EX-GENERAL HINTS AT BIG ROLE AS U.S. CHAMPION OF CONTRAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200001-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

A ` Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200001-8 I/
1
p ~ ;_ -t-V_ `J 1 YORK ES
14 October 1986
Ex-General Hints at Big Role
As U. S. Champion of Contras
By ROBERT REINHOLD
Special to The New York Times
HOUSTON, Oct. 13 - Over the last
couple of years, an organization oper-
ating out of a cramped three-room
suite in Phoenix with only three regu-
lar employees says it has supplied 8,000
"freedom fighter kits" to the contra
rebels in Nicaragua. The camouflage-
covered kits contain such items as
shaving cream, non-melting candy and
Spanish-language Bibles.
"The Bibles have been a major hit,"
Joyce Downey, the executive director,
said in an interview in the group's of-
fice there last week. The organization,
the United States Council for World
Freedom, also supplied a refurbished
Vietnam-era UH-1B helicopter to
rebels fighting the Sandinista Govern-
ment, for what the group said was un-
armed evacuation of the wounded.
But the name of the council's chair-
man, John K. Singlaub, has frequently
cropped up as a possible conduit for
covert American aid to anti-Commu-
nist forces in Central America that is
more deadly than candy and Bibles.
Last week, at least one unnamed Ad-
ministration source said groups con-
trolled by General Singlaub, a retired
Army officer who was once an opera-
tive of the Central Intelligence Agency,
were behind the weapon-laden Amer-
ican cargo plane that was shot down
over Nicaragua.
Close Ties to Administration
But some associates of the 65-year-
old general suggest that the Adminis-
tration was using General Singlaub,
who does indeed maintain close ties
with both the Reagan Administration
and with the Nicaragua rebels, to di-
vert the glare of publicity from the
C.I.A. and other clandestine operations
with more resources than the general's
tiny council. Others have suggested
that he willingly played a decoy role.
The general was not in Phoenix last
week, but in a telephone interview from
Washington today, he vigorously
denied he was involved with the plane
and said it was "just outrageous" that
an Administration official had insisted
he was linked to it even after his deni-
als.
"I wish I had been in charge," he
said. "I could have done a better job. I
certainly would not have flown the
C-123 in such an amateurish way."
But regardless of any connection to
that plane, the nature and extent of
General Singlaub's role in Central
America is unclear.
He said that the Council for World
Freedom, which has been designated
by the Internal Revenue Service as a
tax-exempt educational organization
and raises funds from private sources,
provides only "humanitarian" assist-
ance to "Democratic resistance" in
several countries.
But he hinted broadly that he plays a
somewhat larger role in Nicaragua
through his anti-Communist activities
abroad, where he is not subject to
American laws.
Keeps U.S. Officials Informed
"I have knowledge of where people
can go to get what they want in terms
of weapons," he said of his aid to the
contras. "I have given military advice
and provided them with information
about how to go about contacting the in-
ternational arms markets." He said he
did this entirely outside of the United
States and without American money or
Government instructions, although he
added that he kept high Administration
officials informed of his activities "so
they are not surprised."
General Singlaub had been in the Far
East for five weeks before returning to
Washington last week. Until recently,
he was chairman of the World Anti-
Communist League, an international
body with roots in Taiwan and South
Korea that has about 90 member
groups worldwide. He has gained a
measure of praise from the Anti-Defa-
mation League of B'nai Brith for purg-
ing the Anti-Communist League of rac-
ists, anti-Semites and other right-wing
extremists.
The Phoenix-based freedom council
is the league's American affiliate. Ac-
cording to Ms. Downey it has raised
about $500,000 so far this year, mostly
in small contributions. Over the last
two years, she said, the council has pro-
vided $10 million to $25 million in cash
and "in-kind" aid: four to eight small
aircraft ("non gun-mounted") to the
contras, boots to rebels fighting Soviet
troops in Afghanistan, $20,000 in medi-
cines to Cambodian resistance forces,
and help for groups in Mozambique,
Ethiopia and other countries.
Meanwhile the council's chairman
has emerged as a mysterious and con-
troversial figure of the American right.
A Congressional aide said that General
Singlaub, along with a retired Air
Force officer, Maj. Gen. Richard Se-
cord, and a former Republican Con-
gressional aide, Robert W. Owen, are
the chief links between the Administra-
tion and the contras.
`Guy You Want on Your Side'
A 5-foot, 7-inch bulldog of a man with
a military brush haircut and a combat-
ive spirit, General Singlaub is "the kind
of guy you'd like to have by your side in
a barroom brawl," said one Phoenix
acquaintance, Pat Murphy, the pub-
lisher of The Arizona Republic.
General Singlaub was a C.I.A. officer
in China after World War II, then
deputy chief of the C.I.A. mission in
Korea in 1951. Later he became a
counter-insurgency officer during the
Vietnam War. But his military career
came to an abrupt end in 1979 after he
publicly criticized President Carter's
plans to cut troops in Korea.
