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snowmman 3
(reminds me of Wilson and C-4 to Libya)
LA Times 4/3/1987
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-03/news/mn-2414_1?pg=1
Arms Drop for Contras in 1986 by CIA Alleged
By DOYLE McMANUS, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A Central Intelligence Agency helicopter illegally delivered at least one cargo of plastic explosives to rebels inside Nicaragua last year, according to an American crewman aboard the flight and two other sources.
Their account is the first confirmed report of a direct violation by CIA employees of the Boland Amendment, which prohibited the agency from providing weaponry to the contras from late 1984 through late 1986.
The crewman, who was working for the contras' private airlift at the time, said that an unmarked Bell UH-1H helicopter carried between 200 and 400 pounds of plastic explosives to a landing zone inside Nicaragua from the rebels' air base at Aguacate, Honduras, on May 13, 1986.
"We unloaded in the Bocay area (just inside Nicaragua)," the crewman, Iain Crawford of Fayetteville, N.C., said in an interview. "We dumped it on the ground as fast as we could and the contras picked it up and scurried away."
Two Confirm Account
His account was confirmed by a former U.S. official and by a ranking contra officer who said that CIA personnel made several such supply flights for the rebels.
"They made a lot of flights for us," the contra said. "Some carried explosives and others equipment. Maybe it was against the rules, but they were trying to help us out."
A spokesman for the Senate Intelligence Committee said that such flights were clearly prohibited at the time.
"If they delivered explosives, that would be illegal," spokesman David Holliday said. "The CIA was allowed to do some things for the contras (in May, 1986), but they surely didn't include delivering explosives."
Kathy Pherson, a spokesman for the CIA, said she could neither confirm nor deny the reported flights except to say: "The agency has complied with all congressional restrictions."
Congress barred the Reagan Administration from providing or transporting military aid to the rebels from Oct. 12, 1984, until last Oct. 17. Congress approved $27 million in non-military aid for the rebels during that period but specifically prohibited the CIA from delivering it.
In addition, in an attempt to avoid exposing American officials to combat, Congress barred U.S. government personnel from going into Nicaragua with the contras.
Pilot Hit by Fire
On a March, 1986, CIA helicopter flight across the border, however, Nicaraguan troops opened fire on the helicopter, damaging the aircraft and hitting the American pilot in the leg, the contra said.
"He was a very good pilot, because he got the helicopter down without killing anyone," he said.
Crawford, who spent five months working for the contras' private airlift operation, said he learned of that incident several weeks later when the CIA brought a big CH-36 Chinook helicopter down to the Nicaraguan border to lift the damaged chopper out.
Crawford, 31, now the owner of a parachute rigging firm, said he knew one of the CIA officers at Aguacate--a man who used the code name "Mick"--from a previous meeting when Crawford was in a U.S. Army special operations unit.
No Doubts About CIA
"There was no question about his being CIA," said Crawford, who spent 11 years in the Army. "The contras knew it, I knew it, everyone knew it. . . . Mick talked about the congressional restrictions, how their hands were tied a lot."
He said Mick organized parachute training for a small group of contras but complained that the CIA's rules prohibited him from helping the guerrillas with weapons training.
Mick and another CIA officer who used the code name "Moe" lived apart from the contras in a small shack outfitted with a satellite antenna dish, two racks of radio equipment and a "situation board" showing the disposition of contra troops and the forces of the Nicaraguan government, Crawford said.
'Pilots Were Americans'
As for the helicopter, he said: "The pilots were Americans. They wore survival vests and sat in armored chairs. This was new equipment. It wasn't the contras' and it wasn't (the private airlift operation's). It was clearly agency."
The helicopters, which included several UH-1H "Hueys" and Hughes 500-Ds, came through Aguacate "roughly every other day," Crawford said. He said they were painted dark green or black and carried no military or national insignia.
On May 13, Crawford said, he asked Mick if he could ride on one of the Huey flights, and Mick agreed. Crawford said there were four other men aboard: a pilot and co-pilot, both of whom appeared to be American, an unidentified Latino and Mick.
Explosives 'Clearly Marked'
"The cargo was about 80% food--bags of rice," he said. "And there was about 200 to 400 pounds of plastic explosive. . . . It was in wooden boxes. It was clearly marked."
In fact, Crawford said, the boxes appeared to be from a load of plastic explosives he had helped fly from El Salvador to Aguacate a month earlier.
"We flew just the other side of the river," he said, referring to the Rio Coco, which forms the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. "Where we landed I can't testify exactly, but it was just the other (Nicaraguan) side of the river."
