Saturday, June 30, 2012

Death Squads

A summary of CIA support to death squads 
...CIA from 1952 to 1977 Ralph McGehee was a CIA officer from 1952 and 1977 and he...insistence that China deserved to be on the top ofits operational target list." ( Deadly Deceits CIA Support of Death Squads 1953 to 1994 by Ralph McGehee...

A summary of CIA support to death squads part two 
...Death Squads From 1979-1987, according to Americas Watch, civilian non combatant...Dominican. police organized La Banda, a deathsquad. ( Cry of the People , Lernoux...Post , 10/27/1989, A1,26) Tom Gerard , a former San Francisco police officer...

A summary of CIA support to death squads part three 
...Honduras: Death Squads The US ambassador to Honduras, Jack Binns was appointed by...the FDN admitted he helped organize adeath squad in Honduras with the approval...people killed by death squads. ( The CIA A Forgotten History , by William Blum...

A summary of CIA support to death squads Part four 
...operations to bring down the regime of President Jose Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador...squads with every CIA station maintaining a subversive black list of most important...operation to cover up the fact that a lot of US soldiers were defecting to...  



Honduras: Death Squads
     The US ambassador to Honduras, Jack Binns was appointed by President Jimmy Carter and Binns  made numerous complaints about human rights abuses by the Honduran military under the government of Policarpo Paz García. In 1981, following the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, Binns was replaced by John D. Negroponte From 1981 to 1985 as Negroponte was ambassador, US military aid to Honduras grew from $4 million to $77.4 million a year, and the US began to maintain a significant presence in Honduras.
     Negroponte was aware that serious violations of human rights were carried out by the Honduran government, but despite this did not recommend ending U.S. military aid to the country. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, on September 14, 2001, as reported in the Congressional Record, aired his suspicions.  He stated cables show that Mr. Negroponte worked closely with William J. Casey on the Reagan administration's anti-Communist offensive in Central America. He helped word a secret 1983 presidential "finding" authorizing support for the Contras and met regularly with Honduran military officials to win and retain their backing for the covert action.
     From 1982-1986, Major Ricardo Zuniga told congressional staffers about the Honduran Army's  Battalion 316  that was established with the knowledge and assistance of the U.S. Embassy. By 1984 more than 200 Honduran teachers, students, labor leaders, and opposition politicians had been murdered. The CIA had knowledge of the killings. Zuniga was killed in 9/1985, most likely by the right wing Honduran military.   The 3/16th  Bn was a special counterinsurgency force which many considered a kind of death squad, was formed in 1980. (NACLA 2/1988, p. 15, Mother Jones, 4/1987, p. 48, and New York Times, 5/2/1987)
     General G. Alvarez Martinez was CIA-Contra point man in Honduras, had death squad operation run by Ricardo Lau. Alvarez was godfather to new CIA Chief of Station's daughter.,    From 1980-1983 Gen.  Gustavo Alvarez, formerly head of police was the general running entire armed forces. Alvarez had organized military intelligence Battalion. Argentina sent 15-20 officers to work with Alvarez, Senior officer Osvaldo Riveiro and the Contras. (Everybody Has His Own Gringo, Garvin, G.,1992, .p. 41 and The Iran-Contra Connection, Marshall, J., Scott P.D., and Hunter, J., 1987, pp. 78-9).
     A Contra commander with the FDN admitted he helped organize a death squad in Honduras with the approval and cooperation of the CIA. Honduran government agreed to host the death squad and provide it with cover, since the group would kill Honduran dissidents at the government's request. The commander admitted he participated in assassinations. CIA "Colonel Raymond" congratulated the squad.  (The Progressive, 8/1986, p. 25)
     Honduran army investigators report that Contras have been involved in death-squad killings in Honduras. At least 18 Hondurans and an unknown number of Salvadorans and Nicaraguans have been killed by the Contras. (Washington Post, 1/15/1985, A12)
     Honduran special prosecutor for human rights asking the U.S. to turn over classified information on Ambassadors John Negroponte and Chris Arcos and several CIA agents connected to the disappearance of dissidents in the 1980s.  (AP, 6/13/1995)
     Alvarez was forced into exile in Miami and became paid consultant to Pentagon writing study on low-intensity conflict.   The members of 3-16 still remained in positions of power in the Honduran government. Congressional intelligence committee in 1988 looked into CIA's role with 3-16, but findings never published. (Op-ed by Anne Manuel, Washington Post, 11/28/1993, C5) 
