Contragate: The Tip Of An Iceberg The Secret Team Behind Contragate

For the last 25 years a Secret Team of official and retired U.S. military and CIA officials has conducted covert paramilitary operations and "anti-communist" assassination programs throughout the Third World, according to a lengthy affidavit filed in Federal Court by the Christic Institute.

The international crimes committed by this group in the name of the United States are at the heart of the Iran/Contra Scandal. Several Secret Team members, such as retired Maj. Gens. Richard Singlaub, and businessman Albert Hakim, are now being investigated by Congressional committees and the Special Prosecutor for their role in the Reagan Administration's illegal arms sales to Iran and the Contras. For a quarter century this group has trafficked in drugs, assassinated political enemies, stolen from the U.S. government, armed terrorists, and subverted the will of Congress and the public with hundreds of millions of drug dollars at their disposal.

The leaders and chief lieutenants of the Secret Team are defendants in a $17 million civil lawsuit filed by the Christic Institute on behalf of U.S. journalists Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan. Plaintiff Avirgan was seriously wounded in the 1984 attempted assassination of Eden Pastora (a dissident contra commander who would not accept the supervision of the largest Contra grouping, the FDN) during a press conference at La Penca, Nicaragua, near the Costa Rican border. The attack killed eight, including one U.S. reporter, and seriously injured two dozen.

During their subsequent investigation of the press conference attack, Honey and Avirgan identified the bomber as Amac Galil, an anti-Qhadaffi Libyan sent to the Costa Rican ranch of American John Hull, a CIA operative. The journalists allege that Hull's ranch was used as a transfer point for planeloads of arms destined for the Contras and for Colombian cocaine smuggled into the United States. They also found that the same group who planned the Pastora bombing also plotted to assassinate the U.S Ambassador to Costa Rica, Lewis Tambs. The assassination would be blamed on the Nicaraguan Government in hopes of inciting a U.S. retaliatory strike, while also earning the Contra network a $1 million bounty placed on Tamb's head by Columbian druglord Pablo Escobar.

Because the La Penca bombing is merely one incident in a long history of criminal enterprise by these defendants, Christic Institute lawyers are prosecuting the suit under a tough anti-organized crime law known as the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act. The 29 defendants include: Hull, Secord, Singlaub, Hakim, Escobar; Contra leader Adolfo Calero; businessman Robert Owen; and mercenary Thomas Posey.

The use of RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), commonly used to prosecute organized crime, allows Christic Institute attorneys expanded jurisdiction to prove defendants engaged in criminal conspiracy. The Institute is the only non-governmental body with subpoena power to compel testimony or obtain documents related to the Iran-Contra arms scandal.

The suit alleges the existence of a criminal conspiracy to establish a military "Southern Front" in Costa Rica to facilitate attacks on Nicaragua. Plaintiffs Avirggan and Honey seek compensatory and punitive damages for injuries by this conspiracy to their work as journalists, as well as for personal injuries suffered by Avirgan in the bombing. Total damages requested come to approximately $17 million.

The Affidavit of Daniel P. Sheehan

This affidavit, (filed on December 12, 1986, and revised January 31, 1987), is an unusual filing in a federal civil lawsuit. To advance to pre-trial investigation, Attorney Daniel Sheehan, the Plaintiff's Chief Counsel and general Counsel of the Chrisic Institute has submitted this sworn statement describing the results of three years of private investigations. In it, he lays out a detailed, specific narrative of the defendants' criminal activities and the Christic Institute's investigation of them.

In the face of indifference and interference by the Reagan Justice Department, Christic Institute attorneys are acting as prosecutors using the RICO (Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act) statute which was passed in 1970 to fight organized crime. Here RICO is the cornerstone of an effort to prove the existence of the illegal, private Contra support network involved in gunrunning, drug smuggling, murder, political terrorism and other crimes and to bring its members to justice. Leaders of this same network helped the Reagan Administration secretly smuggle weapons to the government of Iran.

Created without use of federal subpoena power, the Affidavit demonstrates the wealth of evidence available to those willing to look for it. The sources have been kept, for the most part, anonymous. Some seek immunity from criminal prosecution; others will testify only if subpoenaed and forced to answer under oath; and many need to be assured of their personal safety.

They include law enforcement officers, current and former high ranking officials of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Drug Enforcement Agency, American mercenaries, individual Contras, drug smugglers and the pilots who have flown from the U.S. carrying guns and returned with cocaine.

The charges brought forward in the

(see Charges, page 10)

The Affidavit of Daniel P. Sheehan

The CHARGES (from page 1)

Affidavit outlined in the complaint include the following:

*purchase and export of U.S. military equipment to Costa Rica in violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act;

*the 1984 bombing of a Costa Rican press conference in which ABC News cameraman Tony Avirgan was seriously injured;

*violations of the Neutrality Act which bans U.S.-based paramilitary operations seeking to overthrow a foreign government with which the United States is at peace;

*huge cocaine shipments into the U.S. to finance the plan;

*a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, assassinate then U.S. Ambassador Lewis Tambs and thereby collect a million dollar contract placed on his life by Colombian druglords;

*the laundering of money in violation of U.S. banking laws;

*other murders and physical assaults intended to silence defectors and intimidate investigators and journalists.

During 1987 plaintiffs' attorneys will take sworn testimony from potential witnesses and the defendants in preparation for a jury trial. This civil suit alleges numerous criminal acts. By investigating these charges under RICO, Christic attorneys function as "private attorneys general." A verdict in favor of the plaintiffs should compel the U.S. Special Prosecutor or the Justice Department to seek criminal indictments.