Crawford said he has already given his account to investigators from the Senate and House committees investigating the Reagan Administration's secret arms sales to Iran and aid to the contras. Congressional sources confirmed that and said the two panels are seeking corroboration for the story.
Refers to Date Book
Crawford, who referred frequently during the interview to his 1986 date book, said he was hired for the private airlift on Jan. 6, 1986, by Richard Gadd, a former Air Force officer and business associate of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard V. Secord, an active participant in the effort to supply the contras.
He displayed several documents confirming that account, including an identification card issued by the Salvadoran air force providing entry to El Salvador's main air base at Ilopango, where the airlift was based.
Crawford said he had worked as a load master and "kicker" on 40 to 50 airlift flights, most of them dropping cargo by parachute to contra units near Bocay and Rus Rus to the east.
Although the State Department sought to separate the delivery of its own non-military aid from the contras' weaponry, Crawford said: "There was no segregation whatsoever. It wasn't even dreamed of. . . . There was maybe one load of completely humanitarian aid out of 40 or 50."
Invited to Briefing
At one point, he said, Gadd asked Crawford to join him on an executive jet flight back to the United States so that he could brief three other men on the airlift operation's problems.
One of the three, he said, was Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, then a White House aide. Another was Secord, who was helping North organize the airlift, as well as the Administration's secret arms shipments to Iran. Crawford said he still does not know who the third man was but noticed that, like North and Secord, he carried a purple U.S. diplomatic passport.
Crawford said he agreed to work for the secret airlift because he agrees with the contras' cause but also because "I love covert operations. . . . And the money wasn't bad."
Pay for Crossing Border
He said he was paid $150 per day plus expenses. "We were promised $500 (extra) every time we went across the border, but nobody I know ever got paid that," he said.
But he soon found that the operation was mismanaged, starved for funds and saddled with faulty equipment.
"The cheapness of the operation was amazing," he said. "The Caribou (cargo plane) we were using had holes in the dashboard. We weren't using navigational equipment to get to the drop zones, just maps. And there weren't any parachutes or safety straps; you just hung on.
"We also learned that we were supposed to be getting $300 a day, but were only getting $150."
Repeated Complaints
Crawford said he was fired from the project last May after complaining repeatedly about the airlift's equipment and management problems.
He said he decided to "go public" after Nicaraguan troops shot down one of the planes last Oct. 5, killing three crewmen and capturing Eugene Hasenfus of Marinette, Wis. The plane had reportedly suffered from chronic engine trouble and was off course when it was hit.
"I decided," Crawford said, "that people should know how this thing was mismanaged."
LA Times 4/3/1987
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-03/news/mn-2414_1?pg=1
Arms Drop for Contras in 1986 by CIA Alleged
By DOYLE McMANUS, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A Central Intelligence Agency helicopter illegally delivered at least one cargo of plastic explosives to rebels inside Nicaragua last year, according to an American crewman aboard the flight and two other sources.
Their account is the first confirmed report of a direct violation by CIA employees of the Boland Amendment, which prohibited the agency from providing weaponry to the contras from late 1984 through late 1986.
The crewman, who was working for the contras' private airlift at the time, said that an unmarked Bell UH-1H helicopter carried between 200 and 400 pounds of plastic explosives to a landing zone inside Nicaragua from the rebels' air base at Aguacate, Honduras, on May 13, 1986.
"We unloaded in the Bocay area (just inside Nicaragua)," the crewman, Iain Crawford of Fayetteville, N.C., said in an interview. "We dumped it on the ground as fast as we could and the contras picked it up and scurried away."
Two Confirm Account
His account was confirmed by a former U.S. official and by a ranking contra officer who said that CIA personnel made several such supply flights for the rebels.
"They made a lot of flights for us," the contra said. "Some carried explosives and others equipment. Maybe it was against the rules, but they were trying to help us out."
A spokesman for the Senate Intelligence Committee said that such flights were clearly prohibited at the time.
"If they delivered explosives, that would be illegal," spokesman David Holliday said. "The CIA was allowed to do some things for the contras (in May, 1986), but they surely didn't include delivering explosives."
Kathy Pherson, a spokesman for the CIA, said she could neither confirm nor deny the reported flights except to say: "The agency has complied with all congressional restrictions."
Congress barred the Reagan Administration from providing or transporting military aid to the rebels from Oct. 12, 1984, until last Oct. 17. Congress approved $27 million in non-military aid for the rebels during that period but specifically prohibited the CIA from delivering it.