      Alvarez's forces murdered upwards of 500 people. He was ousted as Honduras's dictator in 1984 and became special consultant to RAND Corporation.  Eleven senior officers who are believed to have been involved with Battalion 316 were convicted on charges of kidnapping, torturing and attempting to murder six students in 1982. Officers include one general, nine colonels, and one captain. (AP, 7/25/1995 and Lies of our Time, 3/1994, pp. 3-5) 
     During Contra war Honduran military intelligence officers received double salaries, from CIA and Colombian drug cartels.  They took advantage of using Honduran airstrips for transiting cocaine under cover of war effort. Israelis also trained Honduran death squads. (Dangerous Liaison, Cockburn, A. and Cockburn, L., 1991, p. 225)
     CIA and Contras accused of running Honduran death squads, killing over 200. CIA officials "looked the other way" when people disappeared. Violence tapered off after ouster of CIA backed military commander Alvarez.  Ricardo Lau was running Contra intelligence, also death squads.  (The Iran-Contra Connection, Marshall, J., Scott P.D., and Hunter, J., 1987, pp. 132-3)
     From 1981-1987, Florencio Caballero served as a torturer and a member of a death squad.  He was trained in Houston, Texas by the CIA and he said he was responsible for the torture and slaying of 120 Honduran and other Latin American citizens. The CIA taught him and 24 other people in an army intelligence unit for six months in interrogation. psychological methods — to study fears and weaknesses of a prisoner, make him stand up, don't let him sleep, keep him naked and isolated, put rats and cockroaches in his cell, give him bad food, throw cold water on him, change the temperature. (Washington Post, 6/8/1988, B3)
      A survivor tells that she was kicked, had freezing water pored on her, and given electric shocks.  The CIA worked closely with the Honduran military while the military tortured and killed dissidents during the 1980s, human rights groups said.
     "At least nine Argentine military (officers), supported by the CIA, trained many Honduran officers to prevent communism from entering Honduras," said Leo Valladares of the government's human rights commission.  The Baltimore Sun reported that CIA and the State Department collaborated with a secret Honduran military.  Bertha Oliva, head of committee of relatives of the disappeared, claimed CIA knew of disappearances by Honduran security forces and that "the U.S. Embassy had absolute power in this country."
     In order to keep up public support for Reagan administration's war efforts in Central America, U.S. officials misled congress and the public about Honduran military abuses. Collaboration was revealed in classified documents and in interviews with US and Honduran participants. Among those interviewed by the Sun were three former Battalion 316 torturers who acknowledged their crimes and detailed the battalion's close relationship with CIA. (Baltimore Sun, 6/15/1995)
     Jose Isaias Vilorio, an intelligence officer and Honduran former death squad member, was shot dead on 1 January 1988.  Isaias was to testify before Inter-American Court on Human Rights (New York Times, 20 January 1988).
     Human rights leader and legislator Miguel Pavon was killed on 14 January 1988 after testifying before Inter-American Court. Also killed was Moises Landaverde, a teacher who was riding in Pavon's car at the time of attack. (Intelligence Parapolitics, 3/1988, p. 12)
     Tatum stated he would be tasked by Bush Sr. from 1989 -1993 to "neutralize" the following people; Honduras's death squads leader, General Gustavo Alverez was killed in 1989, the President of a third world country in 1989, and Enrique Bermudez, the Contra leader and overseer of the cocaine kitchens, was killed in 1991 Tatum did not disclose who the third world President was.

      Amiram Nir represented Israeli interests until his assassination in 1988 by an "Archer" team or Pegasus unit led by American Chip Tatum - at the request of high level Israeli individuals.   He was a former Israeli agent was scheduled to testify to the Senate subcommittee and it was feared he would reveal the truth.  Nir (cover name Pat Weber) died when his aircraft was shot down with missiles from the helicopter Tatum alleges that he was working for the US National Security Council (NSC) as a member of the Operational Sub-group (OSG-3) (aka "alignment group" (translated:  assassination team), a division authorized by President Reagan per National Security Decision Directive Number 3 (NSDD-30).  Tatum stated that in 1992 was tasked to kill Ross Parot, but he refused to kill an American and that day he decided to leave the black operations unit.

