduran Specia] Forces Command, a 1b0-
man, long-range reconnaissance team that,
according to military sources, received Inn-
. classified Special_ Forces training from Feb-
Another visitor to the camp was the CIA
station chief in Tegucigalpa. He sometimes
took target practice at the camp's pistol
range.
Staffwriter Charles Babcock contributed to
this report.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605070055-7