In addition, in an attempt to avoid exposing American officials to combat, Congress barred U.S. government personnel from going into Nicaragua with the contras.
Pilot Hit by Fire
On a March, 1986, CIA helicopter flight across the border, however, Nicaraguan troops opened fire on the helicopter, damaging the aircraft and hitting the American pilot in the leg, the contra said.
"He was a very good pilot, because he got the helicopter down without killing anyone," he said.
Crawford, who spent five months working for the contras' private airlift operation, said he learned of that incident several weeks later when the CIA brought a big CH-36 Chinook helicopter down to the Nicaraguan border to lift the damaged chopper out.
Crawford, 31, now the owner of a parachute rigging firm, said he knew one of the CIA officers at Aguacate--a man who used the code name "Mick"--from a previous meeting when Crawford was in a U.S. Army special operations unit.
No Doubts About CIA
"There was no question about his being CIA," said Crawford, who spent 11 years in the Army. "The contras knew it, I knew it, everyone knew it. . . . Mick talked about the congressional restrictions, how their hands were tied a lot."
He said Mick organized parachute training for a small group of contras but complained that the CIA's rules prohibited him from helping the guerrillas with weapons training.
Mick and another CIA officer who used the code name "Moe" lived apart from the contras in a small shack outfitted with a satellite antenna dish, two racks of radio equipment and a "situation board" showing the disposition of contra troops and the forces of the Nicaraguan government, Crawford said.
'Pilots Were Americans'
As for the helicopter, he said: "The pilots were Americans. They wore survival vests and sat in armored chairs. This was new equipment. It wasn't the contras' and it wasn't (the private airlift operation's). It was clearly agency."
The helicopters, which included several UH-1H "Hueys" and Hughes 500-Ds, came through Aguacate "roughly every other day," Crawford said. He said they were painted dark green or black and carried no military or national insignia.
On May 13, Crawford said, he asked Mick if he could ride on one of the Huey flights, and Mick agreed. Crawford said there were four other men aboard: a pilot and co-pilot, both of whom appeared to be American, an unidentified Latino and Mick.
Explosives 'Clearly Marked'
"The cargo was about 80% food--bags of rice," he said. "And there was about 200 to 400 pounds of plastic explosive. . . . It was in wooden boxes. It was clearly marked."
In fact, Crawford said, the boxes appeared to be from a load of plastic explosives he had helped fly from El Salvador to Aguacate a month earlier.
"We flew just the other side of the river," he said, referring to the Rio Coco, which forms the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. "Where we landed I can't testify exactly, but it was just the other (Nicaraguan) side of the river."
Crawford said he has already given his account to investigators from the Senate and House committees investigating the Reagan Administration's secret arms sales to Iran and aid to the contras. Congressional sources confirmed that and said the two panels are seeking corroboration for the story.
Refers to Date Book
Crawford, who referred frequently during the interview to his 1986 date book, said he was hired for the private airlift on Jan. 6, 1986, by Richard Gadd, a former Air Force officer and business associate of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard V. Secord, an active participant in the effort to supply the contras.
He displayed several documents confirming that account, including an identification card issued by the Salvadoran air force providing entry to El Salvador's main air base at Ilopango, where the airlift was based.
Crawford said he had worked as a load master and "kicker" on 40 to 50 airlift flights, most of them dropping cargo by parachute to contra units near Bocay and Rus Rus to the east.
Although the State Department sought to separate the delivery of its own non-military aid from the contras' weaponry, Crawford said: "There was no segregation whatsoever. It wasn't even dreamed of. . . . There was maybe one load of completely humanitarian aid out of 40 or 50."
Invited to Briefing
At one point, he said, Gadd asked Crawford to join him on an executive jet flight back to the United States so that he could brief three other men on the airlift operation's problems.
One of the three, he said, was Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, then a White House aide. Another was Secord, who was helping North organize the airlift, as well as the Administration's secret arms shipments to Iran. Crawford said he still does not know who the third man was but noticed that, like North and Secord, he carried a purple U.S. diplomatic passport.
Crawford said he agreed to work for the secret airlift because he agrees with the contras' cause but also because "I love covert operations. . . . And the money wasn't bad."
Pay for Crossing Border
He said he was paid $150 per day plus expenses. "We were promised $500 (extra) every time we went across the border, but nobody I know ever got paid that," he said.
But he soon found that the operation was mismanaged, starved for funds and saddled with faulty equipment.
"The cheapness of the operation was amazing," he said. "The Caribou (cargo plane) we were using had holes in the dashboard. We weren't using navigational equipment to get to the drop zones, just maps. And there weren't any parachutes or safety straps; you just hung on.