     Tatum states that the Pegasus unit has through the years spied on political leaders and financiers around the world. There is (was) a huge database on everyone. If, during our active time, a member of Pegasus was intimidated or placed before a Senate committee or something like that, they could simply pull out this file and intimidate that politician into backing off. And that "was" done.  http://www.leopoldreport.com/Pegasus.html

Panama: Watch List
     In 1989 and 1990, US says 90 prisoners who were held in Panama. Most of those detained had been picked up by US forces based on wanted lists compiled by US and Panamanian authorities. (Washington Post, 1/19/1990, A16)
Mexico: Death Squads
      The Mexican Federal Security Directorate (DFS) like many Western-hemisphere intelligence organizations was creation of and worked with the CIA from 1957.  DFS has state of the art computer and records systems. The CIA able to keep tabs on all embassies in Mexico City with the help of DFS and they worked closely with US in the suppression of leftists and political parties.  In early 1970s, a right-wing death squad, Brigada Blanca, killed hundreds, probably thousands of Mexican students and political activists.  Zacaris Osorio Cruz, testified in Canada that he was a member of death squad from 1977 to1982.  He said he was a member of a team that killed between 60-150 people.  (Penthouse, 12/1989)
     From 1977 to 1989, the US looked the other way when Miguel Nassar Haro (aka Nazar Haro; or Nasar Haro), head of DFS used his infallible (interrogation) techniques on behalf American agencies and while he carried out hundreds, perhaps thousands of political executions of Mexican leftists and political dissidents. (DFS administering drug traffic, Penthouse, 12/1989)
    Peter K. Nuñez, a former US Attorney for San Diego, California stated that in about 1982, Miguel Nassar Haro was under investigation by the Justice Department for participating in a car theft ring and his office had sufficient information to charge him.  However when Nuñez tried to arrest and prosecute Haro the "intelligence agencies" in Washington began to meddle in the case and they even pressured him not to pursue the investigations.

     The CIA considered Nassar Haro "the most important source in Mexico and Central America" for the U.S. espionage services.

     Haro is still a fugitive and the US should still request Hero's extradited because the statute of limitations would not apply because Nassar Haro had already been processed. 
Also even without a US extradition proceeding to stand trial in the US, the Mexican justice system could try Nassar Haro for crimes committed in the US. Article 4 of the Federal Penal Code of Mexico states that crimes committed abroad by a Mexican will be punishable in Mexico, if the accused is now in Mexico and if the accused has yet to be tried abroad.
The Mexican Federal Security Directorate is no long in operation in Mexico. (FEB. 23, 2004)
Nicaragua: Watch List
Joseph Adams, a former Marine intelligence officer, who served as chief of security for Aldolfo Calero, helped maintain a list of civilians marked for assassination when Contra forces entered Nicaragua. The Progressive, 3/1987, p. 24
Nicaragua: Death Squads
     Enrique Bermudez, a Contra leader, said that that Contra raids on economic targets from 1983 to 1989 into northern Nicaragua, particularly coffee plantations and farming cooperatives, any resistance brought brutal retribution.  Commandantes in field authorized to select those to die. Bermudez ordered prisoners to have throats cut rather than waste bullets. (Disposable Patriot, Terrell, J., and Martz, R., 1992, p. 149)
        The CIA-funded Puebla Institute in 1991 circulated false reports about Nicaraguan Sandinistas death squad, stating this information came from the UN and OAS. (Unclassified, 9/1992, p. 14)
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South America: Watch List


