Foreign Policy 101

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General counsel Daniel Sheehan (left) with journalist Tony Avirgan announcing suit (continued from page be based on new institutions which guarantee the rule of the majority through its direct participation in government.

This is the socialist vision of future society; a society whose political and economic priorities are based on human need —as opposed to capitalist profit, greed, and Cuba: The first contra war In 1959, immediately after the revolutionary victory of the Cuban people led by Fidel Castro, Vice President Richard Nixon-with the full authorization of President Dwight Eisenhower—chaired a special committee of the National Security Council to organize a plan code-named "Operation 40." The purpose of the plan was to undermine, weaken, and eventually overthrow the government of Cuba. The plan included the use of rightwing pro-Batista Cubans.

In late 1959, Nixon and CIA Director Allen Dulles supervised the recruitment of expatriate, right-wing Cubans and set up two training bases—one in Miami, the other in Guatemala. The aim was to send these Cubans back to Cuba to set up guerrilla operations against Castro and to mount terrorist military attacks against the economic infrastructure of Cuba.

In early 1960, Nixon directed Howard Maheu, director of billionaire Howard Hunt's financial empire, to meet secretly with two men, Sam Giancana and John Roselli. These men represented former Havana Mafia "Don" Santo Trafficante, whose Havana casino, hotel, and prostitution operation was run by Resorts International, Inc., a Meyer Lansky Mafia company. Trafficante was Lansky's lieutenant.

It was agreed at this meeting that Nixon's secret NSC "Operation 40" would be supplemented by a private organization headed by Trafficante with the goal of assassinating Fidel Castro, his brother Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and five other Cuban revolutionary leaders.

The assassination squad, known as the "Shooter Team," was selected by Trafficante. Its members were Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero, Felix Rodriguez (AKA "Max Gomez"), Luis Posada Carriles (AKA "Ramon Medina"), Rafael Villaverde, Raul Villaverde, Ricardo Chavez, Frank Fiorini (AKA Frank Sturgis), Rolando Martinez, and two other Cuban Americans.

Most of the above-mentioned are directly named by Sheehan as defendants in the Christic Institute lawsuit. They are charged with working directly with President Reagan's "Secret Team" in the illegal funding of the contra war in Nicaragua.

Bay of Pigs invasion In the summer of 1960, when John F. Kennedy won the Democratic Party presidential nomination, he was briefed by Dulles of the CIA about "Operation 40." (1)

The order by the CIA against Fidel Castro, "Terminate with extreme prejudice," was pursued by the "Shooter Team" between 1960 and 1963. During this period several assassination attempts against Castro were carried out.

Contra bases were established by the CIA in the Escambray Mountains of Cuba in July 1960. These bases were supplied with incendiary bombs and other 8 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1987 IT WAS AN IRAQI JET THAT ATTACKED OUR SHIP AND ...BUI WE КІЦЕ 37 SHOULD AMERICAN BLAME IT SEAMEN... ON IRAN.

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The supervisor of "Operation Mongoose" was 34-yearold CIA agent Theodore Shackley. His deputy was Thomas Clines.

"Operation Mongoose" functioned in a working partnership with Mafia lieutenant Santo Trafficante. The combined program, code-named "JM/Wave," was headquartered in a few small buildings on the campus of the University of Miami.

Laos-Mass murder and opium In 1965, "Operation Mongoose" and "JM/Wave" were shut down and Shackley and Clines were transferred to Laos. Shackley became deputy chief of station for the CIA. Clines was his deputy.

Shackley and Clines provided air support for one Van Pao in a three-sided drug war for control of the illegal opium trade in Laos. Van Pao's competitors were mysteriously assassinated.

Shackley and Clines initiated a secret training program of Hmong tribesmen in "unconventional warfare." This included training in political assassination. By 1966, their special operations were financed by Van Pao.

In 1964, a multi-service group known as the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Special Operations Group (MACV-SOG)-was set up in Saigon. Commanded by Gen. John K. Singlaub, the group "supervised" political assassinations in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.

Serving under Singlaub in 1968 in Laos, was a second lieutenant named Oliver North, the same North who until his resignation a few months ago served as President Reagan's chief organizer of U.S. military aid to the contras.

