Franchising Aggression
IT WAS A STEAMY SEPTEMBER NIGHT IN Dallas last year. But the guests in the Regency Hotel's Crystal Room were dining in air-conditioned splendor. They were attending a "Freedom Fighters' Dinner"...
...newspapers...
...He added that he would "be inclined not to interfere with them...
...3 For at least the past two years the Administration has capitalized on the existence of a loose coalition of right-wing organizations-already concerned about the advance of communism in Central America-to shape an effective network of third-party support for the proxy war against Nicaragua...
...As James Adair, a 36-year-old CMA member from Houston, says: "The CMA is just a bunch of good old boys from Alabama, not given to deep political examination...
...The Louisiana Air National Guard has loaned FOA its C-130 transport planes to feny shipments Laat~u Lnvmnmatt ~vntatcaaj rmanmaamL= (~~vw-i, WGIG K~IKU September 1984, when their helicopter was shot down over Nicaragua, a Reagan aide said, "If Americans give indirect support to the contras, more power to them...
...4 (November 1985...
...Dave Denison, "Rumbling on the Far Right," The Texas Observer, September 27, 1985...
...I ne New Y or~aasea vooley roun- dation channels medical supplies, some of which it re- ceives from World Medical Relief, to FOA for shipment to the contras...
...Amounts are not large, overhead is inordinately high and the efforts are prone to skimming...
...4 3 There are also unconfirmed rumors that he may have supplied the Nicaraguan rebels with the Soviet surface-to-air SAM-7 missiles with which the rebels shot down a Soviet MI-7 helicopter last December...
...The Washington Post, October 8, 1985...
...Since then, Singlaub has been the principal private figure in orchestrating the private aid drives in the United States and abroad...
...2 6 When in December 1981 President Reagan authorized the CIA to initiate a covert war, the agency was directed to work "primarily through third parties...
...When in August 1985 the group expelled Fagoth and renamed itself KISAN, Fagoth's man in Tegucigalpa, Wycliffe Diego, inherited his mantle-and his contacts...
...The Miami Herald, January 21, 1985...
...Central American Update, July-August 1985...
...Berry, et...
...4 The lobbying campaign also includes attacks on those who defend the Sandinistas...
...The FOA program is situated along the border between Nicaragua and Honduras at Danli and Rus Rus, the latter a REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 32President Reagan and FOA co-director Woody Jenkins admire photo of Miskito Indians at fund-raising dinner KISAN camp...
...Before it left, Sharon had signed an agreement with Honduran Chief of Staff Gustavo Alvarez to provide arms and advisers for the Honduran military, including "sophisticated jet fighters, tanks, Galil assault rifles, training for officers, troops and pilots, and perhaps missiles...
...The Miami Herald, January 29, 1986...
...5 Administration support for private aid efforts sends a different set of messages internally...
...A prominent success was the effort of Andy Messing, executive director of the National Defense Council (NDC), to persuade Congress to pass the Denton amendment legalizing military transport of private humanitarian aid...
...El Porteno of Buenos Aires claims that arms shipments continued until at least 1984...
...In mid-1984 the group reportedly infiltrated 10 men into Nicaragua to replace departing CIA advisers...
...24, no.11 (June 2, 1986...
...The New York Times reported that the Salvadorean Air Force had now replaced the CIA in maintaining the contra fleet of small planes...
...Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & the Palestinians (Boston: South End Press, 1983), p. 2 4 . 32...
...In 1983, as many as seven CIA agents were regular features at Ilopango, El Salvador's military airport, guiding supply missions to Nicaragua and "throwing a lot of money around...
...Time, May 7, 1984...
...4 1 An Israeli reporter writing in Al Hamishmar in early 1985 estimated that since Peres became prime minister, Israeli arms supplies to the contras have increased tenfold...
...Vicki Kemper "In the Name of Relief," Sojourners, October, 1985, p. I 1; The New York Times, April 19, 1985...
...The flights, according to FDN spokesman Frank Arana, "were meeting virtually all rebel supply needs...
...in addition they have facilitated the shipment of contra supplies and have cooperated with CIA agents in mainSOWING DRAGON' AS TEETH SOWING DRAGON'S TEETH u.z.-nonauras joint military exercises, vuerto LaStnllo, reoruary ivuz taining coordination with the rebels...
...5 4 The future role of this comprehensive CIA-managed support system will be clearer after the next congressional vote on President Reagan's $100 million contra aid package...
...El Salvador's military assistance to the contras also picked up after official aid was exhausted in May 1984...
...Thus they both can be reimbursed through the U.S...
...Israel resented the Sandinistas' public identification with Third World liberation movements, which included the PLO...
...The tripartite arrangement is useful to launder these transactions...
...Finally, the Honduran Army has collaborated directly with the contras, providing mortar and rifle cover for their incursions into Nicaragua...
...He depicted FOA as "America at its best" and presented Diane with the first "Ronald Reagan American Ideals Award...
...According to Benjamin Beit Hallahmi, a Haifa University professor and author of a forthcoming book on Israel's relations with the Third World, when the covert war was being concocted by the CIA in 1981, "the Mossad [the Israeli secret service] was also there, carrying out the training and supREPORT ON THE AMERICAS ca X 0 a 36 SOWING DRAGON'S TEETH U.S...
...Singlaub, with near-celebrity status, regularly peddles the contra cause on the talk and news show circuit...
...In fact, as the president has perceived, private aid to the contras has been more important politically than materially...
...And like the fund-raising efforts, there is a hint of mismanagement-at the very least...
...The message to both sides is that irrespective of Congress, Washington has the will to continue the war...
...citizens...
...local USAID officials, quoted in The Economist Development Report, January 1985, p. 5. 10...
...The Honduran Army's chief liaison with the contras, Col...
...Between January and September of . - . - - - . . . . . . . - - - - - 1 IYS4, CMA clalmed to have collected 515,UUO In cash and $70,000 in "clothes...
...For one thing, the amounts of aid needed to sustain the war place considerably less strain on the coffers of another government-even a poor one-than on the pocketbooks of conservative U.S...
...A coupon asks that donations be sent to the College Republicans at National Committee Headquarters...
...In fact, it is impossible to tease out the amounts Argentina contributed to the operation from those supplied by the CIA...
...But there is a sub-grouping within the network which concentrates only on providing food, medicines, clothing and other non-military supplies and equipment...
...Council of World Freedom, the national branch of the World Anti-Communist League...
...military aid, the contribututions were "not putting any strain on them...
...July 17, 1985...
...Some 35 Argentinean trainers reportedly stayed on as mercenaries through 1982...