     From 1970 to 1979, the US Legal attaché to Buenos Aires, FBI agent Robert Scherrer, sent cable to D.C. describing operation Condor.  Correspondence has been found between Paraguayan ministers and US Army Colonel Robert Thierry, who was serving as "public administration adviser," who supervised formation of the technical police.  Letters from FBI agent Scherrer advising Paraguayan police about targets. CIA also worked with Paraguayans.   (The case of Eugenio Berios, Covert Action Information Bulletin (Quarterly) 12, 57, 8, 9)
South America: Death Squads
      AIFLD collected detailed information about Latin American labor leaders under pretext surveys necessary for USAID-financed worker's housing projects. AIFLD able obtain personal and political history union members, with address and photos. Given CIA role in Chile, Uruguay and Brazil coups, among others, it probable this information passed to military regimes and their secret police. (Cry of the People, Lernoux, P., 1982,  pp. 212, 220 and 238)  
      In 1960, "target" black lists were maintained by all the Western Hemisphere Division stations of the CIA in case local government asks for assistance in preventive detention of dangerous persons.  (Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Agee, P., 1975,  p. 114)
      The CIA organizes right wing terrorist organizations that attack and assassinate leftist politicians and others without implicating foreign governments. Groups include "La Mano Blanco" and "Ojo Por Ojo" (Guatemala), "La Banda" (Dominican republic), and "Death Squad" (Brazil). (Counterspy, 3/1973, p. 4)
     The CIA trained assassination groups such as Halcones in Mexico, the Mano Blanca in Guatemala, and the Escuadron de la Muerte in Brazil. (NACLA,  8/1974, p. 11)
     From 1953-1984, the activities of the death squads, formed under CIA sponsorship in 1954 were loosely controlled by an international organization known as La Mano Blanco (the White Hand). The front group for this death squad was the Latin American Anti-communist Federation, the Latin American affiliate of the World Anti-communist League. (Jack Anderson, Washington Post, 1/13/1984)
     Terrorist groups created in most countries such as "La Mano Blanco did so without implicating police or military. CIA was implicated in attempts to organize the right into terrorist organizations.  (Counterspy, 1973, p. 4)
      In December 1992 a Paraguayan judge found documentary history in a police station of decades of repression and US cooperation with Paraguay and other regional dictatorships. Archives detail fates of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Latin Americans secretly kidnapped by right-wing regimes of the 1970s.  The documents revealed that from 1970-1992 there was a conspiracy (Operation Condor) among security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay to kill people without regard to borders.   
There documents confirmed the arrests and killings of politicians and exchange of prisoners with Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. South American repression killed 50,000, disappeared 30,000 — the majority in Argentina and 400,000 imprisoned.  US gave inspiration, financing and technical assistance for this repression.  The CIA's technical services division (TSD), provided electrical torture equipment.  (Covert Action Information Bulletin /Quarterly/, Fall 1994, pp. 7-13)
     In 1976, an Argentinean told the FBI legal attaché Scherrer in Santiago, that Operation Condor was a growing program among military intelligence services of some Latin American countries designed to locate and eliminate one another's fugitive terrorists and exiled dissidents. Also ambitious leader of Chilean DINA were trying to institutionalize process. (Labyrinth, Branch, T. and Proper, E., 1983, p. 123
      President, Ronald Reagan, appointed Michael Deaver as Deputy White House Chief of Staff under James Baker III. He took up his post in January 1981.   On 19th March, 1981, Reagan asked Congress to lift the embargo on arms sales to Argentina. General Roberto Viola, one of the junta members responsible for the death squads, was invited to Washington. In return, the Argentine government agreed to expand its support and training for the Contras. "Aid and training were provided to the Contras through the Argentinean defense forces in exchange for other forms of aid from the U.S. to Argentina." (The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA, by John Ranelagh)
     Reagan had more difficulty persuading Congress to provide arms to Guatemala. During a 4th May, 1981, session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it was announced that the Guatemalan death squads had murdered 76 leaders of the moderate Christian Democratic Party including its leader, Alberto Fuentes Mohr.  "When Congress balked at certifying that Guatemala was not violating human rights, the administration acted unilaterally, by simply taking the items Guatemala wanted off the restricted list."  (Iran-Contra Connection,  by Peter Dale Scott)
      In early 1981, Leopoldo Galtieri visited the United States and was warmly received by members of the Ronald Reagan administration.  Richard V. Allen, who Reagan had appointed as his National Security Advisor, described Galtiera as a "majestic general." With the help of the CIA, Galtieri overthrew President Roberto Viola in December 1981.  Galtieri attempted to improve the economy by cutting public spending and selling off government-owned industries. He also imposed a pay freeze. These policies were unpopular and demonstrations took place demanding a return to democracy.
     In April, 1982, Galtieri's forces invaded the weakly-defended British Falkland Islands and he declared the "Malvinas" a province of Argentina. The anti-junta demonstrations were replaced by patriotic demonstrations in support of Galtieri.  "Only hours after the 1982 invasion of the Falklands she notoriously attended as guest of honor a reception at the Argentine Embassy in Washington. She then went on television to assert that if the islands rightly belonged to Argentina its action could not be considered as "armed aggression".  (The Times)