"We also learned that we were supposed to be getting $300 a day, but were only getting $150."
Repeated Complaints
Crawford said he was fired from the project last May after complaining repeatedly about the airlift's equipment and management problems.
He said he decided to "go public" after Nicaraguan troops shot down one of the planes last Oct. 5, killing three crewmen and capturing Eugene Hasenfus of Marinette, Wis. The plane had reportedly suffered from chronic engine trouble and was off course when it was hit.
"I decided," Crawford said, "that people should know how this thing was mismanaged."
snowmman 3
Prior to Waugh's retirement from SF in 1971-72, he worked for the CIA's elite Special Activities Division starting in 1961. Apparently as "Paramilitary Operations Officer" ??
I don't have more detail on this. Maybe just as SF A-Team? (Operational Detachment Alpha or ODA team). He arrived in South Vietnam in 1961..that was pretty early so it was all CIA led at that point??
(per wikipedia entry)
I don't have more detail on this. Maybe just as SF A-Team? (Operational Detachment Alpha or ODA team). He arrived in South Vietnam in 1961..that was pretty early so it was all CIA led at that point??
(per wikipedia entry)
Thanks, Schlitz,
Now I've got to figure how to downsize the pix so that they fit the DZ's 300KB maximum size. Stay tuned!
BAS
Now I've got to figure how to downsize the pix so that they fit the DZ's 300KB maximum size. Stay tuned!
BAS
snowmman 3
a really simple way to resize pictures that should be good enough, for windows xp, is described here:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=567
Pick "Large" in the "Show More Options" described.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=567
Pick "Large" in the "Show More Options" described.
Jiaime la Belle Province! Est-ce-que possible de recommander un bon coin quand je visite Montreal pour m'investigation au Allen Memorial Instutue - le premier location pour MKULTRA researcher?
snowmman 3
Vietnam Studies
U.S. Army Special Forces
1961-1971
CMH Publication 90-23
Department of the Army
Washington, D.C. 1989 (First Printed, 1973)
you have to click thru the links to read it. This was written in 1973! Has lists of SF camps (A, B and C).
What's interesting here, is that MACV-SOG is not mentioned at all. It was still black op stuff in 1973.
Just the other SF stuff is mentioned. The 5th Special Forces Group wound down out of Vietnam early in 1971. Includes Project Delta, Sigma and Omega.
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm
Colonel Francis John Kelly is eminently qualified to write the story of U.S. Army Special Forces. In 1960 he chaired the committee at the Command and General Staff College which produced the U.S. Army's first definitive approach to counterinsurgency, "The Role of the U.S. Army in the Cold War." He also wrote and conducted the Senior Officer Counterinsurgency Program course of study at the U.S. Army War College and served as a division chief in the Special Warfare Directorate, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations, Department of the Army. For two years he commanded the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) on Okinawa, which provided multiple operational teams for combat service in Vietnam. From June 1966 to June 1967 he commanded the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Vietnam. Upon his return, he became the Commander of the Combat Development Command Institute for Strategic and Stability Operations at Fort Bragg. In all these positions, he strongly influenced the development of tactics and techniques, equipment, organization, and doctrine. After service in Vietnam, Colonel Kelly undertook the task of complete reorganization of the basic unit, the Special Forces Group, at the same time revising the doctrine. In September 1970 he was assigned as Senior Army Advisor to the State of Colorado in Denver.
VERNE L. BOWERS
The Adjutant General Major General, USA
15 September, 1972 Washington, D.C.
U.S. Army Special Forces
1961-1971
CMH Publication 90-23
Department of the Army
Washington, D.C. 1989 (First Printed, 1973)
you have to click thru the links to read it. This was written in 1973! Has lists of SF camps (A, B and C).
What's interesting here, is that MACV-SOG is not mentioned at all. It was still black op stuff in 1973.
Just the other SF stuff is mentioned. The 5th Special Forces Group wound down out of Vietnam early in 1971. Includes Project Delta, Sigma and Omega.