...Its primacy in the network is assured by its participation in every category of support work, the coordinating role it plays with other private groups and its official ties, which go to the Oval Office itself...
...Mercenaries and contraband arms destined for ARDE regularly find their way to Costa Rica...
...The New York Times, July 21, 1983...
...This is technically correct...
...citizens...
...It seems reasonable to presume that Israel will now take over Argentina's role," said a senior Sandinista official...
...In Nicaragua, Israel remained on excellent terms with the Somoza regime to the end-and alone it continued to arm and supply Somoza's National Guard after the United States cut off aid in mid-1978.3 Apart from its historic ties to Somoza, who in 1947 supplied arms to the Jewish underground Army in Palestine, Haganath, Israel had reason to dislike the Sandinistas...
...3 According to a later report by NBC News, Sharon at that time offered captured weapons from the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon to the "so-called covert war...
...10-11...
...military aid...
...18, no...
...3 8 After 1982, when Congress began to balk at financing the covert war, U.S...
...The Miami Herald, March 25, 1982...
...5 Administration efforts on behalf of the contra fundraisers are also undertaken through the national Republican Party...
...Publicity can raise funds and fund-raisers can produce publicity...
...Army during the non-stop maneuvers...
...Such materiel could be easily provided by private agencies and allowed the CIA to concentrate the remainder of its appropriated money on arms and ammunition...
...intelligence official in 1984, "know how to run a secret operation...
...When the Alfonsin government took Republican presidential aspirant Pat Robertson, president, Christian Broadcasting Network U.S...
...citizens involved in support for the contras...
...culture: the traditions of rugged individualism and vigilante justice...
...Over the past three years, the Salvadorean military has provided the CIA, as well as rebel leaders, with access to its bases for transporting supplies to the contras...
...The Miami Herald, November 26, 1983...
...Rich Texans, including oilman Burt Hurlbut and heiress Ellen Garwood, reportedly account for 35-50% of the funds WACL raises...
...al., New Right Humanitarians, p. 53...
...And the beneficiaries were not in Honduras...
...Officially the Shimon Peres government refused...
...4 2 In 1985, according to a report in the Tel Aviv daily Ma'ariv, Guatemala-based Israeli arms dealer Pesach Ben Or acted as a go-between for a shipment of 2,000 RPG-7 rockets and 200 rocket launchers to the contras...
...The extent of this administrative crisscrossing around a single foreign policy issue helps ce- ment the network and facilitates its integration into of- ficial strategy...
...In September of that year Charles Moser, secretary-treasurer of Free Congress and Education Foundation, proposed creating a new committee, modeled on the exisiting Committee for a Free Afghanistan and the Free Angola Committee, to support anti-communist struggle in Nicaragua...
...its defense establishment employs one-fourth of all industrial labor and and accounts for 16%-the highest rate for any nation-of its export earnings...
...Interview by Deb Preusch of The Resource Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 16,1985...
...The Washington Post, December 2, 1982...
...4, November 1985, p. 9. 40...
...Military officers from that country arrived in Central America to train exiled National Guardsmen shortly after the Sandinista triumph in July 1979...
...Raising money through general appeals to the public, however, has been manifestly unsuccessful...
...2 4 In the Administration's contingency plan for carrying on the war in the event of a congressional cut-off, an international support system provides a sound backup to the domestic network...
...T HE CONTRA WAR BEGAN UNDER THE sponsorship of a third country-Argentina...
...The Miami Herald Septemebr 9, 1984 24...
...Edgar Chamorro, the former rebel official, claimed that the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) received 2,000 assault rifles from Israel by way of a private arms dealer...
...The Miami Herald, January 29, 1986...
...NBC Network Nightly News, April 23, 1984, cited in Israeli Foreign Affairs, December 1984, p. 2. 34...
...But a more active role in the Nicaraguan counterrevolution may have been formalized early on at the urging of the U.S...
...In July 1983 Ed6n Pastora's Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ARDE) also received 500 AK-47 rifles from Israel, with Venezuela acting as intermediary...
...According to officials of the post-Malvinas/Falklands military regime, the operation got off the ground soon after a 1979 meeting of the U.S...
...The effort is designed to sustain the rebels at their base and strengthen their support system by draw- ing other Miskitos to the area...
...His only salary is God's blessing...
...The Washington Post, March 14, 1986...
...For Congress to oppose this military track effectively, it must not only vote against official aid, but also prevent the executive's shameless use of outside sources to sustain the war...
...Rake-offs for "administrative expenses" are common among these groups and must be considered when assessing the value of the aid to the rebels...
...Al Hamishmar, March 26, 1985, cited in The Link, Vol...
...Our government's not doing it yet but with General Singlaub given the go-ahead by God and President Reagan, freedom in our country may possibly survive...
...The material value of the private aid to the contras lies in its provision of logistical support...
...Tom Barry, Deb Preusch and Beth Sims, The New Right Humanitarians (Albuquerque: The Resource Center, 1986), pp...
...CMA was founded by Posey and four buddies from the...
...Central American Report, July 19, 1985, October 11, 1985...
...and America deserve a victory over com- munism...
...22, Fall 1984...
...22 Mercenary "trainers" who accompany their prot6g6s to battle, more than other private citizen asREPORT ON THE AMERICAS n z IN 3i 0 U 34sistance, present Congress with the prospect of U.S...
...Israel resented the Sandinistas' public identification with Third World liberation movements, which included the PLO...
...ISIA Aom lle' foua .'i zoy I~ . AllS A l *d ,chac Io e 1m, 118i l8 II lrrg THE WORLD...
...The Nation, October 6, 1984...
...In 1985, according to CMA, it provided...
...At the apex of the hierarchy is retired Army General John K. Singlaub's U.S...
...NACLA interview with Russ Bellant, April 23, 1986...
...food and medical supplies" from CMA members and private citi;zens...
...Estimates of WACL's overall aid ($10-12 million) suggest that Singlaub's efforts may provide the bulk of lethal aid coming from private domestic organizations...
...In April of this year the CIAS promoted nationwide publicspeaking tours by contra "truth squads...
...Metro Times (Detroit), October 9-15, 1985...
...The New York Times, January 13, 1985...
...The Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1984, November 23, 1984...
...The $250-$500 a plate dinner was ostensibly dedicated to raising money for Nicaraguan refugees--' 'the poorest of the poor-Indians and peasants and terrified mothers and children"--all victims of "communist totalitarianism...
...The Nicaraguan Refugee Fund made center stage April 15, 1985, with a gala fund-raising party in the nation's capital...
...For right now, my friend, THERE ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS FIGHTING WITH THE COMMUNISTS IN NICARAGUA AGAINST THE UNITED STATES...