The deputy air-wing commander for the group was then Air Force Lt. Col. Richard Secord, later promoted to the rank of major general. Secord resigned from the Air Force some 19 years later at age 54 when one of his .. WHICH IS NOT RANIOM! THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS A HARD L'NE BIKY AGAINST DEALING WITH TERRORISTS!

WENT TO SUFFERT THE CONTRAS 50 YOU WOULN'T HAVE To.

WHICH WOULOBE ILLEGA:

ANYWA I HOPE THIS CLARIFIES OUR POSITION ON ARMS LIMITATJONS WITH THE SOVIETS..

Central and America. deputy.

Shackley and Clines directed the project known as "Track II" in Chile, which included the assassination of Chilean President Salvador Allende and the overthrow by the Chilean military of the Allende government in September 1973.

In the course of this U.S.-organized coup, the Chilean military, headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, murdered some 10,000 Chilean worker, student, and peasant activists.

Vietnam genocide

In 1973, Shackley and Clines were transferred to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., where Shackley headed the East Asia division of the CIA with Clines as his deputy.

They directed the "Phoenix Project" in Vietnam in 1974-75, a program designed to cripple the infrastructure of Vietnam after a U.S. troop withdrawal. This included the assassination of some 60,000 village mayors, treasurers, school teachers, and other "non-Viet Cong" administrators.

The program was financed by Shackley and Clines, again using Van Pao opium money. The opium accounts were administered by a U.S. Navy official in Saigon out of the U.S. Office of Naval Operations. The "bursar" for the Vietnam "Phoenix Project" was Richard Armitage.

Formation of the "Secret Team"

In 1973, Shackley, Clines, and Armitage made preparations for their own private, non-CIA, assassination and unconventional warfare program.

This preparation included smuggling large quantities of money from the opium fund out of Vietnam. The money was taken to Australia by Secord and Clines and secretly deposited in the Nugen-Hand Bank and other accounts accessible only to Shackley, Clines, and Secord.

This "Secret Team" also smuggled thousands of tons

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of weapons, munitions, and explosives out of Vietnam into a secret arms "cache" in Thailand.

The money and arms collection were stored for future use.

Shackley's liaison officer in Washington, D.C., from the "Operation 40" committee in the Nixon White House was Eric Von Marbod, an assistant secretary of State for Far Eastern affairs. Von Marbod shared this information on the "Phoenix Project" directly with his supervisor, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Saigon was liberated by the Vietnamese people in April 1975. The Vietnam War was over, and the "Secret Team" shifted its operations.

Over 4 million Vietnamese were killed or wounded in the course of a war in which the U.S. government dropped more bombs than in the combined wars since the dawn of history.

But the personal and direct responsibility for the individual assassination of specifically selected Vietnamese non-combatants is with the leadership of the "Secret Team."

The Shah's paid assassins Following the U.S. evacuation from Vietnam, Richard Armitage was sent to Teheran, Iran, by Shackley and Clines. His mission was to set up Iranian bank accounts for Van Pao opium money for the now so-called private "Secret Team." The function of the team was to seek out, identify, and assassinate socialist and communist sympathizers, who were viewed by the "Secret Team" to be "potential terrorists" against the Shah's government.

Shackley and Clines, still functioning as CIA agents but operating "privately" in the United States, supervised this secret assassination project from 1976 to the fall of the Shah in 1979. Shackley was then the assistant deputy director of operations for the CIA. Clines was his assistant.

In late 1975, they hired Edwin Wilson to take direct responsibility for the assassination program. Wilson worked out of the U.S. Military Mission in Iran as a so-called anti-terrorist specialist.

Wilson's other assignments included supplying arms and explosives to Libya, a project the "Secret Team" supposedly took on to foil alleged assassination efforts directed by Libyan President Mohammar Qaddafi.

At the same time, Wilson headed a CIA project to murder Qaddafi. This involved blowing up Qaddafi's personal airplane, a project which was actually carried out but which fell short of its goal when Qaddafi left the plane to place a phone call moments before th explosion occurred.

When Wilson's illegal arms sales to Libya were accidently revealed, he was indicted by the U.S. government and jailed. Wilson is now serving a 50-year prison term in Marion prison in Illinois. He has requested immunity from criminal persecution in return for testimony confirming the illegal conduct of the "Secret Team."