He retired to his home in Tabernash,
Colo., from which he began to overhaul
the Anti-Communist League and the
freedom council. Both stridently anti-
Communist groups had fallen into dis-
repute and lost members because they
had become havens for violent extrem-
ists and ex-Nazis.
According to a 1981 report by the
Anti-Defamation League, the World
Anti-Communist League, orginally
formed in 1966, had "increasingly be-
come a gathering place, a forum, a
point of contact, for extremists, racists
and anti-Semites." There were reports
its affiliates were involved in death
squads and torture. The American af-
filiate, formed in 1970 as the American
Council for World Freedom, also came
under racist control.
But things began to change when
General Singlaub took over in 1981. He
expelled the virulently anti-Semitic
Mexican affliate, Tecos, and the South
American affiliate, the Latin American
Anti-Communist League.
Checked Applicants With ADL
According to Irwin Suall, the fact-
finding director for the Anti-Defama-
tion League, General Singlaub ap-
proached his group with a list of appli-
cants to the anti-communist league and
asked for guidance. He was told many
were European neo-Nazi groups, and
they were refused admission.
Last year, General Singlaub asked
the B'nai Brith group for a letter on its
findings. The letter said that since he
had taken over the league, the general
had "brought about a considerable
cleansing of the composition of the or-
ganization." It went on: "We are satis-
fied at the very least that substantial
progress has been made since 1981 in
ridding the organization of the racists
and anti-Semites whose presence
previously led us to publicly express
our concern."
While Mr. Suall said the ADL did not
have enough information to give a "to-
tally clean bill of health," he said it was
"perfectly evident" that the general
was, if a bit of a "cowboy," not an anti-
Semite.
Others remain dubious. In a recent
book, "Inside the League," Scott An-
derson and John Lee Anderson, two
journalists, contend that the Anti-Com-
munist League continues to harbor fac-
ists under a new patina of respectabil-
ity. But the general calls the book "ab-
solute nonsense."
General Singlaub is also one of 30 de-
fendants in a Federal civil suit brought
by two journalists injured in the bomb-
ing of a 1984 press conference in Costa
Rica held by Eden Pastora, the former
contra leader. The suit, brought under
racketeering legislation, charges that
General Singlaub was involved in
drugs and arms smuggling and con-
spired to assassinate Mr. Pastora. The
general has called the charges "fabri-
cations" of the radical left.
Continued
Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200001-8
 Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200001-8
A 'Nightmare Organizationally'
His tenure at the council in Phoenix
has been marked by some turmoil.
Larry H. Tifverberg, a retired Army
foreign affairs officer with wide experi-
ence in Southeast Asia, resigned as ex- ~
ecutive director earlier this year after
less than a year on the job. In an inter-
view, Mr. Tifverberg said that while he
admired the general as a "patriot," he
was a "nightmare organizationally."
Mr. Tifverberg said he was unable to
run the group effectively because when
he said no, people would "go around"
him directly to the general.
He said the council was often ap-
proached my people who had more
than just "humanitarian" activities in
mind. "I had people calling every day
asking for guns, ammunition, every-
thing," he said. "It was very clear our
charter was for humanitarian aid. In
fact, Singlaub is involved with other ac-
tivities. People thought if they called
the council, they would be involved in
other activities."
Was the council linked to the plane
that was shot down? "Categorically,
the council was not involved - I don't
think the general is mixed up with our
friends in the company," Mr. Tifver-
berg said, using intelligence argot for
the C.I.A. "But I'm not going to say it
was not a company operation."
I.R.S. Studying Group
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue
Service has been scrutinizing the coun-
cil. In recent months, according to
council officials, the I.R.S. has con-
ducted a detailed audit of the council's
books amid suggestions that its funds
have been used for purposes forbidden
charitable organizations. The council
says it has been given a clean bill of
health, although the agency has not
concluded the investigation.
Aid from the council to the Nicara-
guan rebels (the Nicaraguan Demo-
cratic Force, or F.D.N.) is chanelled
through New Orleans, where Mario
Calero, brother of the contra leader
Adolfo Colero, operates a warehouse.
"We deal directly with the F.D.N.
people in the United States," said Ms.
Downey. "They know the safe routes.
General Singlaub has been down there
a number of times. We are assured
everything we have designated is get-
ting to them. He's got many accolades
form the soldiers."
Back in Phoenix, according to Ms.
Downey, the council, for all its rich con-
servative friends, is an impecunious
operation in "a never-ending search
for money." It has considered various
business ventures, such as opening an
automobile dealership, to raise money.
The work goes on in the office on East
Camelback Road, amid all the signs of
Phoenix's wealth. The offices are,
adorned with, among other things, por-
traits of General Singlaub, dripping
with medals, and Nancy Reagan, as
well as an invitation to President Rea-
gan's inauguration.
Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200001-8