...and 4) arms acquisition and training...
...In Nicaragua, Israel remained on excellent terms with the Somoza regime to the end-and alone it continued to arm and supply Somoza's National Guard after the United States cut off aid in mid-1978.3 Apart from its historic ties to Somoza, who in 1947 supplied arms to the Jewish underground Army in Palestine, Haganath, Israel had reason to dislike the Sandinistas...
...Fund raising, for example, can result in a deal with a private arms merchant as well as in a New York Times advertisement in support of Nicaragua's freedom fighters...
...Innocuous-sounding enough-if a tad windy...
...I don't know where it is going...
...They were attending a "Freedom Fighters' Dinner" as part of the 18th annual convention of the U.S...
...But it may keep it afloat, and with it the active support of the citizen groups...
...The guest of honor at the Marriott Hotel Ballroom was none other than the president of the United States...
...5. The Washington Post, March 9, 1986...
...22 (Fall 1984...
...18, no...
...But it is also deceptive...
...5. The Miami Herald, July 5, 1984, September 9, 1984...
...If you object to it, send me a signal.' " Singlaub says there have been no orders to stop yet...
...3 3 Israel is the fifth largest arms exporter in the world...
...Len Lawrence, "From Phoenix Associates to Civilian Military Assistance," CovertAction, No...
...Under CIA and NSC management the network now also includes assistance from U.S...
...resolve...
...You wouldn't believe what they do...
...In September it was reported that a net sum of $3,000 had actually been delivered to the refugees...
...donations, said: "This is all peanuts...
...FOA's official connections help resolve transportation problems...
...They don't speak Spanish or anything.It seems like there's a new group here every day...
...A VERITABLE ALPHABET SOUP OF RIGHTwing lobbies and propaganda groups, many with overlapping members, regularly plump for the Reagan Doctrine and the contra cause...
...Tennessee...
...The aircraft-small Cessnas, a C-47 cargo plane and a DC-6---were also transporting supplies inside Nicaragua...
...4 (November 1985), p. 8; The Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1981...
...2 Training centers were quickly set up-mainly in Honduras and Costa Rica--to create an anti-Sandinista fighting force...
...but] they did not rule out the possibility that American aid might be used...
...alsrnoure conrra ala...
...Honduras has played a key role in sheltering and supporting the rebels, providing them with storage and training facilities and serving as a platform from which to attack Nicaragua...
...52, The Los Angeles Times, November 23, 1984...
...objective has been to keep them from losing.' The CIA and Pentagon both increasingly saw the contra forces as the military arm of a low-intensity war of attrition.* The need for non-lethal supplies to keep the forces alive for that purpose grew accordingly...
...the four formed an offshoot organization, the Civilian Refugee Military Assistance (CRMA) and expanded to Missis- sippi...
...The supplies donated do not compare with other groups...
...Kemper, in Sojourners, pp...
...The Washington Post, April 9, 1985...
...FOA, formed in 1983, claims its aid is limited to noncombatants, as specified in its bylaws...
...52 E L SALVADOR TOOK ON NEW IMPORtance in late 1985 when Honduras balked at allowing the transfer of U.S...
...Amounts actually reaching the contras suggest there may be a high degree of skimming or book-juggling among the contra aid groups...
...Estimates put the figure in the same range as the $15-25 million in private domestic aid...
...The Washington Post, December 18, 1982...
...To the domestic New Right it says, stay on board...
...In 1984-1985, he boasted of raising an average of $500,000 a month-which he hints was spent on both arms and non-lethal aid for the contras.' 2 T HE FUNCTIONS OF THE PRIVATE SUPPORT network can be divided into four general categories: 1) lobbying and propaganda...
...CMA members began to train and fight with the Nicaraguan rebels...
...Sometimes the pitch comes in the dignified wrapping of an academic paper or book from the Heritage Foundation...
...The network comprises dozens of organizations, big and small, that work closely together in a hierarchy that ends in the White House...
...Israel began increasing its arms business in Central America during the 1970s, when President Carter's human rights policies restricted U.S...
...According to another account, "the United States demanded overt and covert Israeli support for U.S...
...The message is conveyed by the contra leaders themselves in public appearances sponsored by such groups as the American Security Council and the Council for Inter-American Security (CIAS...
...Why can't we just say we do it for adventure...
...Periodi- cally...
...J. Walter, "Kalishnikov's Brother," Maariv, May 4, 1984, cited in The Link, Vol...
...I'm talking about a major victory in which I the communists can be the ones for a change who have to go home and lick their wounds...
...In practical terms this meant the Argentinean advisers (although there were a handful of representatives from Venezuela and other regional countries) and the Honduran military...
...Except in wartime, the contributions of private U.S...
...But the guest list read like a who's who in the contra aid network...
...Alabama National Guard in July 1983...
...Hector Frances claimed that the contras' rapid growth in 1982 was made possible by the "extraordinarily large sums of capital donated by the United States...
...CMA took over certain tactical functions of the CIA, including training in parachuting, perimeter defense, the cleaning and use of weapons and maintaining a logisti- cal pipeline...
...military personnel crate supplies for World Medical Relief in Detroit office it discovered evidence at the Argentinean Defense Ministry that "unbelievable sums of money" had been funneled unofficially into Central America...
...Time, May 27, 1985...
...Brigadista Bulletin, June 1985...
...The area near the Honduras-Nicaragua border teems with religious and secular relief agencies...
...Tommy Posey, the ex-Marine corporal and Vietnam veteran who founded CMA, talks about it this way: "The U.S...
...The Washington Post, March 19, 19186...
...FOA is tied laterally to other groups which collect and...
...Israel began increasing its arms business in Central America during the 1970s, when President Carter's human rights policies restricted U.S...
...By drawing refugees to the bor- der FOA has in fact undermined legitimate refugee pro- grams such as that of the United Nations High Commis- sion on Refugees (UNHCR), whose policy is to operate at a respectable distance (40 kilometers) from the conflict zone...
...Dan Fefferman of the Freedom Leadership Foundation...
...27 The Argentineans were enlisted as both trainers and bagmen to deliver CIA money to the contras in Honduras...
...Hector Frances claimed that the contras' rapid growth in 1982 was made possible by the "extraordinarily large sums of capital donated by the United States...
...The principal sources of third-country support have been Argentina and Israel, and, as conduits and staging areas, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador...
...We had a good timq...
...2 If the material contribution of groups such as CMA has been small, at the political level they have been more effective, especially in boosting the president's image with the far Right...
...8. Friends of the Americas, Friends Report, Fall 1984...
...He has extensive contacts with U.S...