His superiors, Shackley and Clines, were allowed to resign from the CIA by Carter-appointee CIA Director Stansfield Turner. After resigning from the CIA, Shackley and Clines continued to work with Secord as part of the so-called private "Secret Team."

Profits from arms sales In 1976 Richard Secord was transferred to Iran to serve as assistant secretary of defense in charge of the Middle Eastern Division of the Defense Security Assistance Administration. In this capacity he was in charge of foreign military sales of U.S. aircraft, weapons, and military equipment to Middle Eastern nations allied with the United States.

Secord, however, did not arrange for the direct nationto-nation sale of these weapons. Instead, by the use of a middle-man, Albert Hakim, an Iranian-born U.S. businessman, Secord purchased weapons from the U.S. government at the low "manufacturer's cost" and resold them at the higher "replacement cost."

The difference was pocketed by Hakim and Secord and transferred to Shackley's "Secret Team" accounts inside Iran and into the Nugen-Hand bank account in Australia. By 1976, Hakim became a member and business partner of the "Secret Team."

Between 1976 and 1979, the "Secret Team" set up several corporations and subsidiaries around the world to conceal their secret operations. Through these corporations they laundered hundreds of millions of dollars of Van Pao opium money and pilfered profits from foreign military sales.

In the spring of 1978, the "Secret Team" sent Edwin Wilson to Nicaragua to offer its "private" assassination squad to the Somoza dictatorship.

Their proposal was to assassinate the top leadership of the Sandinista revolutionary movement.

Wilson proposed a package totaling $650,000 per year which was to include the services of five assassins at $80,000 each and an annual expense account of $250,000. One of the assassins was to be Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero. The others were also members of the 1960 Nixon/Santo Trafficante "Shooter Team." Differences over the cost of the "Secret Team's proposal prevented a firm agreement with Somoza at that time.

Wilson returned to Nicaragua to continue negotiations with Somoza a year later. This time the purpose was to arrange for the secret purchase of military equipment, ammunition, and explosives given that Somoza had been formally cut off from purchasing U.S. weapons by the Carter administration's invocation of the congressional Harkin amendment in January 1979. (2)

This amendment prohibited U.S. military aid to any government found to have systematically violated the human rights of its own citizens.

Rafael Quintero, representing the "Secret Team," finally negotiated an arms contract with Somoza on the Team's third trip to Nicaragua in early 1979. The contract provided for the illegal shipment to the Somoza dictatorship of weapons, ammunition, aircraft, and explosives.

In the period between the time of the şigning of this contract and Somoza's departure from Nicaragua, a period of some six months, an estimated 60,000 Nicaraguan civilians were murdered by Somoza's National Guard. Before this shipment, the Guard had sufficient arms to last for only a few weeks.

Organizing the contras after Somoza Somoza fled Nicaragua on July 17, 1979, to the island of North Clay, in the Bahamas. There he again met with representatives of the "Secret Team" to negotiate the illegal sale of their "private" weapons.

This sale enabled Somoza and his National Guard generals to begin what later became the "contra" war against the legally recognized (by the United States) government of Nicaragua. The planned secret war was identical to the one Shackley and Clines had organized against the government of Cuba between 1961 and 1965.

The "Secret Team," operating as business partners with Edwin Wilson in the Egyptian-American Transport and Service Co. (incorporated in January 1979), supplied weapons to the contras. They operated out of Honduras beginning in August 1979.

They later did the same in Costa Rica in 1983-84, operating out of the privately owned ranch of "Secret Team" member and CIA operative John Hull, a U.S. businessman. This arms supply continued through October 1986, with the exception of the period between June 1981 and March 1984, when the weapons were supplied directly by William Casey of the CIA.

The "field officer" of the "Secret Team" was Rafael Quintero, the man who met with the contras in Honduras and Costa Rica and ensured delivery of the weapons. Quintero operated out of the Miami-based Orca Supply Co., a company originally set up by Edwin Wilson. Quintero previously worked for Wilson as a professional assassin in Libya.

Reagan continues secret aid When Reagan took office in January 1981, a series of White House meetings took place where it was decided to formally—but secretly—continue aid to the contras.

Involved in these meetings were White House Chief of Staff Edwin Meese, National Security Adviser Richard Allen, CIA Director William Casey, Vice President of the United States and Chairman of the NSC Task Force on Terrorism George Bush, and President Ronald Reagan. It was agreed that Casey and the CIA would continue the covert funding of the contras.