British Guiana:

     The "CIA funded strikes and riots that crippled Guiana in 1962 and 1963, and led to overthrow of  People's Progressive Party and they funneled its secret payments that placed Forbes Bumham in power through the AFL-CIO and AFSCME." (Center for National Security Studies)

Bolivia: Death Squads
     Between October 1966-1968 Amnesty International reported between 3,000 and 8,000 people killed by death squads. (The CIA A Forgotten History, by William Blum, 1986,  p. 264)
     In 1991, a death squad known as "Black Hand" shot twelve people on 24 November 1991. Killings were part of group's aim to eliminate "undesirable" elements from society. Victims included police officers, prostitutes and homosexuals. (Washington Post, 11/25/1991, A2)
Bolivia: Watch List
     In 1975, the CIA plotting with the Bolivian interior ministry to harass progressive bishops, and to arrest and expel foreign priests and nuns. CIA was particularly helpful in supplying names of US and other foreign missionaries. (The Nation, 5/22/1976, p. 624)
     In 1975, the CIA provided government data on priests who were politically progressive. (The CIA A Forgotten History, William Blum, 1986, p. 259)
Brazil: Watch List

    In Brazil, the CIA funded unsuccessful candidates in opposition to President Joao Goulart, who had moved to expropriate International Telephone and Telegraph subsidiaries and maintain relations with Cuba. The CIA then orchestrated, continued the report, "anti-government operations by labor, military, and middle-class groups, including courses in 'labor affairs' in Washington, D.C." The resultant coup in 1964 established a military dictatorship in power.

     In 1962-64, the Institute of Research and Social Studies (IPES) with assistance from private US sources published booklets and pamphlets and distributed hundreds of articles to newspapers. In 1963 alone it distributed 182,144 books.  It underwrote lectures, financed students' trips to the US, sponsored leadership training programs for 2,600 businessmen, students, and workers, and subsidized organizations of women, students, and workers.
     In late 1962 IPES member Philip Siekman in Sao Paulo organized vigilante cells to counter leftists. The vigilantes armed themselves, made hand-grenades. IPES hired retired military to exert influence on those in active service. From 1962-1964 IPES, by its own estimate, spent between $200,000 and $300,000 on an intelligence net of retired military. The "research group" of retired military circulated a chart that identified communist groups and leaders. (United States Penetration of Brazil, Black, J.K., 1977, p. 85)
Brazil: Death Squads
     In 1965, death squads formed to bolster Brazil's national intelligence service and counterinsurgency efforts.  US AID (and presumably the CIA) knew of and supported police participation in death squad activity.   Death squads and torture began appear after the 1964 CIA-backed coup.  (Hidden Terrors, Langguth, A.J., 1978, p. 121, The CIA A Forgotten History, William Blum, 1986,  p. 190 and Counterspy 5/6 1979, p. 10))
     Brazilian and Uruguayan death squads closely linked and have shared training. CIA on at least two occasions coordinated meetings between countries' death squads. (Counterspy 5/6 1979, p. 1)  
Chile: Watch List

     In 1964 the CIA, with the cooperation of the Agency for International Development and the State Department, secretly funneled up to $20 million into Chile to aid Eduardo Frei in his successful bid to defeat Salvador Allende for the Presidency. Failing to block Allende's election to the Presidency in 1970, the CIA directed a destabilization campaign of economic and political warfare which led to the 1973 military coup that toppled Allende.