...3 5 In early 1983 Israel sent Honduras an estimated 2,000-3,000 Soviet AK-47 assault rifles captured from the PLO in Lebanon, along with artillery pieces, mortar rounds, mines, hand grenades and ammunition, all of which ended up in the hands of the contras...
...foreign aid package for the transfer of any arms destined for the contras...
...Defending the legality of this alleged tradition, the Justice Department stated that humanitarian aid raised by private citizens for the rebels did not violate federal laws...
...4 9 Indebted to the Reagan Administration for more foreign aid than any country in the hemisphere, El Salvador too has operated as a conduit for U.S...
...T HE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION'S PROSEcution of the proxy war against Nicaragua has tapped a wellspring of U.S...
...By September 1984 CMA claimed to have 1,000 members and to have sent 15 into Nicaragua with the rebels as "military advis- ers...
...REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 30The Domestic Contra Aid Network: A Pictorial View members, The Washington Times, which set up an adhoc fund-raising organization in April 1985 and, of course, WACL...
...It is obvious that the amounts-estimated at $15-25 million--will not win the contra war...
...The Army transferred the rifles (with a market value of over $2 million) after receiving new automatic weapons from the United States...
...pressure for Israeli collaboration began to mount...
...NACLA telephone interview with CovertAction Information Bulletin staff member, New York City, May 29, 1986...
...8. The Miami Herald, June 16, 1985...
...The Argentinean military, virulently anti-communist and a strong ally of Somoza, had reasons of its own to become involved...
...The Miami Herald, December 2, 1982...
...Honduras expels these U.S...
...With the credibility of the Reagan Doctrine depending on the success of the Administration's Nicaragua stance, the war against the Sandinistas will not be called off...
...Ib3 mllllon In non-lethal supplles and 15.000 man-hours ot training for the rebels.'" Soon after...
...An obscure group, which has since receded to the background, kicked off the idea in 1982...
...See The Washington Post, December 2, 1982...
...support to the contras...
...The Washington Post, May 3, 1985...
...Turning to retired Gen...
...Those friends, it turned out, were the CIA...
...The network of private citizens and third countries so carefully cultivated by the Administration during the course of the war stands ready to supplement or substitute for official U.S...
...The legislature's record of courage on this issue is not promising...
...Up to 12 missions a week were reportedly being flown...
...It offers Congress the specter of foreign policy run by franchise if it does not approve the Administration request for CIA-managed official aid...
...See Intercontinental Press, Vol...
...citizens to foreign causes have never before received the official imprimatur of the government...
...When asked about the Honduran snag, Robert H. Duemling, director of the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Aid Office, coyly replied, "The United Nicaraguan Opposition (UNO) has worked out some alternative methods of delivery...
...citizen-soldiers have not rendered a great deal of tangible service to the contras...
...James L. Pate, "CMA in Central America," Soldier of Fortune, January 1985...
...Several embarrassing air crashes exposed the heavy traffic leaving Ilopango and other Salvadorean airports for the contra camps on the Honduras-Nicaraguan border...
...Dickey, With the Contras, p. 156...
...aid to the contras began to dry up in early 1984, Vernon Walters, then ambassador-at-large and a former deputy director of the CIA, met with Israel's ambassador in Washington, Meir Rosenne, to press for greater Israeli involvement in "defending the free world" on the Central American battleground...
...See Jon Lee Anderson and Scott Anderson, Inside the League (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1986...
...SRAEL DENIES GIVING DIRECT AID TO THE contras...
...David Befus, a World Relief official working in the area, remarked: "There are at least 20 groups in the area now, a lot of weird groups...
...Since the official aid cut-off in May 1984, only a third of all private domestic contributions has gone for ammunition and weapons because the "biggest problem is sustenance...
...Time, September 17, 1984, December 24, 1984...
...Operating out of Detroit, another secular organization, World Medical Relief, which specializes in medical equipment, transports the bulk of its supplies via an outfit known as the Air Commandos Association...
...The New York Times, December 29, 1982...
...Fundraising and direct aid drives for the contras have rallied the secular and religious New Right at a time when both groups are disenchanted with Reagan's record on their social agenda...
...Israel and Latin America: The Second Lebanon War," Smol, June 1984, cited in The Link, Vol...
...The Washington Post, May 9, 1986...
...But Israel Gur Arieh, an Israeli foreign ministry official, categorically asserted that "Honduras does not need arms from Israel...
...For the White House, still believing a contra victory possible, this aid allows the Administration to continue to supply the rebels at a modest level during the periods of congressional aid cut-off...
...government can continue its covert funding of the war by burying the payments in bilateral foreign aid packages to any country serving as a surrogate supplier of the rebels...
...Franchising Aggression 1. "Who's Running This War...
...Its members include former UN ambassador, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Norman Podhoretz of Commentary, Albert Shanker of the American Federation of Teachers, Edmund Robb of the Institute for Religion and Democracy and William Doherty of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD...
...In addition, these governments can provide large shipments of direct military aid, which is more difficult (not to mention illegal) for domestic groups...
...John Dillon and Jon Lee Anderson, "Who's Behind Aid to the Contras...
...military personnel crate supplies for World Medical Relief in Detroit office it discovered evidence at the Argentinean Defense Ministry that "unbelievable sums of money" had been funneled unofficially into Central America...
...Even USAID, which re- ceived $7.5 million to coordinate the program, had "strong misgivings" about putting that much money into a "narrow strip of land...
...NACLA telephone interview with Benjamin Beit Hallahmi, May 9, 1986...
...6 " Precise figures on aid to Nicaraguan refugees are hard to separate out from refugee aid to Central AmeriJULY/AUGUST 1986 31SOWING DRAGON'S TEETH NETWORK PROFILES 1. Lobbying and Publicity: PRODEMCA A highly successful contra lobbying group is the Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America (PRODEMCA), formed in 1981 with backing from rightwing foundations...
...The Miami Herald, October 26, 1982...
...The New York Times, April 9, 1985...
...The end-user certificate restricted use of the weapons to the Honduran armed forces...
...The New York Times, June 13, 1983, June 15, 1983, and March 9, 1984...
...2. The New York Times, December 13, 1984...
...They drop candy out of a plane...
...Time, May 27, 1985...
...It's tax deductible...
...The Nicaraguan conflict offers them a second chance...
...2) fund-raising...
...Ellen Garwood rose to accept the award of a bronze eagle for having given the Nicaraguan contras, among other things, a helicopter...
...4 (November 1985), p. 8, and From Manila to Managua: Israel's World War, forthcoming from Pantheon...
...In return the Argentineans trained and managed the operation until mid-1982, when the Argentinean adventure in the Malvinas/Falklands spelled the end of such close U.S.-Argentinean working relations...