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm
Colonel Francis John Kelly is eminently qualified to write the story of U.S. Army Special Forces. In 1960 he chaired the committee at the Command and General Staff College which produced the U.S. Army's first definitive approach to counterinsurgency, "The Role of the U.S. Army in the Cold War." He also wrote and conducted the Senior Officer Counterinsurgency Program course of study at the U.S. Army War College and served as a division chief in the Special Warfare Directorate, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations, Department of the Army. For two years he commanded the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) on Okinawa, which provided multiple operational teams for combat service in Vietnam. From June 1966 to June 1967 he commanded the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Vietnam. Upon his return, he became the Commander of the Combat Development Command Institute for Strategic and Stability Operations at Fort Bragg. In all these positions, he strongly influenced the development of tactics and techniques, equipment, organization, and doctrine. After service in Vietnam, Colonel Kelly undertook the task of complete reorganization of the basic unit, the Special Forces Group, at the same time revising the doctrine. In September 1970 he was assigned as Senior Army Advisor to the State of Colorado in Denver.
VERNE L. BOWERS
The Adjutant General Major General, USA
15 September, 1972 Washington, D.C.
Greetings Y’all,
I received an email from Maj. John L. Plaster, the author of SOG, and he says he was familiar with the widespread rumor that Ted B. Braden was DB Cooper.
Plaster said he had heard that Braden went AWOL in 1966 or 67 and then appeared in Africa as a mercenary. He was apprehended there and turned over to the US government as a war deserter, but the court-martial was kyboshed because he knew so much about SOG ops.
After that he disappeared, and no one has heard from him again.
Plaster emphasized that this is all hear-say from rumors.
One last bit: he too says Braden had an uncanny resemblance to the FBI sketch of Danny.
I received an email from Maj. John L. Plaster, the author of SOG, and he says he was familiar with the widespread rumor that Ted B. Braden was DB Cooper.
Plaster said he had heard that Braden went AWOL in 1966 or 67 and then appeared in Africa as a mercenary. He was apprehended there and turned over to the US government as a war deserter, but the court-martial was kyboshed because he knew so much about SOG ops.
After that he disappeared, and no one has heard from him again.
Plaster emphasized that this is all hear-say from rumors.
One last bit: he too says Braden had an uncanny resemblance to the FBI sketch of Danny.
I did not intend to be cute or secretive. The things I have stated - have been stated for yrs and yrs, but each time I approached this part of the story I was met with opposition and naysayers. So I stopped trying to tell everything I knew - it seemed useless to try.
The tie story was told by Duane to family members prior to the skyjacking. Upon his release from Jefferson - he worked in the area for awhile - but I HAVE told this story before right here in this forum and I told it to Larry Carr. Duane had a tie and clip he claimed he stole from Bobby Kennedy within a few wks of his release from Jefferson.,,hence why I thought the tie was left as a message.
I could not believe that Kennedy would have been that careless with his security and it is my opinion the room the tie was stolen from was occupied by one of his security personnel. I seriously doubt the story was made up - and I find it very distasteful for a man to "brag" about such a theft to family members -especially an ex-con.
Larry Carr never acknowledge my phone call and subsequent emails regarding this little family jewel I was told about. More than one person was aware of the story --- therefore I believed what was told to me.
As I have said before - so much I have kept to myself (or shared only with the FBI) because NO ONE would ever believe it. Yes, he worked for- JMWave front companies for the CIA (this is fact) and he was in Miami during the Bay of Pigs - seen by a reputable family member at the Fontane Blue.
We did make a trip to Memphis and I believe it was in reference to MLK...because of the sequence of events.
I have nothing that connects Duane to JFK other than stories from a woman who was always very intoxicated.
As for Asian prison camps - I am only exploring his strange involvement with 3 other men and trying to peg down where they all knew each other from. The watercolors buried in my mind resemble the aerial of a encampment ( I have said it seemed the barrier was more suitable for keep someone out rather than in) and finding that strange magazine in a safe deposit box and nothing else.
One of these 3 men was the one who had called Duane "John" and when I contacted him audiably upset - told me that Duane knew people in high places and if I wanted to be around to play with my grandkid - to destroy all I had and to walk away and never look back. I told the FBI about this man and his name and how to contact him.
At that time one of the others was also still alive, but they never contacted him and if so his wife was not aware of it.
Now, tell me again that I am being Cute and Secretive. I have NO intentions of coming across in that way, but I have been asked and TOLD to keep my mouth shut. The things I have told above were told before in this forum and in emails and to friends and relatives and the media and to the FBI yrs ago. Truth is stranger than fiction - and I will tell you that there is NO WAY this naive woman could make all of this up. I never kept up with crime or politics - but, I have learned a lot these last few yrs when I realized the FBI was going to do NOTHING to resolve this.
By the Way - Duane seemed very knowledgable of politics and conflicts - and to me it was not interesting - hence I was naive regarding many of the things he spoke of....I should have been listening and more curious about his knowledge of these things.
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