The "Secret Team" continued to supply weapons until June 1981, when the operation was officially but secretly taken over by the CIA.

In June 1981, Reagan signed a classified National Security Decision Directive expressly authorizing CIA Director Casey to undertake the financing, training, and military supply of the Honduran-based contras.

Reagan specified that this support was conditioned upon the contras forming themselves into a cohesive, centralized, and united force to which the CIA could channel support. This continued through 1982. During this entire period, Reagan expressly denied that the U.S. government was providing any support for the contras.

When pressed, Reagan claimed that there was only minimal aid to "interdict" supplies allegedly sent by the Sandinistas to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador.

The CIA assigned agent David McMichaels to prepare a report to document this alleged shipment of arms to the FMLN. McMichaels' report concluded that there was no evidence to document Reagan's claim. He was fired by the CIA.

In 1983 the CIA was caught and publicly exposed for mining Nicaragua's civilian harbors and for passing out manuals to the contras that openly advocated the assassination of Nicaraguan government authorities. Both these activities were violations of international law, according to the World Court. Reagan publicly stated that his objective was the violent overthrow of the Sandinista government to "prevent the establishment in Latin America of a Soviet military base."

Following the international uproar over the conduct of the CIA, Congress began to draft legislation to prevent direct and indirect aid by the executive branch of the government to the contras. In response, Reagan, Meese, Bush, Robert McFarlane, and National Security Council Deputy Director Lt. Col. Oliver North met to devise another illegal plan to circumvent the congressional ban.

North turns to "Secret Team"

After the passage of the Boland Amendment, which ordered the cessation of all U.S. government aid to the contras, Lt. Col. Oliver North contacted the "Secret Team" to reactivate their military supply operations to the contras.

The plan was to have Robert Owen resume the secret support network that was operative prior to June 1981. Owen was the direct personal representative of Oliver North to the contras.

Owen, North, and their cohorts were also pressing to unify the competing contra groups in order to better persuade Congress to resume formal funding to the contras-which Congress eventually did, in defiance of international law and despite the ample documentation of the contras' terrorist record.

In the meantime, Owen's key assignment was to set up a series of private organizations to secretly raise funds for the contras. To this end he contacted Gen. Singlaub, who in turn set up the U.S. Council on World Freedom to begin the illegal collection process.

Another "private" source of arms for the contras was Thomas Posey and his Civilian Military Assistance organization. Posey's group worked directly with former members of the U.S. Armed Forces, current National Guardsmen, and anti-communist Cubans and Nicaraguans to organize and finance the contra army.

So-called surplus arms were obtained directly by Posey (continued on page 10) lc Retired Major General Richard Secord (USAF) John Hull SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1987 9

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Tony Avirgan arrives at hospital after La Penca bombing. Martha Honey, his wife, is by his side. ... Cover-up (continued from page 9) from the 20th Special Forces Unit of the U.S. Army in Alabama. A "surplus" U.S. Armed Forces airplane was obtained in New Jersey for shipment of arms to Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador and then to Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Posey's personal diary, part of the evidence in the lawsuit, detailed all this activity.

The effort to funnel aid to the contras through quasiprivate sources like Posey was small scale when compared to projects formally but not publicly contemplated by the Reagan administration.

In April 1984, for example, President Reagan issued National Security Decision Directive #52, which authorized Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Louis O. Guiffrida to prepare a secret nationwide 'readiness exercise" code-named "REX 84."

The program was to be designed to test the readiness of U.S. defense forces to accomplish two purposes:

1) to round up and intern in 10 federal detention camps some 400,000 Central American undocumented aliens in the event of a presidentially declared state of domestic emergency following a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua, and;

2) to transfer hundreds of tons of small arms and other weapons from the Department of Defense to various National Guard units and then to various specially created State Defense Forces, formed by act of the state legislatures of Texas, Alabama, and Louisana.

The weapons were then to be sent to secret contra training camps in the United States for shipment to the contras. Some of these camps were already operational and were observed by sources identified by the Christic Institute lawsuit.

Air strip and cocaine A key component of the "Secret Team"/CIA contra aid program was the construction of a secret contra base and airstrip on a cattle ranch on Costa Rica's Nicaraguan border. Heading this program was "Secret Team" leader John Hull, whose private ranch became the staging area for contra operations.