...Who's Running This War...
...Demands Israel Aid to Destablize the Regime in Nicaragua," Yediot Aharonot, April 22, 1984, cited in The Link, Vol...
...Another FDN official said, "We have looked for private money, but there isn't enough...
...Instead, it uses the services of private arms dealers and "fences" the weapons through Honduras, using various corporations in South America, Hong Kong and elsewhere...
...Network Profiles 1. Joshua Muravchic, "Exporting Democracy: A Progress Report," The American Spectator, November 1985...
...humanitarian" aid to the contras...
...4 8 In addition, some Costa Rican officials have had a close relationship with U.S...
...4. The Wall Street Journal, April 26, 1985...
...But efforts to indict the Administration for violation of the Neutrality Act have gone nowhere...
...FOA first set up relations with militant anti-communist Miskito leader Steadman Fagoth, then head of the Miskito contra organization called MISURA...
...Costa Rica has played a less direct but nonetheless important role...
...Christopher Dickey, With the Contras (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), pp...
...18, no...
...mercenaries and...
...al., New Right Humanitarians, p. 51...
...152153...
...citizens who volunteer to pick coffee in Nicaragua...
...John K. Singlaub, the council's president, the Texan octogenarian said: "I believe he was undoubtedly sent by the Lord Almighty to help save freedom and the United States from Russian totalitarianism...
...The New York Times, December 13, 1984...
...Because third country aid has been almost entirely in the form of weapons, ammunition, military equipment and trainers, it has had a more direct impact on the conduct of the war...
...Established in 1983 as a private non-profit foundation, NED has received $18 million in congressional funding channeled through the United States Information Agency, to "foster democracy around the world...
...Founded in 1967, WACL has an unsavory history, steeped in associations with European fascists, Nazis and Latin American death squads...
...The New York Times, January 13, 1985...
...Diane and her husband Louis ("Woody") have personally adopted the cause of the Miskito Indians, claiming that thousands of starving refugees are neglected by official relief agencies...
...But by the fall of 1984 Israeli arms dealers were more active than ever...
...FOA ferries its supplies on the CIA'S SETCO . -. - -. -- . . . I atrllne and relles on Honduran Army trucks to tranship them to the border...
...Because both countries were receiving approximately $250 million in U.S...
...and Lynne Francis Bouchey, then executive vice president of the Council for InterAmerican Security.' *See "The Real War," Report on the Americas, April/May 1986...
...You can hurt kids by dropping candy on them from 200 feet...
...I try to communicate, sometimes by tele- phone [with Washington]," he says, informing them, 'this is what I am about to do...
...There is a rough scale of importance in the distribution of the groups within this network, based on politi- cal constituency, relationship to the Administration and level of contribution to the contra war...
...Although Singlaub claims he is not on the CIA payroll, the agency approves of his activity...
...WACL's John Singlaub regularly taps these contacts as well as right-wing individuals and organizations for contributions...
...These functions sometimes merge in an organization's activity...
...activities against the Sandinista government...
...John Dillon and John Lee Anderson, "Who's Behind The Aid to the Contras," The Nation, October 6, 1984...
...The White House supports PRODEMCA by way of the federally financed National Endowment for Democracy (NED...
...The groups lobby Congress behind the scenes and try to gain public support through a variety of publicity campaigns...
...The top echelon of the network is a tangle of interlocking directorates: the executive officers tend to sit on each other's boards or meet often in other organizations...
...7. The Washington Post, September 3, 1985...
...Among these groups are the Miami-based Concerned Citizens for Democracy, run by Cuban-American Republican Party *See "On the Record," Report on the Americas, June 1986...
...The Miami Herald, June 16, 1985...
...See for example, The Miami Herald, September 9, 1984...
...We need all the help we can get...
...In September there were indications that Ed6n Pastora had used the Salvadorean air base to launch his attacks against Managua's main airport...
...staying power in its support of anti-communist resistance forces," said Donald Fortier, deputy national security affairs adviser, "is the most essential element in demonstrating to the Soviets that cheap solutions are not available . . . that they have to reckon with us...
...Contra fundraisers say, "Our fund-raising efforts have paid off best with people who used to work in government who are now in corporations with defense contracts...
...However, for analytical purposes it is useful to establish categories based on the organization's stated purpose and primary function within the network...
...In April 1984 President Reagan and his national security adviser, Robert McFarlane, decided to coordi- nate all private aid to the contras, and promptly tapped anti-communist zealot John Singlaub as chief fund-raiser...
...the rest had been dissipated in expenses for the affair, publicity and a whopping $117,000 for "consultants...
...Barry et...
...Delivery systems are maintained and new ones established, ready to provide full service when Washington is able to turn on the taps again...
...The Boston Globe, April 11, 1986, April 24, 1986...
...PRODEMCA is somewhat atypical of the contra aid groups in that it was sponsored by the Administration in order to enlist cold war liberals-particularly in the AFL-CIO--in support of its Central America policies...
...While most unofficial military aid to the contras comes from third countries, domestic military support is not insignificant...
...3 3 Israel is the fifth largest arms exporter in the world...
...The Administration always recognized that sufficient monetary amounts to keep the war going could only be supplied by Congress...
...In 1982-1983 the Honduran military gave the insurgents more than 6,000 Belgian rifles, described as "like new...
...The New York Times, February 13, 1986...
...A senior national security official said ominously at the time, "The CIA doesn't control these guys and can't really keep track of them, so they're a wild card that could cause everyone serious problems...
...Martin Smith, producer, shown on Public Broadcasting System's Frontline program, New York City, March 18, 1986...
...A recent CIAS appeal letter is particularly alarmist: "The United States faces a new, serious threat to our national security...
...The Washington Post, January 24, 1986...
...Newsweek, September 17, 1984...
...JULY/AUGUST 1986 29SOWING DRAGON'S TEETH By 1984, however, the original concept had de- veloped far beyond the loose association of Washington-based groups to embrace a web of right- wing organizations that stretched across the country...
...According to executive committee member Penn Kemble, NED grants to PRODEMCA have totaled $400,000 over the past two years.' PRODEMCA describes itself as a "non-partisan citizens' organization working to build public support for solving problems of conflict and development in Central America by strengthening the processes of democracy...
...The Human Development Foundation (HDF) was set up by Miami businessmen in 1984...
...Ronald Reagan, sermonizing on behalf of the Nicaraguan refugees at the April 15 dinner, singled out Diane Jenkins, co-director of FOA, for special praise...
...Their boasting smacks of the beery swaggering of small-town toughs-in contrast to the hard-edged fascism of the Argentinean death-squad graduates who first trained the contras...