     From 1970-1973, the CIA station collecting the kind of information that would be essential for a military dictatorship after a coup: lists of civilians to be arrested, those to be protected and government installations occupied at once.  (Atlantic, 12/1982, p. 58, Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades, Corn, D., 1994, p. 251 and Chile, CIA Big Business, Sergeyev, F.F., 198, p. 163)
     In late 1971-19 72, the CIA adopted more active stance re military penetration program      including effort to subsidize anti-government news pamphlet directed at armed services, compilation arrest lists and its deception operation. CIA received intelligence reports on coup planning throughout July, August and September 73. (U.S. Congress, Church Committee Report, 1976, v 7, p. 39)
    The American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) the international arm of the AFL-CIO in the western hemisphere was financed through the USAID. Chilean graduates of AIFLD, as well as CIA-created unions, organized CIA-financed strikes which participated in Allende's overthrow.  In 1973 AIFLD graduates provided the Chile's secret police (DINA), with thousands of names of fellow unionists who were subsequently imprisoned and tortured and executed.  (Counterspy 4/1981, p. 13 and The CIA A Forgotten History, Blum, W.,1986,  240)
     After 1973 coup in Chile, US embassy intelligence people gave their files on the Chilean and foreign left to the junta's military intelligence service (SIM). (NACLA a magazine re Latin America, 8/74, p. 28).
      In 1973, allegedly the US military mission and the CIA were involved in the preparation lists of nearly 20,000 middle-level leaders of people's organizations, scheduled to be assassinated from the morning of the coup on. These lists were of some 3,000 high-level directors to be arrested. Lists detailed: name, address, age, profession, marital status, and closest personal friends.  From late June on plotters began to finalize lists of extremists, political leaders, Marxist journalists, agents of international communism, and any and all persons participating with any vigor in neighborhood, communal, union, or national organization. The Pentagon had been asked to get the CIA to give the Chilean army lists of Chileans linked to socialist countries. Names sorted into two groups: persons not publicly known but who important in leftist organizations; and, well-known people in important positions.  There were 20,000 people listed in first group and 3,000 in second.  Second group to be jailed, and the first to be killed.  (The Murder of Allende, Sandford, R.R., 1975, pp. 195-196 and The CIA A Forgotten History, Blum, W., 1986,  p. 194)
     Right wing Cuban exiles called "Gusanos" who were paid and trained by CIA and "Chilean Gestapo" DINA.   Gusanos regularly engage in terrorism against Cuba and Latin American and Caribbean countries. Tactics include blowing up airplanes, embassies, fishing boats, and kidnappings. Gusanos connected with police of other right wing governments such as Venezuela. Certain gusano operations  were directed by CIA; Other unilateral operations of DINA. (Counterspy, 12/1976, p. 10)
Columbia: Watch List
     Luis Moreno, an employee of State Department, has bragged he helped Colombian army create a database of subversives, terrorists and drug dealers." His superior in overseeing INS for Southeastern U.S., is Gunther Wagner, former Nazi soldier and a key member of now-defunct Office of Public Safety (OPS), an AID project which helped train counterinsurgents and terrorism in dozens of countries. Wagner worked in Vietnam as part of Operation Phoenix and in Nicaragua where he helped train National Guard. Article also details massacres in Indonesia.  (Haiti Information, 4/23/1994, pp. 3 and 4)
Columbia: Death Squads
     The Colombian anti-guerrilla death squad MAS (aka "Death to Kidnappers") was founded in December 1981 by members of Medellin cartel, Cali cartel, and Colombian military. (Cocaine Politics, Scott, P. and Marshall, J., 1991, p. 261).
      Amnesty International called Colombia in 1993and 1994 one of worst "killing fields" and the US was an accomplice. William F. Schultz, executive director for the US, told a news conference that using the fight against drugs was a pretext. About 20,000 people were killed since 1986 in one of Latin America's most "stable democracies." Only 2 percent of the political killings were related to drug trafficking and  whereas 70 percent were due to the Colombian paramilitary or military. The US was probably a collaborator and much of US aid for counternarcotics was diverted to the "killing fields."   The Amnesty International report said human meat is sold on black market and politicians gunned down along with children, homosexuals, and drug addicts. The US was supporting these (death squads) because of Colombia's strategic position. No one was safe and people were killed for body parts. (Washington Times, 3/16/1994, p. a15)

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