Hull also headed a special unit of an "International Brigade" operating from his ranch. This group organized a plot to carry out a terrorist bombing of the U.S. Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica. Included was a plot to assassinate the new U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, Lewis Tambs. The idea was to blame the assassination on the Sandinista government, thus providing a plausible pretext for a U.S. invasion.

Hull's "International Brigade" also operated a program to ship large quantities of cocaine from Colombia to Hull's ranch. A specially lengthened airstrip was constructed for this purpose under the supervision of Rafael Quintero.

With the help of Cuban-American drug-traffickers Felipe Vidal and Rene Corbo, the cocaine—up to one ton per week-was then shipped to Miami, New Orleans, and Memphis, where it was sold. Part of the profits were diverted back to Hull, who used the money for the purchase of arms for the contras. The cocaine was provided to Hull by Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa, Colombia's two largest cocaine exporters.

Richard Secord purchased the airplanes used by the support... contras to ferry weapons from llopango Air Force Base in El Salvador back to Hull's ranch in Costa Rica.

In late April 1985, the Costa Rican Rural National Guard raided a contra camp on Hull's property and confiscated large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and explosives. Several Nicaraguan contra mercenaries and several foreign mercenaries-including two Americans— were arrested. They confiscated weapons specifically purchased and registered by Thomas Posey in the United States.

La Penca bombing

With the failure of the CIA to unify the various contra organizations, the "Secret Team"/CIA collaborated with Adolfo Calero's Honduran-based contra organization, the National Democratic Force (FDN), in a plot to assassinate rival contra leader Eden Pastora. The CIA objected to Pastora's refusal to integrate his Costa Ricanbased ARDE forces with Miami-based Cuban mercenaries and Calero's ex-Somoza generals.

The attempt to murder Pastora took place on May 30, 1984, at an ARDE press conference in La Penca, Nicaragua, called by Pastora to denounce the CIA. The attack was organized by John Hull and Costa Rican-based contras. The weapons and C-4 explosives were provided by Posey, Hull, and the "Secret Team."

The actual assassination attempt was executed by Amac Gilil, a notorious right-wing terrorist who had been previously employed by the secret police of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Galil was paid $50,000 to carry out the Pastora assassination.

He received the potent C-4 explosive from John Hull at his ranch. Portions of the explosive were smuggled to Hull with the direct assistance of former CIA agents Theodore Shackley and Thomas Clines. Also involved in the smuggling of the C-4 explosive were Richard Secord and "businessman" Albert Hakim.

While Pastora was seriously injured in this effort, a number of journalists—including one American—were killed. Scores of others were maimed and otherwise seriously wounded, including American ABC cameraman Tony Avirgan who is, along with Daniel Sheehan, the prime initiator of the lawsuit against the "Secret Team."

Iranian arms deal

already done to the credibility of the Reagan administration.

The growing mass movement against U.S. intervention in Central America can be expected to press for the truth to be told in this matter.

The fact that Reagan's appeal to patriotism to justify his illegal funding of the contra murderers has fallen flat is testimony to the growing antiwar sentiment in the United States. The red-baiting of the past, so often effective in blunting the truth put forward by American dissidents, has little effect today as tens of thousands take to the streets to insist that the government respect the will of the majority.

The Contragate hearings take place at a historic juncture in U.S. politics. Growing numbers of working people are moved to the streets to protest the simultaneous war moves of the ruling class and the concerted drive by this same class against the standard of living of American workers.

But there is another lesson to be learned from the exposure of the war crimes of the "Secret Team."

Despite the concerted use of terror by the most powerful nation on earth against the people of Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba, the warmakers were defeated. The unity of the oppressed classes of these nations was more than a match for the secret plots, assassination programs, and mass murders vent upon them by the ruling elite of the capitalist system.

In the end, the Cuban, Vietnamese, and Laotian masses prevailed—as will the Nicaraguan people.

But tragically, the price of victory of these revolutionary peoples was great. This price will be reduced for future generations as the American people learn by their own experience that their own independent organization in the political arena is a prerequisite for building a world of peace and justice here and everywhere on earth.

[For more information on the lawsuit write to the Christic Institute, 1324 North Capitol Street, NW, Washington D.C. 20002, Tel. (202) 797-8106.] Footnotes