...In a grotesque parody of the "Save the Children" campaigns to provide relief for families in underdeveloped countries, the College Republican National Committee distributed posters around the nation's campuses headlined "Save the Contras...
...military...
...9. The Boston Globe, April 5, 1985...
...4 This in turn sends a warning to the USSR: "U.S...
...its defense establishment employs one-fourth of all industrial labor and and accounts for 16%-the highest rate for any nation-of its export earnings...
...Since part of not losing is attracting new recruits, the aid also is designed to attract new blood from the refugee population in Honduras or in Nicaragua's impoverished north...
...All of us must help him keep liberty alive in Central America...
...And the threat is from some of our own U.S...
...But private aid sends a number of political signals: it reassures the contras of U.S...
...THESE OBJECTIVES EXPLAIN THE UNINHIBited exposure of private contra aid as well as the large number of "leaks" surrounding the "covert" war...
...The New York Times, July 21, 1983...
...It just isn't matching up...
...Louisiana and Georgia...
...Moreover, REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 28when it comes to arms, such contributions are prohibited by the nation's Neutrality Act of 1794...
...Sharing an abiding "interest in weapons and fighting communism...
...After his arrest in Costa Rica last year, Steve Chafford, a Civilian Military Assistance mercenary, charged that the Civil Guard collaborated directly with ARDE...
...Honduras, they added, "a silent partner in organizing and supporting the insurgents . . . intends to give them most of the arms supplied by Israel.40 As U.S...
...foreign policy careening out of control-unless Congress puts the CIA firmly back in charge...
...National Security Agency document revealed that the Administration explicitly requested Israel to arm the contras...
...But we'd rather they didn't participate in gun battles inside Nicaragua...
...Lionel Luque Jimenez, helps coor- dinate this effort...
...The Honduran military was used both as a liaison and cover for contacts with the Argentineans and as a conduit for supplying arms...
...corporations who have contributed to "refugee relief" programs on the Nicaraguan-Honduran border...
...Notwithstanding the newspaper's sympathies, disclosure of its link to such a pro-contra group in early 1986 proved too embarrassing even for La Prensa and a "less controversial conduit was found to replace PRODEMCA...
...Reagan's Unseen Ally . . . " p.2...
...For all their bravado, U.S...
...Within this sub-grouping are both religious groups, such as Operation Blessing, run by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in Virginia, and World Vision, based in California, and secular groups, most notably Americares in Connecticut and Friends of Americas (FOA) in Louisiana...
...There is also growing evidence that through creative accounting the FDN leaders have pocketed substantial sums.'" The Government Accounting Office (GAO) recently audited the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, which the Administration established to distribute the $27 million in humanitarian aid Congress voted last year...
...Beyond that, private sector collaboration helps mold and cement a public consensus on the Administration's Central America policy and the rollback goals of the Reagan Doctrine...
...SOWING DRAGON'S TEETH ca as a whole...
...Americares and the Christian Broadcast- ing Network (CBN) are among the organi7ations that have transferred donated supplies to FOA, while the Knights of Malta assist in distributing them within Honduras (see chart...
...Dessert was finished and cordials served...
...al., New Right Humanitarians, p. 51...
...Some of thc supplies were flown to Honduras on a :argo plane which CMA bought in the United States at a "bargain price...
...campaign was to create a smokescreen for CIA efforts to "launder" its funds to the FDN through Panama, where the HDF was licensed.' In fact, the foundation was hardly a success story, raising only $700, and quietly vanished a short time later...
...The Miami Herald, October 26, 1982...
...F C $192 $1.1.t- d -h--..------ ----- --------- - --- - SAVE THE CONTRAS Poster withdrawn after protests from the Save the Children Federation the enthusiasm of CMA members...
...And they think they're doing something great for God...
...28 Alfonso Chardy of The Miami Herald estimates that the Argentineans transferred $10 million in military aidequipment, firearms and ammunition-to the contras through 1984.29 During the first year of the collaboration, 40% of the money went for arms and the rest for supplies and salaries...
...The Miami Herald, June 16, 1985...
...2 PRODEMCA has been most visible when lobbying Congress and taking out full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other papers in support of aid to the contras...
...Less well-known is its recent use of taxpayers' money to fund La Prensa, the opposition newspaper in Nicaragua, whose editor, Jaime Chamorro, declared last year that the "unfortunate" contra war was nevertheless necessary.' While Kemble was proud of his association with what he called "the last free journalistic voice in Nicaragua," the feeling was not returned...
...Even while the drive's coordinator, Nicaraguan exile David Raskosky, disclaimed any association with the FDN, the ad itself proclaimed that it had been "paid for by friends of the FDN...
...4 WO MORE COUNTRIES, COSTA RICA AND El Salvador, complete the package of CIA-controlled aid from third countries...
...The latter takes the form of fundraising for arms procurement and the provision of mercenary services...
...Never absent from the culture, today there is a surfeit of Rambo types-lonely mavericks, tough sheriffs, "quick on the trigger and ready to take offense," full of hatred for the Soviet Union and communism and-after the pain and frustration of Vietnam-anxious to settle scores...
...The Miami Herald, September 9, 1984...
...4 2. Fund-raising: Nicaragua Refugee Fund Three fund-raising groups are interesting because of the interrelationships among them and their ties to the FDN: the Human Development Foundation, the Nicaraguan Development Council and the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund...
...The New York Times, April 8, 1983...
...On it were representatives of four long-established right-wing policy and research institutions: Francisco Enrique Rueda of the Free Congress Foundation...
...9. Fred Clarkson, "Privatizing the War," CovertAction Information Bulletin, No...
...The flap over CMA's fighting in Nicaragua occurred shortly after Congress forced the CIA to lower its profile in the contra war...
...On-the-scene accounts in the major media have reported that while the Honduran Army looks the other way, the contras help themselves to military supplies left by the U.S...
...A 1983 U.S...
...Verre Chaney, is the FDN's medical aid coordinator.'' WACL's John Singlaub and the FDN's Adolfo Calero have raised funds for FOA...
...In the case of El Salvador, Israel was supplying 85% of its military needs...
...Dooley's executive director...
...We need a government...
...4 (November 1985), p. 11...
...Latin American Regional Report (Mexico and the Caribbean), February 14, 1986, p. 5. 44...
...The Nation, October 6, 1984...
...PRIVATE AID HAS APPARENTLY SLACKED off in the last year...
...How You Can Help the Nicaraguan Refugees," Human Events, May 4, 1985...
...In addition, the group is said to have 3.000 Ameri- cans in combat-readv "freedom fighter" brigades named e - after such heroes as George Patton and Jeane Kirkpat- rick...
...The Economist, September 22, 1984...
...By November, two FDN officers named the armies of Honduras and El Salvador as their "main sources of supplies...
...In July, the organization took out ads soliciting contributions in several major U.S...
...They free monies for arms purchases or, more directly, can go toward purchases of vehicles and other equipment that may be put to military use...
...Suing the government for malfeasance in foreign policy is a political act, and Reagan is a master at defining the terms of political debate...
...You'll sleep better at night...
...3 In 1983 Administration officials admitted that Washington had wanted to establish new lines of support to Nicaraguan rebels in case Congress cut off aid...
...The Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 1985...
...Give to General Singlaub's United States Council on World Freedom whatever he asks...
...Even after $27 million in "humanitarian" aid was voted in 1985, President Reagan and the contra leaders claimed that the private aid was still necessary because "delays and limitations on the governmental aid make it insufficient for planned contra growth and new offensives...
...Vicki Kemper, "In the Name of Relief," Sojourners, October, 1985, p. 7. 6. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, "Text of Remarks by the President of the United States at the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund Dinner, The Ballroom, J.W...
...military aid...
...Since late 1983, when the CIA professionals judged the rebels incapable of triumphing against the Sandinistas, a principal U.S...
...See for example Newsweek, September 3, 1984...
...For that matter, non-lethal (or what the Administration likes to call "humanitarian") aid funds are fungible...
...For example, speaking of a mid1983 shipment of PLO arms to Honduras for eventual use by the rebels, U.S...
...Jerusalem Post, May 25, 1984, cited in Israeli Foreign Affairs, December 1984, p. 5; Z. Barak, "U.S...
...The Boston Globe, April 5, 1985...
...18, no...
...Through WACL, which has affiliates in 36 countries, he also has broad international ties...
...Moreover, the mercenary element in the war has been useful as a psychological weapon in Reagan's battle with Congress...
...In 1984, Fagoth ordered Indian refugees to leave re- lief programs further inland for FOA's free food programs on the border...
...The GAO was unable to verify the final destination of over $13 million in aid, provoking the current investigation of contra bank accounts by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...
...The Guardian, September 26, 1984...
...N EARLY ALL PRIVATE SUPPORT GROUPS claim that the-aid they raise and coordinate from the United States is "humanitarian...
...CMAICRMA, which had begun concentrating on El Salvador, shifted its attention to the Honduras-based con- lras in early 1984...
...3) provision of non-lethal assistance...
...T HE ORIGINS OF CITIZEN SUPPORT FOR the contra war are rooted in the proliferation of right-wing Washington organizations and lobbies that flourish in the Reagan era...
...28 Alfonso Chardy of The Miami Herald estimates that the Argentineans transferred $10 million in military aidequipment, firearms and ammunition-to the contras through 1984.29 During the first year of the collaboration, 40% of the money went for arms and the rest for supplies and salaries...
...5 3 In fact, air supply and overland routes from El Salvador were intensified to bridge the gap...
...Not all have been intentional and some-the CIA's mining of Nicaragua's harbors and the agency's manual on terrorism distributed to the rebels-have proven highly embarrassing...
...There is a kind of juvenile soldier-playing in ONLY 53 A DAY WILL SUPPORT A NICARAGUAN FREEDOM FIGHTER In -ur..r r .- n In SEu hlNDyru -1., b, -1.uu . nd t ia M ion A. S' .c lf y',u...
...and quasi-official Israelis-retired or reserve Army commandos-have been contracted by "shadowy private firms" to augment the CIA's program...
...It seems reasonable to presume that Israel will now take over Argentina's role," said a senior Sandinista official...
...Barry, et...
...Singlaub is considered the right-hand man of Oliver North, the NSC official charged with implementing the Administration's private aid strategy...
...Captain Roberto Sanchez, a spokesman for the Nicaraguan Defense Ministry, claimed in mid-1983 that Honduran Army units had moved very close to the border and were "engaged in virtual joint operations with the contras...
...Meanwhile, FDN officials established the Nicaraguan Development Council, whose chief accomplishment was the creation of the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund...
...8 Finally, the publicity surrounding private aid provides a useful cover for the more practical assistance offered to the rebels by third-country governments...
...And you'll be blessed...
...As a client state, moreover, Honduras has served as a primary transmission belt for U.S...
...2 3 FDN leader Adolfo Calero, speaking of private U.S...
...The National Catholic Reporter, August 17, 1984...
...The New York Times, December, 13, 1984...
...3. Ibid...
...allies-particularly in the area of arms and military supplies...
...Assistance from foreign governments is difficult to measure due to the impossibility of factoring out increments of U.S...
...Jack Wheeler, head of the Freedom Research Foundation, spelled it out in The Wall Street Journal: "Since Congress refused to supply it [contra aid] that support must now come from the American people...
...Most important, the U.S...
...The Miami Herald, September 9, 1984...
...military supplies to the contras...
...A. Fishman, "What Did We Do Wrong...
...Nominally neutral, Costa Rica has hardly been a disinterested party to the contra war...
...Latin American Regional Report (Mexico and the Caribbean), February 14, 1986, p. 5. 45...
...RGANIZATIONS THAT PROPERLY BElong in the fund-raising category publicly raise money for the contras, transfering the cash to them either directly or via other rebel conduits...
...Argentina-and probably Israel-have provided more military expertise during the course of the conflict...
...officials admitted that they could not say "how Honduras would pay for the arms...
...Adair and four other Americans went on a mission to blow up a bridge in Nicaragua but had second thoughts when they found 300 Sandinistas defending the target...
...branch of the World AntiCommunist League (WACL...
...18, no...
...My staff doesn't see the other money...
...at the same time it is clearly meant to intimidate the Sandinistas...
...But rebel sources assert that although private aid from the United States has been important, it has not matched assistance from foreign sources...
...In fact, all the attention that has been given to the private domestic aid network may have served as a smokescreen for the more substantial support the CIA funnels to the contras by way of third countries...
...Reagan's Unseen Ally in Central America," Israeli Foreign Affairs, December 1984, p. 1. 37...
...Hector Frances, an Argentinean adviser who left the contras in unclear circumstances in October 1982, described the Argentinean/Honduran structure as nothing more than a front for the CIA: "With the permanent vigilance and the permanent orientation of the CIA, expressing the orders of the State Department, these interrelated general staffs dominate the Nicaraguan [rebel] staff...
...The FDN said they had also received training from CMA in use of recently acquired surface-to-air mis- siles...
...Statements by John Singlaub indicate that a healthy portion of funds he raises are deposited in FDN accounts abroad and then drawn upon for arms...
...for examples of the ads see, The New York Times, June 2, 1985...
...But it does not rule out the families of fighters...
...The Washington Post, May 7, 1985...
...As early as 1982 it was reported that the Honduran Army was provisioning the rebels with weapons and ammunition as well as non-lethal supplies...
...The air drops included provisions covered by the $27 million in nonlethal aid as well as arms and ammunition bought privately by the contras...
...A UN census in March 1985 showed that more than 5.000 Indians had abandoned UNHCR camps in the Honduran interior...
...Steve Carr, another jailed mercenary, called Costan Rican neutrality a "farce," claiming that Costa Rican officials were "fully involved...
...General Singlaub gets no salary...
...On other occasions it is a 30-second TV hype or newspaper ad...
...SSRAEL AND HONDURAS ARE, TO DIFFERent degrees, client states of the United States...
...The target of this splenetic outburst, signed by CIAS president L. Francis Bouchey: U.S...
...Jon Lee Anderson and Lucia Annunciata "A Fragile Unity Is Born," The Nation, March 9, 1985...
...Between 1979 and 1981, a period of particularly savage repression in Guatemala and El Salvador, these countries became Israel's biggest Central American customers for weapons...
...In October 1984 President Reagan declared that private efforts to assist Administration policy in Central America were "quite in line with what has been a pretty well established tradition in our country...
...Latin American Weekly Report, September 27, 1985, p.10...
...assistance...
...point five of its Field Operations Rules of Procedure states clearly: "No person shall be denied aid on the grounds that he is related to a soldier or combatant...
...According to former contri leader Edgar Chamorro, the true purpose of the U.S...
...Aryeh Neier, of Americas Watch, says: "PRODEMCA appears to be flying under false colors in portraying itself as a citizens' organization when it is actually a vehicle for distributing funds to anti-Sandinista organizations...
...The president must make forcefully clear, the American people will not let Congress get away with it...
...5354...
...The New York Times, October 2, 1983...
...just as periodically, they return to the contra camps...
...The Argentineans developed a close working relationship with the Honduran military which began to aid the effort directly...
...Between 1979 and 1981, a period of particularly savage repression in Guatemala and El Salvador, these countries became Israel's biggest Central American customers for weapons...
...In return the Argentineans trained and managed the operation until mid-1982, when the Argentinean adventure in the Malvinas/Falklands spelled the end of such close U.S.-Argentinean working relations...
...Benjamin Beit Hallahmi, "The U.S.-Israeli-Central American Connection, The Link, Vol...
...economic and military aid to these countries or CIA covert payments that may be included in a triangular deal...
...Intelligence experts and weapons specialists have worked with the CIA in training the rebels...
...For the most part, those claiming to deliver the largest amounts to support the rebels are those with the closest ties to Washington...
...James Ridgeway, "Undermining Mitterand," Village Voice, December 10, 1985...
...2 0 Two other groups, Soldier of Fortune, which publishes a magazine of the same name, and the Alabama-based Civilian Military Assistance, have provided mercenaries-as both trainers and combatants-and weapons to the contras...
...In the case of El Salvador, Israel was supplying 85% of its military needs...
...Time, May 7, 1984...
...Time, December 24, 1984, May 27, 1985...
...3 According to a later report by NBC News, Sharon at that time offered captured weapons from the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon to the "so-called covert war...
...Reed Irvine, founder of Accuracy in Media and a member of the Council for the Defense of Freedom...
...Diane McWhorter, "Celebrity Time Down South, " The Nation, February 1, 1986...
...3 " IN DECEMBER 1982, A MILITARY DELEGAtion from Israel, headed by then defense minister, Ariel Sharon, landed in Tegucigalpa...
...But even in these cases the main actors in the private support network-notably William Casey and Oliver North-retain an unbridled confidence that the president has the ability to win the hearts and minds of the American people...
...2. The Washington Post, March 19, 1986...
...In fact, the Endowment is another Reagan initiative to combat communism...
...though Posey, not surprisingly, denied it...
...3 Nicaraguans did not miss the message...
...Ibid...
...The Christian Science Monitor, April 11, 1986...
...3 Nicaraguans did not miss the message...
...The Washington Post, May 3, 1985...
...According to Benjamin Beit Hallahmi, a Haifa University professor and author of a forthcoming book on Israel's relations with the Third World, when the covert war was being concocted by the CIA in 1981, "the Mossad [the Israeli secret service] was also there, carrying out the training and support for the first units...
...The largest chunk from this category-$50,000-went to Miner and Fraser, a public relations firm which had worked earlier with the Nicaraguan Development Council.7 3. Non-lethal Aid: FOA One of the most prominent of the "refugee" organizations is Friends of the Americas (FOA) in Louisiana...
...In January 1985 Reagan officials noted that "Israeli shipments of rifles, grenades and ammunition to the rebels had picked up" in the last six months...
...The Israelis," said a U.S...
...6. The Washington Post, November 23, 1983...
...4. The Washington Post, March 21, 1986...
...Despite occasional clampdowns, Costa Rica's security forces never stopped ARDE from operating from its territory...
...The Wall Street Journal, June 14, 1985...
...and Latin American defense chiefs in Colombia...
...Before it left, Sharon had signed an agreement with Honduran Chief of Staff Gustavo Alvarez to provide arms and advisers for the Honduran military, including "sophisticated jet fighters, tanks, Galil assault rifles, training for officers, troops and pilots, and perhaps missiles...
...7. Newsweek, August 26, 1985...
...The Honduran military was used both as a liaison and cover for contacts with the Argentineans and as a conduit for supplying arms...
...However, CMA I i < ~rivately admitted that these supplies included military lid...
...Under the direction of the CIA station chief in Tegucigalpa, known only as Shaw, the Argentinean and Honduran officers were integrated together with Nicaraguan exiles into a single command structure...
...While FOA co-director Woody Jenkins said in 1985 that FOA has sent $1.5 million in medical aid to refugees in Honduras, one relief official estimated that FOA was spending only $6,000 per month in 1985: "They're not spending much at all...
...Russ Bellant, "The Politics of Giving," Metro Times (Detroit), October 9-15, 1985...
...Marriott Hotel, April 15, 1985...
...They have created a system which they claim provides "humanitarian support for Nicaraguan refugees," but in fact delivers non-lethal supplies to the contras...
...3. The Guardian, March 20, 1985...
...3 " IN DECEMBER 1982, A MILITARY DELEGAtion from Israel, headed by then defense minister, Ariel Sharon, landed in Tegucigalpa...
Vol. 20 • July 1986 • No. 4
